If you have the good fortune of visiting Seattle (lucky you!) and you’re looking to travel downtown from the airport, I’ll highly recommend you to take the light rail also known as Link from the airport!

If you see the costs you’ll understand what I mean:

Traveling to downtown
A ride on the Link light rail: USD$2.40
Share ride on Shuttle Express: USD$33
Downtown Airporter: USD$18

Shuttle Express will drop you at the door step of wherever you might want to go and will leave only if there are sufficient people to fill a mini van, typically about 8 – 10 people. Downtown Airporter stops only at major hotels and leaves in 30 minute intervals.

The Link doesn’t head beyond Seattle CBD area so if you’re staying somewhere further than the city (that is across the Portage Bay or in Bellevue/Mercer Island), you’ll definitely need to connect to another service. From the airport arrival hall, it’s a bit of a hike to the Link station too. It’s not a big problem if you’re having wheelie luggage but if you’re lugging hand luggage, it will be tricky.

Unlike our blessed Changi Airport, it costs USD$5 to rent a luggage cart. I know right – what a cultural shock.

I was there during the winter to spring transition and it was a very drafty and chilly walk to the Link station. And since that was my first wintry experience, I thought my fingers were going to drop off anytime soon.

You purchase a ticket ((somewhat like a stored value card) at the Link station before you head up to the platform. The funny thing is, there are no barricades anywhere that governs payment. So commuters pretty much goes by the “honour” system of tapping before of after they get on the trains. I’m guessing this is where a lot of taxpayers money goes..

The Link is not crowded in the least and it’s a pretty nice ride out to the city. It took me about 25 minutes from the airport to get to downtown where I was staying.