My Birthday Weekend in Seattle at Hotel Ändra

                        *Right outside of the front doors of the hotel, facing this restaurant. We really wanted to go here, but didn’t make it.

*Our room at Hotel Ändra. Check out that sunlight.. in November!

 

My Birthday Weekend in Seattle at Hotel Ändra

Hey friends, and happy Monday! I am so excited to share with y’all my weekend in Seattle a couple of weeks ago. I had the opportunity to stay right in the middle of downtown in Seattle at Hotel Ändra, for a quick weekend getaway for my birthday! Although we packed a lot into three days, I would have loved to stay much longer! Don’t worry, we’ll be back…

Working with Hotel Ändra was an absolute dream, in helping me plan an itinerary for the weekend. One of their concierges, Sharon, was so so amazing. She and I emailed back and forth, and even hopped on the phone for a quick call, where she ultimately had suggestions down to every last detail for each day of our stay. I have never experienced customer service this over and above from a hotel, and for this alone, I would consider staying again, hands down. The icing on the cake was the birthday card, bottle of champagne, and box of chocolates they left in the room for me while we were out, for my birthday. So sweet!

I am a huge fan of boutique hotels because getting around and finding amenities inside the property comes much easier this way. Usually they are a little quieter as well, which works in my favor since I’m a finicky sleeper when I travel. Hotel Ändra’s lobby, with the cozy fireplace in the seating area, is the perfect place to hangout and people watch. You get a firsthand view of the patrons inside Lola, an amazing restaurant, which was packed the entire weekend-that should tell you how good the place is! From our room we had a birds-eye view of the heart of downtown, and if you looked beyond that, you could see where the waterfront started-think Pike Place Market. The trees outside were gorgeous and it made me happy to get to wake up to that in the mornings. The location of the hotel could not have been more perfect. We walked nearly everywhere the entire weekend, so be sure to pack comfy shoes, and know that a lot of the streets are very hilly! Think San Francisco hilly.

Seattle Travel Guide

We arrived around lunchtime on Friday. Keep in mind Seattle is a two hour time difference from me, so it was actually two hours past lunchtime for us. We were starving, to say the least. In my research I wrote down a restaurant called Lola that came highly recommended, where people said anything you order from the menu is so good. Lucky for us, Lola is inside of Hotel Ändra so we literally brought our bags up to the room and walked right back down to have a bite and a drink there, to welcome ourselves into the city! Service was outstanding, and they were right, everything we ordered tickled our tastebuds in a new way. *Highly recommend the pork kebabs-SO flavorful, and the side of smashed potatoes were my favorite.

Schuyler has a friend that lives in Seattle so for dinner Friday night we linked up with him and went to Purple Cafe & Wine Bar for dinner. This restaurant is two-story and dimly lit in the way that it keeps the level of cozy and chic at 100%. Reservations come highly suggested. Because it was so dark I unfortunately didn’t get any pictures here. We ordered a plethora of appetizers and entrees and sort of shared it all. Any menu that has bacon wrapped dates or any rendition of it is a first choice by me, so these were definitely ordered and enjoyed way too quickly. Everything we had-including their extensive selection of wines-was fantastic. We left happy and satiated.

Because everything was so so close we walked to the middle of Pike Place Market for a can-can show at The Can Can. This was so much fun, and I highly recommend doing this for a birthday! I was one of many there celebrating my birthday, and you can even pay a little extra to get on stage and get lots of extra attention throughout the night. It’s a very small space, so make reservations in advance. You really don’t have a bad seat in the house because of how intimate it is, but we got seats that came with a $50 drink credit and that worked perfectly for us! They had interesting cocktails here, and I’m always up for something out of the box. You can also do the dinner with the show, and the menu looked pretty good. We met some locals and took their suggestion to check out a couple of bars in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. We attempted to go have a drink at Canon, but they were at max capacity. Next time!

I think one of my most favorite parts of Seattle is that from downtown, you can see the Space Needle peeking through the tops of the trees. It looks so close and so big down on the streets when walking. The views from the top inside of the Space Needle were incredible. We especially liked sitting on the bench that leaned back against the window facing all of Seattle. There’s even a new exhibit where you can walk on a glass bottom floor, while it slowly revolves. Dare devils, you would like this! One cool thing about the views up top were that a lot of the apartment buildings below had rooftop dog parks and parks. We thought this was really neat, and a really great concept.

You can’t go to Seattle without stopping at the infamous Pike Place Market. It’s an incredible farmers market extravaganza. We went in the middle of the day on Saturday, and although very busy, we were able to get a good feel of what it has to offer. Stop and watch the guys toss the fish! It’s a bit of an entertainment piece there. A lot of the associates were passing out samples of apples, and we found a new favorite kind, called Opal. I’m normally a red delicious fan, and Schuyler likes honeycrisp, but Opal gave them both a run for the money. Also, you MUST go to Beecher’s right outside of the market and get their mac and cheese. Oh my gosh, SO yum. I want more now.

Down some stairs and right outside of the market is another staple-the gum wall. It’s actually a few walls, on both sides of this alley. Just as gross as you could imagine, but a must-stop, nonetheless! Walk even further out, close to the water, and be sure to stop for a drink or dinner at one of the restaurants on Pier 57. We rode the great ferris wheel and because it was a windy day it made the stop at the top over the water that much more scary! Great views, though!

 A little off of the beaten path is a place called Salty’s Seafood, and I highly recommend spending a special brunch here. We went here Sunday morning, my actual birthday. They had balloons at the table, a birthday card for me, and the most amazing high end buffet, with made-to-order anything you can imagine, plus all the fixins and toppings. Think: a pancake bar, with all types of fruit compote, whipped cream, chocolate chips, caramel sauce, and more. Drool worthy. They also have staples to Seattle, like crab legs and clam chowder. Insanely delicious, and the panoramic views of the Puget Sound don’t hurt at all.

After brunch we rode around the area, and took in the views and the foliage, before stopping into a few more local coffee shops and such closer to the hotel. We may have lucked out with weather this weekend, as 2 out of 3 days were sunny and relatively cool.

 

A few places not pictured, that we tried, or wanted to try:

-Take a walk down to the waterfront and check out Olympic Sculpture Park

-Cocktails at Bathtub Gin-a literal hole in the wall, speakeasy. Amazing cocktails. A little hard to find. Get there right when they open or you may not get a seat upstairs at the bar!

–Chihuly Garden & Glass-right across from the Space Needle. You can buy a discounted ticket for both the Space Needle + Chihuly Garden, if you wanted to do both. We just didn’t have the time, but it looked gorgeous!

–Walk around Pioneer Square. This neighborhood was on our list to see, and known as Seattle’s First Neighborhood. Amazing architecture, art walks, nightlife, and food can be found here.

–Molly Moon’s Ice Cream-we heard a lot of good things about this place, such as their unique and seasonal ice cream flavors. I’m a huge ice cream fan, so I’m a little disappointed we got completely sidetracked one afternoon trying to make our way here.

*A random stoop we dipped into. Do you spy the top of the space needle up behind me?

*Trees and leaves everywhere!

*Had my first peppermint mocha of the season at Evoke Coffee

*We walked through this beautiful park, Denny Park, right in the middle of the city, to get to some shops. Seattle’s first park!

*Schuyler insisted I take a picture in front of this car wash sign.

*The Amazon spheres. An amazing concept to the work place. Read about it here!

*Every bit of gross as our faces say. Gum Wall

*Miner’s landing at Pier 57

*Wait, did someone say mac and cheese?

*All the fresh fish and seafood one could want

*Just an example of one of the hilly streets

*Remnants of our breakfast biscuits we ordered in on Saturday morning from Serious Pie & Biscuit

*You can’t tell but we are trying not to lean all the way back against the glass. This bench is tilted backwards!

*Schuyler falling back onto the glass of the Space Needle. Check out his photobomber!

*Hard to tell but I’m sitting on a clear bench leaning into the glass windows at the Space Needle.

*Gorgeous views of Seattle

*The skyline looks fake, it’s so perfect

*Casually strolling the streets of downtown, walking toward the Space Needle

*The Space Needle from right down in front, below it

*Denny Park. Stopped to snap photos in the foliage

*Birthday Dinner at Umi Sushi, but first, a picture in front of the fireplace at Hotel Ändra. Ain’t he cute?! 🙂

 

If you’re thinking about a trip to Seattle, I say do it! And invite me, because I’ll go back in a heartbeat. In all honesty, we want to go back in the summertime, because the locals rave about summers there. Sold! Another stay at Hotel Ändra will happen, too.

Hope you’ve enjoyed this post, and let me know if you have any questions or if you’re planning a trip too!

Thanks for stopping by, and reading 🙂

xoxo Brandi

 

*Thanks to Hotel Ändra for the complimentary stay. All opinions are my own.