West Seattle has better park access than virtually anywhere in the city, and many of them are waterfront. Of course, the most popular is Alki Beach, which is where you go if you want crowds, sand, beach volleyball, rollerblading, and restaurants. If you love the water and mountains, but want fewer crowds, Constellation Park is a better choice. Both parks are absolutely walkable from the home, and this is a huge advantage. Driving to the beach parks is easy during the offseason, but during the peak summer months, you have the ability to walk to either side of Alki Point and forget about parking entirely. This has been a great part of living here!
For a secluded, shady walk in the woods, just turn the other direction, and you're at Schmitz Preserve Park in only one block. Local volunteer groups (me included when my back had less wear and tear) have done a great job revitalizing these wooded city parks.
More great water access is available a short drive or bike/scooter ride down to Me-Kwa-Mooks Park and Emma Schmitz Overlook. The waterfront side just got a big upgrade with grassy area and seawall replacement, and is vastly better than before. Sunset views from here are perfect all year around.
Even though I didn't spend much time there, because we have all the aforementioned closer options, Lincoln Park is a huge park, and a West Seattle favorite.
If you like water sports, like kayaking or paddleboarding, you should also be aware of the easy-to-miss Seattle Street Ends. They add many more, small locations where the public can access the Puget Sound directly. Many locals also don't even know about the many parks owned by Port of Seattle, which are mostly on the Duwamish side of West Seattle, and include several hidden gems.
Folks can mostly use their search-tool-of-choice to find restaurants, but it's worth noting how many good choices exist now in West Seattle. Down on the Alki Beach Drive strip we love Duke's for seafood, Sunfish is a longstanding favorite for fish and chips, and Cactus is a newer addition with great food/drinks and excellent open air and outdoor seating.
Maybe the easiest to miss that we love is La Rustica on Beach Drive, directly across from Weather Watch Park. Amazing Italian food with great ambiance.
For dining and shopping, the Alaska Junction and Admiral Junction are both convenient to our home, and we've taken advantage of them for lots of great food. We're looking forward to The West Seattle Bridge Reopening like crazy, but the last couple years have demonstrated that we have tons of great choices without even leaving the northern half of West Seattle.
For this, I'm simply going to refer buyers to one of West Seattle's best resources for almost everything, The West Seattle Blog. Of course, they have a dedicated Event Calendar to make it easy to know what's happening locally. This website is gold if you live here.
We're busy people who mostly keep to ourselves, so perhaps not the best reference for neighbors. But, the area is a fairly cohesive neighborhood, with a yearly block party on Winthrop, as happens in many West Seattle neighborhoods each summer. We've had two different residents over the years take responsibility for keeping people updated via a block email list. They pass along updates from the Seattle PD on crime, notifications about other city work, and have even helped people track down security footage during burglary events. Of note is that our home has never been broken into for the life of our time here (2006-), and neither have any of our cars. It's an advantage to have a corner lot right under good street lights. Our property has good visibility.
The neighbors to the east are a super quiet senior couple that have been there for the entire time I have. The neighbors directly to the west moved in 4 years ago, are a younger couple and have two small children. They are also extremely quiet. If you bribe them with some peaches in the summer, she may respond by making you some peach jam!
For buyers not familiar with living in Seattle proper, a few relevant details. The city does a great job clearing the street on Admiral during snowstorms, but not any side streets. Although parking is restricted in front of the home on Admiral, people routinely park there during snow events, and I've never seen anyone ticketed during those storms.
In Seattle, the city owns the strip of land adjacent to the street, including the sidewalk (aka "parking strip"), but residents are responsible for maintenance of that area. The upside is that with minor restrictions, the property owners are able to choose what plants to place on that strip. For larger trees that could interfere with power lines, you need to request permission from the city before planting, and I received such approval for the cherry and pear tree in ~2013 that are there now.
The city keeps good maps of all kinds of information on lands within its boundaries, and I highly recommend buyers check these out when considering any new property. You can find the property on their map, e.g. and select various environmentally critical areas, to find out about potential flood/earthquake/slide risks. You can also see a sewer map online here. The fire department also contains records of underground fuel tank decommissioning, and you can find the record for this home on their website. Type "5703 SW Admiral" into the search field at the page's upper right.
The city is good about warning local residents about upcoming projects, although schedule slides are common. There are a couple upcoming projects I can recall being made aware of. The first was a planned utility upgrade (water main, I believe) underneath 57th Ave, that was supposed to entail only a few hours' service interruption. Possibly at the same time, the city was planning to upgrade the pedestrian corners on both sides of 57th and Admiral. You can travel a couple blocks down the hill on Admiral to see what's planned, basically the wider area for pedestrians to wait, possibly with colored sidewalk, and a ramped curb for accessibility. They did warn that residents with landscaping near the corners may lose it, so for example, it's conceivable that they could remove the red and green Photinia bush on the parking strip. These improvements were supposed to be completed this spring, so likely the schedule is running late, due to general concrete and labor supply issues.
We don't have kids, but apparently, there is a plan for addition and renovation at Alki Elementary School nearby.