Top Things to Do in Seattle — 2026

For most visitors it's the Seattle Underground — a guided walk beneath Pioneer Square through the city that was buried after the 1889 fire, and the tour you can't recreate anywhere else. Close behind are a harbor cruise on Elliott Bay for the skyline and the Olympics, a Pike Place Market food tour, and a Lake Union float-plane flight for the aerial view. If you're in town after dark, an above-ground ghost tour of the market and Pioneer Square pairs well with the underground.

Yes — it's the city's signature experience, and the history of the buried Pioneer Square is genuinely strange and fun. More than one company runs underground tours, so the choice comes down to angle: some are history-first and family-friendly, others lean after-dark and haunted. Compare the routes and recent reviews before booking, wear real shoes (it's on foot and underground for most of the hour), and book ahead in summer and around Halloween.

The big three are Mount Rainier (wildflower meadows and glaciers a few hours south), Olympic National Park (rainforest and wild coast to the west), and Leavenworth (a Bavarian-styled village over the Cascades to the east). Longer trips reach Vancouver, BC, and the San Juan Islands. Guided day trips handle the driving, which turns a long haul into an easy day — they're the winnable, low-hassle way to see the Northwest beyond the city, and they book up first on summer weekends and in fall.

Whale watching in the region runs roughly spring into fall, when the orcas — both the resident pods and transients — are most active in the San Juan Islands and the surrounding Salish Sea, with summer the peak. Trips generally head out from the islands and towns north of the city rather than downtown Seattle itself, so most run as a longer day trip. Book a summer date for the best odds, and go in the morning for the calmest water.

Both sit on the standard sightseeing routes. The Space Needle is at Seattle Center, a short monorail hop from downtown; its observation deck is a separate timed ticket you buy from the Needle directly, and a hop-on-hop-off loop drops you there along with the waterfront and Pioneer Square. Pike Place Market is free to wander, but a guided food tour is the way to actually eat your way through it — the stalls, the fishmongers, and the small producers, with the history along the way.