Alki Beach, Seattle

Alki Beach is a quarter mile long strip of sand along the northwest shore of West Seattle.

This has all the basic information about the Alki Beach park. Location, pictures, maps, lists of facilities and hours. (Hours for a beach?) Note that you can build fires on the beach, but you have to bring your own wood and keep the fire inside the concrete rings provided. This is a popular pastime.

This is a great map of the neighborhood around ALki beach and a list of the local businesses.

Links to local business, restaurant coupons, bars. (Sorry, no bar coupons.) Check out the kayak tours!

This is a great way to go between Alki and Downtown Seattle. Shuttle buses run along Alki Ave. The ferry is about half a mile east of the beach.

The lighthouse is at the westernmost tip of West Seattle. It is only a few hundred yards from the beach.

Tennis courts, a big grass field and a playground are only a block from the beach. My personal favorite is the whale tail sculpture in the playground, suitable for climbing. You can see it in the picture below.

Wonderful walking paths through deep forest. It's hard to believe that you're in a large city. Can be muddy after a rain. Walk up to the park from the entrance at the SE corner of Alki Playfield or from the 5600 block of Admiral Way.

Weather for zip code 98116, West Seattle, including Alki.

In the summer check this schedule for volleyball tournaments on Alki.

North Beach has indoor beach volleyball near Sand Point, north of the University of Washington. They also run leagues for beginners, intermediate and advanced players on Alki Beach during the summer.

Rent a kayak near Salty's restaurant and view Alki from the water.

A good list of restaurants in West Seattle. This includes much more than Alki Beach.

Frommer has it right. This is an old style family restaurant with fried chicken and mashed potatos served family style. There's a full bar. It's old fashioned elegant with table cloths and pressed glass on the table. It is located a block from the beach in a big log cabin built by one of the original settlers. It's a favorite of the locals, but I doubt many tourists ever stumble on it.

Well, it's not really on Alki Beach. It's about half a mile east. On the other hand it has a 24 hour view of the downtown skyline across the working harbor of Elliott Bay. My favorite time is sunset when the colors are reflected in the windows of the downtown office towers. Spectacular.

Our favorite breakfast place on Alki. Close to the volleyball courts.

Try the Tom's Special which has crunchy toasted shredded pepperoni. Yum.

Ok, it's not at the beach. Still its less than a mile and a great place to catch a movie that's been out for awhile for about half first run prices. It's on California Avenue in West Seattle just north of Admiral Way. It's at the heart of the Admiral Junction neighborhood.

These give a nice flavor of the place, but i don't see pictures of the crowds that come on Summer evenings and weekends.