Insiders Guide to Pike Place Market

If you are entertaining guests in Seattle or are just planning a family vacation, your experience won't be complete without a trip to Pike Place Market. It has been in operation since 1907, and hosts a wide variety of booths for family farms, local artists, fishermen, and small merchants.

How to Get There

There are many buses with direct routes to downtown Seattle from the surrounding neighborhoods and suburbs. If you prefer to drive, parking garages and uncovered parking lots surrounding the market, but you will pay about $20 for the day. Walking along First Avenue, you'll come across Pike Street, where you'll see a big red sign at the market entrance. The entire market stretches from the waterfront to First Street and from Virginia Street to Pine.

The Booths

In the middle of Pike Place Market, you'll find seafood restaurants overlooking Elliott Bay, a preschool, a head shop, and all sorts of Seattle souvenirs in the lower level, indoor part of the market. You will also find gourmet cheeses, antiques, and other higher end merchandise in these booths. The upper level is semi-outdoors and much more crowded. The smells of fresh fish, orchard fruit, and honey waft through the air. Toward the northern end of the market tour, you will run into the original Starbucks coffee shop, artisan booths, and usually a gospel choir or other singing group outside. If you want to sit and eat, there's a grassy area where the artisan booths start, and it's a great place to have a picnic with a waterfront view.

Surrounding Shops

Bottega Italiana Gelato on First Ave is one block from the Pike Place Market entrance, and it's been routinely awarded Seattle's Best for the past few years. Try gourmet flavors like salted caramel chocolate and pink grapefruit in fruity colored plastic cups. There is also a candy store that hands out free samples of its gourmet candle apples. They are dipped and covered in nuts, assorted chocolate, candy pieces, and peanut butter, and the window displays are enough to make your mouth water. Further down, on the corner opposite the market entrance, you'll see a free tea tasting. Just pop in and sit down to try dozens of Asian teas. They have unique flavors such as Siberian rosebud, strawberry, and coconut, which you can sample for free.

Pike Place Fish Market

You'll hear men shouting, "This is not a dead fish aquarium!" and "Fresh fish!" to the gathering crowds. Employees toss giant fish to each other over the counters, while tourists snap pictures of the process. The fish tossing tradition has been on Frasier and The Real World. Rumor has it, the tradition has also inspired South Lake Union restaurant The Flying Fish. If you're looking for a sit-down, more upscale place for dinner, that's a great place to go for Northwest style seafood. You can also take a walk along Alaskan Way for some fried salmon to go.
The best way to take a walking tour of Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle is just to wander among the booths and explore. Talk to artists and merchants about their products. Sample fresh produce and gourmet chocolate, and take in all the market has to offer.

Why not do Pike Place Market the right way, and see, (and eat) the best of what it has to offer?

By the end of the two hour Pike Place Market Food and Cultural Walking Tour, you'll not only have eaten an assortment of delicious & famous foods, but will also have picked up some buying tips, cooking ideas and useful market knowledge.

Find out more details or sign up for the Pike Place Walking Tour HERE.