Some Questions about Seattle - Redmond (Transportation, Shopping, Sightseeing) (credit, how much)

[gunnarh]

I plan to visit Redmond during October (for business purposes).

I live in Vienna (Austria, Europe). It's my first trip to USA.

Some questions:

could you please point me to Informations about:

Public transportation Seattle <-> Redmond.
Is there a "full day / full week - ticket" available?

Sightseeing: Interesting tips?
Is there a possibility to see whales - I could do this only on Sunday. Could you point me to a Website with suitable Information?

Money: I have an Austrian Mastercard. I think Mastercard is accepted in Seattle and Redmond too, isn't it? Is is useful to have enough money with me, or can I pay everything (even in the supermarket, restaurant, ...) with my card? In Austria for example many supermarkets don't accept credit-cards.

Shopping: I don't know about prices for Digicam or computer-equipment. But perhaps it's cheap? Which shops would you prefer? Is there a website for comparing prices?

sorry for my very basic english.
Thanks in advance!

[AzDreamer]

Here's the link to the King County Metro (bus) web site. Metro Online Home Page

Your Mastercard should work everywhere but I would have a second card in case.

A good place for deals on electronics is Amazon.com. It's a lot cheaper, easier and faster than shopping at stores.

Google should have good info on when and where whale watching is possible.

[seattlenextyear]

Take the Sound Transit 545:
Sound Transit: 545 Redmond — Seattle Weekday Bus Schedule

I think you can request a full day pass from the driver. Otherwise, its 2.50 per trip.

[Ira500]

All day passes are not available from the driver. On weekends, you can buy an all day pass from a Metro bus driver, and use that pass on a Sound Transit route, I think, or you can buy an all day ticket from a Sound transit light rail vending machine and use it on the bus.

[gunnarh]

Thank you for your answers.

Amazon is known in Austria too.
Aren't there cheap local electronic stores?


Thank you for the Pointer to Transit 545
I just downloaded http://www.soundtransit.org/Document...g/RTWSep09.pdf which should answer most of my questions.

But: Do I need to buy such an ORCA Card for getting a full-day traveling ticket? How much is it?

Whale watching: Is October too late for whale watching? I found some hints about Mai to September.

[seattlenextyear]

Well, once you're downtown, you can get around the downtown core for free. So if you're just making a trip to downtown and back, the easiest thing to do is just pay cash for your trip.