Seattle · Backpacking
ON A BUDGET
Expensive to sleep in, generous everywhere else — the water, the markets and the parks are free.
Belltown and Pioneer Square
The hostels sit between Pike Place and Belltown, with cheaper rooms in the University District up the light rail line.
What a day costs
Bed 45–70 USD, food 20–40 if you graze the market stalls and the International District, and an ORCA card covers most journeys for a few dollars.
Getting around cheap
Link light rail runs airport to downtown in about forty minutes for roughly 3 USD on an ORCA card. Walk-on ferry passengers pay only one direction.
Free by day
Pike Place Market, the Olympic Sculpture Park, the Ballard Locks with their salmon ladder, and the Kerry Park view over the skyline.
Where travellers meet
The hostel opposite Pike Place runs free breakfasts and a bar that fills with strangers, and Capitol Hill takes over after dark.