Stretching for two blocks along Ballard Avenue N.W. in the delightfully picturesque heart of the old Ballard neighborhood, this year-round Sunday market is a destination for locals and market-lovers throughout the city. The stalls sell fresh produce, much of it organic, cheeses, meats, fish, bread and baked goods, wine, and artisan crafts. There are also ethnic food stalls. Many of Ballard’s most delightful shops are open as well.

After decades in Pioneer Square, Seattle’s pre-eminent bookstore moved to a new location on Capitol Hill. This busy bookstore is firmly embedded in the consciousness of every Seattleite who buys books, and it hosts visiting authors and literary events throughout the week.

Seattle native Fran Bigelow fell in love with chocolates decades ago when her husband took her to her first patisserie in Paris. When she returned to Seattle, she began making the chocolates and particularly the salted caramels that have now made her name. Even President Obama has commented on them. Only the finest and highest-grade ingredients, local whenever possible, are used, with chocolate made exclusively for Fran’s by Valrhona.

This somewhat unassuming boutique in the Madrona neighborhood sells exquisitely crafted jewelry handmade by 15 different artists, half of whom are local to Seattle. The shop carries a mixture of fine and fashion jewelry, including Hitchcock’s signature druze rings set with dramatic druze quartz crystals with sparkling interiors, each one unique. Though the jewelry sold here is all new, some pieces have a filigreed and finely detailed vintage aesthetic to them. Hitchcock also carries scarves for every season, bags, and handmade hats. If you want a hit of high-end, handmade Seattle artistry, check this place out.

This wonderfully browsable gift shop on Ballard Avenue specializes in exclusive European toiletries, including Santa Maria Novella soaps, handmade jewelry and cards, and high-end paper products. But those choice items merely anchor the store’s other great finds, which come from everywhere and include surprises of all kinds and at all price points.

Anyone interested in architecture and design books and supplies will want to visit this long-established and always-enticing bookstore in downtown Seattle. The selection of international titles on all aspects of world architecture and design can keep you browsing for hours, and the choice selection of beautifully designed objects for home, office and personal use is always tantalizing.

Seattle’s number one tourist attraction is a world unto itself—a big, sprawling farmer’s market overlooking Elliott Bay and the waterfront where you’ll find market stalls selling gorgeous produce and fish, handmade crafts, specialty foods and spices, baked goods, tourist trinkets, and everything in between. There are a couple of venerable restaurants, like Lowell’s, where you can get a good basic meal, including breakfast. The fun here is simply to wander up and down the ramps and stairways and poke around in the market’s different levels. It’s usually jammed by 10 a.m. and pretty much closes down by 6 p.m. Some of the vendors have become performers, like the fishmongers who draw crowds by tossing huge salmon back and forth, but the market is still used by Seattleites looking for top-quality comestibles. There’s nothing upscale or high-end about Pike Place Market, except for the quality of its fish and produce—it’s as close as an American city can come to having a bazaar. It also happens to be the oldest such public market in the country, having opened in 1907.

If you want to see the hippest of high-end, up-to-the-nanosecond Seattle fashion for men and women, head up to this spacious lifestyle store on Capital Hill between Pike and Prince Street. The décor is minimalist, as in a gallery, and that’s basically what Totokaelo is: a gallery for fashion and home decor, where every piece is hand-selected. You’ll find exclusive lines of Yosi Yamamoto, Rich Owens, APC, Mangella, Acne, and Jil Sanders, among others, and shoes from designers around the world. The store, which opened in 1993, also carries a few choice table linens, tableware, and home furnishings, but it’s mostly about the clothes.