When the second outpost of the Tacoma-born restaurant group opened in Spokane, it was inside an old beauty school, and the combination of wood, tile, and exposed brick does indeed make for one of the city’s more attractive restaurants. It’s buzzy fairly late into the evening, unusual for this downtown, and is known for just-a-little-special dishes like bone marrow or beet ravioli. The vibes scream date night, albeit a low-pressure one.

Though the Kendall Yards development turned an uninspiring stretch of riverfront into an upscale shopping and dining center, it needed legitimate restaurants like Sorella to feel like more than a mall. The Italian menu leans on the classics, including a meatball that’s made from an old family recipe and tastes comfortably familiar. The décor is much less old-fashioned than the menu, themed around decadent clutter like picture frames and dripping wax candles.

This town’s so wholesome it has not one but two 38-foot milk bottles, funded by an enthusiastic creamery owner to inspire sales. One of them, a 1935 Garland District edifice, now serves as entrance to a diner that specializes in milkshakes (the best way to consume milk). The River City Sludge flavor is chocolate (chunks) on top of chocolate (fudge) on top of chocolate (ice cream). Ideal as a to-go food for wandering the shopping district around it.

The à la carte tasting menu is a lovely showcase for chef Peter Froese’s modern Italian food. But it’s way more fun to go big with the chef’s marathon: six courses chosen by Froese, who fell in love with Italy as a Gonzaga student, during a study-abroad program in Florence. This dinner might start with stuzzichini (a.k.a. snacks) and span multiple styles of pasta and delicate seasonal vegetables. As tasting menus go, it’s not at all stuffy, though the lunch version is a luxurious daytime activity.

Chef Tony Brown keeps Spokane diners on their toes. He has relocated his beloved restaurant twice, with its third iteration popping up in Kendall Yards. His menus share a similar restlessness, roaming from meatloaf to okonomiyaki. Brown’s creativity is on display for both brunch and dinner, and Ruins takes its nonalcoholic and low-ABV cocktail list seriously, bolstering it with housemade syrups and shrubs.

In a world full of gilded tacos, these creations stand out. Each tortilla (a house blend of white and yellow masa) might hold fried maitake mushrooms and manchego, lamb merguez sausage with hazelnut salsa macha, or short rib birria. Mix and match them as needed and augment with margaritas and queso fundito.

It’s a longtime favorite for a reason. The menu appears straightforward (maybe even a little dated), but goes on to impress you with how it lands the details, like the genuine kick of pepper in the pork tenderloin au poivre. The Yukon taquitos, filled with avocado and seasoned potatoes, are a staple, the popovers with lavender butter a signature. Wild Sage is nice enough for a graduation dinner, but still sufficiently relaxed for a weeknight.

Finding a plush dining room hidden inside a historic former cracker factory is a bit of a thrill, not to mention the fact that it holds two different restaurants. The first, Inland Pacific Kitchen, does brunch with unrepentantly creative dishes, like a smoked salmon tartine. The second, Nekojita Ramen, crafts dinner with rich ramen bowls or black pork and ube gyoza, flavors that demand a house cocktail created by Hogwash Cocktail Den, the speakeasy-style bar in the basement.

When it opened in 1914, the charm of Spokane’s classic hotel was its modernities, like a central vacuum system; today it delivers historic charm, especially in the ornate, gilded Spanish-inspired lobby. There’s a goofy Circus Room on the seventh floor, but most rooms stick to simpler fixings. Rooms span price points at four additional properties: Davenport Grand, Davenport Tower, the Centennial, and the Louie (below), which are operated under the same umbrella though not all physically adjacent. One’s even across the river.

Called the Davenport Lusso until 2025, this was the building Louis Davenport lived in while overseeing the construction of what’s now called the Historic Davenport Hotel across the street. Simple, right? But this 48-room enclave of the greater Davenport complex feels significantly more private and quiet. Its lobby is host to a cocktail cart rather than a bar (check the carpets for a pattern made by Davenport's own handwriting), and rooms lean more Roaring ’20s than staid Edwardian like the historic property next door.

Are you even an American city without a midcentury motel converted to an artsy, youth-leaning boutique hotel with free bicycle rentals? Fortunately Spokane has a classic edition of the familiar type, located downtown and with room doors painted the signature red shade. Dog-friendly rooms and cheap parking add to the appeal, especially in the city’s walkable core. The nearby Steam Plant Hotel, with the same ownership, has similar vibes and amenities.

Another historic hotel in a downtown full of them, but the only one to claim actual nineteenth-century roots—it squeaked in by being built in 1899, albeit as more of a rooming house. Today it is less ostentatious and cheaper than the Davenport conglomerate, but still has distinct style. Consider it one of the more grown-up small properties downtown.

If Central Park, Snoqualmie Falls, and Seattle Center were all rolled into one, you might get something like Spokane’s spectacular public center. Created for the city’s own world’s fair, Expo ’74, it surrounds the Spokane River but is stacked with other attractions. The Numerica Skate Ribbon operates as ice in winter and a roller version in summer, reimagining the boring rink as a curving one-way path, and the historic Looff Carrousel is indoor for year-round use. The tent-shaped Gesa Pavilion hosts light shows and concerts, and the Big Red Wagon sculpture is, well, exactly what it sounds like (and the handle is a slide).

No visit to the city is complete without walking the pedestrian suspension bridges across the series of low cascades that thrum around the clock. They lead to the river’s central island, renamed Snxw Meneɂ by the Spokane Tribe in 2016. For more falls views, Huntington Park has angled views upriver, and the Numerica SkyRide Gondola follows the path of a world’s fair attraction. 

This route spans the state line, continuing east into Coeur d’Alene, but there are 40 paved miles in Washington’s section. It begins near the Nine Mile Dam and connects to central Spokane—in Riverfront Park, of course—but the flat grade also visits the scenic Riverside State Park, with its exposed rocky banks and ponderosa forest. (Yes, the names are confusingly similar.)

If it feels like all of tourist Spokane is in one spot, well, it kind of is. This Riverfront Park–adjacent museum is child-oriented, with lots of hands-on art projects and science demos, and adults aren’t allowed in without a kid; apologies to mature lovers of a bubble machine.

Located a little west of downtown, the city’s most prominent museum bridges the serious and the fun; exhibits highlight local artists and Indigenous history, but there’s also a new series of Lego sculptures of Spokane landmarks. Access to the next-door Campbell House is included with admission; the mansion, built by mine and mill owners, shows off what local luxury looked like at the turn of the twentieth century.

Though the central blocks of Spokane are littered with familiar chain stores, a growing number of independent boutiques has come to define downtown shopping. On one block, Boo Radley’s does games and gifts with a jokey side, like a tiny Archie McPhee’s, with nearby Atticus Coffee and Gifts from the same owner offering more mature shopping. The macabre Petunia and Loomis, between them, is an oddities hideout with a couch full of creepy baby dolls, and From Here gathers art from locals. But don’t sleep on the Garland District, where Lazy Eye Supply has handmade hats crafted from blanket or upholstery fabric, and Giant Nerd Books isn’t afraid to geek out on niche tomes.

The nearly 6,000-foot peak is home to Washington’s only ski area within a state park, but it stays busy year-round; downhill skiers, Nordic skiers, and snow tubers slide around in the winter, and hikers spread across more than 100 miles of trails the rest of the year. The granite Vista House stands guard at the highest summit, while a couple of miles away the Quartz Mountain Fire Lookout can be rented by overnighters.