How To Get Around Seattle | Cheap Public Transport 101

[Music] seattle is a city that's notorious for traffic so today we're going to share how to get around this chaotic city without needing a car there are so many fast and affordable ways to get around seattle today we're covering the top five ways you can cheaply and effectively navigate this amazing city the most important thing you need to get around seattle is an orca card an orca card is basically your key to the city and can be used to pay for just about all of seattle's public transportation we'll be using these throughout the video to get one you'll need to visit one of the many self-service orca kiosks which are located at all the light rail subway stations in seattle when you find one just follow the prompts on the ticket kiosk load up some money and you're good to go most transport rides cost under 350 each way so use that as a reference for how much to put on one thing to note is that the machine tells you an orca card costs five dollars but you can use that five dollars to pay for your transport and so we didn't know that at first we thought we were just going to buy one and share it but then we decided it's a lot easier to just each have our separate one okay with that said let's dive into the fun stuff when you arrive in seattle's airport you basically have two options to get to the city spend 50 bucks to get downtown or less than four dollars if you're like us and don't want to dish out a ton of money for an uber you're gonna want to take seattle's light rail called the link it's only a 38 minute ride from the airport to the heart of downtown and to get to the station just follow the signs in the airport outside the light rail station at the airport there are ticket vending machines that dispense orca carts so this is a great spot to get one when you first arrive in seattle once you have your orca carbon you can head out the escalators to the link station simply tap your card on the scanner and you're good to go one thing to note is the orca card can only scan a single person onto the link rail so if there are two people sharing a card this isn't going to work for you trains to seattle arrive every six to 10 minutes so you shouldn't have to wait long the train cars themselves feel brand new it's a great way to get to the city once downtown you can take this second cheap method we recommend to get around the city and that's to take the buses seattle's buses are very efficient with plenty of stops that make it easy to see all the major attractions google is a great tool to find which bus to take when you get on the bus you either tap your orca card at the front of the bus or you can tap it at one of these orca stations and when you tap it it's good for two hours on the buses so if you need to transfer from one line to another you're covered for up to two hours if you have two people sharing one orca card make sure you tell the driver as he needs to hit a button on his end to allow two passengers to share a card so we've been having a easy breezy time with these buses they've been extremely easy to navigate super nice people on the bus it's been super simple for us we were told seattle is not a very public transportation friendly city and that is such a lot it is so easy to get around here we've spent next to no money and we've seen everything the third method of transportation you need to take when visiting seattle is the monorail with only 15 monorail systems left in the continental united states this one is pretty unique the seattle monorail is perfect for taking you from the heart of downtown right to the iconic space needle which would be pretty far to walk the fare is three dollars per person each way which you can scan from your orca card when you arrive at the station besides being incredibly iconic on the outside one of the best things about the monorail is the views you get of the city being elevated above the sidewalks riding the monorail gives you a unique perspective on seattle plus the area around the space needle it takes you to is rather lively with lots of little shops museums and parks of the area the fourth iconic public transportation you need to use when visiting seattle is the water taxi seattle is known for its beautiful skyline which is best viewed from the water and one of the best ways to experience this is to take the public water taxi you get to the pier you have two main choices you could take a ferry or you could take a water tax the water taxis are for people lonely where the ferries you can actually take your car and walk around a bit when you're on the boat so there are a lot bigger boats both offer phenomenal views of the city from the water and we're going on the water taxi today for visitors we recommend taking the west seattle row which the parts from seattle's pier 52. pier 52 is located along the same stretch of waterfront as the ferris wheel so it's very accessible from all the tourist hot spots water taxis leave pretty frequently and you can pay with your orca card while boarding we recommend sitting in the back of the boat when leaving seattle and sitting in the front of the boat when returning to seattle as this grants you the best views of the city plus if the weather's nice you should get a great view of mount rainier from the water taxi as well we just took the water taxi from downtown seattle to west seattle which is where we are now and the ride was a lot of fun it was very short it was probably only 15 minutes or so but basically the boat just turned around and drove across here to west seattle and so we're going to explore here for a little bit and then get right back on the water taxi and head back to where we came from really quick if you're finding this video helpful please do us a huge favor and like this video and subscribe to our channel it takes half a second and really motivates us to make more content similarly if you're interested in the top local food to try when visiting seattle or the best sites and local gems you need to visit we have detailed videos on these which we'll link here as well the fifth affordable way to get around seattle is to ride the public electric bikes and scooters they have available one of the coolest ways to get around they have scooters and actually have these little e-bikes you can rent it's about a dollar to unlock them and then it's a few cents a minute but really fun and effective way to get around the city this is a fun way to experience seattle is you can explore your own leisure and use them to go exactly where you want to go how fun are these things super fun just be sure to be safe when riding them as you'll be responsible for navigating traffic on your own let us know in the comments below if you plan on visiting seattle or if you have any questions about getting around that we can help answer thanks everyone and we'll see you in the next one [Music] you

Channel: Sharing the Road

Views: 50,948

Keywords: seattle, seattle travel, seattle travel tips, seattle travel guide, travel seattle, seattle washington, seattle transit, seattle transportation, seattle transit tunnel, how to ride the link light rail, how to seattle transportation, public transit in seattle, public transit, in the public transit good in seattle, link light rail, jonathan and cristina, seattle link light rail, seattle airport to downtown, sound transit, riding the light rail, seattle transportation 101

Id: cwcsKxnJeEE

Length: 6min 10sec (370 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 02 2022