Living in our city we have lots of holiday events nearby for Seattle families-we can bike to the aquarium to see diving Santa or check out the new Enchant Christmas light show at Safeco field. We can take the bus to Seattle Center to ice skate at Winterfest and ride the monorail to see the gingerbread houses and teddy bear suite downtown too. But during the holiday season and especially if it’s wet, it’s more of an endeavor to get to the Eastside from Seattle and Snowflake Lane at the Bellevue Collection is such a magical part of the holidays. So when my family was invited to stay at the Hyatt Regency Bellevue to experience some holiday magic I was totally excited! We have stayed there before and had a fabulous time exploring Bellevue and I thought it would be such a great location for holiday festivities. It was really awesome that this time the grandparents even got to tag along too!
What are suites like at the Hyatt Regency Bellevue?
Combing two rooms: a junior suite and a regular room at the Hyatt Regency Bellevue made a comfortable way for our family and the grandparents to vacation together for a weekend. My parents had a king-sized bed in the bedroom of their junior suite room that attached to a a roomy sitting room (with a sofa bed if we needed more places to sleep) and our family had a spacious room with two double beds that connected to the sitting room. My parents stay up late and the kids tend to get up early so it was nice having a sitting space that we could all hang out in that no one was sleeping in so everyone had a really great sleep. We could even see Snowflake Lane from our windows and we woke up to Mount Rainer in the morning. The whole setup made our weekend trip seem like we were at an urban resort-we didn’t have to move our cars once so this is a perfect way Seattle families can hang out in Bellevue and not have to drive.
Where should families eat in Bellevue near the Hyatt Regency?
There are a bunch of places nearby the Hyatt Regency that we love to eat at and we considered Wild Ginger, Din Tai Fung, Black Bottle and 13 coins. We were a bit worried that we wouldn’t have a ton of time to have a leisurely meal before Snowflake Lane so we decided to try the new food court at Lincoln Square called the Lincoln South Food Hall. It’s a short walk indoors through a tunnel of buildings and walkways from The Hyatt Regency and the coolest thing is that the journey is all undercover and practically all inside.
So many food options for the family at Lincoln South Food Hall
The Lincoln South Food hall is a perfect place to eat for families. Food choices range from ramen and burgers, bakery items, tacos, pizza and poke and Nordstrom Rack is right next door so it’s an easy place to stop and shop. There are many tables to sit at and the space is a lot more photogenic than a traditional food court. It’s nice that at a food hall there are food selections for all palates. Our family had tacos and roast corn from the taco truck and my parents ended up choosing poke bowls and all of us were very content when we finished our meals. After we dined we just headed downstairs and outside where we had a great view of Snowflake Lane. On Monday through Thursday you can get pictures with some of the Snowflake Lane cast members from 5:30pm-6:30pm at the Lincoln South Food Hall too.
Snowflake Lane
It is pretty incredible that Snowflake lane is a free show in Bellevue every night at 7pm until December 24th. There are drummers and dancers and colorful parade floats in the street and snow falling from the sky. I looked around at the faces in the crowd as we watched and it didn’t seem to matter how old or young anyone was, we all thought it was incredibly magical, festive and fun.
Snowflake Lane Factory at Bellevue Collection
We also had a media preview on this weekend of Snowflake Lane Factory which is a fun way for Seattle families to take Santa Photos at the mall. Make sure to bring a penny if you go so you can try out the holiday penny press. There is also an interactive photo station on the 2nd floor that takes fun festive pictures too!
And Eques Bellevue is a must if you love breakfast like we do
I helped a friend out at Eques for a photoshoot a few months ago and I was lucky enough to try a bunch of things on the menu. This time I was really excited to bring my whole family with me to Eques show them this fantastic breakfast spot. The buffet at Eques is beautiful and the staff is warm and kind. There are crabcakes and Tiramisu pancakes (my absolute favorite pancake ever!) on the a la carte menu and there is also an exquisite breakfast buffet with an omelet station and special waffles. Every time I think of Eques, I get a little hungry and this was a meal memory my family will remember for a while.
Having such a comfortable stay so close to the mall meant my mom and I could shop for a while at night while the guys all watched sports on tv. The kids loved the pool and splashed around before breakfast and we tried both Fonte and Woods Coffee too. Staying at this lovely hotel for the holidays made for a great staycation in Bellevue with the grandparents and I think this is the type of thing we need to make a tradition.
(PS. As stated before, I was a guest of the Hyatt Regency Bellevue for the purpose of this review and as always the opinions in this post are my own. If you are looking for more things to do in the area with kids, I have a post about free things in Bellevue too)
(PPS. Thank you a bunch Hyatt Regency Bellevue-this was one of our loveliest stays of the year!)
Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys. She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live. She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)
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