If you waudrs in town with a tidal pool touch tank, robotic insects, a butterfly house, and a science playground. Other offerings include laser shows, a planetarium, and two IMAX theaters where you can see the latest Hollywood blockbuster on a six-story, 80-foot wide screen and a variety of other films in 3-D.
Contact no: (206) 443-2001
Location: 200 Second Avenue North, Seattle, WA 98109
Learn more here.
Minnesota may have the Prairie Home Companion and Norwegian bachelor farmers, but Seattle has the country’s only museum dedicated to the story of Nordic immigrants. The subject matter is of special interest to non-Nordic families as well, especially newcomers to the neighborhood of Ballard, where most of them settled. The Dream of America Exhibition traces the wave of immigration that took Scandinavian immigrants from Ellis Island and New York through the Midwest to the Pacific Northwest. Additional rooms in the museum focus on the experience of immigrants from specific countries in the region including Iceland, Finland, and Norway. Where else can you and your grandchildren find out what a psalmodikon is?
Contact no: (206) 443-2001
Location: 200 Second Avenue North, Seattle, WA 98109
Learn more here.
Seattle history comes to life at this museum where displays allow children to try their hands at classic local jobs like working in a salmon cannery or riding on a fishing boat. A recreation of Downtown before the Great Seattle Fire allows them to see what the city was like in its early days and how the city has grown since.
Contact no: (206) 324-1126
Location: 2700 24th Avenue E, Seattle, WA 98112
Learn more here.
Set smack dab in the middle of Seattle’s working waterfront, the hands-on maritime exhibits at this events center teach kids about the port, the many uses of Puget Sound and the area’s fishing heritage with fun displays. See your grandchildren dressed up in fishing gear, help them load containers from ships onto trains with a crane simulator, and step into a ship’s pilothouse to get a taste of life at sea.
Contact no: (206) 374-4000
Location: 2205 Alaskan Way, Pier 66, Seattle, WA 98121
Learn more here.
You and your grandchildren don’t even have to leave downtown to see this national park. More museum than natural setting, the smallest park in the system details the history of the Klondike Gold Rush and Seattle’s role in it. There’s a historical walking tour of Pioneer Square during the summer. Another exhibit shows kids the route prospectors took to Alaska.
Contact no: (206) 220-4240
Location: 319 Second Avenue S, Seattle, WA 98104
Learn more here.
“By far the most iconic view of Seattle is that famous post-card like view with the Space Needle with downtown Seattle behind it, and towering behind that Mount Rainier. There are only a very few locations in the Seattle area with such a view, and by far the most famous of those is Kerry Park, at the south end of Queen Anne, or just north of the Space Needle / Seattle Center.
Obviously, if it isn’t a clear day, you won’t see Mount Rainier, but even so the view of the Space Needle with downtown in the background is certainly still an attraction here.”
Contact no:
Location: West Highland Drive between 2nd & 3rd Ave West
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“Starting from the far east side of the Seattle Center, on an odd triangle of land across 5th Avenue North from the Experience Music Project, you will find a home of surplus war equipment used to give brief tours of Seattle from both the road and from Lake Union.
While these tours do not give a huge amount of extensive history of Seattle, they do provide a great introduction to various parts of the city in only an hour and a half, from the unique perspective of a vehicle capable of moving on the water or on the highway.”
Contact no:(206)441-DUCK (3825)
Location: 5th and Broad Street, Seattle
Learn more here.
Victoria Clipper (despite the name, the ships used are not, in fact, antique sailing vessels of any sort, but are modern diesel powered craft capable of moving at fairly high speeds) is primarily known for operating trips by ship from Seattle to Victoria, BC. However, they offer quite a variety of day and overnight trips out of Seattle, including whale watching trips from Seattle to the San Juan Islands, day trips and overnight trips to Leavenworth, and various other destinations all over the Pacific Northwest.
Contact no:
Location: Pier 69 (2701 Alaskan Way), Seattle, WA 98121
Learn more here.
“Departing from the south side of Lake Union, near Lake Union Park, Kenmore Air operates charter, tourist, and scheduled air service from a small airport. Lake Union serves as its only runway.
Regularly scheduled flights out of the Lake Union airport include Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands, Victoria BC, Deer Harbor, the West Sound airport, and Lopez Island.
Tourist Packages include full packages to any of these destinations, including overnight stay, whale watching trips, and a number of other activities.
“”Flightseeing”” trips are out and back in a day trip. This includes a 20 minute $91 tour around Seattle, and a $199 two hour tour to the San Juan Islands – but the trip is so fast that you are not able to leave the aircraft upon arrival at any of the stops in the San Juan Islands.”
Contact no:
Location: Address: 950 Westlake Avenue N., Seattle, WA 98109
Learn more here.
“The Hiram M. Chittenden Locks, built in 1911 and often nicknamed the Ballard Locks, provides a link for boats between the salt water of Puget Sound and the fresh water of the Ship Canal, which connects eastward to Lake Union and Lake Washington.
Tourists and locals enjoy watching the parade of sailboats, motorboats, tugs, barges and yachts passing through, as the locks’ water levels are adjusted to allow their safe passage.
Another popular spot is the fish ladder, built to allow salmon to pass between fresh and salt water, and to navigate the locks. Glass panels below the water line make it possible to watch the fish as they swim through the ladder.”
Contact no: (206) 783-7059
Location: 3015 – NW 54th St., Ballard nieghborhood
Learn more here.
