SEATTLE - nightclubs, hotel and other info needed

For a land trip, I will be in Seattle for a day (arriving at SEATAC airport at 8:30pm and leaving Seattle the following day at 4pm). Doing some research on this site, I've seen the name of Best Western Executive Inn mentionned quite often. Is it the only hotel you would recommend or is there other hotels (not too expensive) you can think of? Also, what is the best nightclub in Seattle? I don't want to offend anyone but I would also like to know if Seattle is a safe place at night or not really? During the day, I plan on waking up somewhat early (8 am) and be ready to discover Seattle for the day. What are your suggestions. What are the Not To Be Missed things to see and do while I am there? What is Space Needle (sorry, I am a French Canadian girl who never heard of Space Needle).

Please help me plan my day so I can have a good time exploring this new city.

Thanks in advance!

Nobody can help me?

I live near Seattle so we don't use the hotels, but I can address a couple of your questions. I feel fairly safe at night in the downtown shopping area of Seattle and around the busy parts of the waterfront. If you have to travel to other areas, I would recommend a cab rather than walking empty streets, but I'm pretty cautious. If I had only one day in Seattle I would explore the downtown shopping area beginning at the Westlake Mall and moving outward in a circle of a few blocks in all directions. You will find most of the major stores in this area. The Seattle Art Museum is also located within easy walking distance of the Westlake Mall area. There is a Gameworks and Cheesecake Factory up a few blocks toward the Convention Center. I would then walk down Pike to the Pike Street Market and check out the funky little shops there, maybe eat lunch there. I would then move down to the waterfront and see the shops in that area. If you like seafood, there are a lot of seafood restaurants in that area. There is also a large aquarium there you could visit if you don't want to do so much shopping.

The Space Needle is located in the Seattle Center, which was the area of a World's Fair way back when. The Needle is an icon for Seattle, basically an elevator going up to a restaurant. They charge a lot to ride up to the observation deck and a lot to eat there as well. There is usually a monorail running directly from the Westlake Mall to the Seattle Center, but it is out of order this summer due to a fire on one of the trains this spring. If it is running, you could take the monorail out for about $1.50 and stroll around and have a look. There is also the Pacific Science Center and Imax theatre located at the Center. These take longer though so if I only had one day I'd just hang out downtown.

Great, that is the best info ever, an itinerary and all, I appreciate your help very much, thanks!

If someone knows about hotels, please let me know.

Do you want to stay at the airport or downtown? What price range?

We sailed on the Sapphire Princess from Seattle on 6/20. We arrived in Seattle the day before and checked into the Hotel Vintage Park at about 5PM. I booked this through Priceline for about $125. It was a very nice Botique Hotel located within walking distance or cheap cabfares to many sites. This hotel also had great customer service.

We had dinner at a brewpub a few blocks away then roamed down to the Monorail stop. Since it was not working they added a free bus route to the Space Needle. There were many attractions in that area but since it was already about 8PM we decided to go up to the top of the needle to get a view of the city. When we were done we took a cab back to the hotel for about $5. By then my daughter had arrived at the hotel and was hungry, so leaving my husband behind we went in search of food and took a nice walk around the area feeling quite safe. (I always am very aware of my surroundings, constantly looking over my shoulder. )

The next morning we visited Pike's Market and took our time in that area prior to boarding the ship. We did pick up a cab, had the driver stop at the hotel to pick up our luggage and then continue to the ship. It was less than $10 and the cabdriver even gave us a mini tour of the surrounding sites. Yes, we tipped him well. Did I mention how friendly the people in Seattle are. With our East Coast attitudes it took a little getting used to but what a pleasant change.

The day we got off the ship we had tickets to see the Mariner's play baseball at Safeco field. We took a cab to The Sheraton Towers, booked through Hotwire for about $165 with tax. At first I thought the price was a little high but once I realized how major a city Seattle was the price was fine and in line with other cities in it's class. Once we checked in and dropped off our luggage we were off to the beautiful ballpark in another cab with another driver proud to introduce us to his city. The fans in Seattle are so polite. They even wait for the batter to finish before returning to their seats.

We later returned to our hotel and stopped at the Grayline Tour desk. We assumed it would be too late for a full city tour but were happy to find out there would be a Double Deck bus tour leaving at 6PM. It cost less than $20 and lasted for close to 3 hours. There were only 6 passengers and the tour was one of the highlights of our weeks vacation. We had a wonderful tour guide and a bus driver who were both more than willing to show off their hometown. I highly recommend this tour if you want to get a real feel for the city and visit the different neighborhoods. Some of the views were spectacular.

We ended the night at the rooftop swimming pool watching the sunset over Seattle. Since the sky was so clear we could see Mt Rainier(Sp).

We were very lucky with the weather on both ends of our visit and I'm sure this added to the wonderful time we spent in Seattle. I feel that we got quite a bit in for the little time we were actually there. This is a city I would return to anytime and recommend to a friend.

Sorry if this is too much info, but once I started telling about our experience I couldn't stop!

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Sorry if this is too much info, but once I started telling about our experience I couldn't stop!

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Lots of info is what I was looking for, thank you for your help!