Pike Place Market

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.