Seattle questions, and Mount Rainier
 

Hi all. We're heading to Seattle the end of the month. We have a few days to explore before our cruise to Alaska.

I still haven't rented a car because I'm not sure if will be going down to visit Mount Rainier. Does anyone know the status of the roads or hiking trails? From their website, it appears most of the roads are open but I really don't want to drive down to find the hiking trails are closed.

Does anyone know of any downtown car rental locations? I think it would be better if we rented a car and returned it to a downtown location.

The day after our cruise we are also spending in Seattle. We'd like to check out the waterpark. Am I going to freeze? I'm sure my kids won't mind, but I'm a bit less hardy than them!

Things will change substantially between now and the end of the month as this is the time of year when the trails melt out. There is a page on the park website that gives you the status of the hiking trails but I'd wait until closer to your date of travel to check because the current status won't be the same as what it will be in a couple weeks.

All the majors have downtown locations and it's generally much less expensive to pick up your car downtown than at the airport due to really high tax rates at the airport.

I don't know of any waterpark so can't help you on that.

Are you talking about the waterpark down near Fife?

Hi karens---I have walked past Budget, Hertz and Enterprise rental locations, all downtown, or more "uptown" (Enterprise is up near Whole Foods, the other two near th econvention center.)

The road up to Paradise is open and the snow is melting fast, but who knows if it will be mostly gone by the end of the month. I have had great hiking up there even with snow around. If th emountain is out it is glorious up there even if you can't hik every far. There are also some nice hikes lower down. You could wait and decide when you get there, because you'll only want to go up if it's a nice day.

If that doesn't work, we can suggest good hikes closer to Seattle.

I've never been to the waterpark (Wild Waves). . . but I think there might be better things to do with your time here, unless a waterpark is very important to your kids.

Hi all. We leave soon and I think we've decided not to go to Mount Rainier. We have basically two whole days, the day our flight arrives at around 3 PM and morning our cruise departs to be in Seattle. We know there is so much for us to do with our kids in Seattle that we think it's best to stay there. We may change our mind if we get glorious weather. But in the meantime, I would appreciate some good short hikes(2 miles or less) around Seattle.

In addition to the time above, we also have most of the day on the day that our ship arrives back in the Seattle Port early in the morning. This was the day we were going to go to the water park(weather permitting) because the park is close to the airport and we're staying near the airport our last night.

I think it would also be nice to meet some of you fodorites from Seattle but I'm hesitant to put a date out there because our plans are not firm. Maybe once we arrive and we figure out a more definite itinerary I will post.

Thank you, all, your help.

One more question: what would be the approximate drive time to Mt. Rainier from downtown SEattle? Big difference on a Fri v. Sat? Thanks.

I think it's about 2 hours to get to Mt. Rainier? I don't think Friday or Saturday would be much different unless you tried to drive right at rush-hour Friday AM or PM.

In Seattle, there's a great easy/moderate hike of about 2.78 miles at Discovery Park (take the South Loop trail). Lots of lush, green vegetation (almost like a rainforest), then the reward is a clearing on a bluff overlooking a gorgeous view of Puget Sound. Hands down my favorite trail *in* Seattle, though there is tons of hiking very near Seattle as well.

Other excellent short hikes: Lincoln Park in West Seattle (take the water taxi across Elliott Bay, then a shuttle towards the park) and Magnolia Park on Lake Washington. Not so much hikes (flat and paved), but Greenlake is lovely and has peddle boats and canoes for rent, and Myrtle Edwards Park at the north end of the piers has great views across to the Olympics. Bonus there is the Olympic Sculpture Park.