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Sign in with FacebookLatest Tacoma hotel reviews
Pro
Lots to do, lovely gardens, friendly people
Con
Rain, Rain, Rain
In a nutshell
A very underrated place...
Tacoma Chinese Garden and Reconciliation Park
glabah Says: In 1885 the Chinese community of Tacoma was driven out of Tacoma. The park aims to be a symbol of reconciliation over the division and healing of this historical rift. It was under construction when I visited in September of 2010, and by September of 2012 it was largely...
solopes Says: Would it be possible in Portugal? Na! Our courthouses are always sad and severe buildings, exclusively concentrated in legal affairs. Art? One painting in the main room, and... that's it. Or nothing. But in Tacoma, watching from outside the windows decorated with Chihuli's...
solopes Says: Dale Chihuli made a revolution in glass.I’m not totally convinced about the beauty of the bridge, since it looks too much as store shelves, but the glassworks are great.I was sad for not entering the museum nor the studio, though I think it can't beat the superb one at...
Point Defiance Park: The Basics
glabah Says: Surrounded on three sides by water, the 702 acre (over 283 hectare) Point Defiance Park is one of the gems located inside an urban area in the Pacific Northwest. Much of the park is maintained as native forest habitat with hiking trails, picnic facilities, view points and...
1 Review and 582 Opinions I have never stayed at this hotel, but if I can find a decent price for it some night in the...
1 Review and 150 Opinions Most of the prices average in the $260 per room range, though there are some hotel discounting web...
Zara Mediterranean Cuisine: Middle Eastern in Middle of Everything
glabah Says: I've heard that the chef at Zara has won a number of awards for his food. However, any award winning restaurant that is just down the stairs from a bank and across the street from the convention center is going to be more expensive than average.Be that as it may, the lunch...
Satellite Coffee: Not just another coffee house...
coneyislandgreen Says: A new venue for good talks is the Satellite Coffee House. It's located above Supernova salon/ tattoo and Tricky's Pop-Culture Emporium on. It's a cozy building, with a cool crow's-nest perch overlooking Wright Park. Satellite takes their coffee very seriously and serves only...
Bob's Java Jive: Jiven at the big road sign attraction
coneyislandgreen Says: I choose other because "The Jive" as we call it or "Bob's Java Dive" seems to morph continuously into a unique being of it's own. There is nothing to compare it to really, it's the apex in quirky places and it's history is even more colorful then the interior walls. Here's a...
Tacoma Comedy Club: Lots of laughs
gregorykinsey Says: This is a brand new comedy club, that has hardwood floors, a beautiful backdrop, and really cool pictures of famous dead comedians all around the room. The ambience has the style of an old Vegas style club, maybe the coolest I have seen in the country. No dress code from...
ATXtraveler Says: SeaTac Airport gets its name from the two main cities that it supports, Seattle and Tacoma, Washington. Due to its loaction, directly in between the two, make sure you allow yourself plenty of time to land here and still be able to get to your destination on time!SeaTac...
Tacoma Farmer's Market - Broadway: Thursday is Farmer's Market Day in Tacoma
glabah Says: There are actually Three (3!) Farmer's Markets in Tacoma. This tip relates to the one on Broadway, right in the core of the Theatre and Museum districts and close to the convention center. This market is open on Thursdays from 10 am to 3 pm from May to October.While it is a...
Connoisseur Shop: Art and Collectibles
missioni Says: The Connoisseur Shop is a 50 plus year old Tacoma institution (est 1949) and has wonderful collectibles and gifts. The most unique feature is that they have a working artist working the front window four days a week (Tues, Wed, Fri, Sat) with a great collections of their...
Helpfulness
While it didn't wind up being the grand city its original boosters envisioned, Tacoma did wind up being an important termination point for the Northern Pacific Railway and Chicago Milwaukee Saint Paul & Pacific Railroad.
Evidence still abounds of this tradition, including Tacoma Union Station (now a courthouse - the railroad lines that once served it disappeared when Interstate 705 was built), Freighthouse Square (a shopping center built from a railroad freight house) and the large, busy railroad yards on the north side of the city.
Perhaps the best way to get an impression of this long tradition is to go inside Freighthouse Square and take a look at the historic photos on the walls of the shopping center. You will see evidence of what Tacoma once was in terms of being the "City of Destiny" in the nickname of the city.
However, other remains of this long tradition remain scattered about the Tacoma area - sometimes built right into the modern decorations.
Just east of Freighthouse Square is a bridge on the old Milwaukee Road line that connected Tacoma to the south. Despite that railroad having left town in 1980 the bridge still has the remains of the Milwaukee Road emblem on it (see photo 3).
Railroad related decorations may be found in a number of other locations, such as the one seen in Photo 4.
The street tree planters around the Tacoma Dome and Freighthouse Square are unique to this area, and feature locomotive decorations (see photo 5).
Updated Sep 28, 2012
glabah Says: Unfortunately, after over 100 years of industrial use, parts of Tacoma have been poisoned by industrial chemicals, heavy metals, and various other toxic substances.Cleaning things up has happened in places, but in other places the industrial fallout has happened over such a...
Bing Crosby Historical Society is No Longer Here!!
glabah Says: "Bing" Crosby, one of the leading music recording artists in the mid-20th century, was born in Tacoma in 1903. In 1906 his family moved to Spokane, and so the city of Tacoma really can not lay claim to much of Bing Crosby, other than the house in which he was born.Soon after...
solopes Says: I was disappointed with the glass bridge! I was expecting to see glass used in the structure, or shaped to combine with structural elements - it is not. The bridge seems a sort of glass warehouse only wit two interesting vertical elements.
Point Defiance Park: Camp 6 Logging Museum
glabah Says: Please Note: This museum was closed for the 2011 season, and all equipment has been sold to various other properties scattered all over the western USA. A fortunate few pieces of equipment have stayed nearby, and were moved to the maintenance facility for the Mount Rainier...
glabah Says: While there isn't much to this little plaza and the fountain that consumes about half of the space in the plaza, the fact is it is a very convenient location and seems to be a popular lunch spot on nice days. Broadway is not a busy street in this location, but nearby 11th...
glabah Says: This is part of the series of tips about Pierce County's Chambers Bay Facility, which contains a huge number of different features. My main tourist tip about this facility is located athttp://members.virtualtourist.com/m/tp/204854/and there are links from there to the...
solopes Says: Will it be possible to identify a city with one person?At least it worked for us: we visited Tacoma searching for Dale Chihuli's works, and found them where we expected them, in the museum and the glass bridge, but alse where we couldn't expect - in local court. We had not...
Historic Photo Database Search
glabah Says: It is possible to see how Tacoma changed over the years, and some of the historic events, by using the on-line photo archives the Tacoma Public Library maintains. The web based entry page features a random image from the collection. In some cases, those who wrote the photo...
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"City of Destiny" on South Puget Sound
I want to tell you about my hometown It's a dusty old jewel on the South Puget Sound Well the factories churn and the timber's all cut down And life goes by slow in Tacoma - excerpt from "Thrice...
I have lived here in Tacoma for a little over a year now and believe it's time to write something about it. I'm not from here so it 's been brand new to me and since I'm a bit of a traveller I have...
Tacoma, Seattle's Neighbor to the South
I basically ventured down to Tacoma on this trip to the Northwest because I needed to continue staying in Sheraton hotels to build enough points for my honeymoon. I was surprised at the work Tacoma is...
Tacoma is largely an industrial city based around its near perfect docklands on Commencement Bay. However, Tacoma has its own charm and one of the best city parks in Point Defiance Park. In addition,...
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