31 Free Things to do in Seattle
Located on the eastern shore of Puget Sound, Seattle is anything but ordinary. It’s a place where bike messengers share elevators with world-renowned researchers; where fishermen have lunch alongside top surgeons.
It’s a city where the extraordinary is commonplace and commonplace is anything but. If you look closely, you’ll discover cool things are happening all over the city.
Read on for 31 free things that will keep you amused in the heart of Oregon.
1. Seattle Art Museum
Is free on the first Thursday of each month and includes a collection of modern and contemporary art along with art from a broad array of cultures.
2. Seattle Asian Art Museum
Is free on the first Thursday and Saturday of each month and includes a broad collection of art from all over Asia.
3. Frye Art Museum
This museum has an always changing collection of art from the 19th and 20th Centuries. If you visit Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Or Saturday at 1:30pm you can have a free tour, admission to the gallery is always free.
4. Olympic Sculpture Park
This park has contemporary art work. It is free all days of the week.
Olympic Sculpture Park | Photo by coolmel
5. Lunchtime Concerts
Are held at City Hall on the first and third Thursday of each month. The genre of music varies for each but spans folk to jazz.
6. Pike Place Market
Is a local 100 year old fish market. Admission is free daily.
7. Fremont Sunday market
This Flea market has over 100 vendors and begins at 10am.
8. I heart Rummage
Is a craft and alternative fair that is on the first Sunday of each month at Belltown’s Crocodile Cafe.
9. The Center for Wooden Boats
Here you can go admire boats for free any day and on Sundays you can go on a free 1/2 boat ride.
10. Ye Olde Curiosity Shop
Visit this store to explore the unique gifts and sites that are offered.
11. Pacific Rim Bonsai Collection
Visit this location to explore a vast collection of Bonsai trees that are well maintained.
12. Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park
Visit here to see some of the sites of the historic Gold Rush along with enjoying beautiful trails and the Chilkoot Trail.
13. International Fountain
Is found in the Seattle Center and is fun for kids to play in and beautiful to watch.
International Fountain | Photo by cookinghamus
14. Lavenworth National Fish Hatchery
Come and watch fish hatch and learn about hatchery’s different species it is currently breeding.
15. Wing Luke Asian Museum
Visit this unique museum thats goal is to explore the unique history of Asian Pacific Americans.
16. Music Project and Science Fiction Museum
This museum offers state of the art exhibits exploring the joining of music and science fiction.
17. Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture
This museum offers natural history exhibits with a variety of different exhibits throughout the year.
18. Lakeview Cemetary
Come to the cemetary to visit the graves of both Brandon and Bruce Lee.
19. Jimi Hendrix Memorial
Visit this memorial which celebrates the life of Jimi Hendrix for free.
20. Arboretum at the University of Washington
Come here to experience all the beautiful green space in urban Seattle.
21. Lakewood Park Disc Golf Course
Bring your discs and enjoy a round of disc golf for free while experiencing Lakewood Park.
22. Hiram M. Chittenden Locks
Visit these locks and learn about the many purposes they serve spanning from maintaining Lake Washington to preventing the mixing of sea water and fresh water.
24. Ebey’s Landing National Historical Reserve
This is the first historical reserve that was created to protect the Central Whidbey Island. This is a great place to visit if you are interested in history and national parks.
25. Green Lake
This park has paths so you can bring a bike and go for a ride or a long walk. There are also lots of areas perfect for a pic-nic.
26. Alki Beach Park
Is a 2.5 Mile long path for those who want to get some exercise in along the ocean along with plenty of spots for tanning and laying out in the sun.
27. Fremont Troll
This is a fun visit for children. Come visit the troll who lives under the Aurora Bridge.
Fremont Troll | Photo by cnorse
28. MaryMoor Park
This is a 640 acre park with attractions spanning from Rock climbing on a wall (bouldering for those who have no experience) and fields to play sports like cricket.
29. Boehm’s Chocolates
Offers free tours of its Candy Factory in July until September. You must call in advance to reserve a sport on a tour.
30. Darigold Dairy Farm
Here you can go on a self-guided tour of the Dairy and learn about how cheese is made in Washington.
31.Liberty Orchards (Aplets & Cotlets)
Here you can see how the famous candy is made with free tours and samples every 20 minutes.
Hello,
Thank you for sharing such a great list of free attractions in Seattle. It is always useful to get tips about what to discover in a new city! At Fox Rent A Car Blog we like to share travel tips to help travelers get all the info they need to plan an interesting and diversified trip.
Thanks again for sharing.
These are some great suggestions and gave me some new ideas! I do think you should mention that not all are free (or only free one day a month) Items 15,16 and 17 come to mind…
Deb - March 30th, 2010 at 1:58 pmThanks for the list! Agreed though, many of these are not free most of the time. Also, finding current contact information from some of your links has proved challenging. I’d particularly like to find the link for the Darigold farm. The site that you’ve linked doesn’t have any information about tours. Thank you.
seattle mama - April 9th, 2010 at 12:03 amWhy, in the intro paragraph, does it say “in the heart of Oregon”? Seattle is in Washington, folks.
Mia - April 16th, 2010 at 2:10 pmNice picture.
Janitorial Services - April 26th, 2010 at 4:19 amAir Jordan’s.There are many collectors of air Jordan’s and they have their own way of identifying the shoes, OG means that they are original, and then you have Retro, Retro+’s and samples.
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Abercrombie outlet sale - September 7th, 2011 at 8:22 pmTechnically there’s only 30 things on this list because they skipped #23 lol
I like these things but I’m looking more for something in the fall, something where I can meet new friends and just hang out with people I can really have fun with (not dating, just making friends)
Liza - October 3rd, 2011 at 4:19 pm#23 could be Kubota garden – beautiful Japanese garden, a real gem.
Nadia - November 18th, 2011 at 10:37 pm
