We stayed for nearly a week at the Walden and truly felt “at home” during our trip to Seattle. The house was very comfortable and had a charm and character that only a house of that vintage can offer. Our family of four had all the individual and communal space we needed to relax at the end of our site-seeing days. And we even were able to invite friends who were visiting Seattle at the same time over for dinner.
The kitchen is fully stocked with anything you might need, the living room is spacious, the house has the appropriate modern touches (nice TV, wi-fi), and bonuses are a lovely backyard with plenty of chairs and a grill, and full laundry facilities in the basement. And if you are a reader, the house has literally hundreds of books on hand.
Jeff was great about communicating quickly in response to any queries and to advise us on any “site visits” during our stay (piano tuner). Everything about the house and check-in was fully explained literally months before arrival — so zero stress about that.
The house is really in a terrific, quiet residential location only about 10-12 minutes’ drive from the main tourist core and downtown, with several good restaurants, bars, shops (and a Trader Joe’s) about 4 minutes away by car.
The big negative we quickly discovered about Seattle is the terrible parking situation. It will take you a few minutes each trip just to find parking—and will cost you $15-$20 on most occasions of longer than one hour.
TIP: Use Uber to get around during the day. There are so many in Seattle that it seldom takes more than 2-3 minutes to arrive at your location (including the Walden), and the round-trip cost will be about the same as that one-time parking charge. After the first day, we only used the car in the evenings to drive to Trader Joe’s, or for day trips outside the city.
Finally, the only downside of the Walden is the one shower. (It does have two bathrooms, but the upstairs master bath is only a 2-piece, toilet and sink.) Our family of four had to cycle through each morning to take showers. Not a huge deal for four family members, but for bigger families or groups, that single shower may be more difficult.
Overall, we loved the Walden and felt very comfortable there.