Need help choosing seattle hotel before our cruise

We are planning an alaska land/cruise tour for the summer of 2015. We are planning on spending a couple of nights in seattle before we leave for the cruise. I need some ideas on hotels that are close to the seattle airport as well as the train station because we will be taking the train from seattle to vancouver and we don't want to have to rent a car while we are there so, we need to be close restaraunts as well.

Thank you in advance for any info you can give

Seattle is covered extensively on the West Coast Departures board, here:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=413

Thank you

SeaTac airport and the main Amtrak King Street station are about 15 miles apart. You've got a couple options:

Either you can get a inexpensive hotel near the airport which would allow you to take the Lightrail to downtown to catch your train. Get off the Lightrail at the International District stop and there is an overpass walkway directly to the Amtrak station.

Or you can take the Lightrail from the Airport and stay at a hotel downtown to be in the city and near all the fun Seattle stuff. You would probably enjoy your stay more if you did this but it would probably be a bit more on the wallet than staying near the airport.

BA covered the logistics very succinctly.

As a frequent Seattle visitor who has stayed in several areas and properties around town, I would strongly recommend against an airport hotel for anything other than a 'just need a bed for the night before an early flight' situation. There are no bargain hotels actually convenient for the light rail which makes you dependent on the hotel shuttle to take you to SEA, then a long walk from one end to the other to board light rail, then a half-hour trip downtown, then reversing this to get back to the hotel at night.

Even if you find a hotel with a local bus passing right by it that connects to light rail, and your connections work perfectly, you'll spend 90 minutes to 2 hours a day in transit. For a short visit where you want to maximize time spent at attractions the $ savings do not come close to outweighing the lost time IMO.

If the downtown core hotels are beyond your budget for whatever reason (we try to keep under $150 for hotels so we can spend more on dinner!) try Seattle Centre neighbourhood - it's ideally located for several big hit attractions (Space Needle, EMP, SciFi museum, science centre) and only about 20mins on foot to downtown. Plenty of restaurants, from cheap pub grub to seriously swanky (Mistral). Cabs are plentiful, never more than ~$10 to & from downtown, and you can use the monorail to get to the mall rather than just for fun! Many of the properties offer free shuttles or have deals with towncar/bus services for cheap transfers around downtown or to the cruise piers.

We've stayed in the La Quinta & Maxwell several times, Hotel Five (mentioned in several other threads, great location just really poky rooms cf the Maxwell), Mediterranean (caveat - no A/C in regular rooms so would not recommend in Summer, but if you get a deal on a Deluxe room with A/C go for it). There are also Hampton, Best Western, Comfort chain members in the neighbourhood.

Thank you so much for the info...I didn't realize they were so far apart.

Thanks everyone for the info

We are planning an alaska land/cruise tour for the summer of 2015. We are planning on spending a couple of nights in seattle before we leave for the cruise. I need some ideas on hotels that are close to the seattle airport as well as the train station because we will be taking the train from seattle to vancouver and we don't want to have to rent a car while we are there so, we need to be close restaraunts as well.

 

Thank you in advance for any info you can give

We stayed at the Embassy Suites; it was lovely. Terrific free breakfast buffet and afternoon snacks are included as well.

The hotel drove us to the train station free when we decided to go downtown for dinner and a little sightseeing. I believe it is a 5 mile radius shuttle.

Enjoy your trip!

Linda

Can you please tell us which Embassy suites?

Thanks

We stayed at the Embassy Suites; it was lovely. Terrific free breakfast buffet and afternoon snacks are included as well.

 

The hotel drove us to the train station free when we decided to go downtown for dinner and a little sightseeing. I believe it is a 5 mile radius shuttle.

 

Enjoy your trip!

 

Linda

Can you please tell us which Embassy suites?

Thanks

It was the SEATAC Embassy Suites.

Have a great cruise!