2 Week Family Vacation to Washington DC and NYC
 

Does anyone have any tips or advice on a trip to DC and NYC. My wife and I along with our two daughters ages 11 and 13, and my parents will be driving from Arkansas next summer. We would like to stay about 5-7 days in DC then take the train to NYC for 5-7 days then take the train back to DC and drive home. We would like to hit the high points of DC maybe take some tours and see the Smithsonians. In NYC we would like to see The Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, 911 memorial, maybe a Broadway show, and maybe Times Square. It would be nice to get a package deal with hotels, train tickets, tour tickets, and attraction tickets. Anyone got any tips, advice, or websites that would help?

This may help - Amtrak does help you bundle:
http://www.amtrak.com/hotels-cars-tr...rance-and-more
Are you sure you want to drive all the way to Washington?

Thanks! I may need to look at flying, but with 6 people round trip driving will probably save us a few thousand.

There's no real need for "package "deals in D.C. as most of the attractions are free and the best way to see the city is on foot--not on a tour bus.

One thing to consider in D.C. is your accommodations. With a large group like yours, you will either need several hotel rooms or a house to rent. If you go to the Washington, D.C forum on Trip Advisor, there is a D.C. expert named "VictoriaM" who knows a lot about VRBO houses in D.C. If you want several hotel rooms, you might want to consider these three "budget-priced" hotels in Arlington, Virginia (which is just across the Potomac River from D.C.): 1) Holiday Inn Rosslyn @ Key Bridge, 2) Best Western Iwo Jima and 3) the Americana Hotel. Each of these hotels offer free parking which will save you a good chunk of change. (Almost all hotels in or near D.C. charge for parking.)

Another thing to consider is your transportation to and in D.C. If you stay in any of the Arlington hotels (or even if you stay in D.C. itself), you will need a way to get to the attractions. Generally, I would recommend people ditch the car and take Metro, but that would get prohibitively expensive with your large group. Instead, if you are in Arlington (or anywhere not near the attractions), I would recommend you drive and park in a convenient D.C. parking garage. (Don't even THINK about street parking except on Sundays when the meters are not enforced. The parking rules in D.C. are difficult to figure out and the enforcement is RABID!) Anyway, two good affordable places to park are Union Station and the Ronald Reagan Building. You can also check BestParking.com for more parking garages and rates.

Longhorn gives you good advice. Also, your car will come in handy should you take a daytrip to any of the great related sites in Virginia, ie Mount Vernon, Alexandria, Civil War battlefields. I also suggest that since you have a car, you drive to Arlington Cemetery, if that is on your itinerary.

I'd consider driving to New York rather than taking the train. Even with the cost of parking 5-7 days (even at $50 a day), it will be less expensive than round-trip train tickets for 6 people.

>>If you go to the Washington, D.C forum on Trip Advisor, there is a D.C. expert named "VictoriaM" who knows a lot about VRBO houses in D.C<<

Are you VictoriaM?

Buying "tour" packages in NYC is a really bad idea. They only bundle together a lot of things that most people don;t want.

Much better to pick out exactly what you want and just decide what you want and do them. The "passes" don't make sense financially - it's practically impossible to go to enough places to cover the cost. And while they may promise "no lines" - very few places actually have lines. And you can get your own advance tickets to the few places that have lines (SofL) and ESB (but really Top of the Rock) is better views and you can time your visit to see the city in both daylight and night.

Consider taking the bus to NYC from DC. I've done it many times and it's far, far cheaper than the train. I like Bolt Bus (wi fi!) but there are several lines that run this route. It's always neat to see the skyline when you first drive into NYC.

Not all parking is hugely expensive in Manhattan, and some hotels do have parking discounts. The Travel Inn Hotel provides free parking (but may not be your first choice for where you want to stay).

Bestparking.com is useful for identifying parking options all over Manhattan.

I agree that the discount tourist passes usually aren't the best option.

Travel Inn, the only hotel in Manhattan with free parking, is on the far west side.

Icon parking also has a ton of facilities all over town - and you can reserve spaces in advance.

No, Obxgirl, I am not "VictoriaM". But I have read her comments about vacation homes in D.C. on Trip Advisor and she seems to know a lot about them. I, on the other hand, do not know about them so that's why I made the referral suggestion.

Hi Jason. Not to harp on the car thing for too long, but where in DC are you going to leave the car while you are in NYC? I only ask because if you are going to have to pay to park in DC while you are gone, you may want to just drive to NY and park there. Amtrak is expensive between NY and DC, and if you drive, you don't have to be concerned with getting back to DC to get your car. I am from NYC and have also lived in DC, and I know it is no picnic to drive in either city, but once you get here (NY), you can just garage the car and forget about it. Just a suggestion! I also agree that there is not really any advantage to getting a package deal for sights, etc. You should just decide what you want to see and go for it. The only thing I would recommend buying in advance is Broadway tickets if there is a particular show you really want to see. You have picked two great cities to visit, and I know you will enjoy the trip!

I would suggest you do an advanced Google Search of this site regarding "parking New York City" because the question has come up before, but since I did not have to park a car in Manhattan, I didn't pay attention to the best options.

We did rent a car to drive from New York to DC and we found this drive fairly straightforward. Even with the tolls, gas and one-day rental, it was still a better deal. The train + a taxis to the train station and to the 2nd hotel was much more expensive for our family of 5. Yes (We did have larger suitcases, because we were gone two weeks.

My family was insistent on the Empire State Building over going to Top of the Rock (at Rockefeller Center). If you do decide to go to the ESB, NYTraveler's advice to pre-buy the tickets saved us at least a half hour in line. My kids were thrilled to walk past that throng of people.

Thanks everyone for the very useful information! I will definitely consider these options. I'm glad I found this forum!

>>If you go to the Washington, D.C forum on Trip Advisor, there is a D.C. expert named "VictoriaM" who knows a lot about VRBO houses in D.C<<

SHe doesn't know a lot about VRBO houses, how could she, unless she personally owned them? I think she lives in DC so can comment on the locations of them, that's all. And she knows the owner of one of them, that's it. She has had posts removed for various reasons, also, due to inappropriateness, not sure if she was advertising or promoting her friend's places or what.

I have to agree with not purchasing a packaged deal. We purchased a packaged deal in NYC and the hotel was horrible. Because they could not determine what we paid for the hotel, they could not give us our money back. At least that is the excuse we got.