I appreciate any help on locating a hotel to stay in during our short first time visit to Washington D.C. We are only staying 3 days and have been told the best place to stay is in Arlington. Looking for something convenient to Metro stations in mid-price range. Like to be by good restaruants also - lots of night life not neccessary.

Julieann, the area of Arlington (which actually is a county, not a city, with different named communities which people often refer to as if they were separate cities)) where people visiting DC choose especially often for a combination of making their dollar go farther and still being close to the city is called Rosslyn. From there, it's just a short and scenic walk across the Key Bridge to the heart of Georgetown, and from the Rosslyn metro station, within walking distance of all the hotels there, it's only one stop, less than five minutes' ride, to the station for the interesting Foggy Bottom/West End neighborhood of DC, and the Metro stations for nearly all the major sights can be reached within 15 minutes.

There have been quite a few threads in this forum recently on Rosslyn's hotels and restaurants, including one I've posted on tonight, so type Rosslyn in the search box and you'll find a lot of advice, including mine. What's there are mostly unexciting but decent and relatively (compared to DC) inexpensive chain hotels. There's a Hyatt, A Marriott, a Holiday Inn, a Best Western, and a Quality Inn.

A lot of people on this site seem to want to push Old Town Alexandria as an alternative to Rosslyn as a place to stay for the person seeking to stay in Virginia near Metro to save money on accommodations. And it's true that Old Town Alexandria is a delightful place, and much more interesting in itself than Rosslyn is. But if money and time are both short, you should know that it will probably be more expensive, and is definitely a considerably longer Metro ride to the major DC sights, than Rosslyn is.

My favorite is still the Crowne Plaza in Crystal City. Next National airport and close to Metro.

Thanks so much for the reply. I will search through Rosslyn.

I also like the Rosslyn area, as a good compromise to cost vs. convenience. Most often I've stayed at the Quality Inn Iwo Jima. I know there's some hotels the look to be convenient to the Metro the next few stops west on Orange Line (Clarendon, Court), but haven't checked them. Have stayed at a few of the Glebe Rd places (Econolodge, BW) but too far from transit to suit me. Alexandria is a nice place too, especially if you wish to walk & windowshop at night, while Crystal City isn't much unlike Rosslyn.

How far is the Quality Inn Iwo Jima from the Metro? Walking distance? Thanks

I estimate about 1/2 mile. See map

http://www.stationmasters.com/System.../rosslyns.html

I would estimate QI to be about 300' south of that arrow "to Q.I.I.J." - as you can see there's closer hotels. QI in on the NE corner of Arlington & Pierce St. next door, on NW corner is Motel 50, an older hotel that looked ok as I walked around it, but for the priced I've found for QI, I've not ventured to the other.