One day in Seattle: the Space Needle, Chihuly Garden and Glass, and MoPOP!

My first day in Seattle was spent exploring some of the many museums and attractions in the Uptown area. You’ll definitely need more than a day to see absolutely everything here, although depending on your tastes you might not want to. And that’s fine – it’s your holiday after all! On my visit, I managed the Space Needle, Chihuly Garden and Glass, and MoPOP.

As well as all the museums in the area, there are also theatres, a food hall, and plenty of open space to sit and relax.

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Start the day by visiting the Space Needle

A visit to the iconic Space Needle is a must for your first time visiting Seattle! The entry fee fluctuates depending on when you go, but it hovers around the $35/ £28 mark. However, if you’re planning on visiting a few of Seattle’s attractions, it’s worth knowing that there are various ticket combinations available that can save you money along the way. For example, if you’re planning on seeing LOADS of the city’s attractions, the Citypass might be for you (which provides a solid discount). Whilst it wasn’t worth it for me to get a Citypass, I did purchase a combo ticket for the Space Needle and Chihuly Garden and Glass, which saved me around $10/ £8. More on Chihuly Garden and Glass later.

As I mentioned in my 4 day Seattle itinerary, I stayed at Sonder The Boylston in Pike/Pine, which was very reasonably priced (compared to the rest of Seattle) and modern and clean, too. It was also handy for the Space Needle and museums as it only took 25 minutes on the bus. Unlike Vancouver, where I’d just come from (you can see my Vancouver 3 day itinerary here – the two cities are only 3-4 hours apart) you can’t use contactless bank cards to ride the transit system. In Seattle you can either use cash or purchase an Orca card, which is Seattle’s reloadable transit card. I got my card at the local supermarket.

If you’re driving, it’ll take you less than 10 minutes to get there (traffic permitting of course).

Ride to the top of the Space Needle!

Once you’ve purchased your ticket you’ll need to get in the queue for the elevator to the top. As there’s a cap on the number of people who can take the elevator at any one time I’d advise going early – I arrived at 9:15am and managed to get in the elevator right away. When I left the area at 3:30pm though the queue was massive and snaked half way around the Space Needle itself. 

Once you’re in the elevator, it’s a swift 40 seconds up before you walk out onto the observation platform and see Seattle in all its glory, from the ships out to sea to Mount Rainer in the distance. 

There are also free photo spots at the bottom and top of the elevator. You can email these to yourself using the machines at the top of the Needle.

Head down to the observation deck

From the observation deck you then go down to the inner rotating level. It was a weird experience being that high up and rotating at the same time! There are also glass floor sections that you can stand on to see the elevators going up and down the Needle. Although I am sure it’s perfectly safe I must admit I did not like standing on the glass!

I spent about 45 minutes at the top of the Needle taking photos before heading back down.

The gift shop at the bottom is huge and has more Space Needle-related items than you could wish for, including clothing, hats, mugs, toys, magnets, snow globes, statues etc. There are also some glass-related objects, likely due to the proximity of Chihuly Garden and Glass, where I visited next. 

See stunning glass creations at Chihuly Garden and Glass

Over lockdown I got slightly addicted to Blown Away (a reality competition show about glass-blowing) and so I was excited to visit Chihuly Garden and Glass. As you might be able to gather from the name, this museum showcases large-scale artworks from glass artist Dale Chihuly.

It was honestly SO beautiful. I particularly loved an exhibition called Mille Fiori, a garden scene that was full of different shapes and vibrant colours. And of course, the glasshouse sculpture really is something else. Unfortunately I’m not allowed to use photographs for the blog which is a real shame – a quick google will show you what’s on offer though!

Following the glasshouse you then head out into the garden, where the trees and plants are accompanied and enhanced by more glass sculptures. I did wonder how they kept the glass clean each day against the elements!

Overall, the visit round took me about an hour, although if you want to watch some of the accompanying films it’ll probably take you around two hours. 

 

MoPOP

Close to Chihuly Garden and Glass is MoPOP, aka the Museum of Pop Culture. MoPOP is divided up into different genres and also different media types, from music to literature to games. It’s nice to see some genres getting the attention they deserve!

As with the Space Needle, the entry fee for MoPOP fluctuates depending on when you go. I paid around $28 / £22 to get in.

For book/film lovers…

I spent most time in the sci-fi and fantasy exhibits and I loved seeing the props from iconic sci-fi films, even those that I hadn’t seen.

 

 

The horror exhibit was fun too, even though I’m not a horror fan! It wasn’t too spooky, and anything I didn’t like the look of I could just avoid. I liked the segmentation of the exhibit into the various antagonists and explainers as to why we might find them particularly frightening, and how, on some occasions, these fears fit into a historical context.

For gamers…

For gamers there’s an area where you can test out some of the latest indie games in a dreamily-lit space. It was super busy when I visited so I had a quick scoot round and took down the names of a few games to check out later.

 

For music lovers…

As well as the permanent exhibits there were a few temporary exhibits on when I visited. I particularly enjoyed looking at iconic photographs of some of the biggest hip-hop stars from the 80s-00s and reading the stories behind the photographs. I’m a huge fan of the photographers behind the iconic Life magazine, and it was interesting to see the footage of Gordon Parks photographing 200 of the biggest names in 1998. 

I also had a brief look round the Jimi Hendrix on Tour exhibit as well as the Guitar Gallery and the Nirvana exhibit. If you’re a fan, you’ll love looking at everything. 

For sci-fi/ fantasy fans (again)!

Finally, I visited the sci-fi and fantasy hall of fame which had videos and more props from classic films/ tv shows, as well as author profiles. It gave me a lot of inspiration for new films and authors to check out!

I spent two and a half hours in MoPOP overall, although if it had been less busy I would have tried some of the indie games, as well as some of the instruments on the Soundlab floor (which looked super cool).

Other attractions in the area

Alas, with too much to do and too little time, I wasn’t able to see everything on my list. If I’d had more time I would definitely have visited the Pacific Science Center. If you’re visiting Seattle with little ones it might also be worth checking out the Seattle Children’s Museum too!