Seattle

Seattle's airport, Sea-Tac, is served by 37 airlines with nonstop flights to 36 international and 96 domestic destinations, by the Port of Seattle's count. From downtown, a $3 train reaches the airport, a two-minute monorail reaches the Space Needle, and a ferry crosses to Bainbridge Island in about 35 minutes.

The sights below are grouped by area, with the prices and hours their own sites print; the state around the city is on our page about Washington. We checked the figures on 30 October 2026 on the pages of Sound Transit, King County Metro, the Port of Seattle, Washington State Ferries, WSDOT, the City, the National Park Service and NOAA.

The Seattle Art Museum, the state's Department of Revenue and the Market's visitor pages blocked our reads, so we give no museum price, no Market hours and no hotel tax from the state.

How do you ride Link light rail from Sea-Tac to Westlake?

Link light rail's 1 Line runs from SeaTac/Airport station to Westlake, downtown, for $3.00 an adult. The Port of Seattle calls it a 38-minute ride, and Sound Transit's timetable gives 38 minutes in every trip we read, 39 in the other direction. The airport is the twelfth stop after Westlake, past Pioneer Square and International District/Chinatown.

From baggage claim, the Port's directions lead up to the fourth floor and across the skybridge to the parking garage level. The Port also runs a free Train-to-Plane shuttle between the terminal and the station from 5 a.m. to midnight.

The fare is paid before boarding. Tap a credit or debit card, or a phone wallet, on the reader; Sound Transit and King County Metro both accept it, so a visitor needs no ORCA card. The ticket machines take cash, Visa or Mastercard. An adult ORCA card costs $3.00, and riders aged 18 and under ride free on Link and Metro buses.

Link does not run all night. On weekdays the first train leaves SeaTac/Airport at 4:51 a.m., at 4:48 a.m. on Saturdays and at 5:58 a.m. on Sundays. The last northbound train leaves Federal Way, south of the airport, at 11:48 p.m. on weekdays and at 11:01 p.m. on Sundays. Weekday trains come every 8 to 10 minutes by day and every 12 to 16 minutes late at night.

King County Metro buses cost $3.00 a ride. Paying by ORCA or by tapping a card gives two hours of transfers between buses, Link, the Water Taxi and the Seattle Streetcar. A regional day pass costs $6.00 on an ORCA card and runs from first use until 3 a.m. It is not valid on the Monorail or the state ferries.

How do you pay for the two-minute Monorail to Seattle Center?

The Seattle Center Monorail charges an adult $4.00 one way and $8.00 return, paid at its ticket machines by credit card or contactless payment. Tapping a bank card on the ORCA reader is not available there, King County Metro says, although an ORCA card works. The trip from Westlake Center, at Fifth Avenue and Pine Street, takes about 2 minutes.

Trains leave about every 8 to 10 minutes along the 0.9-mile line. The Monorail opens from 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. from Monday to Thursday, and to 11 p.m. on Fridays. On Saturdays it runs from 8:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., and on Sundays from 8:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. It closes on Thanksgiving, 26 November 2026.

A 15-month, $23 million renovation began in September 2026, with completion set for late 2027. The operator says the Monorail stays open throughout, with one train in service and the same hours.

So the city's sights fall into three clusters. Seattle Center, with the Space Needle, Chihuly Garden and Glass and the Museum of Pop Culture, sits at the Monorail's far end. The Market and the ferry terminal are on the downtown waterfront, about a mile apart. Pioneer Square and International District/Chinatown are two and three Link stops south of Westlake. No official page we read suggests how many days to spend.

How high is the Space Needle's glass floor, and what do tickets cost?

The Space Needle's rotating glass floor, the Loupe, is one level below its observation deck. The deck is 520 feet up, and the Needle's own pages put the Loupe 500 feet above the city. The tower is 605 feet tall and opened on 21 April 1962. General admission costs $35.00 to $55.00, and the price varies by season and time of day.

Tickets carry a timed arrival, in 15-minute steps from opening to closing, and you may stay until closing. The Needle says most guests take 30 minutes from the entrance to the top. Large bags are not allowed, and bag check is free for two hours. The page does not say whether tax is included.

The Needle opens all year, with hours that vary by season. Its page listed 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. from Monday to Wednesday, and closing at 9:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

Chihuly Garden and Glass, next door at 305 Harrison Street, charges an adult $40 to $45, and children under 4 enter free. A combined ticket with the Space Needle and the IMAX costs $74, used on the same day. The garden opens year-round: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. from Monday to Wednesday, and until 7:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. Glassblowing demonstrations begin at 11 a.m.

The City also levies a 5% admissions tax on tickets to entertainment venues. No page we read says which of these attractions add it.

Does the $139 CityPASS cover MoPOP and the Seattle Aquarium?

The Seattle CityPASS costs $139 for an adult aged 13 and over and $119 for a child aged 5 to 12, valid for nine days. It includes the Space Needle's day-and-night ticket and the Seattle Aquarium. Three more are chosen from Chihuly, the Argosy harbour cruise, the Museum of Pop Culture, Woodland Park Zoo and the Pacific Science Center. Every attraction needs a reservation.

The Museum of Pop Culture, known as MoPOP, at 325 Fifth Avenue North, opens from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day. Its site prints no ticket price: prices appear on a date calendar and change with demand. MoPOP gives a 15% discount to Washington residents only, and its tickets cannot be refunded.

Whether the pass saves money depends on the Aquarium's and MoPOP's own prices, which we could not read. Against it, the Needle-and-Chihuly combined ticket alone costs $74. The Seattle Art Museum's site blocked every read, so we give no price or hours for it.

When is Pike Place closed to cars, and where do you park?

Pike Place, the Market's street, is limited to authorised vehicles from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, by the Market's notice for the season from 1 October 2026. From Monday to Thursday it stays open to cars and walkers. Festival days, such as Magic in the Market on 28 November, close it to cars.

Pike Place Market opened on 17 August 1907, when six to 12 farmers brought their wagons. Its nine-acre historic district holds more than 30 international places to eat. The Market calls itself a place to visit 363 days a year, but its pages with opening hours blocked our reads.

Westlake and Symphony stations on Link are a few blocks away. The Free Waterfront Shuttle runs only from May through Labor Day.

The Market's garage opens from 5 a.m. to 2 a.m. and has more than 800 spaces. An hour costs $8, two hours $16 and 4 to 10 hours $36. The early-bird rate is $17 if you enter before 9 a.m. and leave by 9 p.m., and after 5 p.m. it costs $10. The height limit is 6 feet 8 inches.

The City charges a 14.5% tax on commercial parking, and the garage's page does not say whether its rates include it.

The Seattle Police Department's tips for visitors ask drivers never to leave packages or valuables in view in a car. The same page advises going out at night in company and not carrying large amounts of cash. In an emergency, call 911.

What is free at the Klondike Gold Rush park in Pioneer Square?

The Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park's Seattle unit is free, with no entrance pass required, the National Park Service says. It fills the historic Cadillac Hotel at 319 Second Avenue South, in Pioneer Square. The visitor centre opens from Wednesday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The Park Service lists it closed on 11 and 26 November and on 24 and 25 December 2026. The unit counted 79,564 visits in 2025, and on 30 October 2026 it carried no current alert. Rangers also staff an information desk at the REI flagship store, 222 Yale Avenue North.

The Pioneer Square station on Link is two stops south of Westlake.

What does the Bainbridge Island ferry from Colman Dock cost?

The Bainbridge Island ferry charges an adult $11.35, collected at Seattle, and the crossing back costs nothing. Washington State Ferries calls walk-on tickets round-trip travel, valid for 90 days. Seniors aged 65 and over pay $5.65, riders aged 18 and under travel free, and a bicycle adds $1.00.

The crossing takes about 35 minutes. The ferry terminal, Colman Dock, is about a mile by road from Pike Place on our own routing. We could not read the sailing times, which the ferry site loads separately.

Washington State Ferries accepts Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover and ORCA. Since 1 March 2026 a 3% surcharge has been added to every credit or debit card payment, which an ORCA card loaded elsewhere avoids. Tapping a bank card at a reader does not work on the ferries, and the regional day pass is not valid.

A car under 22 feet with its driver pays $20.25 from Seattle. The peak-season surcharge, from 1 May to 30 September, applies to vehicles and drivers paying full fare; the ticket page names no surcharge for foot passengers. The Park Service names this ferry as a way onto the peninsula of Olympic National Park.

How much tax goes on a Seattle hotel bill?

A hotel room in the city carried a 15.7% occupancy tax in October 2023, by a sheet for hotel staff from Visit Seattle, the city's official tourism body. About 71 downtown hotels with 60 rooms or more add a 2.3% Tourism Improvement Area assessment. The state's Department of Revenue blocked our reads, so the current total is not confirmed with the state.

If the 2023 figures still apply, a $250 room carries about $39.25 of tax a night, by our arithmetic. The assessment adds about $5.75, $45.00 in all. The improvement area covers downtown neighbourhoods, among them Belltown, South Lake Union, Lower Queen Anne, Pioneer Square, SODO and parts of Capitol Hill.

Shops and restaurants charge 10.55%: the state's 6.5% plus 4.05% local, by the Department of Revenue's own rate lookup for the last quarter of 2026. A $100 purchase therefore costs $110.55. The City's finance pages note that the state, not the City, collects it. The airport sits in the separate city of SeaTac, where the lookup gives 10.4%.

Shelf and menu prices leave the tax out, as our guide to sales tax in the USA explains. The tip comes on top as well, as covered in tipping in the USA.

How wet is a Seattle November, and how dry is July?

November is the wettest month at Sea-Tac, with 6.31 inches of precipitation on NOAA's 1991 to 2020 normals, and July the driest, with 0.60 inches. Measurable precipitation falls on about 18 days in November and on fewer than 5 in July.

The station is at the airport, 14.7 miles south of Westlake by road. It records 39.34 inches of precipitation a year, with measurable precipitation on 156 days. Heat is rare, at 3.8 days a year of 90°F or more, and 25 nights a year fall to freezing. NOAA's snowfall normal, 6.3 inches a year, is marked provisional, built on fewer years of records than the rest.

August is almost as dry as July, at 0.97 inches. October averages a high of about 61°F and a low of 47°F.

Why does a Vancouver train ticket show odd times until 14 March 2027?

British Columbia did not turn its clocks back on 1 November 2026, while Washington did, so Vancouver runs an hour ahead of the city all winter. WSDOT warned on 28 October 2026 that Amtrak Cascades tickets will therefore show a three-hour trip southbound and a five-hour trip northbound. Both trains still take four hours.

Washington is on Pacific time. Clocks go back at 2 a.m. on Sunday 1 November 2026, from UTC−7 to UTC−8, and go forward again on 14 March 2027. From then on, British Columbia and Washington share the same time again.

Amtrak Cascades runs six round trips a day to Portland and two to Vancouver, from King Street Station. New trainsets entered service on 30 September 2026. The timetable effective 8 June 2026 gives 3 hours 25 minutes to Portland on its fastest trains. We could not read the current timetable, and we read no fares.

For Vancouver, Amtrak Cascades asks passengers to arrive an hour early with all their identification. Its riders' guide adds that the doors close and the train is sealed.

How far are Mount Rainier, North Cascades and Olympic from the city?

Paradise, in Mount Rainier National Park, is 107 miles and about 2½ hours from the city by State Route 706, by the park's own figures. North Cascades National Park is less than three hours away, its home page says. The Park Service gives no distance from the city to Olympic National Park.

None of the three is on the 2026 list of parks that charge visitors from abroad $100 extra. Olympic takes no cash. On 30 October 2026 Mount Rainier's fee page said no timed-entry reservation was required. Our guide to national park fees for international visitors explains where the surcharge applies.

Mount Rainier's page warns that GPS may send drivers to the wrong entrance, and suggests 39000 State Route 706 E as the address. North Cascades says public transport to the park is extremely limited.

Olympic is reachable without a car. Clallam Transit runs a bus from the Bainbridge Island ferry terminal to Port Angeles. The Dungeness Line runs from Sea-Tac to Port Angeles, stopping at Kingston, Edmonds, Discovery Bay and Sequim.