Seattle Center

The Seattle Center has events throughout the year. And it can be hit or miss. The cultural events and summer concerts are a hit for me. Even if there are no events going on, just walking through is nice. The armory typically hosts the cultural events on the weekends as well as the Best Damn Happy Hour every third Thursday of the month. The food trucks and performances bring everything to you as well. Nice that once you have parking figured out, you can spend a good portion of your morning or afternoon here.

One of the best urban parks (besides the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco) in the US. It’s clean, bathrooms were amazingly clean with constant staff cleaning it, and there are plenty of designated areas to enjoy any view of Seattle. They also have a buffet court that will «oooh and ahhh» your pallate because they have tons of very healthy dining choices including vegan and healthy shakes. I suggest their pizza where you can choose your own toppings!
There are also a couple of fountains where I saw visitors and locals taking advantage of the cool water to escape and cool down during the heatwave last week. The SIFF Theater is also within the center, and the KEXP radio station and its huge coffeehouse is right in the heart of Seattle Center. The museum may I add, is also in this space. So much to do which incidentally, I ran into Pagdiriwang (means Festival) Philippine event and the Komen Puget Sound Race For The Cure.
So I suggest, take a picnic basket, wear comfy shoes, and on a nice day enjoy a fun and outdoor activities, right in the heart of Seattle’s urban oasis.
Until then, be kind to one another and Cheers! ~ :p

Love this place.
Crashed the 36^th annual kids fair along with Folklife festival all in one day. This is a great place for certain especially to spend a weekend there’s so much whether it be the space needle, the EMP, the kids epic play zone, or the awesome eats!
Came in from CA definitely a great spot. Got caricatures done and had some amazing corn from Kornman. Went up the space needle. Tons of incredible views and sights to be seen. Beautiful.

This was the site of the 1962 Seattle worlds fair. There is still a lot of the fair around, and a lot of newer major attractions to. A quick list of some of my favorites
EMP Paul Allens museum started as Experience the Music Project and housing a lot of his music collection. It has branched out.
One end of the Monorail-​linking to Westlake Center downtown.
The Space Needle-​one of Seatles landmarks with great views from the top
Pacific Science Center– a great science museum.
Chihuly Garden and Glass– An attraction showcasing the great Tacoma artist.
A new playground-​covered with kids when I was last there
Art and fountains scattered around (the huge fountain is kind of cool. (no pic my phone was dead by then.)
The grounds which host lots of different events all year long.
It also is home to several buildings that host events like the Key arena and the Pacific Ballets home…
Oh Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has a free visitor center across the street.
Yeah, its a great place to come and explore even 50 some years later.

You can always find something interesting going on here. Craft sales, book sales, etc. Yesterday we went to a book sale. There were tons of books, DVDs, and CDs. The huge space was filled with books. They were also incredibly cheap too. It was well organized and well staffed.

Great historical part of the city. I’ve been here for a lot of events, the place is always clean; who doesn’t love visiting the Space Needle and taking out of towners out on day out to see some city highlights?

So many iconic Seattle attractions here. An obvious key site for tourists and locals in this beautiful city. I highly recommend getting the City Pass to allow you access to many of these sites. It’s a great deal.
The sites that are here, and easily accessible via Monorail or walking from downtown:
Space needle: day/​night views
Chiluly glass museum
EMD museum
Science center
It’s also adjacent to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The area includes a park with really nice art and good photo opportunities of the needle. There are also many gift shops, cafes, and places to grab a bite!

Great place to take all the nieces and nephews, keep them engaged with all there is to see and touch. The Café is meh, so pack your own snacks or be sick with the limited choices.

Seattle Center is complex of everything on a tourist’s top/​must visit attraction list. It does make it easy for communing as you can get here on Monorail right from downtown Seattle.
Good enough to spend a few hour visiting the grounds and a pick a few museums to visit. And even if you don’t want to spend too much on admission, it is nice just to walk around and take it some of the sculptures, interesting architecture and nice maintained gardens.
Check their website for activities and events which includes Winterfest and Seattle’s Best Damn Happy Hour which held third Thursday every month.

I don’t come into the city often. However, we do like coming here. Always enjoy the Space Needle views. We like many of the food places in the Armory. My kids LOVE the playground area. We enjoy the fountain/​music. It’s one place the whole family gets excited about going to. Always something fun going on here. Parking can be expensive and you do have to walk into the area a little bit. But overall a fun place to people watch, grab a bite to eat, visit some museums, and have fun.

Not what I was expecting at all. The entire area looks old and pretty tired. From getting off of the monorail station, I felt like I was at a county fair in the 1960’s. The Chihuly Garden and Glass and the EMP Museum were the only fresh-​looking buildings they had there– they were maintained though I found we went through both fairly quickly. The tickets to all these things were expensive and I found that we’d seen everything in under two hours. The Space Needle was cool though the lines in the summer were outrageous and not worth it in my opinion. If I laid roots in Seattle, it would not take out-​of-​towners here. It’s a tired tourist trap and was not nearly as fun as I might have hoped.
For views of the city, check out the Sky View Observatory at the top of the Columbia Center– it’s cheaper, less crowded, higher up, and has better views. If you want a good museum, I would say the Seattle Art Museum and the Norwegian Heritage Museum were better than both the EMP and the Glass. I love rock music, but I was so disappointed with how little the EMP really had– it’s a huge building but didn’t have very much in it.

I just love this place. It’s fun to come here with kids on warm days and let them run in the fountain. There’s tons of green and something always blooming. I love this place its like a mini disneyland! It has a very kid friendly environment!
The giant fountain in the middle is always fun to run around in, and Key arena is right next door. The food court is ok, but priced kind of high.
Great place to go if you’re visiting Seattle! Space Needle, Chihuly Garden, Glass, EMP Museum, Pacific Science Center, Artists At Play, Seattle Center Monorail and Children’s Museum make up the top places to go.
There are so many things to keep you entertained at the Seattle Center. No matter what time of year it is, there will be people enjoying the beautiful architecture and fun activities.
Seattle Center has much to offer, allow yourself lots of time to wander the grounds. A must see for any visitor to Seattle, the entire area is full of things to see and stuff to do. This area is one of the most popular venues for different types of activities.
Parking definitely can be a challenge so public transportation during the week is the best. If you have friends come in from out of town, take them here.

Take the monorail to the City Center. there’ so much to do there! The Space Needle, EMP Museum, Chihuly Garden and Glass, are all there and much more! Take some time to just wander around. there’s some fascinating things to discover!

Lived in Seattle for 6 years never went in was fun to show my gf the sites the imax the best ever.

Don’t use the free Microsoft WiFi service here. It’s crap (see screenshot). It offers a very weak 1 Mbps down & .6 Mbps up. *Much* better is the Google Starbucks network (also free) which gets 5.5 Mbps down & 3 Mbps up.
Also, avoid the Subway. You can check the reviews for the specific location here on Unilocal,but I found my experience to be consistent with them — incredibly slow & unusually bad quality food for a Subway.
All that aside, it’s a nice facility, especially with young kids. Definitely worth a visit when you’re in town.

This place is beautiful, like love this park, I could hang out here all day if I could, didn’t get to take advantage of this place, since we had our luggage and needed to go and grab dinner.

Space Needle, EMP Museum, Chihuly Garden and Glass… Seattle Center is where most of your top Seattle attractions are, conveniently located in a park with everything within a super short walk away! If you come to Seattle for sightseeing, you can bet that you will spend a good amount of time here. Aside from the many notable attractions in the area, Seattle Center also has the Seattle Armory, a large food court, and a festival ground that usually has some kind of cultural festival going on! Despite the constantly large traffic, the park area was also maintained clean and well.
Yep, an area with various type of attractions and many food options… You got everything here! This and the Waterfront are pretty much the essence of Seattle tourism.
Getting here is easy. Seattle Center has a monorail station so you can ride into the park from elsewhere. Parking may be expensive but you can definitely snatch a good deal especially if you do your research online. I parked at a garage near the Bill Gates Foundation for a $ 15 for 10 hour deal, so maybe you can look into that too. Trust me, you will need that 10 hours to spend here!

This is a wonderful place to visit. Everything is here, from the Space Needle, to museums, to a food court, to souvenir vendors, etc. Must come here if you’ve never been to Seattle.

I visited the center when I went to the Space Needle and Chihuly Garden and Glass. When we were visiting they had the Bites of Seattle food festival as well so we walked around the area while grabbing some dinner to eat. It was a nice area to walk around in and made it easy to get to each tourist attraction.
I enjoyed the fountain in the middle of the park. It was really pretty and was a great place to sit around as you ate food from Bites of Seattle.
It’s also great that you can take the monorail into the center from downtown. It made it so easy to get to and from this area. You can’t beat the price either!
Since many tourist attractions are around this area I highly recommend coming to the Seattle Center and looking around. They also have the Science Museum and the Museum that Bill Gates found in this area. I didn’t go to these two venues but it’s two more offerings the center offers.

I was sight seeing Seattle all day and this was a nice place to end they day. There’s a lot of tourist attractions to do there. The main thing I liked is it’s a nice place just to sit down and take a breather. They have restaurants, little sitting areas but the main thing was the fountain. We sat near the fountain for almost an hour just enjoying the weather and looking around. Definitely a must do!

Home to the Space Needle, Pacific Science Center, Experience Music Project, Key Arena, Memorial Stadium, the Monorail, and numerous other events, venues, businesses, and attractions. I’d say that the chances are pretty good that if you’ve ever been to Seattle, you’ve been to Seattle Center. If not, why not?
The variety of experiences to be had at this cultural nexus alone make it a 5-​star attraction. Sure, much of what brings the tourists flocking here on a daily basis is over-​priced commercial crap, but you can also have a great time just strolling through the grounds and people watching without spending a dime. Year after year I find myself returning to the Center for some concert, festival, or other event– and occasionally I wind up just walking around the place because I’m in Seattle and it’s cool :-)
My most recent trip here was to see a National Geographic film at the Pacific Science Center IMAX theater– and it happened to be on the same day as the Seattle Pride Festival and parade. Always a big event, this year was something of a historic occasion due to the recent supreme court decision legalizing same-​sex marriage throughout the country. The buzz of elation and good will emanating from the huge crowd around and within the Center was truly amazing!
Seattle Center is a worthy showcase for this beautiful city and all of it’s wonderful people.

If I ever move to Seattle I can see myself spending a lot of quality time at the Seattle Center. The park, museums, Chihuli, lots of luscious greens to layout on and have a picnic and tons of events at the Armory. What’s not to love?

Went to the 2015 folklife festival yesterday and as usual loved it. A food lovers paradise, a smörgåsbord of live music, food vendors & various knick knacks. A large oversized farmers market. A great time to be had, I usually try to sample as much food as I can during the course of my stay. Be prepared to walk a distance if you don’t want to pay $ 30 for the «convenience» of parking close by. This is my 3^rd straight year of attending the festival since I moved to Washington.

Loved it!
You can get here from the monorail and land at the Space Needle. I came here around Christmastime and the lights on the trees were so beautiful.

Considering I already reviewed the Space Needle and the EMP, those won’t be factoring into this review.
Actually what really is at play here is the holiday extravaganza they had going on here, or at least that’s what they made it sound like. I was trying to find cool holiday-​style things to do in Seattle for our trip, and I saw the Seattle Center pop up a few times.
«That’ll be a good way to spend a couple of hours I bet,» I said to myself, out loud, frightening my cat.
We went the night of a day they apparently had ice carving going on. And… I guess there was holiday stuff there. As much as the rest of the city gets decked out. Let’s see, there was a skating rink, one ice sculpture, a giant tea cup for pictures (you heard me), and a model train village thing.
A few decorations around as well. It was not what I was expecting. I was expecting… more. Just more. Not anything specific.
We enjoyed ourselves, and I’m sure they have plenty of good times throughout the year. Wouldn’t come back for Christmas here specifically though.

The area’s kind of a mix between a public park and an event hub. It’s got wide open green spaces so if you happen to be visiting from out of town, I could see this being a nice place to sit for a bit on a sunny day. It seems that there’s always something new happening here, whether it’s Bumbershoot or something new going on in the Armoury (which is a very interesting building by the way). As a bonus, the center allows for easy access between many of the tourist attractions including the Space Needle, the EMP Museum, the Pacific Science Center, the Monorail, and the Chihuly Glass Museum.
However, the moment the sun sets, the area kind of takes a turn and feels a lot rougher.

Yup indeed, I am a big fan of Seattle Center! It’s one of the many paces in Seattle that’s a free venue (except for Bumbershoot and Folk Life). There are so many options. As it is a «park» of sorts, it’s owned by the City of Seattle. I was debating whether to add the last star (and I probably will in a future review). That will occur when the Transportation Departments of Seattle and WA State fix the Mercer mess and parking around the Center. It’s probably the only venue in Seattle where you can experience a myriad of cultural events and show generally located inside the Armory Building.
Part two of the four stars is the multitude of entertainment venues that are within walking distance of the «center» of Seattle Center. The prices at the venues range from fantastic free to über pricey.
Part three is the multitude of public & private transportation options to get there. There is a fair amount of parking that abuts the Center’s perimeter. If you have mobility challenges, try valet parking at the base of the Space Needle or the east parking lot adjacent to Memorial Stadium.
Lastly, there is a multitude of food options within the Center grounds and throughout Lower Queen Anne.

Caveat: This is the review of a person who literally just turned up about an hour or so after getting off a plane to Seattle, with no idea what to do. I basically walked around and took in some of the touristy sights while finalizing plans for the week ahead.
That said, the Seattle Center is sorta neat. I mean, if I lived here, I would probably never go here, but it has its charms.
There’s lots of open space to get a bit of exercise walking or jogging around, which is pretty nice in the middle of a city like this.
The Space Needle is nice for the novelty of having seen it. I’ve got to be honest, I’ve always kind of thought this building was a bit of an eyesore (don’t hit me!) and seeing it in person didn’t change my mind. It’s still satisfying to be able to say I’ve been there though.
Walking along some of the more crowded paths gives me the same impression as any other tourist area. People stand out there and hawk their wares. In the course of about 10 minutes I think I had three amateur musicians ask me to buy their CD. Some of the less predatory people out there are neat though; when I was there you could get a picture with Darth Vader and a Stormtrooper (anybody can get a costume, but these guys were pretty committed to their roles). Some of the perminant shops are okay places to step out of the shade and browse.
The fountain was the highlight though. Watching all the kids playing in the jets of water made me keep thinking «why on Earth doesn’t my city have one of these?» It’s such a neat thing to have publicly available.

I half love this place, half frustrated by this place. I love the grassy area with the fountain, and food court. My favs. I love the Seattle Fudge store– my fav. My dislikes: so much concrete! It feels like it gets paved over more and more. I am old enough to remember it with crazy kids rides and all that. The Pacific Science center is still groovy, as is the little park for playing live shows up the hill from said science center, (my first rock concert ever!) and the great yoga Saturdays and Best Damn Happy Hour Ever. Love it. Ton of concert halls around here and tons of festivals.
Get on the website and see what is going on, you won’t be disappointed for different festivals and entertainment– but your car might not be so happy nor your wallet afterwards. Parking is a downer, unless you are here on Sunday, when street and garages should be free. Do try for Sunday.

A congregation of attractions, including the monorail, the space needle and the EMP, experience music project. Nearby is the Duck Tour and other family friendly events.
It’s walking distance to downtown and eateries from McDonald’s to bars and bistros and the mall.
Its a great place to walk around, but I am not sure where to suggest for parking, as everything seem to be quite pricy.

The 1962 Seattle World’s Fair let people live the dream of a positive future. Today, The Seattle Center on the site of the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair lets people dream of a positive day.
The Seattle Center is a positive cultural center and park. From its soil sprouts the Space Needle, totem poles and mature trees. In the shadows of the Space Needle and mature trees are major cultural institutions. They include the Key Arena, the Armory, Pacific Science Center, The Experience Music Exhibit, and Chihuly Garden & Glass. The surface of Seattle Center is a carpet of grass and the International Fountain. Feeding into the Seattle Center is the monorail. The architecture reminds me of Disney World’s Epcot Center. However in this case Seattle Center is the innovator. Disney built Epcot Center, which looks similar Seattle Center close to twenty years after the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair.
If you are staying or parked in downtown Seattle with plenty of free time and energy, this is the best way to incorporate Seattle Center into your itinerary. Around 9 a.m. walk through Pikes Place Market, then take the steps down to Alaskan Way. Turn right and follow it along the Waterfront to Broad Street. Make a right and Seattle Center will be on the left. The Space Needle is the landmark that you cannot miss. If you get hungry, the Armory has a renovated food court that includes a Starbucks. Or you could grab a snack at the McDonald’s across Broad Street. When you have seen everything, hop on board the Seattle Center Monorail. In 2 minutes it will drop you off at Westlake Center Mall in downtown Seattle.
With all the cultural institutions and the Space Needle, Seattle Center needs to be the center of a day. In hindsight, I would have liked to have spent more time here than I did. If I were to do it all over again I would of visited the Pacific Science Center (l am a museum geek), seen an IMAX on Boing, and spent sufficient time at the International Fountain. There is always the dream of a longer positive next time at Seattle Center.