Washington State from abroad: what to expect

Expect paperwork first and an easy region after. A Costa Rican passport needs a B1/B2 visa; most European passports travel on a $40.27 ESTA. Once you land, a $3 train reaches downtown Seattle in 38 minutes, sales tax is added at the register, and summer is drier than anything at home. Our Kirkland house is the base.

Do you need a visa to visit Washington State?

With a Costa Rican passport, yes; with one from Spain, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland or the United Kingdom, no, you travel on an ESTA under the Visa Waiver Program, whose 42 countries per the Department of Homeland Security include all six and not Costa Rica. Ticos apply for a B1/B2 visitor visa: the DS-160 form online, a $185 fee paid through the official appointment service, and an interview at the embassy in San José. The embassy opens new B1/B2 slots every Tuesday at 14:00 and says demand is very high, so start months ahead and check the State Department’s global wait times page before buying tickets. A visa that expired within the past 12 months can often be renewed by courier without an interview.

Europeans apply at esta.cbp.dhs.gov, never through a site that charges more. The fee is $40.27 for fiscal year 2026, an approval lasts two years or until your passport expires, an e-passport is mandatory, and each stay is capped at 90 days. One trap: anyone who has been in Cuba on or after 12 January 2021 loses the waiver and needs a regular visa, per the State Department.

What happens when you land at SEA?

Bags first, then passport control. Every international arrival at SEA goes through the International Arrivals Facility, where you collect checked luggage before the CBP booths, even if you are connecting. The Port of Seattle says processing can take 60 minutes or longer at peak times, especially between 10:00 and 15:00, and recommends three hours for any onward connection. Ticos usually meet this queue elsewhere: SEA’s nonstop list, updated 13 May 2026, includes Liberia but not San José, so most flights from the Central Valley connect through a US hub, where you clear immigration. Europeans flying nonstop from London, Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Munich, Barcelona, Rome, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Reykjavik or Istanbul clear here; Dublin passengers clear before boarding.

From arrivals, the Link station is up on the fourth floor and across the skybridge to the garage, with a free shuttle from 05:00 to midnight; Uber and Lyft pick up on the garage’s third floor, and rental counters are off site, a five-minute free shuttle from the lower drive.

How do you get from the airport to Kirkland?

By car up I-405, or by train and bus with one change. A rental is simplest with luggage: 22 miles and about 28 minutes without traffic per Distance Cities, and longer in the weekday rush. By transit, take the 1 Line north to the University of Washington station and change to Metro route 255, which crosses SR 520 and runs through downtown Kirkland and Juanita to Totem Lake on its August 2026 to March 2027 schedule. Or change downtown to the 2 Line, which has run across I-90 to Bellevue since 28 March 2026, and take a Metro bus from there. Kirkland has no rail station; Stride S2 bus rapid transit with Kirkland stops is planned for 2029.

SR 520 is tolled both ways: WSDOT’s Good To Go rate reaches $4.90 on weekdays from 7:00 to 10:00 and 15:00 to 19:00, and paying by mail adds $2 per crossing, which a rental company forwards with its own fee. I-90, a few miles south, is free.

How does public transit work once you are here?

One flat fare, one tap. An adult Link ride costs $3.00 regardless of distance, a King County Metro bus ride is also $3.00 since 1 September 2025, and riders 18 and under travel free on both. Tap a contactless card on the reader, buy an ORCA card that works across the region, or use the Transit GO Ticket app; machines take cash and cards. On Link you pay before you board. Weekday trains run every 8 minutes in the peaks and every 10 midday; the ORCA day pass is $6.00.

The ferries are the best cheap view of the city. Washington State Ferries collects the Seattle to Bainbridge Island walk-on fare in Seattle only, $11.35 for an adult on 16 September 2026, youth free, and the crossing takes about 35 minutes; a standard car and driver is $27.00 each way. Be aboard five minutes before sailing on foot, or in the tollbooth line 20 minutes before with a car; boarding is first come, first served, with no Wi-Fi on board.

What should you see: Pike Place, Mount Rainier and Woodinville?

Pike Place Market for a morning, Mount Rainier for a full day, and Woodinville because it is 10 minutes from the house. Pike Place has run since 1907 on nine acres between 1st Avenue and Western Avenue; most stalls are active from 10:00 to 17:00, produce and seafood open at 7:00, closing only on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Go by transit: the market warns that vehicle access to Pike Place is limited from 10:00 daily under a pilot running through the summer of 2026.

Mount Rainier’s Nisqually entrance at Ashford is 85 miles from SEA, per the National Park Service. A private vehicle pass costs $30.00 for seven days, the park takes no cash, and on summer weekends the Paradise and Sunrise lots fill by late morning, so arrive early or come on a weekday. From 1 November the road from Longmire to Paradise closes every night and every vehicle must carry tire chains. As of September 2026 the park asks for an entrance pass and lists no timed-entry reservation, but summer rules at US parks change by season, so check nps.gov/mora the week you go. Woodinville is in our Kirkland guide: more than 130 wineries in four districts, 10 minutes from Juanita.

What is the weather like compared with home?

Warmer than San José in July and much colder in January. NOAA’s 1991 to 2020 normals for SeaTac put the July average high at 25.2 °C with a 13.8 °C low, and January at 8.9 °C and 3.2 °C. The Instituto Meteorológico Nacional gives the western Central Valley, where San José sits at about 1,100 m, an average high of 26.7 °C and a low of 16.5 °C with almost no seasonal swing, so a Tico’s July here feels like home and a December week needs a real coat. Rain is the reverse of what you know: about 2,300 mm a year falls on the western Valle Central, while SeaTac’s normals add up to roughly 1,000 mm spread thin from October to March, with only 15.2 mm in all of July. Northern Europeans will recognize the winter; Spaniards will find the summer familiar.

How much do things cost, and how do sales tax and tipping work?

More than the price tag says. Washington State adds sales tax at the register: the state rate is 6.5% plus a local share, which the Department of Revenue’s lookup puts at 10.4% in Kirkland and 10.55% in downtown Seattle for the third quarter of 2026. Grocery food is exempt by state law; prepared food, soft drinks and bottled water are not. There is no tax-free shopping for foreign tourists: the nonresident refund covers only residents of a few US states and Canadian provinces, and SEA Airport cannot process refund requests.

Tipping is expected at table-service restaurants, bars, taxis, rideshares and hair salons, and the card terminal proposes percentages. Unlike a Costa Rican bill, where the service charge is already included by law, nothing is added for you here. Washington State’s minimum wage is $17.13 an hour in 2026 and employers may not count tips toward it, so the tip sits on top of a full wage; it is still the custom. Cards work almost everywhere, including transit and the park gates, and Visit Seattle lists currency exchange in SEA’s central terminal if you land with euros.

What else feels different?

The clock. Seattle keeps Pacific Time and moves it forward on 8 March and back on 1 November in 2026, per NIST, while Costa Rica stays six hours behind UTC all year, so Seattle is one hour behind San José in summer and two in winter; central Europe is nine hours ahead and the United Kingdom eight. Costa Rican plugs match the US; Europeans need a flat-pin adapter, and most chargers already accept US voltage. Signs use miles and forecasts Fahrenheit, and shops open on Sundays.

Where to stay

Juanita Beach Home is ours, the remodeled upper floor of a house in the Juanita neighborhood of Kirkland: three bedrooms with a king bed, two bathrooms with heated floors, a full kitchen, washer and dryer, a 24,000 BTU air conditioner for July and August and a covered deck with a fire pit for the other ten months. It sleeps six, pets are welcome, and the rate starts at $348 a night with a two-night minimum. It is our only home outside Costa Rica and suits a family visiting the Eastside, a couple mixing Seattle with Rainier and the wineries, or a long work stay that wants a quiet street and a driveway. Tell us where you are flying from and we send the arrival notes that fit, from the nearest 255 stop to which ferry to take on a clear day.