Image via Wikimedia Commons ^[1]

Hosting out-of-towners? Visiting Seattle? Take these not-so conventional tours of our Emerald City:

Savor Seattle Food Tour ^[2]: Apparently, even the locals are raving about the Savor Seattle Food Tour through the Pike Place Market. [site ^[3]] [site ^[4]] And while you certainly can stumble from booth to booth on your own and make a lunch of it (I’ve been doing it for years as a local), why not join this organized glimpse at a little of everything the Market offers. Tours last for two hours and include a stop at an infamous Tom Douglas hot spot and tastes of local wines, cheeses, seafood, produce, donuts, etc. The tour even includes treats such as a dinning guide, seasonal recipes and “Repeat Visitor” discount card. (Offered daily rain or shine, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., $39 per person)

Seattle Run Tours ^[5]: Seattle is one of the top 10 healthiest cities in the nation, so jump on the Seattleite bandwagon and jog your way through our city! Jogging tours are offered for beginning and advanced levels and cover popular tourist destinations, including the waterfront, Seattle Art Museum, Pioneer Square, the Olympic Sculpture Park, Fremont, Gas Works Park, Experience Music Project, the Seattle Center and Space Needle, etc. The price of the running tour includes a T-shirt and water bottle, and 5 percent of proceeds are donated to Seattle Children’s Hospital ^[6]. (Email to book desired tour dates, $50 per person)

See Seattle’s Walking Tours and Events’ Mystery and Scavenger Hunt ^[7]: This tour challenges you to search for Seattle’s quirks, secrets and trivia, and claims it is a “quest for the famous and infamous, the historic and hysteric” of Seattle. Sound fun? Now, decide if you want to take the tour on foot or in a limo, and sign up. The contest is designed so that Seattleites do not have an advantage over Seattle visitors, and covers 16 different search areas, including places such as the Pike Place Market, and questions such as, “The Perennial Tea Room sells the blend of tea that was thrown overboard at the Boston Tea Party. What name do they sell it under?” (Two-hour tours offered year-round for $20.00 per person, $400.00 minimum plus Washington state sales tax. Limo services not included in the price.)

A former Seattle bank on the Underground Tour.

Bill Speidel’s Underground Tour ^[8]: So, I’m not really sure who Bill Speidel is (Wikipedia says he’s a local who decided to profit from hosting an underground tour), but the Seattle Underground Tour is neat and nifty, and relatively a little secret that visitors probably won’t know about. After the Great Seattle Fire in 1889, it was decided that Seattle would be rebuilt two stories higher and certain downtown city blocks would be closed off with bricks and barricades, leaving some of the original city landscape 36-feet below street level. Good ole’ Speidel takes visitors through some of these underground streets, and peppers his tour with local history and trivia. You can even get married down there! (Offered every hour, on the hour, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. through July and August–different off season times apply–$14 adults, $12 seniors and students, $7 children)

Ride the Ducks of Seattle ^[9]: Okay, so I’m a local, and I can’t help but to be curious about the Ride the Duck tour that I always see driving through my neighborhood and floating in Lake Union. The often loud and hard-to-miss Duck mobile takes you on land–downtown, Pioneer Square, Pike Place Market and Fremont–then in the water–Lake Union tour of yachts, Seattle skyline and the houseboats. They are apparently modeled after the DUKW, which was an amphibious landing craft developed by the United States Army during World War II. (Depart daily, every half hour from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. $23 adults, $13 kids 12 and younger)

Happy touring!