I'd say that you would miss out on some things by not renting a car. I know plenty of people up here get around but before I moved here I tried doing public transportation only and this is what I found:
It took a long time to get places. There is not much by way of light rail; it's mostly bus.
Once I was to an island, I was restricted to walking distance. Maybe some have public transport but I never saw anything so my radius was restricted to a couple of miles.
The airport, as with most places, is about 15 miles from downtown. Maybe it's a bit less, maybe more like 10. But still, it's long enough to make it cumbersome.
WA and Seattle have FAR better transportation than Los Angeles which is where I'm from but far less of a sophisticated system than Boston, NY, San Francisco, Portland, and even San Diego.
It could be workable, with some research. I wouldn't want to do it but then again I'm lazy. I LOVE those airports where I can just walk outside and get on a rail system.
If you were serious about WA, I'd maybe post some questions in the NW section. There are people with more experience up here than I have



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