If you were to find yourself dropped into the average American city and told you had to get around without a car, you’d be in for a hard time. The United States (and, to a greater extent, North America) is widely regarded as the most car-dependent country on the planet. Some cities, however, go easy on travelers’ and locals’ feet. The bustling Pacific Northwest city of Seattle was recently declared America’s most walkable destination of 2025 by the shoe company FitFlop. Good thing too, as this Washington city is full of neighborhoods every visitor should explore.
To build its list, FlipFlop created an index ranking destinations based on how easily travelers can get around on foot. And while walkability is primarily a concern for a destination’s full-time residents, it’s something that visitors notice. Sites like Walk Score grade cities based on the proximity of life’s essentials reachable on foot. It’s why having the best public transportation in the country doesn’t automatically mean Washington, D.C. tops Walk Score’s rankings. But walkability as a factor for travel? It’s a novel measuring stick that uses a quality-of-life measurement to assess the quality of visits.
Most travelers simply accept the chaos of getting around as part of their experience. Yet attitudes are changing. FitFlop noted Google searches for “walking vacation” are up 29%, pointing to more Americans yearning for that luxurious European knack for strolling and slowly imbibing a destination’s offerings. The site’s index, then, incorporates that philosophy, analyzing the proximity and elevation of attractions across 30 cities and scoring them out of 100. The resulting top five list includes four Northeast destinations — Jersey City, Boston, Washington, D.C., and Newark. The only West Coast city, Seattle, tops the list with a Walkability Score of 90, giving travelers the most bang for their bipedal buck.
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Seeing Seattle on foot
The bustling streets of Seattle – Photo Spirit/Shutterstock
The Emerald City has a reputation for mixing natural gems with urban flair, with a gorgeous waterfront on one side and Mount Rainier looming in the distance on the other. A walking-only visit is possible, after you’ve taken the 45-minute tram trip from the airport to the city’s center, of course.
If you’ve grabbed a room in a centrally-located hotel — let’s say a bunk bed at centrally-located Hotel Max — you can realistically knock out a mighty itinerary, stuffing seven local gems into 3.2 miles of walking (an endeavor that’s best spread across a couple of days for comfort).
The city’s iconic Space Needle is about 20 minutes away on foot. From there, the Pacific Science Center is a 4-minute stroll. Afterward, take a detour to the waterfront at Olympic Sculpture Park, a leisurely 7-minute stroll away. Follow the waterfront down for about 15 minutes, and you’ll reach Pike Place Market, a vibrant market considered the “Soul of Seattle.” From there, the Seattle Aquarium and Seattle Art Museum can be reached in a combined 15 minutes of walking. You can grab a bite to eat at the historic downtown Pier 55, then take a 10-minute stroll to Beneath the Streets, where Seattle’s secrets and storied past come to life. All told, that’s a pretty efficient trip considering it only requires an hour and 20 minutes of walking. Your feet probably won’t even be tired.
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Read the original article on Islands.