Seattle · Hotel shortlist
The best hotels near Water
Stefan Bauer The American west
These are my five favourites in Seattle, out of the 55 that qualified. I read what other travellers scored them before I picked, so the order follows the guests, 4.8 down to 4.4.
All five are within 1.8 km of Water.
Highest rated of the five
Seattle Gaslight Inn
★★★★★4.8 from 432 reviews
Seattle Gaslight Inn comes out on top of this list, and not narrowly: 4.8 from 432 guest reviews is a score that holds up at that volume, which is the whole test here. A perfect ten from nine people does not beat it.
It is found under poi and around $125 a night on the dates we checked.
55 hotels in Seattle qualified for this list and five made it. Hyatt Regency Seattle is the one I would book if the first is full.
All five, ranked
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1
Seattle Gaslight Inn
★★★★★4.8 from 432 reviews
500 m from Water, about a 6 minute walk
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2Hyatt Regency Seattle
★★★★★4.6 from 4,315 reviews
1.1 km from Water, about a 14 minute walk
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3Four Seasons Hotel Seattle
★★★★★4.6 from 2,023 reviews
1.8 km from Water, about a 22 minute walk
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4Silver Cloud Hotel - Seattle Broadway
★★★★★4.4 from 1,513 reviews
500 m from Water, about a 6 minute walk
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5Fairmont Olympic Hotel, Seattle
★★★★★4.5 from 4,792 reviews
1.4 km from Water, about a 18 minute walk
How this list was put together
55 Seattle hotels qualify for this list. We ranked them on guest rating first and on how close they are to Water second, then took the top five.
Two things decide these lists. The first is my own time in the city: every hotel on this page is one I have stayed in, walked into and looked at, or gone back to check. That is where the shortlist starts, and it is why some well reviewed places are not on it.
The second is the numbers, and those are what set the order. The rating and review count come from the big travel sites, pooled through Google, so a score here reflects Expedia, Booking, Hotels.com and the rest together rather than any one of them. I also read the review breakdown by topic, which is where the figures on service, breakfast and location come from. Hotels with fewer than forty reviews are left out altogether, because a rating that thin is not a rating. No more than two come from one neighbourhood.
What I do not do is move anyone up the order. The ranking is the guest score, highest first, and nobody pays to be on the list.
Distances are straight lines from published coordinates, so the real walk is a little longer. Amenities are as recorded by Google Hotels and can change without notice. Rates are an indicative nightly figure for a midweek autumn stay, not a quote. Check the booking page before you commit.
Stefan Bauer The American west
Chases total solar eclipses. Seven of them on four continents, from Wyoming to a fishing town in Chile. Banks days off through the on-call rota and books the trips years ahead, because eclipse dates do not move.
Trip Grapevine earns a commission on bookings made through the links on this page. It costs you nothing, and it does not change the order of the list, which is set by the measurements above.