About Seattle

Tourism

There is no shortage of fun things to do in Seattle, whether your tastes run to the educational, natural, or quirky. Within walking distance of the convention center, check out Pike Place Market, one of the country’s oldest continuously operating farmers’ markets, for a variety of produce, food, art, and crafts. Also close at hand are the Seattle Art Museum, the Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP), which includes the Science Fiction Hall of Fame, the award-winning Seattle Public Library, and the Olympic Sculpture Park. A little farther afield, you’ll find Elliott Bay Bookstore, the Museum of Flight, the Pacific Science Center, and much more.

From the Seattle waterfront, you can take a variety of tours on the water, including boat rides through the Ballard Locks, tours of Elliot Bay, and day trips to Blake Island.

Mukilteo to Bainbridge Washington State ferry during sunset.

A bit farther afield but still in Seattle, you’ll find the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI), the Woodland Park Zoo, the Museum of Flight, and the Burke Natural History Museum. Local neighborhoods add personality, fun shopping, and more great restaurants—check out Fremont, the University District, or Ballard.

If you have a few extra days, Olympic National Park, Mount Rainier National Park, and Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument are all in day-trip range from downtown. The Hoh Rainforest is stunning, as is the Olympic Hot Springs Resort, a wine trail, several cideries, and again, plenty of opportunities for amazing natural views.

For a guide to the standard tourist attractions, check out Visit Seattle’s list of Top 25 Things to Do. For a slightly more offbeat Seattle experience, take a look at Atlas Obscura’s list of quirky attractions.

Transportation

The Airport

SeaTac International Airport (SEA) is a major hub for several airlines. The biggest carrier is Alaska Airlines with Southwest as a close second. There are direct flights from Dublin, Tokyo, London, New York, Washington DC, Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, and many other cities. All major US carriers have some sort of flight into and out of SeaTac as do most international carriers.

From the Airport

SeaTac International is 15 miles from downtown Seattle. There are many fantastic options for transportation into Seattle from the airport. Link Light Rail provides a 50-minute train/subway ride from the airport directly to downtown Seattle. Exit at Westlake Station and you will be approximately six blocks from the convention center. Cost for a one-way ride on link light rail is $2.25 to $3.25, and tickets can be purchased on the platform.

Getting Around Town

King County Metro provides buses, light rail, and street-car options for travel. You can pay directly with cash on the bus, but the other options require an ORCA card. ORCA cards can be purchased at all light rail stops. The card costs $5 and can be reloaded at any time. You can load cash onto the cards or purchase a monthly pass.

Additionally, Seattle is served by several bike-share companies such as Jump and Limeshare, and there is a certain amount of conversation about scooters in the future.

There is not a significant amount of street parking available in the downtown core, but parking garages are plentiful. If you are willing to park a little further out, you can find cheaper street parking down by the waterfront. We will provide information on our website about pricing options which can vary from $10 to $50/day.

For accessibility information for getting around Seattle, we highly recommend AccessMap Seattle. For more information, this article describes the service fairly well: https://seattle.curbed.com/2017/2/14/14601070/tcat-access-map-seattle-pedestrians

You can access the map at: accessmap.io

Hotels

We are currently negotiating with eleven hotels within a seven-block radius of the Convention Center, with first-right-of-refusal offers in hand for a sufficient number of rooms to serve the membership of the convention. The nearest hotels are one block or less from the Summit site. Our proposed dates (August 13–17, 2025) are at the peak of tourist season and the region’s most beautiful summer weather, which means relatively high hotel room rates. The Convention Center expansion is less than one block from city bus service and four blocks from light rail, and we will additionally provide guidance to find lower-cost options outside the downtown core.

Restaurant Scene

Seattle is a foodie town, and the restaurant scene is both varied and awesome. You can get any cuisine you want in downtown Seattle. The Summit convention center expansion itself will have counter service and sit-down options. Within one block of the convention center are a wide variety of restaurants at a variety of price points, including the popular Dough Zone Dumpling House and Daawat Indian Grill & Bar. As the convention center is currently under construction, these options will shift as the building nears completion. Two blocks away is Pacific Place, with a gallery of restaurants (Johnny Rocket’s, Pike Place Chowder, and Din Tai Fung among others) on the top floor. Westlake Place has a food truck extravaganza. Pike Place Market, with several food options, is a seven-block walk from the convention center. In between and all around is the heart of the city, with a wide variety of options at every level.

Fannish Culture

Seattle’s fan history is long. From hosting Seacon in 1961 to the present bid, the Pacific Northwest has a shared history of coming together to throw events, learn together, and participate in creating new things.

Our region has numerous conventions of different kinds like Norwescon, GeekGirlCon, OrcaCon, PAX West, Rustycon, OryCon, Sakura-con, Conflikt, Radcon, Emerald City Comic-Con, Crypticon, Foolscap, and so many others.

We are home to Funko HQ, Dead Gentlemen Productions (makers of The Gamers series of films), leading game companies such as Wizards of the Coast, Nintendo, Twitch, Pathfinder, Bungie, PopCap, Niantic, Big Fish, and Green Ronin, and tech leaders like Microsoft, Google, Adobe, and Amazon. The region is well-known for its maker culture. Our conventions tend to have a significant number of hands-on workshops and ways for people to come together, create together, and learn together.

Convention Center

The Seattle 2025 Worldcon, if selected, will be held in the brand new Summit Expansion to the Seattle Convention Center, opening January 2023 in the heart of downtown Seattle, surrounded by amazing views of the city, mountains, and water. The Summit is a fully accessible building with extra-wide corridors and many elevators and escalators. The facilities include about 150,000 square feet of exhibit space and 100,000 square feet of carpeted meeting space, divisible into up to 62 meeting rooms, with extensive ballrooms and lobby/pre-function space, a flex hall, and lovely fourth-floor garden terrace.

The building has a GBAC STAR accreditation, which is the industry’s highest standard for cleaning for COVID-19. This is an extremely flexible space, ideally suited to an event of our size.