What should I avoid in Seattle?

The Space Needle charges $39 for its observation deck at 520 feet. Columbia Center's Sky View Observatory sits on the 73rd floor, costs $23, and gives you the Needle in the frame instead of under your feet. Worth noting that the Space Needle's summer weekend queue can stretch 45 minutes in a treeless concrete plaza. Columbia Center rarely has that problem. The waterfront restaurants between Pier 54 and Pier 57 charge $28-35 for fish and chips that taste like they sat under a heat lamp. Walk 15 minutes uphill to Capitol Hill instead. A bowl of laksa at Kedai Makan costs around $16, and the coconut broth is thick enough to coat a spoon.

Pike Place Market opened in 1907 and pulls roughly 10 million visitors a year. Between 11am and 2pm on weekends, the main arcade narrows to a shoulder-to-shoulder shuffle where you can feel the damp breath of the person behind you. Go before 9am on a weekday. The flower vendors are still arranging buckets, the fishmongers at Pike Place Fish Co. are warming their hands with coffee, and you can stop to talk to the farmers without blocking foot traffic. The 'Original Starbucks' at 1912 Pike Place often has a line 30 people deep. It sells the same drip coffee as the other 200-plus Starbucks across the city. The Gum Wall on Post Alley smells like stale mint and warm sugar on a summer afternoon. It's a 30-second photo, not a 20-minute wait.

Do not rent a car for a Seattle-only trip. Downtown parking runs $8-12 per hour, the one-way grid around 3rd Avenue's transit-only lanes confuses most GPS apps, and the grades on First Hill and Capitol Hill are steep enough to make street parking a genuine skill. Bus fare on King County Metro costs $2.75, and the Link light rail runs from SeaTac Airport to Westlake Station in about 40 minutes for $3.25. An ORCA card covers both plus the South Lake Union streetcar. That's enough to reach Capitol Hill, Ballard, Fremont, and the waterfront without a car. Seattle's rain reputation is misleading. The city gets about 37 inches annually, less than New York's 50 or Miami's 62. Seattle averages around 150 rainy days per year, but most bring a fine, cold mist rather than a downpour. A $40 packable rain shell from any REI in town will outlast every umbrella the wind inverts on the waterfront.

Restaurants near the Space Needle at Seattle Center tend to run 40-60% more than comparable spots in Ballard or Fremont, two neighborhoods 15 minutes north by bus. Ballard still has the bones of a Scandinavian fishing village along Ballard Avenue NW, and dinner entrees there run $15-22. Fremont's Sunday Market operates April through November, and food stalls along 34th Street sell tacos for $4-5. Both connect to downtown on the D Line and Route 40. That said, Ivar's Acres of Clams on Pier 54 has served chowder since 1938, and a cup at around $9 is still worth the stop. The dining room gets loud on Friday evenings when ferry commuters from Bainbridge Island pile in after the 5:30pm crossing.

Alki Beach in West Seattle looks good in photos, but Puget Sound water temperature sits around 50-55°F even in August. The 2.5-mile promenade makes for a solid walk, with cold wind off the water and the smell of salt and kelp at low tide. Swimming in 52°F water is more dare than beach day. Popular day trips from Seattle tend to eat more driving time than visitors expect. Mount Rainier National Park sits about 2.5 hours southeast on SR 706, and the Paradise visitor center at 5,400 feet still has snow patches into July. Budget a full day, not a half. The San Juan Islands ferry from Anacortes needs a summer reservation booked weeks ahead, and the drive to the Anacortes dock takes 90 minutes before you even board. The return on I-5 south of Everett slows to a crawl after 3pm on summer Sundays.