Kirkland, WA

Why stay in Kirkland?

Kirkland is the lakefront city on the east shore of Lake Washington, 20 miles from SeaTac and 12 miles from Seattle across the SR 520 bridge per Explore Kirkland. Sleep here when your reason for coming is on the Eastside: family in the suburbs, a week at Microsoft or Google, a wedding in Woodinville. Its downtown sits on the water, with Marina Park’s beach and dock a five-minute walk from the restaurants. Our one house here, Juanita Beach Home, is in the Juanita neighborhood at the north end of the city, near the beach park, the hospital and the wineries.

Families and visiting relatives are who it fits best: a whole floor, a kitchen, a deck with a fire pit and parking, instead of two hotel rooms in Bellevue.

How do you get to Kirkland from SEA?

Drive I-405 north and exit at NE 85th Street for downtown. Distance Cities puts the trip at 22 miles and about 28 minutes without traffic, more like 31 minutes to Juanita per Rome2rio. Weekday afternoons on I-405 are slow, so allow extra. From downtown Seattle, the SR 520 bridge is tolled in both directions: WSDOT’s Good To Go pass rate is $4.90 in the weekday peaks (7 to 10 and 15 to 19), $3.95 midday and $2.95 most of the weekend, and paying by mail costs $2 more per crossing. Visitors can open a temporary Good To Go account that closes itself within 90 days.

How many nights do you need?

As many as the visit needs; the house has a two-night minimum. A long weekend covers the lake, Woodinville and a Seattle day. A working week suits it better still, since Redmond, Bellevue and Google Kirkland are all under 20 minutes away by car outside rush hour, and the house has a workspace, a dishwasher and a washer and dryer.

What is there to do?

Juanita Beach Park. 21.9 acres and 1,000 feet of shoreline at 9703 NE Juanita Drive. There is a swimming area enclosed by a U-shaped dock, lifeguards daily from noon to 18:00 between 1 July and 7 September 2026, a bathhouse and accessible playground rebuilt in 2020, an off-leash dog area and the Juanita Friday Market from 15:00 to 19:00, June through September. Check the city’s beach page first: King County closes the swim area when bacteria counts are high, as it did on 15 September 2026.

Juanita Bay Park. 110.8 acres of wetland at 2201 Market Street with boardwalks over the marsh. The city’s wildlife guide counts nearly 200 bird species, plus painted turtles, herons, eagles, beavers and otters, on about 2 miles of flat trail. Free ranger walks run on the first Sunday of each month at 13:00 and Eastside Audubon leads a bird walk on the third Tuesday.

Downtown Kirkland and Marina Park. A 3.6-acre park at 25 Lakeshore Plaza with a public dock, a sandy beach and the summer concert series, surrounded by the restaurants, galleries and the Kirkland Performance Center. The Wednesday Market runs there from June to September.

The Cross Kirkland Corridor. A 5.75-mile crushed-gravel rail trail from the South Kirkland Park and Ride through downtown to Totem Lake, part of the Eastrail. Walk or ride it to dinner.

Woodinville Wine Country. 8 miles and about 10 minutes from Kirkland per Distance Cities, and about 5 minutes from the house to the main wineries and breweries of the area. More than 130 wineries in four districts, with Chateau Ste. Michelle, Washington State’s oldest winery, at 14111 NE 145th Street.

Saint Edward State Park. About 10 km up Juanita Drive in Kenmore: 326 acres of forest and 3,000 feet of lakeshore around a 1931 seminary building, open 8:00 to dusk, Discover Pass required ($10 a day, $45 a year).

Seattle. 12 miles over the bridge, or bus 255 to the University of Washington station and Link light rail downtown without touching the toll.

When should you go?

July and August are the dry, warm months. NOAA’s 1991 to 2020 normals for SeaTac give July an average high of 77.4 °F, a low of 56.8 °F and 0.60 inches of rain, and August 77.6 °F and 0.97 inches. The lifeguard season and the farmers markets match. November to January are the wet months, with 5.7 to 6.3 inches a month and highs of 47 to 52 °F. The lake is still beautiful then, and the house has heated bathroom floors and a fire pit on the deck, so a winter family visit works; just not a swimming one.

Where do you eat, and what about groceries and hospitals?

Downtown Kirkland’s restaurants cluster on the waterfront around Marina Park and at Kirkland Urban, the 11-acre development with a QFC supermarket and dozens of restaurants per Explore Kirkland, and there are shopping centers near the house in Juanita. We send our current list on WhatsApp. EvergreenHealth Kirkland, a 318-bed hospital, is at Totem Lake beside I-405, minutes from the house. Everything takes cards, and restaurant tipping is expected as everywhere in the United States.

A whole floor near the lake: how we host here

Juanita Beach Home is the remodeled upper floor of a house in Juanita: three bedrooms with a king bed, two bathrooms with heated floors, a full kitchen with a dishwasher, a washer and dryer, a workspace, a strong 24,000 BTU air conditioner in the living room for the summer weeks, and a deck with a fire pit that is yours alone. It sleeps up to six, from $348 a night with a two-night minimum, and is rated 4.82 by 71 guests on Airbnb (checked September 2026). The owner lives in the independent unit downstairs and looks after the place; you get the front door and two tandem parking spaces on the driveway. Pets are welcome. Self check-in is set up and our local tips arrive before you land. It is our only home outside Costa Rica, on the third of the three seas the name refers to. The guide to a week here is Kirkland for Seattle and Eastside visitors.