Burien

Burien is in King County south of Seattle and borders Puget Sound to the west.

Understand
Burien is in many ways a classic suburb of Seattle full of strip malls and car dealerships, but there are many areas worth visiting including 'Old Town' Burien which has a wide variety of shops and restaurants and has held onto the areas early charm. Although it is close to Seatac Airport, the flights paths generally parallel the city so there is actually little noise from jets.

By car
Burien's central location means that you can drive north to Seattle in 12 minutes, east to Sea-Tac Airport in five minutes, and south to Tacoma or east to Bellevue in 30 minutes.

By public transit
The web trip planner is straightforward and accurate, as long as your bus is on time. Using Google Maps' trip planner works well too, but fare information can sometimes be incorrect. During rush hours (M-F 6-9AM and 3-6PM), adult bus fares are $2.50 within the city limits. All other times of day and weekends adult bus fare is $2.25. The youth fare is always $1.25.

Pay exact fare when boarding, as drivers carry no change. You can get a free paper transfer from one Metro bus to another Metro bus, but the only way to transfer for free between transit agencies is with an ORCA card, which costs $5.00 in addition to the money you put on it, available at all Link Light Rail and Sounder stations or online (Click on "Get a card"). When traveling to destinations outside of the downtown core, you should make sure to ask the drivers in Metro buses with green and white "EXPRESS" signs in their windows and those whose route signs say "VIA EXPRESS" if they are going to your destination. Some of these express routes are intended for regular commuters traveling between residential neighborhoods and downtown and make few or no stops between.

Buses have many convenient express routes that travel South (to Tacoma), East (Redmond, Bellevue), and North (Bothell, Everett) and pass through Burien. Some of these buses run during only rush hours, but most, including the routes to the destinations mentioned above, run all day. Check the schedule to make sure. The fare schedule is slightly different than Metro, with no off-peak discount: $2.50 all for trips within King County, and $3.50 for trips crossing the county line.

Eat
Burien offers a wide variety of ethnic restaurants including food from Australia, China, El Salvador, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Thailand and Vietnam.

Sleep
Burien is located only minutes away from Seatac Airport with one of the highest concentrations of hotels in the state, however there are also a few places located in Burien proper.



Go next
Burien is just south of White Center and Seattle and only a few minutes west of SeaTac.