Seattle - Washington State - page 142

street, make sure there are no valuables in view and nothing that even
looks like it might contain something of worth. We once had our car bro-
ken into because we left a shopping bag full of trash on the back seat.
Smoking Although many of the restaurants listed in this topic are non-
smoking establishments, there are also many Seattle restaurants that do
allow smoking. At most high-end restaurants, the smoking area is usually
in the bar/lounge, and although many restaurants have separate bar
menus, most will serve you off the regular menu even if you are eating in
the bar. There are very few nonsmoking bars in Seattle.
Taxes In Seattle you'll pay an 8.8% sales tax, and in restaurants, you'll also
pay an additional 0.5% food-and-beverage tax on top of the sales tax. The
hotel-room tax in the Seattle metro area ranges from around 10% to
16%. On rental cars, you'll pay not only an 18.5% car-rental tax, but also,
if you rent at the airport, an additional 10% to 11% airport concession
fee, for a whopping total of around 30%!
Taxis See section 2, “Getting Around,” earlier in this chapter.
Time Seattle is on Pacific Standard Time (PST), making it 3 hours behind
the East Coast.
Transit Info For 24-hour information on Seattle's Metro bus system, call
& 206/553-3000. For information on the Washington State Ferries, call
& 800/84-FERRY or 888/808-7977 in Washington, or 206/464-6400.
Weather To check the weather report, call 206/442-2800, ext. 2032. Check
the Seattle Times or Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspapers for forecasts. If
you want to know how to pack before you arrive, go to www.wrh.noaa.
gov/seattle , www.cnn.com/weather , or www.weather.com .