Living in Seattle for a Month: A Digital Nomad Review

In August 2025, I spent a month living in Seattle as part of a digital nomad trip around the U.S.

My goal is to live in different cities for a few weeks to a month to explore them more deeply than a typical vacation, and figure out where I might want to live long-term.

Seattle was my first stop.

Seattle Scorecard

Food: 2.5/5
Cost of living: 1.5/5
Walkability: 4/5
Public transportation: 4/5
Cleanliness & safety: 3/5
Things to do in the city: 4/5
Nature access: 4/5
Drivability: 2/5
Weather: 2.5/5
People: 3/5

Total score: 30.5/50

I didn’t immediately fall in love with Seattle and will keep exploring other cities.

What I Liked About Seattle

Public transportation is solid, especially for a West coast city. Buses run frequently and cover most of the city. Stops are convenient, and there are usually multiple ways to get where you want to go. Buses generally ran on time.
Nature is excellent. Some of my favorite U.S. National Parks – Rainier, Olympic, North Cascades – are all within a few hours drive. There are also a lot of hikes in national forests, with a good mix of shorter and longer options, and most lead to great views. There’s also a lot of green space and some beaches within the city.
There are some genuinely great bakeries and a few standout food spots, although it’s inconsistent and expensive overall.
Neighborhoods feel distinct and have a lot of local businesses. Coming from D.C. and Northern Virginia where many areas feel like the same set of chains repeated, it was refreshing to see places that actually felt different from each other.
There’s a big farmer’s market culture. Most neighborhoods have one, and some vendors are very good (avoid the cherries though).
Summer weather is fantastic. Sunny and not too hot or humid, with lots of fresh air.

What I Didn’t Like About Seattle

It’s extremely expensive. Museums are around $30 unless you go on free days. Renting a bike for two hours on Bainbridge was over $30. Every dine-in or takeout meal at a restaurant costs $30–40, even fast casual places cost around $20, and pastries cost $6–8. Renting a car for a full month was prohibitively expensive to the point where we only rented on weekends.
The food scene didn’t meet my expectations for a major city. There were some good places, but food was often a hit or miss. Even for the good places, the price was too high for the quality and portions.
Downtown is dirty and often smells bad, and there still seems to be a noticeable crime issue downtown.
Public transportation is good overall but inefficient in certain cases. For example, getting from Discovery Park to Ballard took 50 minutes by transit vs. 8 minutes driving vs. 55 minutes walking. Some routes force you to connect through downtown even when the destination is nearby.
The road system is poorly designed for the amount of traffic, and traffic is bad as early as 2pm. There are multiple points where cars have to merge and switch several lanes within a mile to make exits, and local roads back up heavily when entering highways.
Nature access is far and hikes are crowded. Many hikes are about two hours away, and further with traffic – It didn’t feel like I could go for a quick after-work hike, even with my work ending at 2pm. Trails are very crowded on weekends, and hiking etiquette (not feeding the animals, not leaving trash, etc.) was noticeably worse than in other states with a big hiking culture.
It’s not as “quirky” as I expected. Seattle has a reputation for artsiness, quirkiness, and culture, but large swathes of the city felt very corporate with the recent movement of tech companies into the city and nearby areas.
Walkability varies between neighborhoods. Some neighborhoods are great for walking, while others (like the Interbay), are not walkable at all. The city is generally very hilly, which is hard on your knees.
Weather during non-summer seasons seems terrible. Surviving the constant gray and drizzle seems tough.

Cost of Living in Seattle

The cost of living is the main reason I wouldn’t want to live in Seattle. As a digital nomad, the 0% state income tax didn’t apply to me, so I may have felt the cost of living more acutely.

Here’s my cost of living in Seattle for one month:

Rent: $3,250
Public transportation: $85
Rental car: $825
Gas: $105
Groceries: $350
Eating out: $500
Activities and souvenirs: $450

Total: $5,565. Some of the rent and car expenses were split with my partner, so my total cost came out to $3,800. This is why I rated cost of living 1.5/5 in my scorecard.

Rent: By far my biggest expense. Short-term rentals in Seattle are egregiously expensive. The place I rented was the cheapest one I found, although I booked relatively late (two months earlier). The place I rented was a modern 1 bed / 1 bath with a full kitchen, in unit washer / dryer, free street parking, in Queen Anne.

Rental car: Despite only renting a car for four weekends, the total cost was $825, even renting from a local location instead of an airport location. Renting a car for the month would have cost upwards of $3,000.

Groceries: Groceries were noticeably more expensive than in other cities.

Eating out: Meals frequently ran about $25 for dishes that cost $18-20 in other major U.S. cities.

Gas: On the higher end for the U.S., but not as expensive as California.

Best Things I Did in Seattle

Hiking Near Seattle

Mt. Rainier

Skyline Loop: Classic hike with great views of the mountain and meadows. Great place for wildlife spotting (mountain goats and marmots). Not too difficult. Very crowded near the waterfall. We had to park far below the trailhead due to road closures.
Fremont Fire Lookout: Short hike with good views throughout, lots of pikas and marmots. Very crowded.
Third Burroughs Mountain: Less crowded and more difficult. Minimal shade but great views, gets very close to the mountain. I combined Third Burroughs and Fremont Fire Lookout into one hike, as they share the start of the trail.

Leavenworth

Colchuck Lake: Very pretty, but harder than expected due to rocky terrain. Most of the hike is in the trees, so there isn’t a view until the top. The lake itself is great, but the trail is extremely crowded.

North Cascades

Cascade Pass to Sahale Arm: One of the best hikes I’ve done. Incredible, vast mountain views and a great lake. The final stretch is very steep and the descent is sketchy. The road to the trailhead is rough, although some sedans could make it, and navigating the parking lot is very difficult.

Snoqualmie

Snow Lake: Easier hike with a nice payoff, not as beautiful as some other hikes in the area. Quiet early in the morning (we went around 7:30am) but gets crowded quickly.

Exploring the City

Tours, Museums, and Iconic Spots

Seattle Underground Tour: Very engaging and funny tour, and a great way to learn the city’s history.
Seattle Art Museum: Good overall, especially the Ai Weiwei exhibit. Worth going on a free day (first Thursdays), but not worth $30.
Pike Place: Always crowded, but there are interesting shops nearby and the waterfront walk is nice.

Parks

Gas Works Park: Great skyline view, but lots of goose poop.
Discovery Park: Nice lighthouse and beach. All the water stations were closed without warning.

Shops

Queen Anne Bookstore: Nice local bookstore.
National Park Store: Very small store with cute postcards.
Arundel Books: Notable independent bookstore mentioned in “150 Bookstores to Visit Before You Die.”
Muto: Interesting and upscale Japanese design store.
Robot vs. Sloth: Creative, Seattle-only gift shop.

Farmers Markets

Queen Anne Farmers Market: Small farmer’s market with good local vendors (cherries aren’t good quality).
Ballard Farmers Market: Huge Sunday market with tons of different food options.

Weekend Trips from Seattle

Bainbridge Island

Bainbridge Art Museum: Free and small, a quick visit. I liked the exhibit with the everyday Seattle scenes.
Bainbridge History Museum: Free and very small, interesting history of Bainbridge Island.
Rolling Bay: Nice bike ride to the shoreline, but very hilly and requires sharing the road with cars.
Coquette Bakery: I got a delicious morning bun from their stand at the Bainbridge Farmer’s Market.

Leavenworth

Very crowded old-German-style town. Gets extremely hot on summer afternoons.
Argonaut Coffee has incredible biscuit sandwiches and great cold brew.

San Juan Island

Friday Harbor is a cute but small town with a big brewery scene. Taking the ferry to Friday Harbor at sunrise was absolutely incredible.

Best Food I Had in Seattle

Bakeries

Fuji Bakery ($): Ube malasada.
Moonrise Bakery ($): Almond bear claw.
Le Panier ($): Chocolate almond croissant.
Nata Seattle ($): Egg tart.
Oxbow ($): Praline pecan brownie.
French Guys ($): Almond croissant.
Petit Pierre ($): Cinnamon roll, prosciutto four cheese croissant.

Ice Cream

Molly Moon’s ($): Iced latte, honey lavender, salted caramel, coconut chocolate chip ice cream.

Asian

Dough Zone ($$): Pork & crab soup dumplings.
Community Grocery ($$): Chicken teriyaki.
Taurus Ox ($$): Lao burger.

Indian & Indian Fusion

Fusion Bistro ($$): Masala pasta.
Desi Pizza ($$): Cheesy breadsticks.
Spice Waala ($$): Papdi chaat.

Coffee & Cafes

Storyville Coffee ($$): Cold brew latte.
Caffe Ladro ($): Bacon scone, ham & cheese croissant.

American

Beecher’s Handmade Cheese ($$): Mac & cheese.
Swing Sandwiches & Pizza ($$): Caprese sandwich.
5 Spot ($$): Penne alla vodka, hashbrowns.

Conclusion

Seattle was a great place to spend a month, and I’m glad I started my trip here. There’s still a lot I didn’t get to explore, and I’d love to come back to explore more of Washington.

That said, I don’t think I’d want to live here long-term. I’ll be continuing my trip in Denver, Colorado for the month of September, where I’ll be spending the month hiking and checking out the city.

Read about my experiences digital nomading in other cities here: