Trip to Seattle for Mariners or Seahawks

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Hey team.

Looking for some advice on a trip to Seattle for a weekend this fall.

My top two concerns are where to stay and best way to get tickets for the Mariners and/or Seahawks. probabky would drive so would have a car. I'm not sure what to expect for a hotel in terms of cost. Should be reasonably nice but doesn't need to be fancy. Just not scummy. Any suggestions? Thanks.

[CroFlames]

Every time I went, I would stay downtown (hotwire, booking.com, etc) and cab it to the stadium area. Then I'd get sauced at Pyramid Alehouse across the street from both Safeco and Centurylink. It's usually a good party there, especially for Seahawks.

Afterwards, just walk north and there are tons of pubs and restaurants to hang out at and continue the night.

Hotel pricing can vary a lot depending on other events in the city

[cavalera403]

You could cab but the light rail from downtown to the stadium is most likely faster and way cheaper. I always use the transit in Seattle because it works.
Also if you stay downtown parking your vehicle overnight can be pretty pricy.

Also serious biscuit for breakfast, or Lola.

[CMPunk]

Looks like you'd have to try and get tickets for the Seahawks home opener, as that's pretty much the only day that you might be able to make both games work.

[Tapestar]

Two years ago we stayed at the Silver Cloud Hotel across the street from Safeco Field for a Blue Jays game. Rooms were good, restaurant was great. Walking distance to downtown Seattle or take a shuttle. They had parking for hotel guests (don't remember how much).

[Northendzone]

Originally Posted by cavalera403

Also if you stay downtown parking your vehicle overnight can be pretty pricy.

+1 for this....when we went we stayed at the hyatt and we got a great a deal as my wife got a hookup price as a result of placing a large piece of business at the hyatt here in Calgary. Parking at the hyatt was something like $40 per day.

I paid it as we got such a great price on the room and my other option was above ground parking across from the hotel and given we were driving our vehicle, I wanted to minimize the risk of having my vehicle broken into and having to deal with a vehicle repair while on vacation.

if you are going for a jays game, you will want to ensure you can get tickets as I think they sell out quickly

[Regular_John]

Stubhub for Mariners tickets for sure, lots of season/corporate tickets to be had at just below face value. Last time I think we paid about $50/seat to sit behind home plate, face value was in the $60-$65 range if memory serves.

As for hotels, I've done OK with hotwire (got The Westin last time), we've stayed both in the Downtown area as well as the Queen Anne neighbourhood. We preferred Queen Anne for smaller bars/shops to pop into, but Downtown is more connected to transit and such.

In particular we loved The Maxwell Hotel, the free parking and neighbourhood bars were great.

[mrkajz44]

We did Hotwire downtown with no car and had no issues. The train to the ball diamond and football stadium is convenient and easy to use. I know driving sounds tempting, but round trip flights can be had for under $300 a person, and when you consider the costs of driving (gas, stopping for food, wear and tear, etc.) it's really not that much more expensive to fly, and you don't have to worry about having a car there.

Mariners are actually playing pretty well lately, so it might be harder to get tickets than usual. When we went we just bought tickets off the street for about 50% of face value, but if you want to feel safer then Stubhub is probably the way to go. No idea about Seahawks, but I highly doubt you find a good deal on the street before the game for them.

One last note - if you have time you should do the underground tour. It's about 90 minutes and only costs about $15 per person. I almost didn't go, but think that was the most memorable thing about my trip there.

[TheAlpineOracle]

I go to Seattle at least twice a year for spors. Once for the Blue Jays and once for the Seahawks.

Seahawks tickets are on Stub hub, you'll never get them at face value on ticketmaster, and on the rare chance you do, they will be the last row of the stadium (actually not that bad of seats, not really a bad seat there). You are looking at $250-$500 per seat for a semi-decent seat depending on which team is in town.

Mariner tickets are walkup unless the Blue Jays are in town. You wait to a 20-30 minutes before game time you get get them for less than face value on stub hub.

Seattle is a very nice city, but a very expensive city from a hotel perspective. Most decent hotels will be between $200-$300 or $300-$500 if there is anything going on there (and there is all the time from the months of May until October). Thankfully my work gets a rate there so I can sometimes get a room at a nice hotel for $150 a night.

Are you sure driving there is the cheapest option? Like someone said, parking is ridiculous in Seattle. There's also tons of street people (think Vancouver) and break-ins downtown are very regular so parking underground is a must in my opinion if you value your car or what's inside it. I always fly to Seattle. The cost top fly to Seattle return is usually around $350-$375 from Calgary. The funny part is you can upgrade to first class for like an extra $100 bucks. First class doesn't have to pay to check their bags so it's almost a free upgrade.

If you like burgers, I would highly recommend the Red Mill Burger (featured on You Gotta Eat Here), but it's outside of downtown and there will be a wait. If you want to venture around Pike Place, make sure you do it prior to the weekend. Its becomes an absolute zoo. If the Blue Jays are in town, it's even worse.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Jays and Seahawks only make sense on the 18th and 19th of September and that weekend doesn't work so it'll more than likely be the Seahawks and a Mariners game if there is time.

I'm thinking this will be a quick 3-4 day weekend trip. Not looking to break the bank.

I'll look into flights.

[TheAlpineOracle]

Originally Posted by mrkajz44

We did Hotwire downtown with no car and had no issues. The train to the ball diamond and football stadium is convenient and easy to use. I know driving sounds tempting, but round trip flights can be had for under $300 a person, and when you consider the costs of driving (gas, stopping for food, wear and tear, etc.) it's really not that much more expensive to fly, and you don't have to worry about having a car there.

Mariners are actually playing pretty well lately, so it might be harder to get tickets than usual. When we went we just bought tickets off the street for about 50% of face value, but if you want to feel safer then Stubhub is probably the way to go. No idea about Seahawks, but I highly doubt you find a good deal on the street before the game for them.

One last note - if you have time you should do the underground tour. It's about 90 minutes and only costs about $15 per person. I almost didn't go, but think that was the most memorable thing about my trip there.

Yeah the Underground tour is awesome and located down by the Stadiums in Pioneer Square. Definitely something to hit before the start of a game. The two major companies are the Seattle Underground Tour and Beneath The Streets. Beneath the Streets are the people who started it but broke away from the Seattle Underground Tour to form their own company because they felt it was getting a little too commercialized. They give a little bit more educational tour as a result (and claim to have access to a few more stops).

[Coys1882]

We've gone three or four times now for Sounders and Mariner games - every time we grab a VRBO in the downtown area walking distance to the stadium. Works well for us.

[Resolute 14]

I'm going down for two Blue Jay games in September. Hard to beat $289 for a flight.

But as far as driving goes, when I was last in Seattle (2003), I drove. Stayed in SeaTac, then just drove to the busway in the neighbouring suburb of Tukwila and took transit into Seattle. That was before the Link LRT, so if you were to drive, something like that should be even better now.

[TheAlpineOracle]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

Jays and Seahawks only make sense on the 18th and 19th of September and that weekend doesn't work so it'll more than likely be the Seahawks and a Mariners game if there is time.

I'm thinking this will be a quick 3-4 day weekend trip. Not looking to break the bank.

I'll look into flights.

Other than hotels, I find Seattle to be a pretty reasonably priced city. One thing to note is that Albertans are exempt from paying Sales Tax there. So show your Alberta ID when you make a purchase that is not food/booze/hotels and whatever is the price on the sticker is what you pay.

After making this purchase, stand back and watch the guy from BC's head explode when he tries to do the same thing and they tell them it's not available to BC residents.

[Erick Estrada]

I wanted to fly down with a buddy the last time the Raiders played in Seattle but he couldn't commit to $400 for a decent seat. Even the crappy seats were in the range of $250 USD.

[TheAlpineOracle]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

I'm going down for two Blue Jay games in September. Hard to beat $289 for a flight.

But as far as driving goes, when I was last in Seattle (2003), I drove. Stayed in SeaTac, then just drove to the busway in the neighbouring suburb of Tukwila and took transit into Seattle. That was before the Link LRT, so if you were to drive, something like that should be even better now.

I'm going there in September for the Jays as well. Hotels are ridiculous, $300-$400 a night anywhere downtown.

[PostandIn]

Seahawk games are a blast so the game day experience should be a lot of fun for you. I've been there enough to have developed a preference for the north end of downtown (Hyatt / Westin / Crowne Plaza area) for accommodations. You can usually find decent deals on expedia, etc. The south end of downtown (starting a block or two north of Yesler and going south) is scuzzier with lots of street people, meth heads, et al. They generally keep to themselves but there is the odd one or two aggressive ones. It's a little bit worse after sun down.

My favorite place is the Arctic Club due to its sort of mid point location in downtown but it's got stupid expensive in recent years (keeping pace with Seahawks tickets, I guess). Second choices would be the Sheraton Seattle and then the Alexis (although it's often pricey too). I will be checking out airbnb and VRBO options this year. Something like this: https://www.airbnb.ca/rooms/5060388?...s=4&s=g8-HQ9eL. is a good deal for four people.

If you are driving you'll find parking expensive as previous posters have said. Once you are situated, anything you would need for food and attractions is mostly within walking distance. It's actually pretty enjoyable to walk from the north end of downtown into the stadium area early in the day, find a drinking hole then mosey over to the game. Seattle is much like Vancouver with lots of older architecture and things that you won't see in Calgary. We've done lots of different stops but tend to migrate to Safeco ($1 to get in) to watch Red Zone on the big screens prior to the game. Beer, including a great selection of local craft beers, is way cheaper at Safeco than at Clink (where the real wallet thinning begins). There's a convention center between Safeco and Clink where there's all manner of football-related stuff. Usually cheerleaders signing things and doing photos, a live band, booths with contests and all that kind of stuff. And more beer, of course. You may wish to bring ear plugs.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Thanks. I appreciate the specific recommendations PostandIn exactly what I'm looking for.

The price of tickets for the Seahawks is turning out to be the only hold up here since they are going to eat up way more of my budget than I'd like. Looks like about $350USD per ticket is the min I'd have to spend to get half decent seats. That's gonna be almost $1k just for tickets. Hotel and flights are actually not that awful.

[Weitz]

Keep your eyes open.

I've paid $200 per seat to sit 9 rows up in the end zone (non hawks nest side) and 3 rows up on the same side for $220.

[rd_aaron]

Seattle has become very popular in the summer and hotel prices have increased accordingly.

In 2012 (dollar at par) we went to Seattle at the end of July. The Westin downtown was $240/night on Expedia and we got it for 3 nights for $120/night on Priceline's "name your own price" thing.

In 2015 (dollar definitely not at par), that same Westin hotel was showing for over $500/night on Expedia for the same late July timeframe. So not only did the CAD/USD exchange cause things to go up, the general prices of hotels went way up. We ended up booking airbnb (though there was hardly any availability as they booked up quick).

If you want to stay downtown you're going to pay quite a bit for a hotel. I wouldn't drive in this case as parking is very expensive. You can fly for cheap and train from the airport to the middle of downtown for cheap. Other option is to stay farther away from Seattle for cheaper and then drive or transit into the city.

Mariners tickets, definitely Stubhub. In 2012 I bought tickets 18 rows up behind home plate for about $45 each (under face value) for the Blue Jays game. I bought these tickets a couple weeks in advance. In 2015, we sat roughly in the same spot but because of the dollar, I think it was close to $70 or $80/ticket.

Enjoy the trip! Seattle is a wicked city. Check out some happy hours!