We are going to have a 5 hour layover in Seattle. Wondering if that is enough time to head into the city?! Any recommendations on the best way to do that - will we even have time?! thanks!

Now that you need to be at the airport 2 hours before a domestic flight, I wouldn't take a chance with Seattle traffic. There's a shopping mall not too far from the airport (I think it's the Southcenter Mall). While not a great mall, you could take a cab over and stretch your legs for a few hours and get out of the airport.

Other than hotel restaurants, there's not a lot to choose from in the nearby area for dining options.

Depending on the time, it's a 20 min. cab ride to/from downtown; at rush hour it could take 35. So, sure there's time, but play it conservative. Cabs are around $25 to/from downtown. You could spend an hour or two at the Pike Place Market - very rewarding, and still be back in time for your connecting flight.

I recently took a taxi into the Pioneer Square area since I had 6 hours to kill between flights. Despite heading back in plenty of time, it was raining pretty hard and the traffic was so horrendous on the drive back that I barely made my flight cutoff. I called the airline from my cell and they were gracious enough to hold my seat. I would take caution about going into Seattle unless you can afford to catch a later flight if you get stuck in gridlock.

I was about to post this very same question, and what do you know, someone else has already asked it! Any new thoughts on this? We have about 5 hrs on a Thursday afternoon. Is there some sort of public transportation that would get us somewhere interesting?

I traveled to and out of seattle this past summer. Once in beginning of may and left in august. I never had a problem with waiting for security. The cab ride into the city is short. 15 min. 30 at most. but I would ask cab driver to take you to the pike place market and pioneer square area. skip the needle. (you can see it from the plane)

Another thought is to head south to Tacoma and visit the new Glass Museum (they have a very cool studio where you can watch them blowing glass), the new Art Museum, and the wonderful State Historical Society Museum. These are all within walking distance. It would be a calmer alternative to Seattle, and rich culturally.

Oops! Better clarify - they are within walking distance of each other! It's about a 15 minute drive from Seatac, again depending on traffic.

I would hesitate about downtown Tacoma on a Thursday afternoon, especially using public transport. If it's in the summer, one can get whipsawed by southbound Seattle traffic colliding with northbound Ft. Lewis (big army base in Tacoma) traffic.

The taxis can use the "diamond" (carpool) lanes to/from Seattle from/to the airport, or they can go "the back way" (SR99) via the waterfront; in either case it won't be longer than 30 min. or so even in typical traffic conditions.

If your 5 hrs. includes re-check in time, then you really only have 4, 1 to 1.5 of which should be allocated to traffic, plus getting to/from the taxi stands and finding a cab downtown. This is doable, just don't plan on sitting through a whole movie. If your 5 hours is net of airport obligations, then go for something longer.

My recommendations for a high-speed visit to Seattle would be (a) Pike Market (have the cab take you there via "99" for a great view), (b) central waterfront with addition of Pike Market hillclimb, (c) Uwajimaya Village in the International District for fun browsing and shopping, (c) Pioneer Square for galleries etc., or (d) the Museum of Flight. All of these are in the central/south parts of downtown, on the airport side of things.

During long layovers at Seatac airport I have taken the local bus to the nearby Southcenter Mall. At least it gets me out of the airport.