Which seattle neighborhood

The west side, which includes Seattle proper, has more of a big city feel to it, complete with skyscrapers, bustling sidewalks, and overcrowded apartment buildings, while the east—which includes the cities of Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond—is more spacious and suburban.

Seattle is grungier, dirtier, and has more hipster coffee shops, while Bellevue is clean, tidy, and has more high-end retail plazas. To go from Seattle to Bellevue, or vice versa, you have two options well three if you count driving around, which takes forever ; take either the or I floating bridges. Alternatively, if you choose a city like Renton in the south, or Bothell and Kenmore in the north, you can access either side without the need to cross a bridge.

Find the right fit for your personality. Each Seattle neighborhood has a different vibe, so figuring out which one you like best will help you know where you belong.

Do you find happiness immersing yourself with various nationalities and ethnicities? Try Rainier Valley or parts of West Seattle. Or do you prefer calm and quiet? Look into neighborhoods like Wedgwood or the attractive-but-pricey Leschi. You can also find out what kind of events are held in your new potential neighborhood by searching Facebook events, checking out local paper the Stranger , or asking locals via Quora or Reddit.

Do you want to take public transit? For example, from Shoreline, the next city that sits north of Seattle, you can hop on a bus that runs through Greenwood, Greenlake, Phinney Ridge, and Fremont, and still ends up in downtown in less than an hour. To decipher Seattle's most diverse, fashionable and consciously cool neighborhood it's useful to understand a little of its geography. There are three main commercial strips worth exploring in Capitol Hill — Broadway the main drag , 15th Ave and the ultra-cultural Pike—Pine corridor — all of which are refreshingly walkable if you don't mind hills.

Geographically the strips are gelled together by Capitol Hill's residential grid, a mixture of apartment complexes, large grandiose houses and the green expanse of Volunteer Park. This weird but never caustic juxtaposition of chic and scruffy is one of the neighborhood's biggest allures. If you're walking up from downtown crossing I-5 on E Pine St, you'll enter the neighborhood close to Melrose Market at the western end of the Pike—Pine corridor.

This stretch of aging brick warehouses and former s car dealerships made over into gay bars, live-music clubs, coffeehouses, record stores and fashionable restaurants is Seattle's nightlife central.

Running perpendicular to Pike—Pine is Capitol Hill's main commercial street, Broadway, while several blocks east is the quieter business district of 15th Ave E.

Gawp at the opulence as you make your way up to Capitol Hill's peak, Volunteer Park , home to the Seattle Asian Art Museum , a conservatory and a water tower. More genteel First Hill is best accessed from the bottom of Pike—Pine or by the streetcar line that bears the neighborhood's name. Weirder than Ballard and more self-deprecating than Capitol Hill, Fremont's essential business is its public sculpture. Most of its outlandish statues and monuments lie clustered around a few square blocks on the southern edge of the neighborhood close to the bridge, roughly between the water and NW 36th Street, stretching to Aurora Avenue North and Phinney Avenue North.

Here you'll also find the bulk of the notable eating places, offbeat boutiques and Fremont's best situated hotel. Fremont's a great neighborhood for getting a taste for local life, especially in summer, when festivals and regular outdoor movies send the locals positively delirious.

With good bus connections and a bike-friendly intra-urban trail, it can easily be incorporated with visits to the adjacent neighborhoods of Ballard and Wallingford. Where industry once roared, glassy condos now rise in the thin, walkable strip that is Belltown. Capitol Hillers might disagree, but Belltown's main nightlife zone 1st and 2nd Avenues between Blanchard and Battery Streets is the best place in the city to string together a bar-hopping evening out.

Schools in the area include B. You can find single-family homes, condos, and townhomes there. Belltown is filled with trendy shops, bars and eateries. Z-shaped Olympic Sculpture Park, with its trails and outdoor art, has expansive Puget Sound views and beach access. And, no worries, this neighborhood is very walkable. Just north of downtown, Belltown was filled with very steep hills. After years of debate, developers decided to remove the hills there, known as the Denny Regrade.

It took about 30 years and by the mids, the area was much more manageable for business development. But in the s, the area was rezoned for high-rise residencies and plenty of space for businesses. For a little fresh air, scope out the Olympic Sculpture Park to enjoy the many art installations by local artists.

There are also plenty of art galleries, clothing stores, home furnishing shops, salons and tons of other places to eat and drink. More than just the high rises that dot it, downtown Seattle has a rich history and plenty of diverse culture.

The original downtown looked much different than it does today, with wooden buildings, a sawmill and many more steeper hills.

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