“Those of you going to Seattle for TI4 will obviously be focusing on the Battle of Titans that will be occurring at Key Arena but every once in a while I imagine you will be taking breaks to do human things like sleep, eat, and maybe shop/experience the city a little bit. Having been to Seattle for PAX Prime 3 times now I am going to attempt to put together a small guide to experiencing Seattle from the point of view of a traveler.
The Location
Key Arena is a little ways northwest of the Downtown core but still within 30-35 minutes walking distance. As far as I can tell there aren’t really any landmarks near it, but, it’s about the DotA and not the quality of the tourist attractions nearby so it doesn’t really matter.
Sleep
If you haven’t already booked accommodation then you’re likely going to be in for a rough time in terms of being able to find a place that is both nearby to the Arena and not 200$ a night. I would suggest consulting resources like Kayak.com (also an excellent option for finding cheap airfares), hostelbookers.com and airbnb.com to attempt to find somewhere to stay. A quick search of each of these on June 23rd produced the following results. At this point in the game, you might want to consider issuing a call for help on Facebook and seeing if anyone else would be willing to share a room for you.
Eat
Honestly, I haven’t really been too impressed by the food in Seattle thus far. Most of the restaurants that I’ve come across in the Downtown core are of the chain variety and not really too wonderful to experience. That being said, we found two gems in Michou Deli and Pike Place Chowder down by Pike Place Market (quite a hike from the Arena unfortunately). We did find that Jimmy John’s (a sandwich shop) was a pretty decent option if you are hungry and just want something to eat and there are a few of those throughout Seattle. Following are different food places that you could check out near the Arena (based on a mix of distance/rating, in order of distance with the one furthest away ~20 minutes walking). If you’re especially well organized you can always take advantage of the refrigerator in your room and prepare your own meals at the beginning of the day (unlikely to happen throughout the duration of the tournament though).
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Shop
We aren’t big on the shopping side of things but we did take a bit of time during our last visit to check out our options within the Downtown core. After visiting the various locations we were most impressed by the little shops down at Pike Place Market, perusing Pacific Place and the deals at Nordstrom Rack (however, these require quite a bit of shifting through piles of nausea inducing clothes). If you really want to get a great deal of shopping done you’d be best suited to visit the outlets and malls outside the core such as Premium Outlets, Northgate Mall, Southcenter Mall and the Outlet Shops at Burlington.
Experiencing the City
Given that you won’t have too time to explore Seattle beyond the evenings once games are over I would say that the one place you do need to visit is Pike Place Market. The other parts of Seattle that I’ve seen thus far haven’t really been that awe-inspiring (though I do hear there are some nice hiking trails in the area). I suppose you could check out the Space Needle but so far I’ve been satisfied with seeing it from afar.
Best of luck with your adventure and I hope you enjoy your TI4 experience. Maybe I’ll even see some of you folks there!
That’s all for now. Have a pezant day!
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