Most people would agree that when they travel, they’d like to hear a local’s perspective about what places are absolute must-sees. Lucky for me, when visiting Seattle, I have several friends who live there who can recommend sites a visitor shouldn’t miss. 

Lately, Seattle tourism offices have pushed marketing due to piqued interest in the area brought by the release of the Twilight book series. According to Seattle’s tourism offices, Twilight promotion is particularly focused on Germany, Japan, France and the U.K. to lure fans of the romantic vampire tales.

However, this isn’t the first time its local tourism groups brought overseas visitors because of a movie. Feature films, including Disney’s Brother Bear and Sleepless in Seattle, as well as TV shows Twin Peaks and Northern Exposure continue to draw visitors to Washington.

Though today’s tourists to the Pacific Northwest seem less interested in the Space Needle than a hospital parking lot in Forks, Washington has a great deal to offer its visitors.

Seattle is also one of the destinations easily  accessible from Guam via Northwest Airlines, with a brief layover in Japan. Here is a list of 10 places — a mixture of tourist spots and off-the-beaten-path attractions — that travelers to the Pacific Northwest should pencil in their schedules.

[The Space Needle]

If it’s your first time to Paris, you don’t skip out on the Eiffel Tower. And when in Seattle, you definitely should visit this Seattle landmark. The Space Needle features an observation deck at 520 feet, and a gift shop with the rotating SkyCity restaurant at 500 feet. From the top of the Needle, one can see not only the Downtown Seattle skyline, but also the Olympic and Cascade Mountains, Mount Rainier, Mount Baker, Elliott Bay and surrounding islands. 

[Seattle Duck Tours]

The DUKW or “Duck” was an amphibious landing craft developed by the United States Army during World War II designed to deliver cargo from ships at sea directly to the shore. Although DUKWs were used predominantly for the military, many were used by civilians: police departments, fire stations and rescue units, just to name a few, and of course, the Seattle Duck Tours, in which visitors will be able to see Seattle’s major sites via land and sea.

[Pikes Place]

Have you ever caught a fish mid-air? Pikes Place is the home of the world famous Pikes Place Fish Market that everyone talks about. It is a place of business for many small farmers, craftspeople and merchants named after the central street, Pike Place. It runs northwest from Pike Street to Virginia Street, and remains one of Seattle’s most popular tourist destinations, and is also home to the first Starbucks coffee shop.

[San Juan Islands]

San Juan Islands are an important tourist destination, with sea kayaking and orca whale-watching by boat or air tours, two of the primary attractions. Part of the charm that attracts tourists and residents to the San Juan Islands is that each island seems to have a character of its own, both in terms of geography and of the lifestyle of the people who live there. The islands are reachable by ferry.

[Leavenworth]

With only a two-hour drive, you can get a little piece of Europe right in the Pacific Northwest. Leavenworth is a small Bavarian town full of festivals where lederhosen is in vogue and Schweinshax’n is a’ plenty. In November 2007 Good Morning America went to Leavenworth for “Holiday Gifts for the Globe” and the city was also named the Ultimate HolidayTown USA by A&E.

[Olympic National Forest]

Did you know that Washington is the home of the only rain forest in the continental U.S.? The forest is located on the Olympic peninsula in the upper northwest corner of Washington. If you like nature and the outdoors, this is the place to be. Take the ferry or take the scenic route and discover how this small part of the world is changing and what you can do to help the environment.

[Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame]

The EMP|SFM is a museum dedicated to the history and exploration of both popular music and science fiction. The Frank Gehry-designed museum building is located on the campus of the Seattle Center, adjacent to the Space Needle and the Seattle Center Monorail, which runs through the building.

[Seattle Underground]

The Seattle Underground is a network of underground passageways and basements in downtown Seattle, Washington, United States that was ground level at the city’s origin in the mid-1800s. After the streets were elevated these spaces fell into disuse, but have become a tourist attraction in recent decades when, in 1965, local citizen Bill Speidel realized there might be interest (and profit) in the subterranean ruins.

He established “Bill Speidel’s Underground Tour” and took customers on a tour of what was left underneath Pioneer Square. In 2004, the Underground Tour organizers began the adults-only Underworld Tour, incorporating discussions of prostitution, the opium trade, and other less family-friendly elements of Seattle’s early history.

[Museum of Flight]

Ever wondered what it was like to fly in Air Force One or the Concorde? At the Musuem of Flight you can take a tour of both planes along with a other modes of flight. The Museum of Flight is a private non-profit air and space museum at King County International Airport/Boeing Field in Tukwila, south of downtown Seattle. Visiting the Museum of Flight is both educational and awe inspiring. Take a walk through the history of humanities many accomplishments in the science of flight and space travel.

[Grand Coulee Dam]

If you are able to make the long treck, check out the remarkable great-walled wonder that is the Grand Coulee Dam. The dam is a hydroelectric gravity dam on the Columbia River and is the seventh largest producer of hydroelectricity in the world as of last year. The visitor center contains many historical photos, geological samples, turbine and dam models. Since May 1989, on summer evenings, a laser light show at Grand Coulee Dam is projected onto the dam’s wall, that includes full-size images of battleships and the Statue of Liberty, as well as some environmental comments. Visitors are also able to ride a glass elevator 400 feet down to view the generators.