dina4

Our daughter is in moving into to her dorm at Georgetown, and we need to do go to Bed Bath and Beyond (near Chinatown) and Best Buy and Target (Columbia Heights). I checked online and there is underground parking for each, but I'm wondering how expensive cabs are...
Renting a car will cost about $100 plus parking fees at the hotel in Georgetown.

If you have any sense as to how much cabs would cost back and forth from these places, please let me know.

thanks!!

Lynn_Gibson

Take cabs. Washington, DC is one of the worst cities I have driven in.

vjpblovesitaly

You might be able to find an online taxi fare estimator. It will likely be less than the retnal and parking.

obxgirl

Pentagon City and Crystal City in VA are not far from Gtown and are more co located & have BB&B, Best Buy and Target stores. Take the circulator from Georgetown to Rosslyn and get cabs from there. Or Metro to Pentagon City/Center for at least one or two of the stores mentioned. Cabs elsewhere.

All in all, you'll probably spend $100 in cabs and aggravation.

Doesn't DC have those short term zip car rental things?

obxgirl

Or Metro to Pentagon City/Center. Metro from Rosslyn on the Blue Line.

MikeT

You have to register for a zip car to begin with, so it probably won't save you much money.

I'd just take cabs.

persimmondeb

Could you shop for this stuff locally and have it shipped to Georgetown? It'd probably save you money, and would certainly save you time and aggravation.

dina4

Thanks so much for all the responses. Shipping would be pretty expensive, actually, and we're buying a lot of stuff so don't want to take a bus or metro.
Really choosing between renting a car and taking cabs.

obxgirl,
did you mean the stores in VA are closer or easier to get to by car or cab?

thanks again!

kayd

The garage at Columbia Hts is ok, but parking in Chinatown would necessitate driving there, which no sane person (especially a visitor) would want to do. The maximum cabfare within the District is $19, and you would be travleling shorter distances with base fares of around $10 (add a dollar or two for extra passenger and temporary fuel surcharge). So your cost for four rides would be well under $100, and with much less hassle than car rental would involve.

MFNYC

hopstop.com has fare estimator for DC area.

kayd

Another thought, you could Metro between Chinatown and Col Hts (green and yellow lines serve both stations) if you don't load up with bulky stuff at the first location.
Gtown to Pentagon City is a bit farther, but would only amount to a few dollars more in cabfare.

NewbE

I would Metro to the stores -- agree that co-located stores at Pentagon City or Crystal City would be easiest to get to -- and taxi back. (Btw, GU is just a 10 minute walk from Rosslyn in VA; Chinatown is much farther. As a GU alum myself, I made that walk many a time!) Driving in the city is aggravating.

longhorn55

There is a Bed,Bath and Beyond at the Pentagon Row shopping center in Arlington (1101 South Joyce Street 22202). There is a Best Buy two blocks away at 1201 South Hayes Street 22202. You can reach these stores by the Metro to Pentagon City or, according to hopstop.com, the taxi fare would be under $10 from Georgetown University.

There is a Best Buy and a Target at the Potomac Yards Shopping Mall at 3671 Jefferson Davis Highway in Alexandria, VA which is about 3 miles away from Pentagon Row. The taxi fare is estimated to be around $8.

The taxi fare from Potomac Yards back to Georgetown is estimated at under $13.

So, for under $40 in taxi fare, you can reach all of the stores you want to shop. If you decide to rent a car, there is a large parking garage at Pentagon City Mall (fee) and there is plenty of free parking at Potomac Yards Shopping Center.

Pentagon Row: http://www.pentagonrow.com/shopping/
Pentagon City Mall: http://www.simon.com/mall/?id=157
Potomac Yards Shopping Center: http://www.mypotomacyard.com/directory_alpha.php

Christina

I would never go shopping in DC to Target or BBB, I'd go to the suburbs. Pentagon City area or Arlington are fine, above advice is good. You know Georgetown is right on the border of Virginia, it's the river. You just shouldn't drive cars around in the middle of DC to go shopping, and those are crummy areas anyway IMO. I don't like either one of them. That BBB doesn't seem like a very good store to me as I've been in it. I haven't been in the COl Hts Target, but there are Targets everywhere that would be a lot easier to get to by car.

BlueSwimmer

I agree- much easier to come over the bridge to northern Virginia to shop. Our stores are generally bigger and better stocked because we have cheaper land here

If you get a taxi to Potomac Yards as suggested above, note that we have lots of big chain stores (this is my neighborhood shopping center):

Target, Best Buy, Staples, TJ Maxx, Pier One, Old Navy, Barnes and Noble, Shoppers Food, movie theaters, and some low level restaurants. No Bed, Bath and Beyond- the closest is at Pentagon Row.

Lots of shopping in Pentagon Row too- World Market, DSW, BB &B, many small stores and cute restaurants. It backs up to the huge Pentagon City Mall with a Macy's and Nordstrom, and around the corner is a Marshalls.

You could also save by using metro to get to Crystal City, then taking the shuttle to Potomac Yards (http://www.wmata.com/bus/timetables/va/9s.pdf) then just take the taxi back with all your purchases. Another alternative is taking the metro to Pentagon City, from which you can walk through to Pentagon Row. Not sure if an undergrad can use it, but I have seen a Georgetown Law shopping shuttle bus at Potomac Yards often.

From Alexandria, call Alexandria Yellow Cabs- For me they are the best company out of Alexandria into DC.

MikeT

I don't see getting to Target in Columbia Heights to be all that complicated by cab from Gtown and will be a cheaper cab ride than going to Potomac Yard.

dina4

ok, looks like we're stuck with the BBB in chinatown, as that is where our local BBB in california shipped all of our stuff.

we can definitely go to to the target and best buy in Potomac Yard. But if we're taking a metro and then a cab, wouldn't it be cheaper/faster to just go to the one in the city? (30 min metro ride from rosslyn)
and is it more difficult to get a cab in the suburbs than in the city, when we're ready to go back?

definitely ditching the rental car at this point.
thanks so much for all the great info!

Christina

I don't know what you are buying at these places, if you can carry it in a bag, it doesn't matter where you go. I suppose if you go to the store by metro and then take a cab to leave, that could work. Didn't know you had to go to BBB in Chinatown, I don't even understand why you are doing that. There is a BBB in COlumbia Hts the same place as that Target.

yestravel

Too bad they shipped to the BBB at Gallery Place/Chinatown. Wonder if u could check with them and have it switched to Columbia Hgts where u could hit both BBB & Target. If u're stuck with Gallery Place/Chinatown BBB u could walk to the metro and metro it there and take a cab to Columbia Hgts and then back to Georgetown. Or just take a cab both ways. It won't be that expensive and I would think less for a taxi from Columbia Heights to Georgetown then from the 'burbs. Sorry, don't know about availability of taxis out there. For the metro, depending upon hotel location u maybe closer to the Foggy Bottom Blue Line stop than Rosslyn.

lcuy

They don't ship your stuff; they just have that BBB pull it off their shelves for you. Call and ask if they can change it to a more convenient branch.

After doing the college shopping thing three times (Portland, OR, Boston and NYC) I highly recommend that you go to a BBB, Target, etc., as far from other universities as possible. These urban stores get totally stripped because 25% of every college student in town is shopping there the same 4 days as you.