Jolibee

I will be taking my second trip to Seattle this Sept with the view to relocating there. On my first trip I stayed in downtown Seattle. The purpose of this trip (4 days) is to explore the larger area outside the city. I want to visit areas north and east of downtown, Ballard, Shoreline, Bellevue, Kirkland to name a few. Can anyone recommend a base area to do this outside of downtown to save on hotel and parking.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

sgorces

There are many options, but you might consider the Silver Cloud, University Village. You have lots of nearby services, the region's best bike trail next door, great coffee down the block (Zoka), easy access to Bellevue (off peak), and free parking.

Thuel

I've been nothing but impressed with the Silver Cloud Inn. Plus you'll be right by the 520 with quick access to the eastside.

Cris423

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Orcas

The areas you name are geographically widespread. Ballard is deep in the city, Shoreline north of the city, and Bellevue and Kirkland east of the city. Kirkland, close to 520 and 405 might provide the best access.

What sort of area are you looking for? Do you know where you would be working?

Jolibee

Thanks for all the responses. I will check out the Silver Cloud at the University and also the Kirkland area hotels. I want to spend a few days in the area to get a "feel" of the city before I make a decision to move. I would like to live in a close-in neighborhood but my budget may not allow so I wanted to check out some of the nearby suburbs. I think I would most likely be working in the downtown area.

suze

If you will be working downtown I would *strongly* urge you to look at neighborhoods closer in.

Bellevue and Kirkland, for example, are not really any cheaper plus you would be committing yourself to an absolutely horrible commute every work day (believe me I did it for 10 years) coming across the 520 bridge.

There are still some reasonable rents to be found if you take time to look around on Capitol Hill, in the Central District, Fremont or Ballard.

Orcas

Ditto Suze's comments. The east side of Lake Washington (that would be Bellevue and Kirkland) are the most expensive parts of the Seattle metro area. Look closer.

Kirkland, which has a cute downtown, is horrendously expensive. Bellevue has a slick downtown with lots of construction (more of a city now, than a town), and is likewise horrendously expensive. The rest of Bellevue and Kirkland, where it is merely extremely expensive as opposed to horrendously expensive, are very suburban. I live in Bellevue and would move to Seattle in a hearbeat, if not for the commute. (My husband's work is on the eastside.)

By the way, crossing the 520 bridge is a horrendous commute. That's the one that would take you from Kirkland to Seattle. I-90 is far better. This is reflected by the carpool lane requirements - 2 people in a car on I-90, 3 people required on 520. The 520 bridge is verging on catastrophe anyway. Whenever we're on it, we hope we won't be the ones to be on it when it goes done. (Ditto for the Alaska viaduct, but we don't get on that disaster-waiting-to-happen very often) Heaven forbid we should repair our failing infrastructure in Seattle.

NorthwestMale

Hmmmmmmmmph... (pondering in great detail)

As others have hinted, the eastside comes with prohibitive housing costs AND potential commute nightmares, so I just wonder whether your intentions of spending much of your research time considering those areas will bear fruit.

North of downtown is where most of the population is, and while the south end is sprawling farther south every day, it still might have the most affordable options.

Admittedly the southern bedroom communities have their drawbacks at times, but the commutes into town may be better in the south end than in the north end (fewer people, and fewer cars on the road, along with more alternate freeway paths than in the north).

The public transportation (bus) system is more reliable here than in most areas, and the weather, on average, is more hospitable to those standing outdoors waiting for the bus, than is the case in most other big cities)

If I were to mold your stated intentions just a bit, I would limit your research to areas within 3 or 4 miles of Interstate 5, to the east... and to the water's edge on the west.

Although some people ferry in from Bremerton every day, on the 2nd largest ferry system in the world (BC, Canada is number 1).

good luck.

Oh, and as for where to stay for this research... while trying to limit expenses... I think I would just stay near the airport.

Many of the realistic communities you should be searching won't be terribly far from there, and it is usually a buyer's market for hotels around there... and you could get great rates if willing to use Priceline.com.

When driving from the airport base toward your northern research areas, you'd get a reasonable sense of the distance involved if not the commute time as well.

lennyba

Or, you know, build that monorail.

Kostroma

If you have a choice, I'd also recommend living close to where you work. My now former co-worker moved here from California in May. She lives in Pioneer Square and while her commute looked okay on paper(1 bus door to door, roughly an hour each way), the reality of Seattle traffic and a 2+ hour daily commute set in quickly. She quit a couple of weeks ago after finding a job downtown.

As for me, I live in Redmond and used to work in Bellevue. When I was laid off last spring, I didn't even consider applying for jobs across the lake. The mere thought of the commute made me cringe. I ended up finding a job ten blocks from my house and now have a 15 minute walking commute each way. I reiterate the "if you have a choice" comment. I know not everyone does.

Jolibee

Thank you all for the valuable advice. I think I will focus on the close-in neighborhoods and areas directly north of the city. Since I currently have a very short commute I probably could not deal with the commute you describe from the eastside.
One additional question do you advise renting a car or do you think it’s reasonably possible to use public transportation to visit the neighborhoods around the city.

NWWanderer

If you're going to be working downtown, West Seattle (my neighborhood) is a relatively close in option that's a little less pricey than some of the neighborhoods to the north.

You might also consider some of the neighborhoods to the SE of downtown that are going to be on or close to the Sound Transit light rail line when it's finished (e.g. Columbia City).

Bobmrg

When we first moved to Seattle in 1960 we lived as far north as you can get and still be in King County. Then we moved to Shoreline, then to Queen Anne, then to Magnolia, then to lower QA, and now live in Renton...each move took us farther south.

My take on how this area developed is that growth was constrained by hills and water, so roads went where they could be forced to fit the contours. Queen Anne is an excellent example...great place to live, but with winding two-lane streets and impossible parking.

Development in the south end took place on farmland, for the most part, and was planned more than forced. Zoning came into its own. Wider, straighter streets, decent availability of parking.

We live in Renton and like it. Many Seattleites look down their noses at the South end; don't discard it out of hand. Light rail is going to make a big difference when it is completed next year.

Orcas

I'd suggest you rent a car, as you are going to be looking at a range of areas and want to make the most of your time.

suze

While I made the commute "across the lake" for years, I live on Capitol Hill, and scored a new job in Belltown (downtown) so I have a 3 mile drive on surface streets each morning. I thank my lucky stars. Not to mention my office is a couple blocks from the Pike Place Market, a real plus!

artlover

Jolibee,
One thing I recommend you doing is to contact a real estate agent and let him or her show you around. This can save huge amounts of time and energy as is you give them your perameters, they will be able to come up with places that might work for you. We did this before we moved here and I'm really glad we did.

Good luck! We love it here.

Kostroma

Not to hijack this thread, but on the subject of relocation, I have a friend who would like to move here within the next year. While I can help her out if she ends up living and working in my neck of the woods, I am at a loss as to what neighborhoods to recommend to her in the city because I don't know Seattle all that well. Here are some particulars about her.

She's 38 and single. She likes to go out, not to nightclubs, but to eat, movies, shows, and the like. She also likes outdoor activities like hiking and boating. Also, in her words, she doesn't want to live in a "concrete jungle". To top it off, she does not drive and would be totally transit dependent. What neighborhoods would you recommend if she ends up living in Seattle proper?

BTW, she currently lives in a small town that, the way she describes it, makes Monroe sound like Manhattan, so there's also the culture shock factor. She's visited major cities, but she's never lived in or near one.

suze

Kostrama~ Queen Anne is close in and a very nice, least culture shocking kind of neighborhood. Capitol Hill equally close but a tad more "counter culture". Ballard, Fremont, Wallingford, or Ravenna are a bit further out, more residential. All have excellent Metro bus service. Just make sure she has a good route between home and work.

Jolibee~ While a bus could conceivably get you everywhere, to do a tour of many neighborhood a car would be much more practical and time efficient.

NWWanderer

Kostroma, she should definitely consider West Seattle. I think it has a great combination of being close to downtown, yet having an "away from it all" feeling. We've got all sort of great parks over here (I just got back from walking down at the beach in Lincoln Park, where I watched a blue heron flying along the beach), and the West Seattle restaurant scene has improved greatly in recent years so you don't even have to go downtown to get a very good meal if you don't want to. Plus it's a bit more affordable than some other close-in neighborhoods.

I moved over here about 13 years ago after having lived on Capitol Hill and in the Leschi/Madison Park areas previously, and I just love it.