Seattle Airport to Portland: Bus, Train, Flight and Drive Compared
SEA to Portland by FlixBus (fares from $28.48 on its Seattle page), Link plus Amtrak, a 55-minute flight or a rental car. Where each boards and what goes wrong.
FlixBus runs the direct bus from SEA to Portland, and it boards at the Arrivals Drive curb. FlixBus’s Seattle to Portland page lists trips from 3 hours 5 minutes and fares from $28.48. Link light rail can’t carry you all the way, since the line runs between Federal Way and Lynnwood. The train option is Link into Seattle, then Amtrak Cascades.
The bus, the plane and the drive all land within about 15 minutes of each other once you count airport time.
The options side by side
| Option | Time | Cost | Boards at SEA | Whose figures |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FlixBus | Can take 3 hr 5 min | From $28.48 | Arrivals Drive curb, Doors 00 and 02 | FlixBus |
| Link, then Amtrak Cascades | Link takes 34 minutes to International District/Chinatown. Amtrak publishes its own time | Link is $3.00. Amtrak sets its own fare | Link station, through garage Level 4 | Sound Transit |
| Flight | In the air, plus the Port says arrive 2 hours before a domestic departure | Rome2Rio and Expedia list fares. One-way fares from $132 on Expedia | Your airline’s concourse | Rome2Rio, Expedia, Port of Seattle |
| Rental car | 2 hr 51 min of driving | Set by the rental company, plus any one-way fee | Free shuttle to the rental car facility | Rome2Rio, Port of Seattle |
| Taxi or private sedan | About the drive time | From $747.50 per vehicle | Taxi: garage Level 3 | Ridebooker |
Which one fits your landing time
Take FlixBus if you land before its last departure and want the lowest fare. It skips the trip downtown.
Rent a car if you land late or carry more than a carry-on and one checked bag per person. FlixBus’s Seattle page lists a 9:15 p.m. last departure, and Wanderu lists 8:35 p.m. from SeaTac.
Link and Amtrak work when the bus times don’t fit and you’d rather ride a train.
Fly only when a connection is already booked. Add the two hours the Port asks for to the 55-minute flight and you’re close to the bus’s time, at several times the fare.
FlixBus from the arrivals curb
The Port lists FlixBus among the scheduled airporters. Only Premier and the Bellevue shuttle board on garage Level 3, so FlixBus is at the curb. Walk to the south end of the baggage claim level, past Carousel 1, and find the curb outside Doors 00 and 02 under the Airporters sign, next to Checkpoint 1. The Port’s FlixBus entry lists Portland among its southbound stops and puts pickup outside Door 2. The airporter check-in counter is inside near Door 00. Our scheduled airporters page lists every operator at that curb. The Ground Transportation Booth is at (206) 787-5906.
FlixBus’s own list of Seattle stops has no airport entry, and SeaTac to Portland shows up as a separate route in its route list. Search from SeaTac when you book. FlixBus says your ticket carries the most current boarding address, so read that before you leave the terminal.
Trips per day differ by listing. FlixBus’s Seattle page counts 5 daily trips, the first at 7:00 a.m. and the last at 9:15 p.m. Wanderu and Rome2Rio both show 3 daily trips from SeaTac, and Wanderu puts the first at 8:10 a.m. and the last at 8:35 p.m. Plan around three until the booking page for your date shows more.
What FlixBus says about the ride:
- Bags are one carry-on up to 7 kg and one checked bag up to 20 kg at no extra cost. Extra bags cost a fee added when you book.
- Fares move with demand, time of day and how far ahead you book. FlixBus points to early mornings and midweek trips as cheaper.
Portland has three stops on FlixBus’s page, and the curbside one is at 1090 NW Station Way, on the buses-only curb north of Union Station.
If the next bus is hours away, our bag storage guide covers the Smarte Carte desk by Carousels 9 and 10. It stores bags from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., closed 11:30 a.m. to noon and 6 to 6:30 p.m., at $20 to $40 a bag.
Is there a train from Seattle airport to Portland?
Not a direct one. The train trip has two parts, Link into Seattle and Amtrak Cascades to Portland.
Walk to Link. From baggage claim, look for carousel 16, go up one floor to the skybridge level, cross Skybridge Six and turn left through the parking garage to the station, as Sound Transit describes it. The free Train-to-Plane cart also runs to the station from 5 a.m. to midnight. Our Link light rail guide has the walk step by step.
Ride Link. The adult fare is $3.00, paid by tapping a card or ORCA. Sound Transit’s timetable puts Stadium 32 minutes from the airport and International District/Chinatown 34. Get off at International District/Chinatown.
Then Amtrak. Neither the Port nor Sound Transit publishes Amtrak’s Seattle departures or fares, so use Amtrak’s own Cascades timetable. One family, Khiz & Eesa, filmed the Cascades in the other direction, from Portland to Seattle. They said the weekend train was sold out, and the passengers who lined up before boarding opened got seats together.
Flying SEA to PDX
Rome2Rio lists Alaska and Delta flying SEA to Portland International hourly and puts the flight at 55 minutes. Alaska uses the C, D and N Concourses, and our Alaska check-in guide shows where to check in.
Driving to Portland
Every SEA rental company is off-site. A free rental car shuttle leaves the lower drive at baggage claim level, from the north end near Alaska Airlines and the south end near the international airlines. It runs 24 hours a day, and the rental car facility at 3150 S. 160th St is about a five-minute drive. Our rental car guide lists the companies and shuttle stops.
The Port’s rental listing doesn’t cover one-way fees, so ask the company for the Portland drop-off price when you reserve. Rome2Rio estimates the drive at 2 hours 51 minutes.
A taxi or private car
SEA taxis are metered, and the Port prints a $20 minimum fare, not a fare to Portland. Ridebooker quotes a taxi or luxury sedan from SeaTac to Portland Airport from $747.50 per vehicle, and a luxury SUV from $920. Our taxi page and rideshare page show where each boards on garage Level 3. The Port’s listing for Premier’s door-to-door vans names service points up to Olympia and doesn’t mention Portland.
When it goes wrong
You land after the last bus. The Coast Gateway Hotel’s courtesy shuttle runs to the terminal around the clock, on courtesy vehicle line 206-248-8200. Our hotels page lists the other airport hotels with shuttles.
You try to stitch it together with local buses. The Climate and Transit channel filmed Portland to Seattle on public transit only, with no Amtrak or Greyhound. The rider needed more than half a dozen agencies and a full day. A county bus the video planned around had been removed a few days earlier while its posted schedule still showed it, so the riders fell back to Amtrak for one leg. One commenter under that video wrote, “I use Flixbus for that trip.”
Your flight lands as the bus leaves. FlixBus’s route page states no rule for a missed departure after a late flight.
Sources
Our pages:
- Scheduled airporters
- The Link light rail from SEA airport into Seattle
- Link light rail
- Train-to-Plane cart
- Where to leave a bag at Seattle airport
- Alaska Airlines at SEA
- Rental cars at SEA
- Taxis
- App-based rideshare
- Door-to-door shuttle (Premier)
- Hotels
Official and company pages:
- Seattle to Portland bus (FlixBus)
- SEA to PDX options (Rome2Rio)
- SeaTac to Portland bus (Wanderu)
- Seattle to Portland flights (Expedia)
- SeaTac to PDX transfers (Ridebooker)
Traveler videos:
- Portland to Seattle only by Public Transit (Climate and Transit)
- Amtrak Cascades Portland to Seattle Coach Class Review (Khiz & Eesa)