seattle

I am going to arrive in seattle on Nov 20th, with my children (11 and 14).
Can anybody advise a good hotel near the airport with family plan or
discount coupons? And, which is the best rental agency, and cheapest, where
I can rent a car for a week ?
Thanking in advance
Freddy

On 10/10/2004 5:29 AM Freddy plucked Senior Frog's Magic Twanger and said:

I am going to arrive in seattle on Nov 20th, with my children (11 and 14).
Can anybody advise a good hotel near the airport with family plan or
discount coupons? And, which is the best rental agency, and cheapest, where
I can rent a car for a week ?
Thanking in advance
Freddy




Most of the Points of Interest are near the water. You really don't
want to stay at the airport. There isn't that much savings. Since one
of the main viaducts from the airport to town is currently under
construction that is another reason not to stay by the airport -
commuting in snarly traffic to get to town every day.

Holiday Inn and a few other motels at City Center are reasonable and
walkable to some points of interest. The Space Needle is one. I
recently stayed on 1st Ave and didn't need a rental car once. Public
transport is fairly good in the city. If you don't mind stopping at
every hotel in the city, the Seattle Grayline Shuttle will take you to
your hotel for $8.50 per person one-way. You also get a running
commentary about points of interest as you travel. So it's a shuttle
and Grayline Tour rolled into one.

BTW due to a fire the Monorail that runs to the Space Needle is
indefinitely closed. If that was something you wanted to do, make other
plans.

--
________
To email me, Edit "xt" from my email address.
Brian M. Kochera
"Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once!"
View My Web Page: http://home.earthlink.net/~brian1951

On 10/10/2004 5:29 AM Freddy plucked Senior Frog's Magic Twanger and said:

I am going to arrive in seattle on Nov 20th, with my children (11 and 14).
Can anybody advise a good hotel near the airport with family plan or
discount coupons? And, which is the best rental agency, and cheapest, where
I can rent a car for a week ?
Thanking in advance
Freddy




Most of the Points of Interest are near the water. You really don't
want to stay at the airport. There isn't that much savings. Since one
of the main viaducts from the airport to town is currently under
construction that is another reason not to stay by the airport -
commuting in snarly traffic to get to town every day.

Holiday Inn and a few other motels at City Center are reasonable and
walkable to some points of interest. The Space Needle is one. I
recently stayed on 1st Ave and didn't need a rental car once. Public
transport is fairly good in the city. If you don't mind stopping at
every hotel in the city, the Seattle Grayline Shuttle will take you to
your hotel for $8.50 per person one-way. You also get a running
commentary about points of interest as you travel. So it's a shuttle
and Grayline Tour rolled into one.

BTW due to a fire the Monorail that runs to the Space Needle is
indefinitely closed. If that was something you wanted to do, make other
plans.

--
________
To email me, Edit "xt" from my email address.
Brian M. Kochera
"Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once!"
View My Web Page: http://home.earthlink.net/~brian1951

In article ,
"Freddy" wrote:

I am going to arrive in seattle on Nov 20th, with my children (11 and 14).
Can anybody advise a good hotel near the airport with family plan or
discount coupons? And, which is the best rental agency, and cheapest, where
I can rent a car for a week ?

try pricelines, or the Doubletree. Weekend rates from $60-70 possible.

Don;t rent a car near/at the airport. Can be very costly in taxes.

In article ,
Not the Karl Orff wrote:

try pricelines, or the Doubletree. Weekend rates from $60-70 possible.

I should mention that you can pay much less than $60 for a room near
Sea-Tac airport. But you don't want to. There's some genuine dives
around there.

Don't rent a car near/at the airport. Can be very costly in taxes.

There's a tax that hits if you avail yourself of the rental company's
shuttle service to get to the airport. But if you use the hotel's shuttle
to get to the hotel, and then pick up a car at the rental company's
off-airport lot, you may do relatively well. Call the rental company and
ask how best to beat the taxes, though it may be difficult to
impossible--Seattle has a couple of fancy new sports stadiums right near
downtown, and you can bet they didn't go out of their way to tax the
locals to build them.



--
---
"Wake Up, Everybody."--McFadden/Whitehead/Carstarphen
RIP John Whitehead 1948-2004

In article ,
(eric h) wrote:


There's a tax that hits if you avail yourself of the rental company's
shuttle service to get to the airport. But if you use the hotel's shuttle
to get to the hotel, and then pick up a car at the rental company's
off-airport lot, you may do relatively well. Call the rental company and

doesn't work. All rentals within the airport catchment area are hit, at
least they were 4-5 years ago.

ask how best to beat the taxes, though it may be difficult to
impossible--Seattle has a couple of fancy new sports stadiums right near
downtown, and you can bet they didn't go out of their way to tax the
locals to build them.

In article ,
(eric h) wrote:


There's a tax that hits if you avail yourself of the rental company's
shuttle service to get to the airport. But if you use the hotel's shuttle
to get to the hotel, and then pick up a car at the rental company's
off-airport lot, you may do relatively well. Call the rental company and

doesn't work. All rentals within the airport catchment area are hit, at
least they were 4-5 years ago.

ask how best to beat the taxes, though it may be difficult to
impossible--Seattle has a couple of fancy new sports stadiums right near
downtown, and you can bet they didn't go out of their way to tax the
locals to build them.

What will work, if it is worth the effort, is a short term rental to
somewhere outside the catchment area and then switching to another
rental for the bulk of the trip.

Not the Karl Orff wrote:

In article ,
(eric h) wrote:

There's a tax that hits if you avail yourself of the rental company's
shuttle service to get to the airport. But if you use the hotel's shuttle
to get to the hotel, and then pick up a car at the rental company's
off-airport lot, you may do relatively well. Call the rental company and

doesn't work. All rentals within the airport catchment area are hit, at
least they were 4-5 years ago.

ask how best to beat the taxes, though it may be difficult to
impossible--Seattle has a couple of fancy new sports stadiums right near
downtown, and you can bet they didn't go out of their way to tax the
locals to build them.

"Freddy" wrote in message
...
I am going to arrive in seattle on Nov 20th, with my children (11 and 14).
Can anybody advise a good hotel near the airport with family plan or
discount coupons? And, which is the best rental agency, and cheapest,
where
I can rent a car for a week ?
Thanking in advance
Freddy


Strongly agree with other posters. Don't stay near the airport. We stayed
in a hotel near the Space needle. It's within walking distance to downtown,
and public transportation is really good. There is a $5 day bus pass you
can buy that allows you to ride all you want. Within the downtown area
there is a no fare region for certain times of the day.

In terms of car rental. If you stay near downtown you won't need a car.
But if you should rent one, do rent one outside of the airport area. We
rented one from an Enterprise downtown office, but was also able to return
the car to their airport location with no extra charge.

"Freddy" wrote in message
...
I am going to arrive in seattle on Nov 20th, with my children (11 and 14).
Can anybody advise a good hotel near the airport with family plan or
discount coupons? And, which is the best rental agency, and cheapest,
where
I can rent a car for a week ?
Thanking in advance
Freddy


Strongly agree with other posters. Don't stay near the airport. We stayed
in a hotel near the Space needle. It's within walking distance to downtown,
and public transportation is really good. There is a $5 day bus pass you
can buy that allows you to ride all you want. Within the downtown area
there is a no fare region for certain times of the day.

In terms of car rental. If you stay near downtown you won't need a car.
But if you should rent one, do rent one outside of the airport area. We
rented one from an Enterprise downtown office, but was also able to return
the car to their airport location with no extra charge.