I have a 4 hour layover in Seattle for a morning flight and want to get out and look around. Any ideas?

I want to do something quick and close to the airport, but that would be unique to Seattle. Thanks.I have a 4 hour layover in Seattle for a morning flight and want to get out and look around. Any ideas?
I suggest taking the light rail as stated above to the Westlake station and walking over to the monorail station at 5th Ave %26amp; Pine St. It's so close you could run and not be out of breath!

Then take the monorail, a Seattle icon in it's own right, to the Seattle Center, home of the Space Needle, THE Seattle icon.



Not having walked 5-6 blocks to see the Market, which would only allow enough time to grab an apple and maybe a souvenir before you need to leave, ought to allow for a ride up the needle to check out the awesome views and still catch your flight out
Not enough time in my opinion.



Figure at least 20 minutes to get off the plane and over to the light rail station, 35 minutes each way on the light rail train and that leaves you with just 1 hour, assuming a 90 minute time period to get through security and to your gate.



Get yourself a good cup of coffee or hot cocoa at Dilletante's chocolate bar in the food court, browse for a book at the bookstore or get a manicure at Butter, or download the airports brochure on the art installations and spend the time not worrying about whether you'll make your connecting flight.I have a 4 hour layover in Seattle for a morning flight and want to get out and look around. Any ideas?
4 hours doesn鈥檛 give you much time. The airport is in Seatac which is a town south of Seattle and there is nothing to do there. To get into Seattle you鈥檇 have to take the light rail which takes about 30 minutes to get to downtown. Depending on what time of day the lines can get really long at Security check in the airport. If I were you I wouldn鈥檛 risk it just to spend a few minutes doing something in Seattle. But if you really want to鈥鈥檇 suggestion taking the light rail downtown and get off at the Westlake station and walk five blocks west down Pine street to the Pike Place Market and look around. It鈥檚 a cool place if you鈥檝e never been before, there鈥檚 tons of stuff to look at and buy. Then hightail it back to the airport.
I agree that that's hardly enough time to get up to Seattle. They won't even let you check in if you're anything less than 45 mins before boarding. So that leaves only 3 hours and 15 minutes to get where you're going and back again as well as any time to explore. I say stay put and come visit us another time.

There's lots of nice restaurants and stores within the airport that you should just relax and enjoy. Why stress yourself with the chance of missing your flight?
I agree with pretty much everyone else that seatac is inconvenient because i go from seattle area to seatac at least 3 times a year. Some cool places in seattle are the Olympic Sculpture Park, Pioneer Square, and Pike Place Market. Or the music project, monorail, and the area below the Space Needle which has some short activities you could do. Hope i helped!
I agree with Kevin. Seatac is a bummer of a place and with only a four hour layover you could be creating more hassle for yourself than it is worth. But if you must: the farmers market or pioneer square for a quick feel of the heart of Seattle.
Check out Layover Guide's write up to Seattle for ideas of things you can do inside and outside the airport - http://www.layoverguide.com/2010/03/seat鈥?/a>
It depends. If you live in Seattle, then tie your left shoelace. If not, run a marathon.