DC area hotel for end of June...
 

Suggestions? We are talking June 28, 29, 30th. Haven't been in ages. I have only seen the White House, driven by the mall, the Archive Museum and a few other memorials. The mall is probably where we will spend most of our time. Would appreciate some recs for hotel in that area, or easily accessible to that area, and not expensive, but tasty restaurants. Any other MUST SEEs would be appreciated. Looks like about three nights.

Our trip will start out in Richmond, VA. We'll rent a car and drive up to Gettysburg, taking a scenic route on the way up. Then back through Baltimore for a night, then on to DC for three nights. Any suggestions for the Gettysburg portion and/or Baltimore would be great too. Thank you.

I should add (was intending to edit, but not sure how), we prefer that the hotel is not luxe or too expensive. Clean, comfortable, accessible, safe, pleasant. Not sure what the area hotels charge, but under $200 a night would be nice. Thank you.

Who/how many is we? Is a room with one queen bed OK?

Note that you will need to factor in parking to your budget as all DC hotels charge for parking--up to $40 per night. There are a handful of hotels in Arlington which are within walking distance of Metro and which do not charge for parking. Taking Metro from the stations close to these hotels (Rosslyn or Crystal City) would be a quick trip into DC.

These hotels, in alphabetical order, are: Americana Hotel, Best Western Iwo Jima, and Holiday Inn Rosslyn @Key Bridge.

You can park your car for much less than hotel rates at any nearby parking garage.

I agree with longhorn55's suggestions for hotels given your budget and that you'll have a car.

<i>You can park your car for much less than hotel rates at any nearby parking garage.</i>

I think that is is misleading to a visitor. There are garages with cheaper rates than hotel valet parking but they aren't "any nearby parking garage."

Many parking garages are open M-F and shutter at the end of the business day.

Most of those don't have in/out privileges.

Garages with over night parking are not plentiful and some don't become "overnight" until after 10 pm. Some only offer overnight parking on weekends with restricted hours for drop off and pick up.

You're right, of course. I should have said, it's possible to find a garage where parking won't cost $40 a day, and that it's worth looking into, depending on where you're staying.

We plan to rent a car in Richmond, have it for the trip to Gettysburg, then maybe drop it in Baltimore. We are looking into that option. We don't need a car once we get to Baltimore, we are thinking...so paying parking shouldn't be an issue.

I would suggest renting the car when you leave Washington or Baltimore.

There is frequent train service from Staples Mill Station in Richmond to Union Station in Washington (Main Street Station has less service). It takes about the same amount of time as driving and costs about as much as parking in the city with advance purchase. We do this with some frequency. Because the Northeast Regional trains originate in Richmond, they are clean, on schedule and have plenty of seats.

You can take the train on to Baltimore, but I don't know if you will need a car on the ground there, but Gettysburg isn't far, and you can loop through a number of nice communities on your drive back to Richmond (or fly out of Baltimore or Philadelphia).

I'm not a train nut, but the Washington area can be a miserable place to drive.

If you decide on staying at a "nearby" Metro hotel outside the District, there are several places near the Court House and Ballston Metor stations in Virginia (in addition to those in Crystal City and Rosslyn). You have plenty of choices.

Looking at flights from San Diego, I'm starting to think that we should fly into DC instead of Richmond. There's only two flights a day on SW.

Good points all. We just started talking about the trip, so keep posting. It is very helpful...

You should definitely fly into Baltimore round-trip. Take a train into DC, do your sightseeing, then rent a car at BWI and drive round-trip to Richmond. If you can add just a day onto your trip-length, this will mitigate a lot of your costs (drop-off fees for the car, for example).

There are a lot of hotels in DC, but you may find it difficult to get a hotel under $200 for June, which is pretty much peak tourist season in DC. Definitely look for a hotel in the District. The Metro has become fairly unreliable, and it's worth it to be able to walk or take the bus places (i.e., these days you want options). Frequent service interruptions have made it difficult to base yourself in the suburbs conveniently. At least if you stay in Crystal City or Rosslyn, you're just over the bridge into DC so that's certainly an option, but it's inconvenient to get there from BWI, so just keep that in mind.

<I> The Metro has become fairly unreliable, and it's worth it to be able to walk or take the bus places (i.e., these days you want options). Frequent service interruptions have made it difficult to base yourself in the suburbs conveniently.</i>

Doug_Stallings, Are you actually warning people who visit DC to expect to not be able to use the Metro subway? That is a potentially very damaging statement to put on an travel forum. Do you speak for the Fodor's LLC or only as an individual who works for Fodor's and posts on its forums?

For disclosure, I don't work for Metro. I live half time in DC and I use the Metro daily both within the city and routinely to its suburban locations. It is a system with with ongoing issues but those issues are largely localized or temporarily localized to minimize disruption. Not unlike most urban public transport systems with engineering works.

I think you are irresponsible for suggesting otherwise.

Metro's woes have been covered extensively in the Washington Post and the New York Times, and there are far, far worse than those faced by other transit systems. The possibility of unanticipated shutdowns of section of track is growing, as is the incidence of accidents and fires.

Sorry, but there is nothing irresponsible about warning tourists that Metro may not be as reliable this summer as it used to be. obxgirl, I respect the advice you give here, and agree with it almost always, but in this instance I have to come down somewhere in the middle, and say, Metro will probably be fine, but maybe won't be 100% fine.

This is a story from yesterday:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local...b0e_story.html

And this is the NYT's overview of the rather sad 40th anniversary of the system this year:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/04/us...fe-crisis.html

I checked out prices for my favorite Arlington hotels - all over $200 and/or big parking charge.

Don't stress the Metro. It usually works. Sometimes it does not. Lots of deferred maintenance and bickering over who should pay - DC, VA, MD, Federal govt. Use Uber as a back-up plan - I find it especially convenient and priced right in DC.

NewBe, Your links notwithstanding, it is irresponsible to say that the DC metro is unreliable to visitors. That has broad implications for both safety and timely riding.

Are you suggesting Metro is unsafe for anyone to ride?

I'll assume your future advice to any visitors will be to stay only within walking distance of anything they are interested in seeing. Or be prepared to navigate buses or take cab/Uber.

I also think it carries a little more punch and responsibility when someone who works for the forum's host makes the statement.

Ok, since you mentioned that you were still playing around with where to fly in/out of, I'm going to throw out a suggestion…If you can move your dates in DC to the weekend and do the other areas during the week, the hotel rates drop dramatically. I noticed this last summer when we went and I just plugged your dates of June 28-30 into Trip Advisor's search engine. The Marriott Courtyard Convention Center, which is in a great location for what you want to see, was quoted at $349 per night. I moved the dates to June 30-July 2, which is over the weekend. Rates for the same hotel dropped to $143 per night. Might be worth looking into.

Obxgirl, if Metro has any more fires or fatal accidents, my advice would be to stay within easy Uber/taxi or reasonable walking distance of the attractions you'd most like to visit. Which is not very different from the advice I always give, but with the addition that Metro is not as reliable as it used to be.

It saddens me to say this. I lived in the DC area for almost 20 years and used Metro daily as an adult.

The question of safety is significant, IMO, but I don't know what I'd do if I lived there now. I'd probably ride Metro and hope for the best, as it's still relatively safe. But 14 people died in one incident in 2009, and while that's fewer than died on the roads by a long shot, it's still sobering.

Sorry, what is BWI?