Transportation to Downtown?
 

We will be staying at the Wyndham Garden Hotel by the airport in August. We would like to see the the San Juans, Pike's Market, and the Seattle underground tour. Do we need to rent a car? Thanks for your help!

You can visit the Pike Place (not "Pike's") Market and do the underground tour without a car, for sure. There are a variety of ways to get downtown from the airport, including public bus in front of your hotel (takes 30-40 min.) or use one of the airport limo services to downtown hotels, etc., quicker but more expensive, obviously. In the city center the bus is free, parking far from it, so a car can be a nuisance. <BR> <BR>The San Juans are another story. There are passenger-only boats from the Seattle waterfront or sea-plane flights to the San Juans from Lake Union in central Seattle, but if you want to go to more than one island or tour around (recommended) then a car will be necessary. Ferry connections to the islands in the summer are very congested, and it's around a 2 hour drive from the airport to the car ferry dock in Anacortes, so a car-based trip needs 3 days or so in order to be worth the hassle.

Thanks for your help John! Rental Cars are expensive there. Starting at $40 per day. Maybe we'll rent one for just one day.

Try bidding for a car rental on Priceline.com for better rates. Seattle is a great city - enjoy! <BR>

Cindy, If you want, you can try Priceline to rent a car in Seattle. Go to the following Web site: <BR> <BR>http://pub4.ezboard.com/bpricelineandexpediabidding <BR> <BR>There are FAQs for bidding on rental cars. There's also a thread in the Rental Car section of the site for rentals west of the Mississippi. In that thread, it shows that people have gotten compacts/standards for $19/day and premium cars for $21 or $27/day at SEA (Sea-Tac). <BR> <BR>Usual disclaimers apply--no vested interest in your using Priceline or the Web site mentioned above, no guarantee Priceline will have a car at the price you want to pay, yadda, yadda. But it is possible to get rental cars for less than $40/day at Sea-Tac. <BR> <BR>Hope this helps. Have a great trip--it's hard not to like Seattle in August.

Downtown? Why not help yourself and others and add the word "Seattle" in your header?