My family has the opportunity to go to Washington DC with my husband while he attends a conference at the Capital Hilton (1001 16th st). We would like to stay at the Renaissance Mayflower Hotel at 1127 Connecticut which I think is near 17th st). Since he would be walking to the conference early and late, is the area safe and does anyone have any comments about either hotel. Thanks in advance.

Hi

yes, sounds like the Hilton is at 16th & K, while the Mayflower is ROUGHLY 17th & K, more or less. (CT slices right through).

safe area, rather quiet at night - business district. a ten minute walk gets you to Dupont Circle which is full of restaurants and shops. you'll have that where you are as well, just not open so late.

Beth

ps. Mayflower is VERY nice. I imagine Hilton is too..

I have stayed there and it is a beautiful hotel. Would definitely recommend (in fact, I'm staying there again next week). I felt safe walking around during the day. Mainly cabbed it at night. Metro is close by.

The Mayflower is lovely! Washington is not particulary safe to walk in at night and never has been. We've done the monuments at night and though it's lovely I never felt safe. Prior to Sept 11th I was always looking over my shoulder; we haven't been downtown since the summer. Washigton is also a difficult city to navigate: it was laid out to confuse "the enemy" and it does.

Pat:

The Mayflower is an old renaissance type hotel. I use to go through the lobby, when I had to commute, in cold weather. I know that very famous people have stayed their like JFK and FDR and heads of state. I'd take a taxi from Hilton to Mayflower. Cabs are easy to hail in downtown and the fare shouldn't be that high.

Apologies to Kari, but the Conn avenue area is very safe for an urban area. (FYI, I live about 2 blocks away). One should always be aware of one's surroundings, and muggings can occur, but its a fairly busy area with restaurants, etc nearby, so crime is not much of a problem.

Thanks everyone for getting back to me. I was concerned about how long the walk between the hotels is since my husband will need to get there Very early and leave later, but As long as it is only a 5-10 minute walk, and since we live in Philly, I think we'll be fine. Thanks

Kari is wrong. The areas any tourist/conventioner will visit in Washington are as safe as any city in the US. Also the city is extremely easy to navigate, expecially on foot, because of the street numbering system. The grid design, with north-south streets numbered and east-west streets bearing letters, makes it easy to know exactly where an address is located, e.g., 1100 19th Street MUST be on the corner of L Street, 1250 19th in the bolck between M and N, etc. Once you grasp this, you need not be confused by the overlay of major diagonal avenues named after the states (the longest and most central are named for the original 13 states). Driving can be a challenge, though, because of the one-way streets and the circles where several diagonals converge with a grid intersection.