Need Suggestions for a Company that Gives Short Tours of Seattle

[Edgewater601]

We are a party of 4 arriving at SEA-TAC airport in Seattle on a Monday in July.  We have a 6 1/2 hour layover before our connecting flight leaves and are interested in a 3-hour tour of the city.  Is that doable and can anyone recommend a reputable company that could do that for us at a reasonable cost?  Any information would be greatly appreciated.

[Glaciers]

It will be interesting to see what kind of responses you get here. You will get more responses by posting this question on the Seattle forum at Trip Advisor.  It may be difficult to find a tour that fits with your flight times.  A quick search shows customized tours in the $400 range give or take. That’s a ton of money when most people just want to go to Pike Place Market and/or the Seattle Center where the Space Needle is located. A cab would be about 50 bucks each way and once downtown, it is very walkable. Depending on traffic it’s 20-30 minutes each way.  There is also the light rail that takes 40 minutes for $3.

 

Consideration should be given to your arrival gate. There are two satellite terminals that require a train to get to the main terminal for transportation options. Do you know where your flights arr/dept?  It is recommended that you arrive at the airport 2 hours prior to departure.  You’re ahead a bit if you have some sort of TSA pre-check but if not, the lines can be long during cruise season.

 

I know I didn’t answer your question and hopefully someone will jump in here with some good short tours. If not, consider a taxi/uber/lyft or the light rail.

[martincath]

I'd also ask in respect of booking a tour - what about if your flight is late arriving, or the connecting flight gets moved up? Custom tours would be the only folks I can think of who would come get you at Seatac, and there's no way those will want to take the risk of you no-showing for an all-too-common airline issue so I'd expect it to be booked only a 'hefty deposit or even full payment upfront' basis that you'd then have to eat the loss on...

 

Personally I'd instead drop $20 on an up-to-date guidebook, read it in advance to see what most interests you, and then wait to see how much time you actually have on the day. Using LINK to get downtown and back would be much more consistent in timing than a car, as traffic in Seattle is brutally variable (after LA, it's the worst commuter city in the US for wasted time due to traffic) - if you avoid rush hour a cab/uber etc. would likely be as quick or quicker but I would do the train in preference any time 7-10am or 3-7pm just so you know your travel time will be reliable. As Glaciers says, once you are downtown it's easy to walk around between many of the sites - and there are even free walking tours which you could take if the timing works, without financial commitment in case things go awry.

 

[Edgewater601]

Thank you all for your advice.  Our Delta flight arrives as 12:33 p.m. but we have decided there are too many variables to try to do a custom tour.  If we have time, perhaps we can at least take a taxi or uber to the market and back to the airport.  If not, guess we cool our heels in SEA-TAC.  Hopefully we will be back one day for a longer period.

[Prost Seattle]

I would take Link light rail to downtown Seattle, getting off at the Westlake station.  You will then be 5 short blocks to the Pike Place market.  You could do the market and go for a little walk along the waterfront up to the north where the Seattle Art Museum has a sculpture garden.  The link light rail will be operating every 10 minutes then, and the ride to Westlake is about 40 minutes.  Cab would only cut about 10-15 minutes off that travel time because our traffic here is so bad. 

[Edgewater601]

Thank you all.  With the media coverage of the Coronavirus outbreak in Seattle, we are now considering if we should even come or cancel our trip.  What is it really like on the ground in Seattle and SEA-TAC?  Has the situation been blown out of proportion by the media?  This was going to be one part of an Alaskan cruise for us.  Now we are rethinking the whole thing.

[Prost Seattle]

Washington State is doing it’s own testing, not relying on the Federal government.  My understanding is the Federal government is only testing people who meet certain criteria, and Washington State is testing a broader spectrum of people.  I live in the densest census tract in Washington, and I’ve seen zero changes in people’s behavior., other than everyone has hand sanitizer. 

[Edgewater601]

On 3/2/2020 at 2:42 PM, Prost Seattle said:

Washington State is doing it’s own testing, not relying on the Federal government.  My understanding is the Federal government is only testing people who meet certain criteria, and Washington State is testing a broader spectrum of people.  I live in the densest census tract in Washington, and I’ve seen zero changes in people’s behavior., other than everyone has hand sanitizer. 

Thank you for the inside information!