Top 8 Free Things To Do In Seattle

I recently spent a wonderful 5 weeks exploring the beautiful city of Seattle, Washington. While there I discovered a whole host of free activities you can do while in the city - check them out in this post.

Discovery Park

Discovery Park is a 534 acre natural area park located in West Seattle. It’s relatively easily accessible by public transport - just use City Mapper to find the best route from your starting location.

We enjoyed a lovely “hike” here following a route I found on All Trails. The hike was beautiful and a perfect free activity for a Sunday afternoon. Situated on Magnolia Bluff overlooking Puget Sound, Discovery Park offers spectacular view of both the Cascade and the Olympic Mountain ranges. The park includes two miles of protected tidal beaches as well as open meadow lands, dramatic sea cliffs, forest groves, active sand dunes, thickets and streams.

Pier 66

Pier 66 is home to Norwegian Cruise Line and Oceania Cruises, which offer weekly sailings to Alaska during cruise season. While a cruise to Alaska may not be on the cards for our budget friendly Seattle stay, you can still take advantage of the stunning views from the pier and the free to use binoculars along the pier. Don’t plan to spend too much time here but its a great place to grab a coffee from a nearby coffee shop and take in the views for a while.

Space Needle

The Seattle Space Needle was originally constructed as an attraction for the 1962 World’s Fair and still stands today right in the heart of Seattle. Tickets to go up the Space Needle start at $27, so while a trip up to the top may not be affordable for everyone, you can still marvel at the seemingly out of place wonder from below. You can also enter the gift shop at the bottom free of charge if you wish to purchase some Space Needle memorabilia.

Seattle Art Museum

I’ll let you in on a little known secret; the Seattle Art Museum is free on the first Thursday of every month and on the first Friday of every month seniors get free general admission to the Seattle Art Museum. You’ll still need to book your tickets online in advance, but you won’t need to pay if you book for the right day.

A lot of the museums in Seattle (and in other major western cities) are free on certain days. Just conduct a quick Google search for the museum name + free entry and you should be able to easily find out if the museum you’re interested in offers free entry days. P.S you can find more tips and tricks on saving money while traveling here.

Lake Washington

An afternoon stroll around Lake Washington is a wonderful free activity for those warm weather days. If you have some spare budget, you can rent a paddle-board or kayak and spend some time on the lake itself.

If you’re just looking for a beautiful walk around the lake, there are some great trails available on All Trails.

Mount Reiner

Marvel at Mount Reiner or move mountains with an epic hike up the beast overlooking Seattle. Mount Rainier is actually an active volcano and is the most prominent peak in the Cascades. It is covered by 26 named glaciers including Carbon Glacier and Emmons Glacier allowing for both stunning views and access to a wide range of hiking trails and other sites.

AllTrails has 150 great hiking trails, trail running trails, mountain biking trails and more, with hand-curated trail maps and driving directions as well as detailed reviews and photos from hikers, campers, and nature lovers. Be aware that public transport to the area is lacking and you may be best to go on a tour, car share or hire a car to get to the mountain. Once there, there are 64 moderately easy trails ranging from 0.6 to 18.9 miles and from 1,755 to 7,828 feet above sea level.

You can marvel at the mountain for free from one of many view points in the area and hike outside of the National Park free of charge. If you wish to enter the park itself, walk-up fees to the are $15 or you can pay a single vehicle fee of $30 (prices correct at the time of writing).

Movies at the Mural

You could experience FREE movies outdoors at Seattle Center over the summer of 2021. At the time of writing no announcement has yet been made as to whether this great free outdoor event will be back for summer of 2022 but as soon as I hear anything I’ll update this post!

Enjoy an evening picnic on the gently sloping Mural Amphitheatre lawn, in front of a state-of-the-art 40-foot screen, with the Space Needle looming above. We actually got a pizza takeaway from Mod Pizza just next to the Movies at the Mural location as they offered vegan cheese and DIY pizza toppings. Perfect! The movie series featured popular movies, both classic and contemporary, appropriate for all-ages.

The Spheres

Part of the Amazon Headquarters in Seattle, the Spheres make for a strange but welcomed edition to the free things you can do in Seattle. Stroll through the Spheres indoor gardens, which are open to visitors by reservation during the first and third Saturday of each month, free of charge. You do need to book tickets in advance and they can sell out quickly so try to book as far in advance as possible.

When speaking at the opening of the Spheres, Amazon Vice President for Global Real Estate and Facilities John Schoetter said “We wanted a space for employees to collaborate and innovate. We asked ourselves: What is missing from the modern office? We discovered that missing element was a link to nature.”

An interesting and unique free activity definitely worth checking out if you’re in the area on the free open days.