C. Foreman

Help! We are arriving at Baltimore Washington Airport about 4:30 p.m. next Wednesday. Our hotel that night is in downtown Wash. D.C. Any advice on routes to take, avoiding rush hour traffic, etc.? Should we eat dinner near the airport and wait until after rush hour to travel to D.C.? Or is there a better alternative?

chris

The Baltimore Washington area is one of the most traffic congested areas in the country. That said, it's only 30 miles from BWI airport to downtown Washington.
In normal rush hour traffic, it should take you a little over an hour. Or you could wait until about 7:30PM and cut down drive time to about 40 minutes. Take I-195 from the airport to Baltimore Washington Parkway (avoid I-95 to I-495). Alternately, look into taking the MARC train.

washingtonian

I agree, take the MARC train. It's about half an hour to Union Station from there, and you'll be oh-so glad you avoided all that traffic. It runs about once every half hour until 8pm or so. If you really must rent a car, get one while in DC (although it's really more of a headache in downtown then an asset).

KenCT

I take the MARC train regularly now, but there are two things that I wish someone had told me. (1) You need to take a (free) shuttle bus from BWI to the Amtrak station. It's only about fifteen minutes, but if you have a lot of luggage, it can get complicated. (2) MARC is a commuter train, so it runs only on week days. Since you're coming in on a Wednesday, you're fine, but if you're returning to BWI on a Saturday or Sunday, you're going to have to do additional planning.

diane

You might enjoy driving into Baltimore--to the HarborPlace area--for dinner (assuming you have a car). It's an interesting place to walk around, even if you're too late in the day to visit the aquarium or other spots, and they have several good restaurants. Do a search on Baltimore for specific suggestions of places to eat. Then when you leave to drive to D.C., the rush hour traffic will be over.

Ruth

Assuming that you are committed to driving to DC, I'd just head into town as soon as you pick up your rental car. You'll be going against the main flow of rush hour traffic and I'd much rather have dinner in downtown DC than near the airport. Take the Baltimore Washington Parkway south (it's an exit from the airport access road) all the way until it splits into Rt. 50 New York Avenue to the right and Rt. 295 Richmond to the left. Take the right and follow New York Avenue into town. There's construction going on there and there may be delays, but it's still the easiest way for folks unfamiliar with DC.