Seattle

The currency is the US dollar, and the number on the price tag isn't the number you pay. Sales tax in Seattle runs about 10.35% and never shows up on the label or the menu: add it to everything before deciding. Cards are accepted everywhere, including street carts and buses, and cash is nearly dispensable, though useful at the market stalls. Approximate 2026 ranges: espresso $4–6, counter lunch $15–25, dinner at a mid-range restaurant $35–60 per person without drinks, a beer $8–11, a mid-range hotel $220–350 in summer and $150–220 off-season. A tip of 18% to 20% is standard at a table-service restaurant. Counter card readers suggest 15% to 25% and there's no obligation to accept the suggestion, even though the screen waits for you to. Washington has no state income tax, which pushes revenue collection onto consumption and explains the high rate. Brazilians need a B1/B2 visa, ESTA doesn't apply to Brazil, and the MRV fee stands at $185 per person. The so-called Visa Integrity Fee, of $250, was approved in 2025 but wasn't being charged as of mid-2026, so confirm before booking.

SEA sits 22 km south: Link Line 1 reaches downtown

Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) sits 22 km south of downtown. Link Line 1 connects the SEA/Airport station to Westlake, downtown, in about 40 minutes, for a flat fare of $3.00. The station sits at the end of a covered walkway from the fourth floor of the parking garage. Just tap your card once, when boarding. Taxi or rideshare costs $45–70 and takes 30 to 50 minutes, longer at I-5 rush hour. The ORCA card costs $3 and works for train, bus, streetcar, monorail, and ferries; you can also tap a credit card or phone instead. The day pass costs $6.

The bus covers what the train doesn't reach

Within the city, King County Metro buses charge a flat fare of $2.75 and cover what the train doesn't reach: Ballard, Fremont, Queen Anne, West Seattle. The 1962 monorail runs from Westlake to Seattle Center in two minutes for about $4 and accepts ORCA. Washington State Ferries leave Colman Dock for Bainbridge Island (35 min) and Bremerton (60 min). Pedestrians pay $11.35 round trip, charged only westbound, so the return goes through without a turnstile or a warning. Downtown is walkable, but the hills are real: between Pike Place and the top of Capitol Hill there's nearly 100 m of elevation gain, and it's worth taking the bus instead of climbing it all on foot. Bike- and scooter-share apps are available, and the Burke-Gilman bike path runs about 30 km along the canal and Lake Washington. Parking downtown costs $25–45 a day.

Seattle has low violent crime by the standard of large American cities and high property crime, and that shifts the alert: the real risk for a visitor is a car break-in and bag or phone theft in a busy spot. Don't leave anything visible in the vehicle, and don't move anything into the trunk after parking, because that transfer is exactly what people watch for. Third Avenue between Pike and Pine, the area around Pioneer Square after 10pm, and the intersection of 12th and Jackson in Little Saigon see concentrated public drug use and occasional arguments. It's uncomfortable, almost never directed at passersby, and resolves itself by walking a block over: at night prefer First or Fourth Avenue. On trails and the waterfront the risk is hypothermia and fast-changing weather, not wildlife. Puget Sound's water sits between 8 and 13 °C year-round, and from a distance it never looks that cold. Emergency is 911, hospital care is expensive and billed to the patient, so travel insurance with medical coverage isn't optional.

Wait for the signal to cross

Even with an empty street and no car in sight, pedestrians wait for the white walk signal. Crossing against it draws attention and remains a traffic violation in the state.

Don't open your umbrella

Local rain is fine and continuous, and the solution is a hood and a waterproof jacket. An umbrella in Seattle marks you as a visitor faster than an accent, and on downtown's narrow sidewalks it gets in the way.

Sort your trash three ways

Sorting trash into compost, recycling and landfill is required by city law, including in food courts and cafés. Food scraps and napkins go in the compost, not the regular trash.

Board at the front and pay as you board

There's no conductor. Tap your ORCA on the validator as you get on; if paying cash, have exact change, because there's no change given. To get off, use the middle door and pull the cord before your stop.

Suggest a date and time to keep talking

Service is attentive, but conversation with a stranger rarely goes past the initial friendliness, a habit locals themselves call the Seattle Freeze. If you want to keep it going, suggest a day and time; the answer is usually yes.

Marijuana is legal, smoking it in public isn't

Marijuana sales are legal for people 21 and over in licensed stores, with ID checked at the door. Using it on the street, in a park, in a car or on a hotel balcony is an infraction, and so is drinking alcohol in public.

Buying the Space Needle ticket before checking the sky

Booking the Space Needle for a fixed day and time before checking the forecast. The view that justifies the ticket is the one of Mount Rainier, which only shows up on a clear day; with drizzle, what you see from up top is downtown under the clouds. Decide the day for the tower in the morning, by looking at the sky.

Treating Rainier as an afternoon outing

Treating Mount Rainier as an afternoon outing. From downtown to the Paradise area it's about 2 hours 30 minutes each way just driving, and the Sunrise area only opens roughly July through September.

Leaving a bag visible inside the car

Leaving a backpack, bag, or charger visible inside the car. Car break-ins are the most common crime in the city, happen in daylight, and are frequent at trailhead and viewpoint parking lots.

Trusting the app's crossing time

Blindly trusting the app's estimated time to cross the canal. The Ballard, Fremont and University drawbridges open for boats and stop traffic for up to ten minutes outside rush hour, because there the boat has priority over the car. Build some slack into the trip.

Tax and tip add nearly a third

Adding up only the menu price. Tax of about 10.35% plus a tip of 18% to 20% add nearly a third to the final bill, and the menu price never includes either.

The mountain is out

Mount Rainier is visible; it works as a greeting on a clear day

Sun break

A patch of sun between clouds, sometimes just ten minutes long; it shows up in the weather forecast under that name

The Seattle Freeze

The friendliness that never turns into an invitation; residents use the phrase about themselves

Pike Place, not Pike's

The market is called Pike Place Market; saying “Pike's” marks you as a visitor instantly

The Ave

University Way NE, the commercial strip of the university neighborhood: no one calls it by its official name

Go Hawks

Cheering for the Seahawks; on game day it works as a greeting between strangers

The isthmus between the sea and the lake

Seattle occupies an isthmus about 8 km wide between Puget Sound (a glacially carved arm of the sea, salty and deep) and Lake Washington, with Lake Union wedged in the middle; the Ship Canal, opened in 1917, links the three bodies of water and forces north-south traffic across drawbridges that open for boats.

The hills and the mountain in the distance

The terrain is a series of parallel hills left by the Puget glacier, running north-south, producing grades of up to 20% in Queen Anne, Capitol Hill and Beacon Hill and streets that end in stairs. On a clear day you can see the Olympic Mountains to the west, the Cascade Range to the east and Mount Rainier, an active 4,392 m volcano, about 90 km to the south; when it appears, locals say “the mountain is out.”

The crooked grid and the faults

The grid is orthogonal, but rotates in Pioneer Square, because the first platters couldn't agree on the orientation of the blocks. The meeting of the two layouts still produces crooked intersections on Yesler Way. The city sits atop the Seattle Fault and within 200 km of the Cascadia subduction zone, which explains the seismic retrofits visible on older facades.

Music: the city's biggest cultural product

Music is the city's biggest cultural export. Jimi Hendrix was born in Seattle in 1942 and is buried in Renton; Ray Charles recorded his first records here in the 1940s and Quincy Jones grew up in the Central District. In 1988 the label Sub Pop started releasing Soundgarden, Mudhoney, and Nirvana, and the 1991 album Nevermind turned a local scene into a global label; Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains came out of the same basement circuit. Local hip-hop runs from Sir Mix-a-Lot, in the 1980s, to Macklemore. Public radio station KEXP 90.3 FM keeps a studio with a live audience at Seattle Center, with free admission and a café open to the public.

Film, TV and glass art

In film, “Sleepless in Seattle” (1993) sold the romantic Seattle of the Lake Union houseboats, while “Singles” (1992), shot on Capitol Hill, captured the cheap grunge-era city; the series “Twin Peaks” shot its exteriors in the Snoqualmie area, a 45-minute drive away. In glass art, Seattle is the home of Dale Chihuly, whose pieces fill the garden and galleries that bear his name at Seattle Center.

Sports organize the calendar

Sports organize the calendar: the Seahawks (NFL football) and Sounders (soccer) play at Lumen Field, the Mariners (baseball) at T-Mobile Park since 1999, the Kraken (hockey) at Climate Pledge Arena since 2021, and the Storm (women's basketball) has four WNBA titles. In June and July 2026 Lumen Field hosted World Cup matches. Nightlife concentrates along the Pike/Pine corridor, in Capitol Hill, on Ballard Avenue, and in Belltown; bars close at 2am and kitchens stop well before that, around 10pm on weekdays.

“Skid Road,” by Murray Morgan (1951)

Seattle's informal history told through its characters: the mill worker, the mayor, the bootlegger. Still the book that best explains why the city has the shape it has.

“Singles” (1992), by Cameron Crowe

Filmed in Capitol Hill at the height of the grunge explosion, with members of Pearl Jam and Soundgarden on screen. It captures the cheap city that existed before tech money.

“Where'd You Go, Bernadette,” by Maria Semple (2012)

A satirical novel about contemporary Seattle's private schools, rain, and software engineers. It's the sharpest portrait of the local upper middle class.