Amtrak and Washington DC hotels. Please help
 

My husband and I are planning on going to Raleigh, NC early October to visit our son. We then thought of taking the train to visit Washington DC. I have 2 questions, first of all do we need to make advance reservations for the Amtrak and has anyone done this type of trip before.

Second question is I'm looking at hotels around DC and everything comes up over $200. We wanted to stay 4 to 5 nights, I'm dying here. We only want something clean and easy access to the Metro to get into DC, am I asking for too much.

Also, would it be better to make these hotel reservations at the last minute to get better deals.

The train is only if you're up for an adventure and time isn't important to you. It will take at least 6 hrs. because it goes way east to Rocky Mount before it goes north, and it moves over to a sideline every time a freight wants to go by. Have NEVER been on time on this train. However, the drive into DC is a bit hairy, too, and once you're there, a car is an albatross hanging on you. Just sayin'. No need to get advance reservations, usually (depends on day of the week) but I would anyway, and consider springing for "business class" just to get a guaranteed seat and the amenity of an overhead TV screen. WARNING: They don't provide earphones, so bring yours (from an airplane or whatever).

Stay in Rosslyn -- cheaper -- and use something like travelocity, hotels.com, or quikbook to find decent rates. Be SURE you either belong to AAA or are eligibile for AARP/senior discount (ditto for Amtrak) -- it'll help.

October is a very busy time of the year, usually, altho may not be as bad with the elections because everyone will be out of town. A $200 is actually pretty reasonable.

As Cassandra suggested, staying outside of DC proper may be an option. Rosslyn is a good choice, so is Crystal City. There are some hotels around Courthouse and Ballston that are very close to the Metro.

Check for hotels in these various parts of Arlington, Virginia. They all have a Metro stop, so it will be easy and relatively quick to get into D.C. : Rosslyn, Courthouse, Ballston, Crystal City, Pentagon City.

You could also fly into Reagan Natl and be a short distance from downtown DC.

As for hotels my advice would be to use Priceline bidding and bid on Dupont Circle, Convention Center, Georgetown in that order. Dupont Circle is great as there are many good hotels and restaurants, second would be the Convention Center area and third would be Georgetown as it's a bit more removed from Metro (subway) and activities. You might just hit a nice hotel for around $100 but you don;t say when in October you're looking for.

Oh, you can also look at the hotels that are on winning bids by looking at biddingfortravel.com and there you'll see Hyatt and Westin listed and the prices that are winning.

Arlington, Rosslyn, Alexandria are also very close neighbors of DC. it will take longer getting into sightsee and to leave the city.

Please stay away from any bidding on Northeast DC.

We're planning on being in DC around October 7. The only thing about bidding with priceline is you don't know what you're getting until it comes up and that's pretty scary.

Maybe we should fly from Durham Airport, NC into DC, either way we'll be waiting in the airport and the train is a lot cheaper. Not sure what to do now.

I just booked the Residence Inn at Pentagon City based on fodorite recommendations. It was $169/night + taxes in August. It is also number one on tripadvisor.

There are two recent threads discussing this hotel. One has Residence Inn (or was it "RI"?)in the title, the other was a trip report something like "65,900 steps in DC".

Please listen to Cassandra's advice about the train. If you like that kind of travel, great, but for me it's like slow death. You will effectively spend 2 full days travelling. That is a lot more time than you'll spending waiting at the airport.

Reagan is the most convenient airport to fly into but you'll pay a premium for that. If you fly into BWI you can do it for under $200 r/t. Southwest has special fares that may go as low as $100-$120 r/t. Public transport into DC is a little inconvenient but doable.

Drive time from Raleigh to DC is 5 hours (ish). If you're any kind of an urban driver you'll be fine. I agree, tho, that having a car in DC isn't necessary and parking can be a pain and an expense. Not to mention what the price of gas may be by October!

I agree with Ryan that $200 a night is pretty reasonable in October. I'd make a cancelable reservation now and keep watching for special rates.

Also don't dismiss Priceline. Looking at the hotels in the Arlington area (which includes most of the Virginia spots people have recommended), the only one I wouldn't stay in is the Virginia Suites (is that now knows as the Inn of Rosslyn?) but even that would meet your "clean and easy DC access" criteria.

You could try it train up and plane back (or vice versa). I actually enjoy what you see out the window of the train as you come into Alexandria and DC -- the monuments, the back waters of the river, the Capitol.

It's ridiculous how much they load up the RDU-DCA (National) airfare, but by the time you connect from BWI to the commuter train into the city, it's kind of a trek.

One last idea: Drive to Richmond and (assuming there's reasonable parking there, somewhere) take the train from there to DC.

I would not be taking the train both ways, only from North Carolina to DC so that would be only 1 day. My husband says he wants to see the sights, hopefully there are sights to see from NC to DC. My preference would be to fly and his mind seems to be set.

Is there any positive comments on taking the train.

>>Is there any positive comments on taking the train.<<

1. It's pretty cheap.

2. You'll finish that Monster Book of Sudoku you got for Christmas.

I'm not clear on what sights your husband expects to see en route. It's pleasant in parts, industrial in others, and somewhat boring in still others. The visuals Cassandra describes in her 12:58 post is literally the last 10-15 minutes of the trip.

Sorry, I missed the part where you said you were only doing a one way NC to DC.

Take heart re: not flying, because you could easily spend 4 hrs. stuck waiting to take off, and the connection time between BWI and Union Station in DC including waiting for the train could be 2+ hrs. The drive time NC to DC is really about 4 1/2 hrs. unless you get caught in a snarl.

The train, however, can also be sidelined (literally -- the source of the term), and Rocky Mount is pretty dismal. Really not sure what your husband thinks he's doing to see out the window, but it's true that most of it isn't like Newark Swamps outside NYC!

Take heart re: not flying, because you could easily spend 4 hrs. stuck waiting to take off, and the connection time between BWI and Union Station in DC including waiting for the train could be 2+ hrs. The drive time NC to DC is really about 4 1/2 hrs. unless you get caught in a snarl.

The train, however, can also be sidelined (literally -- the source of the term), and Rocky Mount is pretty dismal. Really not sure what your husband thinks he's doing to see out the window, but it's true that most of it isn't like Newark Swamps outside NYC!

Tell us again -- why only one way? Are you returning? How?

Only one way because we are flying out of Orange County to visit my son in Raleigh, NC, since we're so close to DC and we have the time we figured we would go there. From DC we are flying back to Orange County. So, the dilemma is how to get from Raleigh, NC to Washington DC.

Oh, and if we flew it would be out of Durham, NC to Reagan National.

Try the Lombardy Hotel. It's about 4 blocks from the White House and has been reliable and inexpensive. It's on Penna Avenue and is European in flavor...small with food avail....onsite....easy traveling around and a couple blocks from Metro, which comes directly from National airport.

Raleigh or Durham...it's the same airport (RDU). As noted, you'll definitely pay more to fly into Reagan. But it may well be worth the convenience for you.

Given your new information about leaving out of DC, I'd rent a car in Raleigh, drop it off at Reagan National and take the Metro an Arlington hotel. Crystal and Pentagon City are a stop or two away. Ballston and Rosslyn are not much further. The cost to drive probably won't be much more than the price of 2 train tickets and you'll have the flexibility of stopping to enjoy the scenery. And you'll almost certainly still beat the train to DC.

If you drive in Orange County you're not going to have problems driving in Northern Virginia.

"If you drive in Orange County you're not going to have problems driving in Northern Virginia."

Assuming you know Northern Virginia as well as you know OC. Otherwise, good ruddy luck.

I think I qualified this earlier in the thread.

If you're confident driving in an urban metro area, No Va will not be especially challenging.

Getting to Reagan Natl from I-95 is not that hard.

My husband's argument is that it's about the same time frame to drive or take a train. He said on the train he could relax and see scenery, even though you guys are saying there's no scenery.

Oh, there's scenery -- it's not the salt flats -- it's just not particularly remarkable scenery, unless you're coming from salt flats, I suppose. Trees. Little towns, more down-at-heels than quaint. Roads. Farm fields. A few drought-stricken ponds. And the outskirts of Richmond. *shrug* -- I forgot where you're coming from, so I don't know whether this area of the country will be a new experience for you.

October is a lovely time to visit (as it is in pretty much ANY part of the US), although you won't see the kind of changing-leaves color you might see further north.

Let us know if you have more questions about the Raleigh area -- sounds like this might be your first visit out here.

October is a peak hotel rate season in DC because the Fall business and political season gets back in swing. Prices of hotels in DC vary a lot depending on if it is a holiday and whether weekday or weekend. Weekends are a lot cheaper because business people go home. So if you only want to come for a few days, it will help a lot if two of those are on the weekend, I imagine. I think you should be able to find something at that rate, though. You might get a better deal last minute, but you might get a worse one, you never know.

I wouldn't count on the elections for anything. Everyone is not on the stump for elections and the people who stay in hotels are not out campaigning much, anyway--they are lawyers, lobbyists, consultants, businesspeople, etc. It won't even be noticeable, I bet, in terms of hotel vacancies.

Not sure of your date, but if you look on quikbook.com, for example for a stay starting October 3rd (friday), you can find several choices under $200 a night for Friday-Sat nights, and somethings Sun, it's just Monday+ where thay go up $100 a night. For example, River Inn in Foggy Bottom is only $159 a night F-Sun ($259 Mon), One Washington Circle is $199 a night for F-Sun ($259 Mon), etc. Georgetown Inn is $169 every day for some reason.

I know nothing about Raleigh, my son lives in Morrisville, is there anything to do there. We were basically going to visit him and our grandchildren for a couple of days. If there's nice things to see maybe we'll stay longer.

As far as staying in DC for the weekend for better rates that's not going to happen. We plan on flying to Raleigh on October 4 and probably going to DC on October 6 or 7. That means we would be spending 5 to 6 nights. That's one of the reasons I didn't want to pay a fortune.

A couple of comments:

1) We flew in folks from RDU for a meeting here last week and the fares were not that different from IAD and BWI. DCA is always the first choice for domestic trip.

And for non-stops from Raleigh, DCA can be cheaper than Dulles. To get a cheap fare to either usually involves connections that double travel time. Non-stops into BWI are often around $100 on SWA.

2) But BWI is not that bad.
<i> the connection time between BWI and Union Station in DC including waiting for the train could be 2+ hrs.</i>
Not that likely. I do this often to my office DT. If you're outside of MARC hours, there's the express bus to Metro. Or a shuttle.

3) A one-way car rental -- if you can find one without substantial drop fees -- is a pretty good option, especially if you can drop it at Union Station (or even National Airport and grab Metro). Budget is showing a full-size for $90.

4) Driving into DC is not that bad, especially if you drive in SoCal. Get a rental with a GPS -- usually about $10/day.

5) If you don't go Priceline, there are plenty of places under $200 that are Metro accessible, but there's a direct relationship between price and convenience. Rosslyn is a nicer option than Pentagon City or Crystal City because you can easily walk across the river to Georgetown.

6) Priceline is scary the first time you use it, but if you do the research at biddingfortravel, you can narrow down the odds nicely.

My suggestion: Take a nice drive.

Morrisville is a satellite town (not exactly a suburb but almost, has some airline offices, shipping offices, etc.) of Raleigh and Cary, just on the other side of I-40 from the airport -- and I-40 connects Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill. So there's a fair amount to do, actually, in the area, just by heading out of Morrisville.

There are a couple of children's-type museums (Life and Science, etc. -- see the butterfly house http://www.carrboro.com/butterflyhouse.html) in the area, the zoo isn't that far and it's a good one, and poking around the Duke and UNC-CH campuses. You also could do lots worse than heading up into the mountains or out to the shore -- October can be so nice.

Once you get over your initial fear of Priceline you'll learn it's great for large cities. We always bid hotels in large cities whether it's Seattle, San Fran, DC, Munich, Berlin, Frankfurt, Vienna, Rome, or London. Also we only bid for 4 stars and study the areas well to decide where we'd like to stay. Couple that with Bidding for travel and we've always had satisfactory hotels. Quite often we've stayed in the better Marriotts, Hilton, and Hyatts.

I'd like to know if anyone has stayed at any chain hotels like Days Inn, they're at several location. Just wondering why the Best Westerns and other cheaper chains are not mentioned, or maybe they are and I have not seen them.

Does anyone know if one those cheaper chain hotels are at a good location, not too far from the metro. We don't mind walking 10 to 15 minutes to the metro but not much further than that.

If you want to find out what's near the Metro, check out the maps at stationmasters.com. I think the link is &quot;Hotels&quot; and it shows the hotels and Metro stations, among other resources. the chain hotels tend to be farther out, and car-oriented, but perhaps some are handy.

As the others have mentioned, you'd be better-off just using Priceline to bid for a close zone and taking whatever they give you.

This stationmaster sight really helps, thank you.

I don't know why someone said the Lombardy Hotel was reasonable, it's almost $300 per night. WOW!

You should be very careful in choosing locations in DC.

deedeezee is absolutely right. I don't think I'd trust Priceline for DC without a LOT of homework, just because neighborhoods can change from one side of the street to the other, and there are pretty upscale hotels in some really iffy places.

Upscale hotels in &quot;very iffy places&quot;? How about some examples?

I'm from Raleigh and live in DC. I agree that the view is nothing spectacular on that train ride. But there are some small towns, fields, etc. and it can be relaxing just to sit and read and let someone else be responsible for getting you there, as long as you don't have a timetable.

Amtrak is generally reasonable - you should book in advance, and use the AAA discount. Check for other specials as well. As long as you have no expectations about how long the trip will take (i.e., don't make a dinner reservation in DC), you'll be fine - it's not a quick trip.

Try taking the train only to Alexandria and look for hotels in that area. You'll be able to Metro in to town easily and economically, the hotels are generally cheaper, and there's stuff to do in Alexandria, too. You could also take the train to Alexandria or Union Station and look for other hotels off the Metro lines. I think if $200 is too high for you, you'll seriously have to consider staying in Northern VA and taking the Metro in daily (check out Rosslyn or even Dunn Loring).

The drive is the quickest route, but you'd have to do it one way, there's almost NOTHING to see the entire way (trees everywhere), and the traffic will be bad if you arrive in town at rush hour.

Take the train, take your time, and start researching now for hotel prices vs. accessibility to the sights you want to see.

Don't get defensive, repete. Thinking, among others, of Convention Center area. Also, some of the Capitol Hill hotels are lovely, but you sure better know which entrance to use.

For repete -- I didn't mean to pick a fight here (and assume you don't). But you have to think not like a local but like a stranger who really has no sense of the rhythms and layouts of the neighborhoods. Easy to get lost and find yourself 5 blocks from where you thought you were, or more. For a first visit to DC it just makes sense to situate yourself smack in the middle of more tourist-y areas, despite the drawbacks.

I'm related to a couple of &quot;geographically challenged&quot; people, and I wouldn't send them to, say, the Hyatt near Onion Station. I've seen them try to drive to Baltimore from Newark and end up in Cape May.

(Hit post too soon) Agree with the rest of your comments, also, but again, you have to allow for a certain amount of time-consuming dithering and confusion for first timers. It's just not comparable to So. Calif.

I'd agree, if I were bidding on Priceline I'd avoid the Capitol Hill area. Most of the Priceline hotels are in the Northwest zones (Georgetown, Dupont, White House) anyway.

Southwest has really good deals sometimes from Raleigh, NC to BWI. My question is how difficult is it then to get to the metro to get to your hotel in DC. If we decide to fly should we pay the extra $$$ and fly into Reagan International?

Compare the cost of Southwest plus $60 taxi into DC vs the cost of a flight to National plus a $15 taxi to your hotel. Also the value of your time for the extra 45 minutes between BWI and downtown.

As for hotels in the Convention Center area, all are fine. Anyone who thinks there are dark and scary blocks just steps from fine hotels has not been to the CC/Gallery Place area in the past year or two. The area is safe and lively until the wee hours every day.

You could take the MARC Train (Penn Line) from BWI to DC's Union Station. It's an hour long ride and a $6 fare per person.

You could then take the Metro or a cab to your DC-area hotel.