Bellevue sits across Lake Washington from Seattle and has grown from a quiet suburb into a city in its own right — the fifth-largest in the state, home to major tech companies, and with a downtown skyline that keeps getting taller. It is cleaner, quieter, and more manicured than Seattle, though also blander.
The Bellevue Botanical Garden is a genuine highlight: 53 acres of cultivated gardens and natural wetlands, free to visit and especially beautiful in spring and autumn. The downtown core has excellent shopping at Bellevue Square and a surprisingly good restaurant scene, much of it driven by the city's large East Asian community concentrated in the Crossroads neighbourhood. The Bellevue Arts Museum focuses on craft and design in a striking downtown building. Bellevue is connected to Seattle by the I-90 and SR 520 bridges, and the new light rail extension makes it easy to visit without a car.