Tacoma is a major destination for Americans as well as international visitors seeking vacations that accent the outdoor experience. With its freshwater lakes and miles of Puget Sound waterways, the area provides year-round activities for outdoor enthusiasts including fishing, sailing, scuba diving, beach combing, camping, and sea kayaking.

Home to tide-flats, forests, and salmon creeks, Tacoma is one of the West's most ecologically diverse areas. As a result of significant environmental cleanups, many industrial sites once deemed too polluted for life are now seeing the return of native birds and fish. Several of the Commencement Bay sites once placed on the Environmental Protection Agency's Superfund list have already been de-listed, including the first marine-Superfund site in the nation to be removed from the catalog.