Seattle - Washington, Oregon and the Pacific Northwest - page 179

Greyhound ( www.greyhound.com ; 811 Stewart St; 6am-midnight) connects Seattle with
cities all over the country, including Chicago ($228 one way, two days, two daily),
Spokane ($51, eight hours, three daily), San Francisco ($129, 20 hours, three daily) and
Vancouver, BC ($32, four hours, five daily).
The fast, efficient Quick Shuttle ( www.quickcoach.com ; ) , with five to six daily buses
to Vancouver ($43; with free on-board wi-fi), picks up at the Best Western Executive Inn
on Taylor Ave N near the Seattle Center. Grab the monorail or walk to downtown.
The Bellair Airporter Shuttle ( www.airporter.com ) runs buses to Yakima, Bellingham
and Anacortes and stops at King Street Station (for Yakima) and the Downtown Conven-
tion Center (for Bellingham and Anacortes).
TRAIN
Amtrak ( www.amtrak.com ) serves Seattle's King Street Station (303 S Jackson St;
6am-10:30pm, ticket counter 6:15am-8pm) . Three main routes run through town: the Cas-
cades (connecting with Vancouver, BC, Portland, OR, and Eugene, OR), the Coast Star-
light (connecting with Oakland, CA, and Los Angeles, CA) and the Empire Builder (con-
necting with Spokane, WA, Fargo, ND, and Chicago, IL).
Sample one-way fares include Seattle-Chicago ($227, 46 hours, daily),
Seattle-Portland ($25, three to four hours, five daily) and Seattle-Vancouver, BC ($30,
three to four hours, five daily).
Getting Around
TO/FROM THE AIRPORT
Sea-Tac International Airport is one of the top 20 airports in the US, with numerous do-
mestic flights. The options for making the 13-mile trek from the airport to downtown
Seattle improved drastically with the completion of the airport light-rail line in 2009. It's
fast and cheap and takes you directly to the heart of downtown, as well as a handful of
other stops along the way. Shuttle Express ( 800-487-7433; www.shuttleexpress.com ) has
a pickup and drop-off point on the 3rd floor of the airport garage; it charges approxim-
ately $18 and is handy if you have a lot of luggage. Taxis are available at the parking gar-
age on the 3rd floor. The average fare to downtown is $42.
CAR & MOTORCYCLE
Seattle traffic is disproportionately heavy and chaotic for a city of its size, and parking is
scarce and expensive. Add to that the city's bizarrely cobbled-together mishmash of
skewed grids, the hilly terrain and the preponderance of one-way streets and it's easy to