Everett Tour Center - Logistics?
 

Hi I have an upcoming trip to Tokyo in March which includes a stop in SEA. My flight for Tokyo leaves at 1225. I'll be coming up to SEA from SFO. First flight from SFO gets to SEA at 0805.

Will this flight (UA shuttle) give me enough time to get to Everett for the 0900, or the 1000 tour?
http://www.boeing.com/companyoffices/aboutus/tours/

How long does it take to get from SEA to Everett?

Will I have enough time to get back to SEA for the 1225 international departure?

SFO-SEA and SEA-NRT is done as a connection. My bags would be at the airport and I will already have all my boarding passes at SFO.

Thanks.

[This message has been edited by seawolf (edited 02-04-2001).]

Not sure if there is a 10am tour?

There is a Grayline afternoon tour that is done from Convention Center downtown on Mon anf Fri in March. You are G'teed a tour. Just turning up at Everett without a reservation I don't think you are.

www.graylineofseattle.com/tour_detail.cfm?id=104

However Boeing does tours each week day, not weekends. Everett is quite a ways from SEA downtown, and on the other side roughly to airport as I understand it.

If you will be there perchance March 22 we can share a cab? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif Doing it then.

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~ Glen ~

Thanks for the reply. It doesn't look like I'll make SEA after all. It'll take about an hour driving to get from SEA to PAE. In theory, I get to the gate at SEA at 0805. By time it takes for me to get out of SEA, it will probably be 0825. Get to PAE by 0935 for the 1000 tour. No problem there.

However, the tour is expected to last an hour. Done by 1100 get back to SEA by 1200. Flight leaves at 1225. A bit too close for an international flight by my standards.

I'll fly SFO-NRT instead of SFO-SEA-NRT.

[This message has been edited by seawolf (edited 02-04-2001).]

Good call, you wouldn't make it. If it's a weekday (which it must be, to take the tour) 0830 on I-5 is going to have a bit of traffic (although going North wouldn't be too bad once you clear downtown). And in my experence, the tour never only lasts 60 minutes, it always seems like it starts late or we have to wait for another group in the huge elevator, or something. My recollection is more like 90 minutes.

I agree with the conclusion, but I want to note that taking I-5 through downtown is NOT the fastest way to Everett. Take the bypass, I-405, on the other side of Lake Washington.

Bruce

Uh, hold on a moment there. Add a big "sometimes" to the preceding post. I-405 grinds to a halt just as easily as I-5. (They parallel each other, up the eastern and western shores of Lake Washington. I-5 offers a shorter run to Everett in terms of straight miles. I-405 CAN be faster in terms of time, if I-5 northbound is jammed. It can also be far slower. We have a little phenomenon around here called the "Renton S-Curves" which are an especially evil feature of I-405.)

The actual thing to do is to sit in the Sea-Tac airport parking lot for six minutes listening to KIRO radio, 710 AM, and get a traffic report. See which road is less grim and set out accordingly.

That's great advice! Usually, I just jump in the rental car and start driving, but it makes a lot more sense to know the traffic conditions first...

You could start heading out that way since time is short for you. You do have a few minutes from where you get your car until you reach the I-5/I-405 junction.

An alternative suggestion is to come up the night before from SF (since a stop of less than 24 hrs isn't a stopover) and stay at the SEA Doubletree cheap ($11.95 total IF you have a AmEx card), get the car early the next day (Thrifty is just across the street and a quick drive to I-5), head up to Everett for the 0900 tour and be back by 1100-1130.

Of course you could always stay closer up to Everett but it may not be that cheap.