It seems probable that my wife, our 3 year old son and I will be moving to the Bellevue, Washington area in the next few months. Does anyone have any experience with this area or advice they’d like to share?
I’d be working in downtown Seattle and my wife would be working on the Bellevue side (close to the I-90 corridor and the Eastgate P&R). We’re looking at rental housing and daycare options relatively close to her work. Is Craiglist the predominant house rental resource in Bellevue? Any daycare sourcing recommendations?
Any neighborhood recommendations? Are there any neighborhoods where you’d have a reasonable chance of being able to walk to say a grocery store or a coffee shop? We are a little spoilt in that regard here in Berkeley, but have lived in more car-centric cities in the past. Eastgate P&R looks like my best bet for commuting into the city, so I’d love to live within 10 minutes of it.
I lived in Bellevue from 1974-1976 so my experience isn’t going to help you much. We loved living there, we were on the east side, just above Lake Sammamish.
Bellevue people are snobs. Not all of them, of course (probably…) but in general they are much snobbier than people in Seattle where I’m from. I don’t have a lot of experience in Bellevue but it’s just something I always notice when I do find myself there.
Why do you say that? As far as I can tell its a 20 minute bus ride from Eastgate P&R to my downtown Seattle office. If I can get to the P&R quickly it should be much better than my current 55 minute commute to SF.
Hey OP, who’d you end up using to help you move? I have a move coming up in a few months and with my luck I’d probably hire someone that will not come through…my search on Google, Moving Guru and Yelp are already under way but I always choose customer recommendation over closing my eyes and pointing to one on the page or screen…
Yep, the Bellevue–Seattle commute is just about the worst in the region. You can make life a little easier for yourself by living south of Bellevue-proper as close to I-90 as possible, but stop-n-go clogs are typical near the I-405/I-90 interchange and I-90/I-5/Downtown interchanges.
Based on your description, though (park and ride over I-90), you will probably be under you 55 minute SF commute, but no way you’ll get a 20 minute. I’d say expect an average of 30-40 minutes, with at least 1 day per week of 1+ hour misery due to inevitable wreck/construction.
I used to live in Kirkland (slightly north of Bellevue) and it was a lovely area with great access to most everywhere (except downtown Seattle or south Seattle).
We used Mayflower, and were pretty happy with the experience. I recently responded to a friend via email to a very similar question, so I’ll quote my response:
We’ve been spoiled by some corporate moves, so payed a little more to get a full packing and moving service. I don’t have much experience with the self-pack or pod style options. Hope that helps!
We’ve ended up just south of the Eastgate P&R. My bus ride from there downtown is pretty consistently 20-25 minutes, and I’m dropped off right outside my building. I’d say you are about spot on, on average my door to door commute is 35 minutes, although in two months I have yet to experience a 1hr+ calamity. Actually the bus is very consistent since it starts directly on the HOV on-ramp. My only delay is sometimes the hill back to our house gets congested.
I like Kirkland a lot, but it isn’t convenient for us because my wife works very close to the Eastgate P&R. When we buy we might consider just north of I-90, but will continue to search for a nice walkable pocket.
Hey Driver, I just saw this. I’ve lived north of Bellevue Square for 4 years in West Bellevue (bordering Clyde Hill). Glad you love the area. We get over to where you are for Korean BBQ occasionally at Southgate Garden. Happy to hear your commute has worked out.
We were at a really neat little walkable pocket (10 minutes to bellevue square) but that’s not near your park and ride. Now we’re close to that pocket but it’s too far to walk it.
We like it and there’s a ton worse places we could have ended up in.
We loved living there, we were on the east side, just above Lake Sammamish.
