Kirkland Releases New Visitors and Dining Guides, Updates Tourism Website

If you’re feeling a need to get away but don’t feel like leaving town, the has just issued a few tools for you to use: new visitors and dining guides and a revamped, updated tourism website, explorekirkland.com.

Paid for with revenue from the city’s 1 percent lodging tax, the focus is, of course, on getting the new information in the hands of visitors, real and potential.

“But we recognize that residents have friends and families who visit, so we want them to have access to the guides as well, particularly as the economy has challenged people to find things nearby to do,” says Julie Huffman, tourism coordinator for the city.

Many residents might not perceive Kirkland as a tourist destination. But it is increasingly so with its growing dining scene, fine hotels, public art, and its population jumping from 49,000 to about 80,000 when annexation takes effect on June 1. That’s not to mention the city’s lakeside geography.

“I’m not sure we have people coming for a week,” Huffman says. “But we have enough for a weekend visit. We have the largely public waterfront. Bellevue has the shopping, Seattle the city, Woodinville the wine, and we have the water.

“So I think we are a tourist destination.”

The visitors guide brochure features a good street map of the city and its neighborhoods, suggested public art walking tours, and sections on entertainment, family activities, romantic getaways, attractions, shopping and the arts.

The dining guide is broken into types of cuisine (American, Asian, Mexican, etc.) and types of establishments (bars, coffee shops, fast food, fine dining).

You can find the brochures at city hall, hotels, many businesses, the Kirkland Arts Center, and they can be downloaded as PDF files on www.explorekirkland.com.

As for the website, it features all-new photography, a searchable dining guide, an events guide, things to do, places to stay, arts walks and many other features.

Huffman says two things coming up in the next two months include an events guide brochure and an Explore Kirkland Facebook page.