Seattle Space Needle

While housesitting in Washington State, I ended up being a big tourist in Seattle, starting and ending my big tourist day with the Space Needle. It comes included in the Seattle CityPASS I bought, but I’d highly recommend it either way. It’s iconic!

Early definitely seems to be the way to go for a visit to the Space Needle. It is the highlight of the Seattle skyline, and as such will be mobbed by people nearly every day. Naturally, weekdays might be less crowded and weekends more so, but don’t miss the experience just because of the crowds. It’s still worth it. But if you want to avoid crowds as much as possible, buy your ticket online and schedule yourself for the first time slot in the morning.

The Experience

When you arrive for your ticket reservation or otherwise buy your ticket and enter, your experience starts at a ramp to the left of the ticket counter. Once you enter the building, the ramp becomes a retro-looking museum with lots of signs and models about the building of the Space Needle for the 1962 World’s Fair. You can stay to the left to read all the signs or stay to the right to get straight to the elevators.

At the end of the ramp, you can look down into the gift shop, but you can’t get there from here, at least not currently. Instead, you are directed to an elevator where an operator will take you to the top of the 605-foot tower. This elevator operator is the closest thing you’ll get to a tour guide, and if you get a good one, they might have a spiel perfectly timed to the 41-second trip. Mine was for my evening visit, and it was superb.

At the Top

The first stop on the elevator is the upper open observation deck, 520 feet off the ground. There are thick glass plates between you and the view, and even a few glass benches to sit on, though since the walls lean out, the benches kinda lean you back. There are even a few automatic photo stations where you can scan your ticket and it will snap your picture. Then inside, there are kiosks where you can retrieve your pictures using your ticket. (At least, it’s supposed to – I couldn’t get it to work.)

From the Space Needle, you can see downtown Seattle with the monorail tracks, Mount Rainier, Puget Sound/Elliot Bay, and the islands, ferries, and shipping lanes. You can easily spot the Seattle Great Wheel, and a little of the piers around Pike Place Market. Farther on, it’s easy to spot the stadiums for the Seattle Seahawks football team and the Mariners baseball pitch. Right below you are the Museum of Pop Culture (which is supposed to look like a smashed guitar from above) and science and art museums.

From the upper deck, you walk down a set of stairs to get to the lower enclosed deck. This one has a glass floor and the whole deck revolves! For decades, this level was a rotating restaurant, but now it serves as more observation space and a place for private events, I think. There are small bars on both levels where you can buy beer, wine, or a cocktail to enhance your visit. There’s even a few snug tables to sit at. But otherwise, it’s an empty floor.

The glass floors are great, though. You can see the gears for the turning mechanism, and see straight down the slender spire to the base of the tower! I dig it.

Gift Shop

After you’ve had your fill of views and/or alcohol, guests exit to the down elevator and into the gift shop at the base. Pretty much the entire base is a gift shop, all the way around. And there’s every kind of touristy souvenir and knick-knack you can think of, and even a few you can’t. Like plush versions of the tower with an impish smile and an impressive retro Mold-a-Matic machine. (The Mold-a-Matic I’m fascinated by. But I’m not sure about buying a plush of a building.)

There’s one section that sells glass objet d’art, which are (all? Almost all?) made at the Chihuly gallery next door. They don’t even sell these in the Chihuly gift shop, but they sell them here!

Bathrooms

Under “good to know” tips, there are two bathrooms at the Space Needle. One is at the top, between the two observational floors. You can tell they used to be for the revolving restaurant. They aren’t very big and get pretty crowded. There are bigger, but less crowded, bathrooms in the gift shop. The only downside is that you can’t access them before your trip to the top. You have to wait until after.

Tickets

Admission to the Space Needle depends on the time of day you visit, and what day your visit is on. For now, regular adult admission during the week is $30 before 11 am, $40 from 11-7, and $35 from 7-10 pm. For ages 5-12, that drops to $22.50/$30/$26 respectively, and seniors 65+ are $25.50/$35/$30 respectively. There are also discounts for military and for King County residents, but those are only available at the ticket counter with ID and not online.

On the weekend, those prices go up a bit. Then, adults are $32.50 before 11 am, $42.50 from 11-7, and $40 from 7-10 pm. For ages 5-12, it’s $24/$32/$30, and for seniors 65+ it’s $28/$36/$35. It’s a weird pricing structure.

Bundles & Visiting at Night

You can get a day/night pass to visit the Space Needle twice in one day – once during the day and again in the last three hours of the day. This way you can see the sights, then come back later to see the sunset over the sound. A day/night pass costs just about as much as two regular trips to the top of the tower. During the week, it’s $59 for adults, $44 for ages 5-12, and $54 for ages 65+. On the weekend, it’s $60.50/$45.50/$55.50 respectively.

You can bundle the Space Needle with other attractions, most notably Chihuly Garden and Glass next door for between $44.50-$64.50. Or you can do the popular CityPASS ticket, which costs $119 and includes the day/night pass for the Space Needle, plus four other Seattle attractions. I’ll talk more about that in a later post.

I will say that visiting the Space Needle in the cool of the morning, touring several other downtown Seattle attractions, then returning for the cool air of twilight and a fantastic view of the sunset is pretty magical. It’s definitely more crowded at sunset. The closer to sunset, the more the crush. But even on a Friday night, I was able to find a spot on a bench and just enjoy being above the city for a while at the end of a long day.

The Neighborhood

The old World’s Fair grounds immediately around the Space Needle is attraction central for Seattle. Right next door, you have Chihuly Garden and Glass, the Pacific Science Center, an IMAX theater, the Museum of Pop Culture, green spaces and a huge fountain, and a massive food hall with a Children’s Museum in the basement.

A monorail station is right behind the Chihuly museum and a $3.50 ride takes you downtown to the other touristy part of Seattle – the Pike Place Market, the first Starbucks, and the touristy piers around where the cruise ships dock.

Parking

One last tip, this time about parking. There are city garages and street parking surrounding the area around the Space Needle, but I really liked using the KOMO Plaza garage right across the street from the Space Needle itself. Especially if you reserve ahead with a site like SpotHero, you can get a discount on a day’s parking.

Since I knew I wanted to start and end my day at the Space Needle, I reserved 12 hours at the Komo Plaza garage for just under $20, which seems like a fair deal. The next day, I parked there again without a reservation and was there about 8 hours for just a little over $20.

Conclusion

If it’s not obvious, I really enjoyed visiting the Space Needle. As an infrequent visitor to the west coast in general, it was a treat to be a big tourist in the city for a few days. And my Big Tourist Day was bookended by visits to the Space Needle. I can’t imagine a better way to end a day as a tourist in Seattle than at the top of the Space Needle.