12 Hidden Gems in Seattle: Explore Beyond the Space Needle

Find the Best Seattle Hidden Gems: Things to Do, Restaurants, Wineries, & Coffee Shops

Seattle is a gorgeous city full of hidden gems - and gorgeous Mt Rainier. Photo by Thom Milkovic on Unsplash.

Seattle, Washington is a fantastic, vibrant city AND is also an outdoor lover’s paradise. It’s a short drive from no less than 3 national parks and the San Juan Islands. And yet… most visitors seem to stick to standard touristy things like the Pike Place Market or the Space Needle. But they miss most of the magic of the city!

We lived in Seattle for a month and have visited several other times. Here are our top hidden gems in Seattle, particularly cool neighborhoods in the city to discover. We’re also working on a blog about best weekend trips from Seattle, so stay tuned.

Pike Place in downtown Seattle is lovely but also PACKED full of tourists. So much of Seattle’s magic lies in its stunning urban lakes and waterfronts, hip neighborhoods, the Puget Sound, and of course the famous coffee scene and fresh fish restaurants. There are many wonderful parks, restaurants, walkways, and more to explore the water in these cool Seattle neighborhoods.

Seattle skyline from Lake Union’s Gas Works Park, a Seattle hidden gem. Photo: Sasha Lezhnev, all rights reserved

1. Lake Union & Gas Works Park: Seattle Hidden Gems

🌊 Explore iconic Lake Union. Lake Union a great place to start your Seattle hidden gems exploration. It’s amazing that a large, beautiful lake is so close to downtown Seattle, where you can walk around, go boating, watch sea planes land (yes!), or explore the restaurant scene. That is Lake Union, and we loved exploring all around it, watching sailboats, and enjoying great views of the city.

• 🏞️ Check out Lake Union Park, where you can rent a boat (even a sailboat!) and explore all the really cool wooden boats at the Center for Wooden Boats. It’s quite close to downtown Seattle, Belltown.

• 🚣 Rent a kayak or paddle board at Agua Verde Paddle Club just next to the University of Washington on the north side of the lake. Off the beaten travel for sure!

🏞️ Park with a view: Gas Works Park (photo above) has spectacular views of downtown Seattle across Lake Union, especially at sunset. Have a picnic, watch the sea planes land on the lake, or climb the hill. It also has an excellent playground for kids and a field to play ball or frisbee in. This was one of our favorite family activities in Seattle.

🛁 ⛵Floating Hot Tubs. Yes, that’s a thing in Seattle, and especially in colder months, it’s fantastically fun. This is a hot tub that you sit in a mini boat by yourself (or selves) and go around Lake Union in for an hour or more. It’s good for birthday parties or just fun outings. It’s located in Fremont on the north side of Lake Union.

The Fremont neighborhood’s Fremont Brewery has a wonderful beer garden. Photo: Sasha Lezhnev, all rights reserved

2. Seattle Hidden Gem Bars & Restaurants in Fremont

Fremont is right along Lake Union, with amazing views of downtown Seattle, aka Belltown (see below). It’s a very lively area to walk around, stop at breweries, eat at restaurants. Fremont is young and hip without being pretentious, being a stone’s throw from the University of Washington.

Restaurant & bar hidden gems. Here are our top picks for eating & drinking in & around Fremont, Seattle:

• 🍺 Fremont Brewery (pictured above). A large, airy, excellent German beer garden-type brewery with lots of outdoor seating under trees. Many different kinds of beers, and family friendly — feel free to bring your kids here.

• 🦞 Westward. A delicious seafood restaurant right on the water at Lake Union. It’s a bit pricey, so think of it as a special occasion or splurge place.

  • 🔥 Hot tip: Westward is amazing at sunset. The sun sets right on the lake here, with views of downtown Seattle.

• 🍕 SWeL. Phenomenal Neapolitan pizza in a fun atmosphere in the center of Fremont.

• 🍝 Cantinetta, an excellent higher-end Tuscan Italian restaurant in a neighborhood setting.

• 🥖 Sea Wolf Bakery. Some of the best fresh bread in the city here. You can get it at the grocery, but it’s freshest here.

• 🥃 Fremont Mischief Distillery. Wonderful cocktails in a relaxed setting close to the water but not on it.

3. Green Lake: Hidden Gem for Water Sports, $12 Golf, & a Great Zoo

Green Lake is only 15 minutes from downtown Seattle, but is much quieter than Lake Union.

You can swim in the summer, and it’s a great place to enjoy all kinds of water sports and nature. It also has a really fun (and cheap!) small public golf course and is home to Seattle’s underrated zoo.

• 🛶 Kayak, SUP, or Pedal Boat: Green Lake is so close to downtown, yet you really feel like you’re getting away already. Rent a kayak, canoe, pedal boat, or stand up paddle board.

• Play a very affordable, fun round of golf at this Par 3 golf course, Green Lake Pitch & Putt. It’s a lot of fun and only $12 a person to play. Definitely one of Seattle’s hidden gems.

🦁 One of our favorite zoos — Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo. We really enjoyed this as one of our favorite zoos in the US (and we’ve been to over a dozen across the country). It has the unique Assam Rhino from Asia and penguins (yes!), and not crowded on weekdays. Save yourself a wait in line & get your tickets online here.

Ballard’s fishing docks are a Seattle hidden gem. And if you’re lucky, the fishermen/women may just give your kid a fresh salmon! Photo by Sasha Lezhnev, all rights reserved

4. 🐟 Ballard Locks & Fishing Docks for Delicious Salmon

Ballard, a great neighborhood on Seattle’s northwest side, is home to the famous Ballard Locks that link Seattle’s lakes & waterways — first Lake Union — to the Puget Sound and the Pacific Ocean. Ballard also has the huge fishing docks that are home to the crab, cod, & salmon fishing boats that go to Alaska and the Puget Sound. Make a day of it in Ballard:

• 🛥️ Ballard Locks is a really cool experience — we went multiple times. You watch the water locks go up and down to move boats to & from the Puget Sound in & out of Seattle. You can also watch king, coho & other salmon up close as they swim at the fish ladder. And the best part is that it’s all free.

• 🐟 See boats from Deadliest Catch! Walking around the fishing boat docks is fascinating, seeing the huge fishing boats that go all the way to Alaska up close & meeting some of the fishermen & women. One actually gave our kiddo a fresh king salmon. They even have some of the actual boats from the tv show!

  • 🐟 Hot tip: Eat fresh fish at the Ballard Fisherman’s Terminal. It’s cheaper than Pike Place & MUCH less crowded and not touristy. This is a great hidden gem of Seattle that not many people get to.

• 🚲 Bike tour: One really fun way of experiencing Ballard and several other Seattle sights is on this bike tour. It lasts 3 hours & is led by an enthusiastic local. You get to Ballard, the waterfront, & several other sights. I recommend it.

Fresh king salmon at Ballard Market, an underrated neighborhood in Seattle. Photo: Sasha Lezhnev, all rights reserved

5. Ballard Restaurants & Bars: Seattle Hidden Gems

After a day exploring the Ballard Locks & fishing docks, I definitely recommending sticking around to have a good meal and/or drink in the area. It’s less crowded than Capitol Hill, and the quality is about the

🍽️ 🍸 Some of Seattle’s best restaurants & bars: Ballard is arguably Seattle’s best area to eat and drink in, with fantastic restaurants, bars, coffee shops, and more. Most of them are on or around a 3-block radius of Ballard Ave. Highlights include:

• ☕ Valentina’s Cafe, some of the best espresso drinks we had in Seattle & specialty Mexican coffee.

• 🎶 Sunset Tavern, a fun live music venue almost every night of the week. A really fun vibe here.

• 🍸 Hazlewood, an excellent cocktail bar with a great atmosphere. We loved this place.

• 🥩 🥃 The Ballard Cut, an excellent whiskey bar (huge selection, including store picks) and steak restaurant.

6. Capitol Hill Coffee Shops: Hip Scene, Seattle’s Best Coffee

Capitol Hill is the center of the hipster scene in Seattle. It has some of the city’s best coffee shops, and tons of quality restaurants, bars, brunch spots, and thrift stores. It’s worth walking all around and discovering the places you like best. Note that it’s also a bit crowded and harder to get a table at restaurants here, FYI.

☕ Coffee: see where latte art was invented.

• ☕ Our favorite coffee shop in all of Seattle is here, Espresso Vivace!, which has simply phenomenal espresso drinks. This is where owner David Schomer was one of the original pioneers of latte art in the late 1980s/early 1990s.

• ☕ Another great coffee shop is Monorail Espresso, a quaint place serving some of Seattle’s best espresso drinks.

☕ Seattle coffee culture walking tour. If you’re a real coffee lover like us, one cool way to explore the Seattle coffee scene is to take a walking tour of the best coffee shops, sample several different coffees, learn the Seattle coffee history, and really explore Capitol Hill in depth. This tour is really cool — and gets 4.9 stars.

🍽️ Restaurant and bar hidden gems in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood include:

• 🍽️ Kedai Makan, an excellent Malaysian restaurant with excellent cocktails. There’s often a big line out the door.

• 🍽️ 🍷 Altura, a fantastic northern Italian restaurant where course after course was delectable, and the wine… Warning — they don’t allow kids, so find a babysitter if you have them.

• 🥃 🍽️ Herb & Bitter, bar and restaurant with a phenomenal whiskey selection and very good locally sourced food.

• 🍺 Elysian Brewery, you know the IPAs, but the brewery offers all kinds of different beers that you can’t find at the supermarket, including seasonal varieties. This was one brewery where every beer we had was good. Recommend skipping the food & eating elsewhere.

Volunteer Park has awesome sculptures to climb on & great views of the city. Photo: Sasha Lezhnev, all rights reserved

7. Volunteer Park: Bruce Lee’s Grave & Other Seattle Hidden Gems

Volunteer Park is a wonderful park on a hill to escape the city AND see great art, and is only 10 minutes from downtown Seattle. There are lovely old growth trees, a botanical garden, a great art museum, and an absolutely gorgeous flower garden. The cemetery next door to the park is home to Bruce and Brandon Lee’s graves. We frequented the park a lot when we lived here — it’s a real Seattle hidden gem.

• 🥖 Picnic among the old growth trees. There are huge lawns and many shaded spots under enormous trees.

• 🌻 Visit the phenomenal flower garden & botanical garden. The dahlias are the best we’ve ever seen, and it has unique sculptures (like the one pictured above). and the quite decent playground. The botanical garden is lovely as well.

• 🖼️ The Seattle Asian Art Museum is worth going to Volunteer Park alone for, one of the best museums in all of Seattle.

• See Bruce Lee’s grave. Legendary kung fu master Bruce Lee, together with his son Brandon Lee, are buried in Volunteer Park cemetery, and their graves are frequently visited spots.

Phinney Ridge, a hidden gem neighborhood, has phenomenal pizza. Credit: Cornuto Pizzeria

8. Phinney Ridge: Seattle’s Hidden Gem for Eating & Drinking

For us, the quiet, upscale neighborhood of Phinney Ridge had the best bang-for-your-buck restaurants, wine and beer bars, and coffee shops in the city. Part of the attraction is that it’s MUCH easier to get a table/reservation here than in Belltown or Capitol Hill. This is great off the beaten path Seattle. Here are our top picks for hidden gem eateries in Phinney Ridge:

• 🍦 Delicious ice cream/gelato & coffee.

  • Nutty Squirrel gelato is some of the best gelato/ice cream we’ve ever had & it’s home made.

  • Herkimer coffee is among the best we tried in all of Seattle, and this is their flagship location where they roast.

• 🍕 Cornuto Pizzeria has arguably the best Neapolitan pizza in the city and even better cocktails. You can’t make a reservation, but the lines aren’t that long.

  • 🍷 There’s a great wine bar while you wait, Chez Phinney, focused on organic wines & women winemakers.

• 🍺 Beer garden: The German beer bar/garden Prost! is a stellar spot to relax and have one of 10 (yes, 10!) German beers on tap. It has an authentic atmosphere and many local, regular patrons almost like Cheers. The German food is also very good.

Wine tasting in Woodinville, a Seattle suburb. Photo: Sasha Lezhnev, all rights reserved

9. Woodinville: Seattle Hidden Gem for Wine Tasting + Whiskey

🍷 One of the things that makes Seattle particularly unique, and yet not that many outsiders know, is wine. There are over 130 wineries with tasting rooms in Seattle, and many of which are world-class (honestly speaking, from two wine snobs). It’s wonderful off the beaten travel for wine tasting!

🍷 Washington wines, especially Bordeaux blends but also Syrahs in particular, have become highly competitive with Bordeaux, Napa, and other famous wine regions. And their bargains compared to Napa cabs.

30-40 minutes from downtown Seattle, Woodinville is the center of wine & whiskey tasting, with over 100 wine tasting rooms.

👉🏼 See our blog about the best Washington wineries for our top recommendations of which wineries and whiskey tasting rooms to visit in Woodinville.

Seattle’s Museum of Flight is arguably the best air museum in the country. Photo by Ditmar Lange on Unsplash

10. The Museum of Flight: Amazing Museum in an Off the Beaten Path Seattle Neighborhood

🛫 One of the best airplane museums in the world: The Museum of Flight is an incredible place for plane & flight lovers of all ages. It’s adjacent to where Boeing built most of its famous aircraft, and so it’s become home to some special planes, such as one of the Air Force Ones, the first-ever 747, a Concord supersonic jet, and more.

• 🔥 Hot tip: Plan to spend much of the day here — there’s a lot to see. Definitely spot on for a family trip.

• 🎟️ Book tickets online for the museum here.

🚘 Love cars? Try this unique restaurant. Derby is a cool restaurant inside a fancy classic car dealership, replete with Ferraris, classic Mustangs, and more. It’s kind of amazing, and the food is legit. You can take a tour, eat a memorable meal, or both.

Sleight of Hand winery is a hidden gem in Seattle’s SoDo neighborhood. Photo by Sasha Lezhnev, all rights reserved

11. Wine Tasting & Microbreweries in SoDo & Georgetown

Spending the day at the Museum of Flight? Go to SoDo or Georgetown for dinner or drinks afterward. Enjoy microbreweries? Check out Georgetown in south Seattle. SoDo has some very good wine tasting rooms to boot. It’s a great hidden travel gem in Seattle.

• 🍷 Go wine tasting: Sleight of Hand winery, where Neil Patrick Harris is a member, has excellent, full-bodied wines in a relaxed atmosphere with lounge chairs, funky music, and music memorabilia all over the walls. way to spend an afternoon or evening.

• 🍺 Check out some of Seattle’s best breweries: Georgetown is home to some excellent microbreweries. Spend an afternoon/evening and try ‘em all! We loved:

  • 1) Georgetown Brewing Co. Great beers, very affordable, and you can take a tour.

  • 2) Great Notion Brewing is famous for sour ales. If that’s your thing, this is a hot spot. Also, a great vibe here.

  • 3) Jellyfish has world class IPAs and is dog friendly. It has a really nice atmosphere as well.

One Seattle hidden gem is its network of underground passageways that you can tour. Photo: Beneath the Streets.

12. Seattle Underground Tour

Did you know Seattle has a whole network of below-ground passageways, tunnels, and basements? We didn’t before we lived here either! It’s a really fascinating area under Pioneer Square of about 6 city blocks. They were originally at ground level when Seattle was built in the 19th century, but then the main city built up on top of them.

👉🏼 The only way to see this interesting area is via a guided tour, and the guides are local and pretty hilarious.

Did we miss any hidden travel gems? Send in yours & get featured.

Hi! We’re Sasha & Megnote

We’ve traveled to 50 countries on 5 continents & have been full-time travelers for the past 2 years with our now 5-year-old son. He now teaches us how to skateboard…

We got engaged in Bolivia, started a nonprofit in Uganda, and love outdoor adventures (& a good pisco sour).

We’re writing the book Travel More, Spend Less to help people get to full-time travel.

We’re passionate about finding hidden travel gems & off the beaten path destinations, and we want to share our tips with you. Come explore with us!