Bellingham is a small, outdoorsy city about 130 km north of Seattle and 30 km south of the Canadian border. It is home to Western Washington University, which gives it a youthful, progressive feel and an unusually good coffee and craft beer scene for a city of 90,000.
The setting is the real draw. Bellingham Bay looks out toward the San Juan Islands, and Mount Baker — a glacier-covered volcano — rises to the east. The outdoor access is exceptional: sea kayaking in the islands, skiing at Mount Baker in winter, hiking and mountain biking in the Chuckanut Mountains, and cycling on the Interurban Trail.
The Fairhaven district, in the south of the city, has a compact historic downtown with bookshops, restaurants, and the ferry terminal for the San Juan Islands and Alaska. The Railroad Avenue area in downtown Bellingham has a growing restaurant scene. Tony's Coffee, roasted locally, is the caffeine of choice. The SPARK Museum of Electrical Invention — with its Tesla coil lightning shows — and the Whatcom Museum give the city a cultural weight unusual for a town this size.