If you think Seattle is too expensive, you are herp-derp hayseed and you you should consider Little Rock for your special "can't afford it" vacation.

Well, people are legendarily icy with strangers, it is grey 9 months out of the year, and it is expensive. Also you can see every A-level tourist attraction in one medium-long day. Transit is shit, so you'll need a car if you wanna get to anything north of Seattle Center without giving up 2-3 hours each direction for buses.

Also, Seattle just isn't that big. We're only slightly bigger than El Paso, TX.

Unless you know someone who can show you the 'cool' stuff, a tourist is gonna put us pretty far down the list. No surprise.

If the tourists are into live music, I would tell them to check out the stranger for music happenings. There is some good stuff happening, particularly if they go to Capitol Hill or Georgetown. Other than that, public transit outside of the rush hours leaves quite a bit to be desired. Light rail at this juncture is just a couple of strips of track more or less; Off peak buses can be pretty flaky around here, so if they're forced to drive, they have to deal with an outdated highway system that is too small to handle the present population increase much less tourists.

If you're outdoorsy and like the hiking/camping thing, it's terrific, but if you're a city person, it's not bad, but not great either. You can find some theater, some art galleries and some museums around here, but nowhere near the number and quality of NYC, SF, Chicago, DC, London or Paris.

In Seattle's favor, I would score it above Las Vegas:)

Hate visiting now? Wait until we lose bike share.

In my neighborhood (CD) lots of people are renting their houses to weed tourists (yes that's a thing) because we're easily walkable to the 2 pot stores on union.

demand is "high."

@1 - Maybe, but while everyday stuff in Seattle isn't crazy for a city its size (I still trip at how much cheaper your grocery stores are), hotel prices are high (6th most expensive in the country despite being only our 15th ranked metro area by size).
https://www.statista.com/statistics/2145…

But really I wouldn't feel too bad about not ranking highly on a metric that favors Las Vegas. Dead last would have been a better compliment.

Seattle is #5 on this list. So somebody must like coming here...:

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-25-mo…

@2: Absolute bunk. People are not icy here. Apparently, you've never spent much time in a place like Boston. In my 25 years here, I've always been surprised at how friendly people are here.

Any tourist who can't spend 20 minutes looking at the Stranger or reading a little bit on Yelp, isn't a very adventurous tourist. The first thing I do when I'm contemplating visiting a new city is ask myself "where is the Capitol Hill" of this city. Every city doesn't have a neighborhood quite like that. Some have more than one. Some have that sort of stuff spread across the town. But usually, asking that question is enough to get you out of the purely tourist area and into something more interesting.

If you're staying downtown in Seattle, you're going to find Belltown and Capitol Hill with no problem. At this point, Ballard is well-publicized as a nightlife destination. Georgetown is perhaps a bit more obscure.

That said, even in the downtown core, you could have a good time at night. It wouldn't be my first choice, but if I'd never been here before it could still be fun,

I'm amazed that Vegas topped the list. When I visited Vegas in December 2015 the traffic and crowds were miserable. Despite being urban, it's sprawling due to layout of the Strip, and the huge casinos that line it. Red Rock Canyon was a lot of fun though.

Considering Las Vegas - home of dirt-cheap air-and-hotel packages, all-you-can-eat seafood buffets, and free drinks-while-gambling - is at the top of this list, it kind of goes without saying that prices here are going to be expensive in comparison.

@4- It was really not getting any use. I would see a couple tourists happily using a Pronto bike around the waterfront on a sunny weekend. Getting anywhere else demanded climbing a hill and the few tourists I saw doing that didn't look happy.

@9- "Nobody goes to Vegas, it's too crowded!"

Seattle IS crazy expensive! It's hard to get to, hotels are pricey, food is pricey. It's difficult to get around - If you're visiting and plan on leaving downtown, you need a car. And that's pricey. AND you'll spend so much of your time off in traffic. We also don't have a very tourist-friendly downtown - Everything's spread out, there's construction everywhere, it's difficult to navigate. Also, it's dirty and (as someone who lives/works downtown and understands why) the high number of homeless doesn't make this a great family-friendly tourist destination. I'm not being insensitive - Who wants to spend all their savings and maybe their only vacation of the year dodging urine and getting yelled at on every corner? The waterfront expansion and upgrade is a step in the right direction - We need a "hub" like other cities have (times square, balboa park, fisherman's wharf, navy pier, etc). If you want tourists, specifically family tourism, we need a more welcoming city for that. Seattle is mostly a stop over between Vancouver and Portland for other kinds of tourists. It's hard to really capture the essence of Seattle in just a day or two. Some city and tourism planning could really help improve that!

The nation's finest news source had the scoop on this months ago.

http://www.theonion.com/slideshow/all-la…

I think part of the problem is that people aren't sure what to do, and if they go to the most famous places, they are usually disappointed. The Space Needle is really not that much fun. There is usually a really long line, and then you stand around (in a crowd) looking at things that really aren't that interesting unless it happens to be a nice day. Then you wait in another long line just to leave.

Pike Place is a lot more fun, but if you wander the wrong way -- the logical way, towards the water -- you run into the park that overlooks the viaduct. That park always cracks me up, because people all do the same thing. They walk towards the water, where the fence is, to get the best view. Then they back up, as the noise gets to them. From there, they might be tempted to down to the water, but it is a long ways down, and not at all obvious how to get there. If they walk north, they could get into Belltown, but the first few blocks are terrible (more viaduct) and pretty soon they figure there is nothing there. Head south and you could easily get into boring business-land.

Meanwhile, the most attractive parts are all spread out. Capitol Hill, Queen Anne and Ballard all have charming spots, but it isn't that easy to get between them. If you just randomly visit places, you are likely to be a bit disappointed, as we really aren't a big, urban city, where a five mile walk will automatically lead to lots of shops, restaurants and nice things to look at along the way. Overall, my guess is that folks are mostly disappointed because of expectations. They don't expect it to be so expensive, or to have so much traffic while offering so little in the way of obvious urban amenities. Unless you hike, you have to wonder why folks live here (and then you remember all the jobs).

Seattle as a vacationing destination? Not hardly. Unless you like bumping up against unwashed homeless scum. Don't mind looking at the passed out heroin junkies. And like the smell of legal weed EVERYWHERE you go. The only reason to be in Seattle on your vacation, is if you are catching a cruise ship to Alaska. Arrive the day before, book a hotel near the airport and take an uber to the port.

@16:

Yeah, all bet all those tourists flocking to Amsterdam have exactly the same complaints...

who gives a shit about tourists coming here. if you live here why would you want people flocking here in droves? F that! tourists, please head to the "cool" "cheap" cities. you'll have a blast! besides you'll probably get wet if you come here. go someplace sunny like cali, florida, hawaii, sequim!

If Vegas was first, what was second?

As a mexican in Tacos Chukis, overhearing two white gay men make fun of wetbacks, I can assure brown people that Capitol Hill is a neighborhood that allows racism screamed in public without intervention. So please don't bother visiting my piece of shit neighborhood if you are brown. You might fuck around & get done for a hate crime.

First off, this article is typical Seattleite defensiveness against any critical take on their beloved city. Secondly, if a place is truly tourist friendly then you wouldn't require insider knowledge in order to enjoy yourself. The only reason I visited and eventually moved here was because of family, otherwise I wouldn't have chosen such a grey and unfriendly destination. If the people here weren't as standoffish and sarcastic towards people in general, then maybe the marks would be higher. When folks vay cay they usually want to CONNECT a little with the local culture, including the people. It's hard when people can't make eye contact...because they are on there computers....probably writing snark pieces just like this....

American tourists, on average, have the mindset that their sole responsibility is to arrive at their destination, at which point they expect to become passive recipients of an entertainment complex set up for their always-excessive consumption. No wonder Vegas is popular, not to mention those grotesque cruise ships.

The appeal of Seattle and the Pacific Northwest in general is its aesthetic quality, which some writers have described fairly successfully. It's the maritime air, evergreen trees backed by sky or water, great vistas alternately opening and closing, interludes of golden light cutting through the slate gray, a collective human temperament that's quite different from other parts of the country, a "Seattle speedball" on a misty spring day surrounded by new blossoms.

Curious, reflective minds take to this place like ducks to water. The Disneyfied crowd, not so much. It's just as well they don't.

22
Perhaps they should make your insights into an ad;
"Hey American Tourists, trust us, you're too stupid to enjoy Seattle"

Love the Mudede/Fu video! Perfect response to the tourism teacup, especially the end: "The whole apartment became an atmosphere of his death. Let's think about that."

The best thing about Seattle is that it's close to Washington State.

It seems like an increasing percentage of Stranger content is basically: "Hey, what was the deal with that story in the Seattle Times?!"

Some of us have been working hard to get bad reviews like this and we would appreciate it if the rest of you would SHUT THE FUCK UP

@27:

It's somewhat reassuring to know that the late Emmett Watson's "lesser Seattle" movement is still alive and kicking. Keep up the good work, KBO Agent dolanpatj.

Hey, Kennesaw Mountain, I'm assuming you're from Georgia, with that moniker? How the hell can you say transit is shit in Seattle??! Are you mistakenly thinking about traveling by bus up Buford Highway or trying to get anywhere on the weekends in Cobb county, GA? You must be, because I lived in Georgia (unfortunately) for eighteen years and the public transit in the Atlanta area is criminally bad. I've lost three jobs because the damn train and buses were always late and in the case of buses, sometimes they never showed up at all! The miserable attitude of the public transit workers in Atlanta is really something to behold. They don't give a damn if they make you late. They don't give a damn about anything except bitching about the Atlanta Falcons.

In comparison, I lived in Seattle from 1990-2001 and now live in Tacoma since 2015 and have never had to wait longer than fifteen minutes for a bus in Seattle. I bet you never even RIDE a bus, do you?! Taking a bus into North Seattle is not some impossible dream as you seem to suggest. Ever heard of express buses? Ever heard of Snohomish county transit? Pierce county transit? Sound Transit? You really need to get out more.

Repeat after me: a lot is two words.

@29- nope, lived here a very long while. Used to be a transit trainer, teaching folks with disabilities, the elderly, and those who didn't have much english how to use the system. Sure, express buses are sometimes OK for commuting-shitty for seeing the sights.

Glad to know the Stranger dismisses surveys taken by people that bring millions of tourist dollars to Seattle but lauds the opinions of junkies, meth-mouths, and others that drain resources.

Real tourists know Seattle is like Rome.

You stay at an inexpensive B&B near the end of a subway line, and you never eat on the fancy overpriced tourist locations. And you visit during local neighborhood festivals.

I'm with Emmett and Lesser Seattle. KBO: Keep the Bastards Out. Be rude to a tourist today - you may prevent him or her from moving here .