Most visitors head to the Space Needle, Seattle's most famous landmark, which is often seen in the background of TV shows and films. The Seattle Center, adjacent to the Space Needle, houses a number of the city’s major attractions. Pike Place Market is another of the top sites to see while you’re in Seattle. This is where the corporate coffeehouse giant Starbucks began, as did the craze for ‘designer’ coffee in the US.

Chittenden Locks and Fish Ladder
Just a 15 minute drive from the city centre, you can watch ships passing through locks and watch salmon climb a ladder. The Hiram M Chittenden Locks (known locally as the Ballard Locks), were built in 1911 to link Puget Sound with Lake Union and Lake Washington. You will usually find a small crowd gathered here watching the constant parade of tugs, barges and yachts that passing through. Phone: +1 206 783 7059

Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park
This park is one of the few indoor national parks in the US. It’s located inside the old Cadillac Hotel building, where you’ll see the types of provisions that were needed when staking a gold claim in the Yukon. Phone: +1 206 220 4240; website: www.nps.gov/klse

Museum of Flight
South of central Seattle and next to Boeing Field, the Museum of Flight is housed in a six-storey glass and steel building, which was the original Boeing factory. A collection of more than 130 aircraft is exhibited inside, with some suspended from the ceiling. The museum’s exhibits cover the entire history of flight, including the space programme.
Phone: +1 206 764 5720; website: www.museumofflight.org

Pike Place Market
The bustling Pike Place Farmer’s Market in the city centre is a National Historic District founded in 1907. Today as many as 100 farmers and more than 150 local craftspeople have set up shop here, accompanied by street performers, a selection of restaurants and many speciality shops. The first Starbucks coffee shop opened here in 1971 and is still in business today.
Phone: +1 206 682 7453; website: www.pikeplacemarket.org

Pioneer Square 
This district features over 20 city blocks of historic buildings, many galleries and retail outlets and the most exciting of the city’s nightlife. Just south of the city centre, you’ll find two major attractions here. Firstly, the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park memorialises the time Seattle was a starting off point for gold prospectors. The second favourite with visitors is the unique Underground Tour – of the sunken storefronts of Seattle’s original ‘Skid Road,’ where timber was sent down to the steam-powered mills on Elliott Bay.
Phone: +1 206 667 0687; website: www.pioneersquare.org

Seattle Center
In 1962, the World's Fair brought almost 10 million visitors from around the world to Seattle for a ‘glimpse of tomorrow.’ Today, what remains of the futuristic exhibition is known as the Seattle Center which encompasses gardens, museums, theatres, restaurants and shops.
Phone: +1 206 905 2100; website: www.seattlecenter.com

Space Needle
Hollywood movie buffs will be familiar with Seattle’s futuristic Space Needle building. From a distance it resembles a spinning top, with a needle aerial pointing skyward. It was built for the 1962 World’s Fair as an example of space-age architectural development, and held its own through an earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale, in February 2001. Although the building stands 607 feet, visitors are allowed as far as the revolving observation deck, 520 feet above the city streets, where there’s a great view and a restaurant.
Phone: +1 206 905 2100; website: www.spaceneedle.com

Enjoy Local Music
Enjoy some music at one of Seattle’s most popular attractions, the Experience Music Project. This rock ‘n roll music museum is housed in a huge psychedelic building, which can be found at the bottom of the Space Needle. Microsoft entrepreneur, Paul Allen, originally planned the museum as a memorial to Jimi Hendrix, the local turned superstar guitarist who died over 30 years ago. The Hendrix exhibit remains the biggest draw at the museum, but overall the interactive exhibits and collections have expanded to cover the history of American popular music. Visitors can have a try at mixing music on DJ turntables and playing a variety of instruments.

Have Fun in the Forest
Fun forest in the Seattle Center is an entertainment pavilion featuring a 25-foot climbing wall, as well as a number of games and activities including a Max Flight rollercoaster simulator, bumper cars, laser tag, video games and mini-golf.

Ride the Ducks
Amphibious vehicles from WWII will take you around on both land and water to see the sites, including historic Pioneer Square, Pike Place Market and Fremont - and then to splash into Lake Union where you’ll have a spectacular view of the city skyline, the luxury yachts and houseboats.
Phone: +1 206 441 DUCK; website: www.emplive.com

See the Light 
Take a tour of Alki Point, where the first settlers to the region arrived. Today, this land jutting out into Puget Sound is the location of the Alki lighthouse, which is still important to mariners. It is open for tours from June through until August.
Phone: +1 206 217 6124

Get Snappy
Photograph the view across Seattle from the observation tower at the Space Needle. The surrounding area is stunning with the snow-capped Mount Rainier in the south, the Cascade Mountains off to the east or the majestic Olympics out in the west.