Seattle

Seattle combines a working waterfront with the energy of a technology capital. Pike Place Market, coffee culture, music history and views of Mount Rainier and Puget Sound give the city a distinctive Pacific Northwest character, with islands, mountains and wine country close at hand.

Seattle stretches between Puget Sound and Lake Washington, its neighbourhoods spread over hills and divided by water. Downtown rises steeply from Elliott Bay; Pike Place Market, open since 1907, sits on the bluff above the waterfront, and the Space Needle and the Seattle Center mark the site of the 1962 World’s Fair.

The city’s fortunes have come in waves — timber, the Klondike Gold Rush, aviation, then software and online commerce — and each has left its mark. Ferries cross to Bainbridge Island and the San Juan Islands, the Olympic Mountains stand across the Sound, and the wineries of Woodinville lie just to the north-east.

July, August and early September are Seattle’s reward: long, dry, mild days with clear views of Mount Rainier and the Olympics, and the best time for ferries, seaplanes and island trips. Summer also brings Seafair, with its hydroplane races and air show over Lake Washington. Days are long, with light until well after nine in midsummer.

From October to April the city settles into its known pattern of soft rain and grey skies, rarely very cold. It is the season of the Seattle Opera, the Symphony at Benaroya Hall, and of the mountain passes turning to snow — with skiing within a couple of hours’ drive.

Four Seasons Hotel Seattle stands on First Avenue just south of Pike Place Market, its rooms looking over Elliott Bay to the Olympic Mountains. The Fairmont Olympic Hotel, open since 1924, is the city’s historic grand hotel in the heart of downtown, and Thompson Seattle offers a contemporary alternative above the market.

All three stand within walking distance of the market, the waterfront and the ferry terminal for the islands. LVXVRY books the first two through Four Seasons Preferred Partner and Accor Preferred — at the official hotel rate, with the privileges each programme attaches to the stay — and advises on and arranges stays at Thompson Seattle.