Washington

Seattle and the Urban Energy

Perched on a narrow isthmus between Puget Sound and Lake Washington, Seattle pulses with creative energy and a fierce independent spirit. The Pike Place Market has been flinging fish and selling flowers since 1907, while the city's neighbourhoods serve up everything from James Beard-celebrated restaurants to intimate jazz rooms and some of the world's great record shops. The Space Needle, a relic of the 1962 World's Fair, still draws the eye skyward, and the waterfront reopened after a dramatic overhaul that put pedestrians where a thundering elevated highway once stood.

Wilderness at Every Turn

No state in the contiguous United States packs wilderness quite as densely as Washington. Olympic National Park alone contains three distinct ecosystems: glacier-capped peaks, old-growth temperate rainforest and wild Pacific coastline with sea stacks and tide pools. North Cascades National Park is so rugged and so little visited that it rewards the determined traveller with near-total solitude among more than 300 glaciers. The San Juan Islands, reachable by ferry from Anacortes, offer kayaking alongside orca pods and harbour seals in waters that feel a world away from the mainland.

Wine, Food and the Good Life East of the Mountains

Cross the Cascades via the dramatic Stevens or Snoqualmie Pass and the landscape transforms entirely. The Yakima Valley, Walla Walla and the Columbia River Valley together form one of the great wine regions of the Western Hemisphere, with bold Cabernets and elegant Syrahs drawing serious collectors from around the world. Spokane, Washington's second city, has blossomed into a genuinely exciting food and arts destination, with a renovated riverfront, lively brewery scene and direct gateway access to the Channeled Scablands, a landscape so alien it was used by NASA to train Mars rover teams.