What do we do when we see cheap flights to somewhere we really want to go? We take the flight, no matter what season! In January of 2020, I saw a flight deal to Seattle for only $97 round trip. I’d been to the Seattle area once, but only for half a day as part of a longer road trip, and I’d been wanting to go back to fully experience the city ever since. So, I took the flight!
A friend and I flew into Seattle from Utah in early January. When planning the trip, I was a little nervous to visit Washington State in the dead of winter. The forecast was rainy and cold every day of our trip, but we decided to embrace it, bundle up, and visit like locals who aren't afraid of a little rain!
When packing for the weather, I made sure to take clothes that were rain friendly, including a raincoat, water resistant footwear, beanies to keep my head dry, and an umbrella. I ended up never even bothering to use the umbrella and just accepted I was going to stay a little damp for three days straight. But that’s the Seattle experience!
If you want a quick guide of what I did each day in Seattle, you can find my one-page simple itinerary below.
Day 1
We caught a super early flight and were in our rental car and on the road to the city by 9 a.m. Seattle time. Taking early flights is one of my favorite ways to maximize time while traveling. Instead of getting to a destination halfway through a day, you can spend a full day exploring. Shorter travel days make it easier to take shorter trips without having to compromise the amount of time you get to spend adventuring. Just make sure you eat enough (and get plenty caffeine if that's your thing) to make sure you have the energy for a long day.
Breakfast Spot: Citizen Coffee
Since we got to Seattle so early, our first order of business was breakfast. We were planning on spending the day downtown, so we found a little cafe right near the Space Needle called Citizen Coffee. They have a great breakfast menu of both sweet and savory waffles, classic dishes like biscuits & gravy and breakfast sandwiches, and several vegan options including chia pudding and tofu scramble. They also have coffee, tea, juices, and they’re known for their Nutella mocha and hot chocolate. Even in the second week of January, they still had some festive and cozy decor up in the cafe. You can check out their menu here.
Downtown Seattle: The Space Needle
After getting breakfast, we left our car parked in the neighborhood and set off on foot to explore the area. We saw the Space Needle, but since we were traveling on a budget, we opted not to pay the $35 for a ticket to go to the top and just enjoyed the view from below. The area around the Space Needle also has some really cool sculptures and public art, so it’s definitely worth a stop even if you don’t go to the top! If you do have it in the budget to do some spendier activities, the visiting Space Needle costs $35 for adults, or you can bundle admission to the Space Needle with Chihuly Garden and Glass for $57 ($9 off total admission for both). If you want to see even more of the touristy attractions, you can also purchase a City Pass, which is $115 to visit the Space Needle, Seattle Aquarium, Chihuly Garden and Glass, Argosy Cruises Harbor Tour, Museum of Pop Culture, and Woodland Park Zoo.
We eventually made our way down to the water, walking along the piers in the Puget Sound. Our end goal was to end up at Pike Place Market, but we didn’t follow navigation until we had walked about a mile past it on the wrong street and discovered we were lost. If you’re taking on Seattle on foot, I definitely recommend using walking directions on Apple or Google Maps so you don’t waste your time getting a little lost.
Downtown Seattle: Pike Place Market
We ended up walking to the market from the area near the Space Needle where we'd parked our car, which is about a mile walk that would've taken us about 20 minutes if we hadn't gotten lost. If you'd rather park at the actual market, there is an easily accessible parking garage specifically for market goers. The garage is open from 5 a.m. - 2 a.m., seven days a week. Parking starts at $4.00 per hour, but if you enter the garage before 9 a.m., you can park for the whole day for only $13. There is also a flat evening rate of $7 if you park after 5 p.m. The garage is close to not only the market, but also the Seattle Aquarium, the Seattle Great Wheel, certain ferry docks, and plenty of shopping, so it's a great central place to park while you explore the piers of Seattle.
Pike Place Market is definitely as picturesque as it looks in photos! There are fresh flower vendors, kiosks selling seasonal produce, touristy shops with all your souvenir needs, handmade jewelry, art, and sooo much fish. The market itself was very cool to explore, but the smell of the fish was so overpowering it lingered no matter where we were. We were planning on having lunch at one of the eateries in the market, but after a long morning of travel and determining our stomachs weren’t quite strong enough to endure the fishy air for much longer, we decided there was no way we would have an appetite if we stuck around the market to eat. We ended up walking a few blocks away to have lunch at a good old fashioned Chipotle instead, which isn’t quite the local experience, but it was a tried and true option we knew was safe.
On the walk back to the car, we stopped at the Nike store downtown and shopped. There are several other stores nearby, including The North Face, Nordstrom, Anthropology, and Urban Outfitters.
Hotel: Best Western Seattle Airport
After doing some shopping, we checked into our hotel. When I'm traveling on a budget, my main requirements for a hotel are that they are clean and in a safe area. I've never been one to focus on nicer amenities because for me, a hotel is just a place to crash for the night between adventures. For this trip, we stayed at the Best Western Seattle Airport hotel, which was about $90 per night. They have an indoor pool and hot tub, free continental breakfast, free parking, and a convenient location.
The Nike Clearance Store
Tired after a long day, we decided we were done walking and wanted to do something a little more lowkey. Located about an hour and fifteen minutes south of Seattle in Centralia is the country’s only Nike Clearance Store, which sells Nike brand clothing, shoes, and other gear for a fraction of even outlet prices. I ended up getting a pair of shoes, two sweatshirts, and two pairs of Nike Pro leggings for less than $50! If you’re a Nike fan at all, it’s definitely worth the drive to score some great deals. The drive also takes you through Olympia, the capitol city, so you can stop there along the way if you want more to explore. You can visit the state capitol, check out Percival Landing waterfront park, or check out some local music venues. Olympia is considered the birthplace of "riot grrrl" punk movement of the 1990s, and there are plenty of places to check out the local music scene.
Queen Anne Neighborhood
We headed back to the city for dinner at Zeek’s Pizza in the Queen Anne neighborhood. Queen Anne is a beautiful part of Seattle, with unique houses and buildings built up on a hill, so it offers great views of the city skyline. We stopped at Kerry Park after dinner to look out at the city at night. The park has plenty of street parking and is the ideal viewpoint on the hill to see the Space Needle from up above and the city along the water.
Day 2
Snoqualmie Falls
We woke up on our second day in Seattle to a downpour of rain, but we didn’t let that stop us! I got on my raincoat and rainboots and headed off on our adventures for the day. We started with a trip to Snoqualmie Falls, a beautiful waterfall about 30 minutes east of Seattle. The rain combined with the mist from the falls made it a wet experience, but still so worth it! The Snoqualmie area is beautiful, but if you do go in January, be prepared that it may snow at the higher elevation and check to make sure none of the roads are closed.
Ferry Ride to Bainbridge Island
After the trip to Snoqualmie, we ventured back to the city to take a ferry ride to Bainbridge Island. We initially planned to park our car and walk onto the ferry, but in our inexperience with the ferry system, we ended up finding ourselves in the line to drive our car on the boat. It ended up working out perfectly, because having our car on the island let us see even more, and it was a cool experience to get to drive a car onto a boat! Ferries to Bainbridge Island run about every 55 minutes, and you can find the schedule and ticket pricing information here. Ferry traffic will be much heavier during normal commute times, since many of the people who live on the island work in Seattle, so to avoid crowds try to avoid traveling around 8 a.m. or 5 p.m.
You can either spend the ride waiting in your car, sitting inside the ferry and enjoying the view out the windows, or outside on the decks. The ferry ride is about 35 minutes, so we left our car parked down below and ventured up onto the deck to enjoy the views of the water. Our luck must have been turning overall, because the only time the whole day that it stopped raining was during our 35 minute ferry ride. We were rewarded with stunning views of the Seattle skyline from the water, a peek of blue sky, and even a breathtaking double rainbow. Some ferry passengers are also lucky enough to see orca whales in the water on their ride!
When we got to the island, we simply drove our car right off the ferry and into the town of Bainbridge. This was one of my favorite parts of the trip! There are quaint little shops along the town streets, several restaurants, and picturesque buildings all through town. Since we had our car, we were able to take a drive around the island, enjoying the thickly forested neighborhoods and imagining what it would be like to live in such a beautiful place. Perhaps the strangest and most thrilling part of our trip to the island was hunting down the famous Frog Rock.
Frog Rock
In 1971, two high school students on the island painted a large rock at the three-way intersection of Phelps, Spargur, and Madison to look like a frog, unknowingly creating a landmark that would be a legend on Bainbridge Island for decades. Every few years, the community comes together to repaint the rock, and in recent years a little ladybug has been painted and stationed by his side. If you'd like to see Frog Rock, you will need a car on the island because it's too far to get to on foot. You can find the rock by heading to these coordinates on Google maps.
When we got back to the city, we visited the Fremont Troll. When the Aurora Bridge was constructed in the early 1930s, it became legend that a troll lived underneath it. In 1989, a sculptor was inspired by the folktale Billy Goat’s Gruff and constructed the Fremont Troll using rebar, wire, concrete, and metal. If you look closely, you can see the 18-foot-tall troll is crushing a Volkswagen Beetle in its left hand. You can find the Google maps directions to the Fremont Troll here.
We ended our second day in Seattle at the infamous Seattle Gum Wall. In 1991, an improv theater called Unexpected Productions began leasing a building in Pike Place Market. One day, a patron waiting in the theater’s ticket line put a piece of chewed gum on the alley wall and stuck a penny in it. Many other patrons soon followed their lead. The wall was covered with chewed gum and coins by the end of 1995 until someone in need of money took all the coins and left the gum behind. Despite the theater’s best efforts to scrape off the gum in the early years of this tradition, nearly two decades later, the now famous Gum Wall is still sticking around and has been accepted by the theater and community as a sort of art installation.
The Gum Wall is definitely a unique sight to see, and the alleyway is now covered in art as well as chewed gum. It’s a little gross, but in a fun, quirky way. You never know what you might see stuck to the wall, and if you’re feeling like letting a piece of yourself stick around, you can still add your own piece of gum to the collection.
Day 3
Our third day in Seattle met us with even more rain, which would turn into snow where we were headed. Despite it being the off season, we made the hour and a half drive to Mount Rainier National Park.
Mount Rainier National Park
The park was being hit with relatively heavy snow when we got there, but that made it an even cooler experience. The roads were covered in snow, well-packed down but not plowed, and our Subaru Impreza rental car handled the slick roads like a champ. When we reached the entrance station, we were told by a ranger that to enter the park in the snowy conditions, we legally had to have tire chains, if not on the actual tires, at least in the car in case we needed them. Even if it isn’t actively snowing when you visit, Mount Rainier National Park requires all cars to carry tire chains between November 1 and May 1.
We didn’t have any chains, but the ranger told us there was a convenience store that rented out tire chains back in Ashford, the town just outside the park. We were able to rent chains from Ashford Valley Grocery. The staff was very helpful in helping us find the right chains for our tire size. The chain rental for the day was about $20, and some places that rent out chains offer a discount upon return if the chains weren’t used. Here's a link to a list of places in Ashford that rent out chains so you can be prepared and not have to backtrack like we did.
The entrance fee to Mount Rainier National Park is $30 per car, which gives you a permit to enter the park for seven consecutive days. I had an America the Beautiful pass already, which costs $80 and covers entrance fees to all national parks, national forests, and national historic sites for one year. If you go to at least three parks, forests, or historic sites each year, the pass more than pays for itself! You can pay your entrance fee or buy an America the Beautiful pass at the entrance station to the park, or order your America the Beautiful pass online ahead of time. Below is a chart to help you figure out what National Parks pass would be best for you.
Because of the weather, our options in the park were limited. We obviously had no view of Mount Rainier in the snow, but we were still able to see such a beautiful part of the park! We spent all our time in Longmire, which has both a museum and an inn that are open year-round. We saw groups of all ages enjoying the freshly fallen snow by sledding and snowshoeing in the area around the Longmire Museum. We ended up doing a snowy hike of the Trail of the Shadows, a flat 0.7 mile loop through an old growth forest. We were dressed warmly with coats, hats, gloves, and boots, so even in the snow we stayed relatively warm. It was such a cool way to visit the park, and seeing everything covered in snow was especially magical.
After our day visiting Mount Rainier National Park, we spent the evening shopping. We started at the quirky Georgetown Trailer Park Mall, a collection of trailers converted into shops to sell handmade and vintage goods. The mall was nothing short of eclectic, with a great mix of vintage clothes, handmade jewelry, vinyl records, and all kinds of local art. The mall is only open on weekends, from 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. on Saturday and 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. on Sunday. You can find the address to the mall here.`
We ended our night with some more traditional shopping at the University Village mall, a shopping center near the campus of the University of Washington. The mall has a mix of locally owned boutiques, nationally-recognized retailers, casual restaurants, and fine dining. We were able to spend the whole evening shopping, and it’s one of the nicest shopping areas I’ve ever been to.
Seattle Wrap-Up
All in all, it was a wet and rainy, once-in-a-lifetime trip! We had quite a few little hiccups, from getting lost to reading ferry schedules wrong, so take this post as a guide from someone who made the mistakes so you don’t have to. Drop any questions you have below in the comments, and I’ll be happy to answer them however I can! And remember, never let the off-season stop you from taking the cheap flight.
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