for this situation you may want to stay near the host hotel as I assume they provide transportation and there will be events close to the host hotel? If I'm wrong ok. The Moore is okay and early morning if the cab gets on the freeway, husky stadium shouldn't be a very expensive cab ride under $20 would be my guess. The Watertown is a hotel midway between the stadium and downtown and is top rated. It might make a good compromise. My other suggestion is to take the $$ you were going to pay the Moore and bid for a room on Priceline in the downtown zone only.. You'll likely get a much better room for the same money.

the ride should be around 20 minutes if that.

Do you have a good picture of what the Moore is like and you're ok with very, very bare bones accommodations? If you've stayed in cheap hotels 1-2 star hotels in Europe and are ok with those, then you'll be fine.

Since you're from NY, you'll probably be just fine with the location safety-wise.

I would check to see if there's a show at the Moore the night before your race because if there is you might not be able to get to sleep until late.

Public transportation doesn't run all night and while it starts very early on weekdays I'm not sure about the weekends. But I wouldn't be hassling with that at 5:30 in the morning anyway! A cab in the early morning hours will only take 20 minutes or so, I'd say. Be sure to have called and arranged the cab the night before.

Since I live here have not stayed there myself but have friends who use the Moore when they come up from Portland. It's a cool old hotel RIGHT downtown, so as long as you realize the kind of place you're choosing, I think it's OK. Seattle is safe imo but you will see a fair number of street people in that area (partly because there are several social service agencies and shelters in that part of town). I'm sure the hotel will call you a taxi and agree with the above am guessing $15-20 out to the stadium.

Other option would be staying in either the U-District (race start) or Bellevue (race end) and use Metro bus to go into Seattle for sight-seeing. I wouldn't normally recommend that, but since the marathon is the focus of your trip, might make more sense?

Happy birthday btw!

Thanks for all of your responses--this is such a great forum.

I am definitely torn about staying in Bellevue, since I do need to go there on Saturday to pick up my race packet, but would rather not to make a whole day of it (or make the trip about the race, since I'm basically going to run it to justify the trip and all the food I'm going to consume.)

It sounds like the Metro bus goes back and forth between downtown Seattle and Bellevue. How long is the trip? (NYC is such a walking city; I'm having a hard time understanding the scale of the Seattle area.)

If I do stay in downtown Seattle, I am also second guessing the Moore Hotel. It's just so hard to turn down $59 lodging thinking about all the nice food and coffee the savings could afford me...

But it looks like I can stay at the Pan Pacific or the Westin for $100 more/night through Hotwire (cross referenced with betterbidding.com) or close my eyes and hope Priceline does right by me.

So if anyone has a recommendation between these hotels or Hotwire vs. Priceline, please let me know. Although your help to date has been magnificent.

Thanks again!

there is another post from a guy who wanted to take a taxi to Bellevue. I did a bus search and the bus took all of 20 minutes from downtown Seattle to downtown bellevue, so you could do it pretty easy if your not in traffic. Seattle is very walkable but we rely on buses vs subways or trains but buses downtown are free so getting around is easy. I'd stay with the Moore if thats the rate you got. You'd pay a lot more even with Priceline and you can walk out your door and be at the market etc. If you were from Kansas perhaps my advice would be different but we are a very tame city compared to lots of places.

Well, there's a reason it's $59 when everything else is a lot more--and it's not because the location is bad. Like I said, if you're used to cheap backpacker style European hotels, you'll be fine, but personally if I were on a budget I'd pay twice as much on Priceline (if you can get a 4 star downtown).

But I make no bones about being somewhat of a hotel snob (although I do appreciate good value) so that's the perspective I'm coming from ;-).

I'd think the bus from Seattle to Bellevue will probably take 30-40 minutes but that's a guess based on how long it takes to drive and thinking the bus will be a bit slower due to stops.

As far as Pan Pacific vs the Westin--Pan Pacific is nicer and newer but not as well-located. The Westin is more likely to have views.