The Amtrak station is right between Pioneer Square, the International District (aka Chinatown), and SoDo. SoDo isn’t particularly interesting (warehouses, mostly). The International District is a fun, vibrant place, especially if you like Asian culture and food. Pioneer Square is the historic district, lots of bars and clubs.
The few blocks directly around the train station can feel kind of sketchy at times, especially if you’re heading north on foot through downtown. The area directly north of Pioneer Square is the financial district and can feel creepily deserted evenings and weekends. However, once you get north of the financial district towards Pike Place Market and Belltown, there are people again, and I’ve never felt uncomfortable at night up there.
As for modest accomodations, if it’s downtown, you’re probably out of luck unless you’d like to stay at the youth hostel downtown. (I have; it was fine, though very, um, communal.) I would reccommend for reasonable accomodations looking in the University District (a 10-15 minute express bus ride to the central library) or Capitol Hill (a 10-minute regular bus ride or, depending on where you are, a 15-30 minute walk.) Both neighborhoods are central, well-served by transit, and have a lot of places to eat and nightlife. (Capitol Hill more so than the University District.)
If you weren’t on public transportation and we actually had a spare bedroom at the moment, I’d totally offer crash space, though. If you don’t mind staying at a vouched-for stranger’s house, let me know and i’ll ask around and see if anyone I know who lives more centrally than we do has an open guest bedroom for when you’re here.
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