Seattle

Seattle, at the tip of a peninsula between Puget Sound and Lake Washington in the Pacific Northwest, is one of America's most beautiful and innovative cities — the birthplace of Starbucks, Amazon, Boeing, Nirvana and the grunge music movement, a city of rain, coffee culture, extraordinary seafood and the most dramatic urban mountain backdrop in North America (Mount Rainier, 4,392 metres, visible on clear days). Pike Place Market, one of America's oldest continuously operating farmers' markets (since 1907), is the city's social heart — Dungeness crab, fresh salmon, Pike Place Chowder, flying fish (the fish-throwing tradition) and dozens of original tenants make it genuinely excellent. The original Starbucks is here. The Space Needle (built for the 1962 World's Fair), the Chihuly Garden and Glass, and the MoPOP (Museum of Pop Culture, designed by Frank Gehry) are in the Seattle Center. The Seattle Art Museum is excellent. Capitol Hill is the city's most vibrant neighbourhood — dense with independent record shops, bookshops, cafés and bars. Ballard and Fremont are strong for their Scandinavian heritage and Viking-themed streets. The ferry across Puget Sound to Bainbridge Island gives excellent city views. Olympic National Park (2 hours), Mount Rainier (2 hours) and the San Juan Islands (3 hours by ferry) are outstanding excursions. Seattle's food scene — Pacific Rim influences, extraordinary local shellfish (geoduck, oysters), the thriving restaurant scene in South Lake Union — is excellent.