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.
the connection time between BWI and Union Station in DC including waiting for the train could be 2+ hrs.
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 "Hotels" 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 "very iffy places"? 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 "geographically challenged" 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.