Tacoma Travel Guide
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Tacoma, Washington, is located on the West Coast nestling between Commencement Bay and the Puget Sound. The city is about 36 miles south of Seattle and 28 miles north of the capital of Washington, Olympia. Many people do not know much about Tacoma , Washington , because it is overshadowed by the more well-known neighboring city of Seattle.
Tacoma has come a long way in the past decade, moving away from its negative industrial past and now going through a renaissance period of building and beautifying the many different aspects of the city. Tacoma, Washington, is a unique place with distinct features and characteristics that have made it the “City of Destiny ” for over 100 years not only for the residents but also tourists and potential residents alike. Tacoma is not the typical tourist town; it has a rich history tracing back to the exploration of the Northwest, it is cultural diverse in so many ways, and its architecture is beautiful. These features motivate a person to visit Tacoma , but the city itself as a whole encourages many visitors to become permanent inhabitant of the place. Overall, the city can be summarized as a place “where art and nature meet.”
The city of Tacoma has so much to offer from its many parks, numerous art museums, and wide arrays of natural attractions. There are many things to do and see while in Tacoma. To go on an art and culture excursion, you should visit downtown Tacoma. Downtown Tacoma was once an uninviting, and inaccessible place, for those reasons not many people visit downtown, but in the recent years the city has put major efforts in creating a renaissance period to build, reconstruct and beautify the many different locations in downtown. Such examples are the building of the Museum District and the reconstruction of the Theatre District. The creation of a new transportation system further makes downtown Tacoma even more accessible than before.
For those who are interested in the art and culture, downtown Tacoma is the place to be; downtown Tacoma is divided into two sections, the beginning (where the Museum District is located) and the end (the site of the Theatre District,) with other sites of attraction in between. The Museum District is known as the “cultural focal point” of Tacoma (Traveltacoma.com,) the district is formed by three museums to form a recognizable icon of downtown—the triangle. The three museums are the Tacoma Art Museum , Museum of Glass and Washington State History Museum . While in the Museum District which is located on top of a hill surrounded by the various skyscrapers, overlooking the calm, clear and pristine Thea Foss waterway and skyline overlooking the calm and picturesque Thea Foss waterway, and the (competing) skyline of downtown Tacoma , you can pay a visit to the newly renovated Tacoma Art Museum. The museum is a 2 stories building filled with many art galleries, with a special permanent collection of Northwest artists, 19 th and 20 th century American, European and Asian art, and also the world’s largest collection of Chihuly (a world famous glass artist, native of Tacoma) glass in the early age according to Tacomaartmuseum.org. While at the museum you can enjoy the many different attractions the museum has to offer, such as going to a hand-on art studio and create something unique, or contemplate on art in enclosed outdoor garden.
The museum is open for everyone with its mission to connect people through the art. After visiting the Tacoma Museum of Art, you can take a short one-block walk over to the Museum of Glass. The museum focuses on “glass as a medium within the context of contemporary art in all media.” Like the Tacoma Art Museum, the Museum of glass also have specialized programs to educate people young and old alike in expanding their knowledge and expertise on glass art. The Museum of Glass offers a wide variety of things to do and see. The museum has a large exhibition space, a Hot Shop Amphitheater that could seat up to 140 people, a theater, and café and museum store.While there at the Museum of Glass, you have to go to the Hot Shop Amphitheater and witness the amazing process of glass making from professional artists. It's amazing to witness how sand could be turn into such beautiful artworks under the hand of a skillful artists. It’s absolutely breathtaking. The museum also has a reflecting pool and seating areas on the top levels for patrons and visitors to relax and enjoy the breathtaking view of the city skyline, waterfront, and Mt. Rainier.
The finishing point of the Museum District is the Washington State History Museum. Unlike the other two museums which focus on the arts, Washington State History Museum focuses on the history of the place, the people and the culture through interactive and multimedia exhibits that span the entire 106,000 square foot area. The museum can answer all of your questions regarding the state of Washington, its people, and everything else you wanted to know about the state. The museum is also the site of the largest collection of pioneer, Indian and Alaskan artifacts on the Pacific Coast (Traveltacoma.com), it is also the location of the largest permanent model railroad exhibit, an indoor auditorium and outdoor amphitheater.
Like the other two museums, the Washington State History Museum also aims at educating people of all ages of Washington ’s history. Linking to the roof of the Tacoma Museum of Glass is the amazing and spectacular Chihuly Bridge of Glass. The 500 foot pedestrian bridge that links to the Thea Foss Waterway and overlooking the skyline of Tacoma is the site of three “amazing Chihuly glass installations” that is open to the public 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. One of the installations is the Crystal Towers located at the center of the Bridge. The forty-foot tall Crystal Towers are made from 63 large asymmetrical plates that resemble bits of floating glacier in both colors and shape. The translucent crystals that made up the towers has the power to “change their appearance at different times throughout the day. (at sunrise, during the day, at night they’re all different). The Crystal Towers at night The next Chihuly installation is the Venetian Wall. You wil be amazed by the grand, and beautiful 80 foot long case that is made up by stainless steel frames and translucent glass walls, displaying 109 of Chihuly’s sculptures from three of the artist’s series: Venetians, Ikebana, and Putti. The sculptures are illuminated by natural light during the day, and the fiber-optic lights illuminated the artwork at night. While at the Venetian Wall you should sit at one of the many “concrete benches facing the pavilion and be enveloped in color and shape,” proposed by Chihuly himself.
Since Tacoma is known as the city “Where Art and Nature Meet” nature is as important to the city as art is in downtown Tacoma . The location of the city influences the weather greatly. The city of Tacoma is situated on the Cascade Mountain Range, surrounded by Commencement Bay which is a part of the Puget Sound , and has the famous Mt. Rainier as its background. It’s a city where the mountain and sea exist harmoniously to create a tranquil, peaceful, mystic, and laid back atmosphere to the city.
Tacoma is located on the western part of Washington State, near various salt body of water such as the Puget Sound and Pacific Ocean, because of that it has a maritime climate like that of England, and the United Kingdom. Maritime climate is characterized by mild weather, with moderate amount of precipitation. The weather is mild in both the winter and summer, with temperatures around 40 degree during the winter, and 60 degree during the summer. It snow sometimes Tacoma , but nothing in comparison to the northeastern states of the United States .
One of the most famous park in Tacoma is Point Defiance Park (second largest urban park in the US, under Central Park NY, NY). It is the location of the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium (the only zoo and aquarium that is located in the northwest), The Japanese Garden, and Fort Nisqually. The park cover a vast and diverse ecological area, from the hills and mountains to the beach. As you arrive to the park, you will notice the vast green grasses and pine trees nestle nicely throughout the park, and the entrance a rotunda with various colorful flowers surrounding it. In the distance across the green grass you can see the playground where the children play, and as you explore the park, you will see many families with picnic blanket congregrate together feeding ducks in the nearby lake, and you will see many people walk, run, jog, rollerblade through the many trails in the park. As you venture more deeply into the park, you will notice the scenery will dramatically change. From a park into a beautiful zenlike Japanese Garden with a Pagoda. If you didn’t know you were in the park in the first place, you would have mistaken and thought that you are actually in Japan . The pagoda is contructed exactly how it was supposed to be, with a Koi Pond, and boulders situated at various point around the Garden. There is also flowers, shrubbery, and cherry orchard native to Japan.
Tacoma has become one of the most beautiful places that greatly appreciate the art and in beautifying the city to live up to the blessed natural beauties found around the city itself. If you want to go to a place that appreciate the art, and beauty of nature then Tacoma is a place for you.
Tacoma has come a long way in the past decade, moving away from its negative industrial past and now going through a renaissance period of building and beautifying the many different aspects of the city. Tacoma, Washington, is a unique place with distinct features and characteristics that have made it the “City of Destiny ” for over 100 years not only for the residents but also tourists and potential residents alike. Tacoma is not the typical tourist town; it has a rich history tracing back to the exploration of the Northwest, it is cultural diverse in so many ways, and its architecture is beautiful. These features motivate a person to visit Tacoma , but the city itself as a whole encourages many visitors to become permanent inhabitant of the place. Overall, the city can be summarized as a place “where art and nature meet.”
The city of Tacoma has so much to offer from its many parks, numerous art museums, and wide arrays of natural attractions. There are many things to do and see while in Tacoma. To go on an art and culture excursion, you should visit downtown Tacoma. Downtown Tacoma was once an uninviting, and inaccessible place, for those reasons not many people visit downtown, but in the recent years the city has put major efforts in creating a renaissance period to build, reconstruct and beautify the many different locations in downtown. Such examples are the building of the Museum District and the reconstruction of the Theatre District. The creation of a new transportation system further makes downtown Tacoma even more accessible than before.
For those who are interested in the art and culture, downtown Tacoma is the place to be; downtown Tacoma is divided into two sections, the beginning (where the Museum District is located) and the end (the site of the Theatre District,) with other sites of attraction in between. The Museum District is known as the “cultural focal point” of Tacoma (Traveltacoma.com,) the district is formed by three museums to form a recognizable icon of downtown—the triangle. The three museums are the Tacoma Art Museum , Museum of Glass and Washington State History Museum . While in the Museum District which is located on top of a hill surrounded by the various skyscrapers, overlooking the calm, clear and pristine Thea Foss waterway and skyline overlooking the calm and picturesque Thea Foss waterway, and the (competing) skyline of downtown Tacoma , you can pay a visit to the newly renovated Tacoma Art Museum. The museum is a 2 stories building filled with many art galleries, with a special permanent collection of Northwest artists, 19 th and 20 th century American, European and Asian art, and also the world’s largest collection of Chihuly (a world famous glass artist, native of Tacoma) glass in the early age according to Tacomaartmuseum.org. While at the museum you can enjoy the many different attractions the museum has to offer, such as going to a hand-on art studio and create something unique, or contemplate on art in enclosed outdoor garden.
The museum is open for everyone with its mission to connect people through the art. After visiting the Tacoma Museum of Art, you can take a short one-block walk over to the Museum of Glass. The museum focuses on “glass as a medium within the context of contemporary art in all media.” Like the Tacoma Art Museum, the Museum of glass also have specialized programs to educate people young and old alike in expanding their knowledge and expertise on glass art. The Museum of Glass offers a wide variety of things to do and see. The museum has a large exhibition space, a Hot Shop Amphitheater that could seat up to 140 people, a theater, and café and museum store.While there at the Museum of Glass, you have to go to the Hot Shop Amphitheater and witness the amazing process of glass making from professional artists. It's amazing to witness how sand could be turn into such beautiful artworks under the hand of a skillful artists. It’s absolutely breathtaking. The museum also has a reflecting pool and seating areas on the top levels for patrons and visitors to relax and enjoy the breathtaking view of the city skyline, waterfront, and Mt. Rainier.
The finishing point of the Museum District is the Washington State History Museum. Unlike the other two museums which focus on the arts, Washington State History Museum focuses on the history of the place, the people and the culture through interactive and multimedia exhibits that span the entire 106,000 square foot area. The museum can answer all of your questions regarding the state of Washington, its people, and everything else you wanted to know about the state. The museum is also the site of the largest collection of pioneer, Indian and Alaskan artifacts on the Pacific Coast (Traveltacoma.com), it is also the location of the largest permanent model railroad exhibit, an indoor auditorium and outdoor amphitheater.
Like the other two museums, the Washington State History Museum also aims at educating people of all ages of Washington ’s history. Linking to the roof of the Tacoma Museum of Glass is the amazing and spectacular Chihuly Bridge of Glass. The 500 foot pedestrian bridge that links to the Thea Foss Waterway and overlooking the skyline of Tacoma is the site of three “amazing Chihuly glass installations” that is open to the public 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. One of the installations is the Crystal Towers located at the center of the Bridge. The forty-foot tall Crystal Towers are made from 63 large asymmetrical plates that resemble bits of floating glacier in both colors and shape. The translucent crystals that made up the towers has the power to “change their appearance at different times throughout the day. (at sunrise, during the day, at night they’re all different). The Crystal Towers at night The next Chihuly installation is the Venetian Wall. You wil be amazed by the grand, and beautiful 80 foot long case that is made up by stainless steel frames and translucent glass walls, displaying 109 of Chihuly’s sculptures from three of the artist’s series: Venetians, Ikebana, and Putti. The sculptures are illuminated by natural light during the day, and the fiber-optic lights illuminated the artwork at night. While at the Venetian Wall you should sit at one of the many “concrete benches facing the pavilion and be enveloped in color and shape,” proposed by Chihuly himself.
The last Chihuly installation is the Seaform Pavilion. The Seaform Pavilion is a fifty by twenty foot plate glass ceiling that is suspended in midair supporting and displaying over 2000 object from Chihuly’s collections. As you walk from teh Venetian Wall to the Seaform Pavilion, you will be transported and submerged in an underwater world of glass that resemble the beautiful colorful sea animals found around the tides of the Puget Sound.
While in the Museum district visit the northwest's most eclectic shopping experience, urbanXchange (1934 Pacific), a combination of thrift shop, boutique and urban store with items ranging from hand made purses and jewlery by local artists to used clothing with such names as Citizen's jeans, Express, Gap, BCBG, all at dirt cheap prices. The store interior is covered by murals painted by local graffiti artists and they often feature edgy local artwork. In this area you'll also find some great restaurants like Indochine (Thai food) and The Harmon Brewery. Next to urbanXchange is the city's most cozy coffee shop, Cutter's Point.
After a tour of the museum districts you can “hop” onto the free Tacoma Link Light Rail and head toward the other side of downtown Tacoma —the Theatre District. Like the Museum District, the Theatre District also undergoes a restoration period in the past 2 decades to restore the Pantages Theater, Rialto Theater, and Theater on the Square, which makes up the Theater District. The Theater District is known as the “Heart of the City,” serving as a “vital and valuable arts steward” for the city (Broadwaycenter.org). The three theaters that comprised the theater districts are all architecturally different and each service different types of performing arts. The beautiful, and historic Pantages serveas a home for the Tacoma Opera, Tacoma City Ballet, Tacoma Philharmonic,Tacoma Concert band, and Tacoma Symphony. The Rialto , slightly smaller than the Pantages theater, serves as a movie palace, and “host” the Tacoma Youth Symphony Association, the Northwest Sinfonietta, and the Puget Sound Revels. The smallest theater is the Theater on the square, with only 302 seat, have a “contemporary flair, and offer more intimate setting and is home to the Tacoma Actors Guild”. You can go to any of the three theater to watch a play, an opera, or a ballet performance.Since Tacoma is known as the city “Where Art and Nature Meet” nature is as important to the city as art is in downtown Tacoma . The location of the city influences the weather greatly. The city of Tacoma is situated on the Cascade Mountain Range, surrounded by Commencement Bay which is a part of the Puget Sound , and has the famous Mt. Rainier as its background. It’s a city where the mountain and sea exist harmoniously to create a tranquil, peaceful, mystic, and laid back atmosphere to the city.
Tacoma is located on the western part of Washington State, near various salt body of water such as the Puget Sound and Pacific Ocean, because of that it has a maritime climate like that of England, and the United Kingdom. Maritime climate is characterized by mild weather, with moderate amount of precipitation. The weather is mild in both the winter and summer, with temperatures around 40 degree during the winter, and 60 degree during the summer. It snow sometimes Tacoma , but nothing in comparison to the northeastern states of the United States .
One of the most famous park in Tacoma is Point Defiance Park (second largest urban park in the US, under Central Park NY, NY). It is the location of the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium (the only zoo and aquarium that is located in the northwest), The Japanese Garden, and Fort Nisqually. The park cover a vast and diverse ecological area, from the hills and mountains to the beach. As you arrive to the park, you will notice the vast green grasses and pine trees nestle nicely throughout the park, and the entrance a rotunda with various colorful flowers surrounding it. In the distance across the green grass you can see the playground where the children play, and as you explore the park, you will see many families with picnic blanket congregrate together feeding ducks in the nearby lake, and you will see many people walk, run, jog, rollerblade through the many trails in the park. As you venture more deeply into the park, you will notice the scenery will dramatically change. From a park into a beautiful zenlike Japanese Garden with a Pagoda. If you didn’t know you were in the park in the first place, you would have mistaken and thought that you are actually in Japan . The pagoda is contructed exactly how it was supposed to be, with a Koi Pond, and boulders situated at various point around the Garden. There is also flowers, shrubbery, and cherry orchard native to Japan.
Tacoma has become one of the most beautiful places that greatly appreciate the art and in beautifying the city to live up to the blessed natural beauties found around the city itself. If you want to go to a place that appreciate the art, and beauty of nature then Tacoma is a place for you.
More information on Tacoma Travel at Wikitravel.org
Additional travel guides are available in ten languages at Wikitravel.org
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