What are you interested in? Museums? Art galleries? Scenic attractions? Food? That can help clarify some suggestions :-)

Fwiw, Bellevue is a decently long drive across Lake Washington from Seattle and there is always heavy traffic plus a toll bridge, so I'd consider public transport for an easy and simple approach (and parking in downtown Seattle is a $$$ nightmare!).

And any good hiking is easily a full day trip out of town, so good idea to factor that into your time frame if this is something you really want to do.

One thought might be the 30 minute ferry ride to Bainbridge Island. If good weather - always risky in spring in Seattle - this a wonderful view of the city and Puget Sound and Mt. Rainier. And downtown Bainbridge is a short walk from the ferry terminal and a cute commercial area with lots of shops and restaurants that is the heart of this semi-rural but very upscale bedroom community. btw, the Seattle waterfront is undergoing extensive renovations (including the Seatte ferry terminal) so be prepared for some upheaval there as well.

I love the underground tour of Seattle

http://www.undergroundtour.com/about/

The Museum of Flight is also interesting.

We took a tour out to Snoqualmie Falls with Shutter Tours and all around Seattle. I see that they have a tour to the tulip fields. I wish I were there.

https://www.shuttertours.com/

Trip Advisor's lists for the Top X number of things to do in Y location are always a good place to start.

Don't take the rankings too literally. A number of things they put in their Top 10 may not appeal to you while something they rank as #16, for example, could be what interests you most. It will give you an idea.

Edit (reminded by Suzanne's comment) to add - oftentimes when visiting a new city, taking a multi hour or half day bus tour that buzzes you by many of the top sights (with commentary but often without stopping) can give you a flavor for where you may want to go back to see. Some cities have hop on/hop off buses too, to simplify multi-location visits.

we love museums, but with such a short trip, would rather be outside. will be a consideration if a rainy day.

love locally made pottery and home products...so non commercial shopping area would be great. breweries, good restaurants but nothing 'fancy', coffee shops, ice cream!!

thanks for the tip about public transportation!

i did start on TA, but would love input from anyone with knowledge of the area.

You could easily spend a day just hanging out around Pike Place. Besides the market, there are scores of small shops and craft stalls in that complex as well as all manner of restaurants in and close by, and the Pike Place brewery. And the original Starbucks store! The Seatte Art Museum is only a couple of blocks away and the Hillclimb provides easy access to the waterfront and a bunch more touristy shops and restaurants as well as the Seattle Aquarium. There......I've planned a whole day for you!!

And the Underground tour is a great idea for a rainy day.......which is more than likely at this time of year :-)

For some in city "hiking" and gorgeous/interesting plants, check out the Washington Park Arboretum https://botanicgardens.uw.edu/washington-park-arboretum/

and Discovery Park https://www.seattle.gov/parks/find/parks/discovery-park

I'm not a hiker, but Seattle Magazine has this hike listed (I linked magazine below for brewery info) and is not far from Bellevue. https://www.seattlemag.com/hiking/april-hike-month-dirty-harrys-balcony

Be sure to visit Chihuly Gardens, right next to the Space Needle. I love visiting just before dusk so you can see the display in the daytime, but enjoy the lighted gardens as the daylight fades. The restaurant at Chihuly is very good and not fancy - Collections Cafe.

Not sure where you live, but if not near the saltwater, Golden Gardens Park and Shilshole Marina area is beautiful and might be worth a visit. Our visitors always enjoy the Ballard Locks, too.

Love Gardengal's suggestion of a ferry ride to Bainbridge and visit to the town- it's a great place to visit, lots of good and non-fancy restaurants.

Some of my guests love visiting the International District/Chinatown, especially the flagship Uwajimaya

Theo Chocolate Factory has a fun tour, for a potentially rainy day. There are more breweries than you can believe. Georgetown area has several, including the home of my favorite IPA: Lucille https://georgetownbeer.com/

More in the area: https://www.seattlemag.com/article/local-brewery-district-georgetownsodo

The weather is beautiful right now. I hope you have a fun visit.

We were there a few years ago for a wedding so didn't have much time. Pretty sure we also stayed in Bellvue at least it sounds familiar. I was blown away by Chihuly Gardens. So worth seeing and enjoying.

LOL!! Seattle in-city hikes are pretty much just walks :-) The other mentioned is more of a real hiker's hike but is 25 miles east of Bellevue and a good 40 minute drive in decent traffic.....just be sure to avoid anything close to what might be considered rush hour - after 10 am and before 3 pm. And even that could be pushing it (greater Seattle vicinity traffic is abominable....some of the worst in the country!)

The Ballard Locks are a wonderful place to visit and with a lot of interesting and unusual plantings in the surrounding grounds. The locks are most active on the weekends but you can see some action midweek as well. The Ballard neighborhood itself is a fun place to visit and brewery central, home to at least 11 craft breweries! And right next door to Fremont, the self-proclaimed Center of the Universe and home of the Fremont Troll.

That's why I put "hike" in quotes...nice places to walk around in the city, yet outside in nature. I posted the other hike because it was so close to Bellevue, not a full day trip out of town. 40 minutes is nothing (in Seattle at least). '

Hasn't the Troll become a residence for homeless...like everything else in Seattle...it's such a problem and really limits the recommendations I make to visitors these days.

Several trips to Seattle, a favorite activity was drive to Anacortes (yes, 2.5h), take ferry to San Juan Island, for whale watching/wildlife cruise/boat tour off Friday Harbor.

https://www.visitsanjuans.com/about-islands/friday-harbor-san-juan-island

https://www.visitsanjuans.com/what-to-do/all-san-juan-islands/whale-watching

Oly, they (SPD) just recently cleaned out the area and have promised daily monitoring to make sure it stays free of homeless camps. While they routinely clean out or evict unauthorized encampments, the fact that this one was surrounding a local landmark/tourist attraction apparently warranted additional attention.

Pike Place and take a ferry ride (ferry to Bainbridge is a good choice).

Be sure to bring really comfortable walking shoes - it's hilly. One could spend a day eating ones way through Pike Place market. I love ferries and the view of Seattle is gorgeous from the water.

The San Juan islands are glorious but getting there does take some time. If one is not a walker, any of the scenic drives within 60 miles of Seattle are nothing less than spectacular and well worth seeing.

Pike Place is fun.I bought a ton of stuff. There is a great little yarn shop. I never went into the original Starbucks as the line was always a block long. I like SeaBar which is about a block away. It is small but the food is great.

Eat lunch at Le Pichet - it's like you walk in the door to France.

http://lepichetseattle.com

So glad you asked this. My friends and I are going in August, probably staying in the Ballard neighborhood. We’ll have about four days but will be driving to mt. Rainier one full day. I’d like to stay longer but my friends are less interested. We’ll be going to San Juan Island as well.

The underground tour was my favorite thing in Seattle, but I haven't been there in a long time. I first visited in 1976, which is when I took the underground tour, and the economy of Seattle was very depressed at that time, as Boeing had just laid off a lot of workers. I went back in the early 1980s and stayed with a friend on Capitol Hill, which I liked. I thought Broadway was an interesting street. One year I took a cruise through the locks into Lake Washington, and that was nice, but you need good weather for it. I generally visited Seattle in August when I did go there, but I'm sure it's very different from when I last visited.

Pike Place. It was so extremely crowded, but fun to walk through and see all the vendors. Not sure if the gum wall is still there but that was, uhm.......... interesting. Then the Pike Place Starbucks. I had no idea it was the first Starbucks and I didn't go into buy a coffee. Silly me.

The gum wall: https://www.flickr.com/photos/debby_ab/7917732622/in/datetaken/

Lars, I have lived in the Seattle area all my life (currently live on Bainbridge Island) and it changes almost daily!! It is vastly different from what is was in the 80's and has even changed radically in the last 5 years!!

I've been to Seattle once, in 2012. Very enjoyable city. Besides Pike Place and the underground tour, we enjoyed walking around their Chinatown/International district. And I really loved the day we spent in Bellevue, mostly at the: bellevue botanical garden. Oh to have the climate, acreage, imagination, and volunteer staff to create and care for such beauty! Your trip in a couple weeks should be at a peak time for spring flowers :-)

The tour idea is an excellent one and one that residents would not necessarily think of :-) We have the ability to wander the Market at leisure and as frequently as we like but if restricted to only a single visit, a tour makes wonderful sense!

>>The tour idea is an excellent one and one that residents would not necessarily think of>>

At one time I must have had 35+ relatives living within Seattle proper (many have since either moved away or passed). Every time I would mention during a visit, "Oh, we were at Pike Place yesterday looking around," they would reply, "Oh, really! Gee, we never think about going there."

LOL!

^^ When I worked in downtown Seattle, a group of us would walk to the Market every Friday for lunch and a little shopping :-)

It's a local treasure too good to be ignored.

Any advice on a good neighborhood to stay in an airbnb? Ballard sounds fun but maybe harder to get to the tourist sights.