We are a family of 4 from England, including 2 children ages 6 & 11, who are stopping over at Washington DC enroute to Tampa. We land at Dulles Airport about 3pm Thurs and leave about 5pm on Sat, thereby leaving us only 1 & 1/2 days for touring really. You've been very helpful before so I would like your help re the following :

1) Should we stay in the DC area and cough up the 100 dollars or so it would cost us by taxi both ways. Or should we stay somewhere nearer DULLES but near metro and travel to & from Dc.
2) I tentatively booked Holiday Inn in Central/White House as it had the best rates for the dates we want, which is April 1-3. Is location okay?
3) We plan to use the tourmobil whole day on the Friday so plan to see most sights that day. We are thinking of space museum, something else for the kids on the Sat morning before we get ready again to go back to DUlles. Is this plan doable?

Hope someone out there can help enlighten us.

Bing-your plan sounds good. Most of the monuments are relatively close together but the on-off bus is a good way to travel to the further ones that might be to far or too long of a walk to get to. I'd stay in the City-it's not going to be much cheaper to stay by the airport and you'll lose alot of valuable time getting to and from downtown. I don't know anything about that specific hotel though. That should be a great time of year to be there too.

While you are at Dulles make sure to check out the new plane museum. Although I personally haven't seen it. I've heard it's supposed to be great.

Just a piece of advice that may be helpful - When you enter the Air & Space Museum, try the Smithsonian side entrances as opposed to the L'Enfant Plaza / Independence Ave side entrances. There are usually shorter if any lines on the Smithsonian side for some reason, whereas the other side of the building usually has longer lines.

Here's a website that will give you your transportation options out of Dulles. www.mwaa.com/dulles/ground.htm
I would look at hotels offering free shuttle service from the airport that are located near metro lines, see www.visitingdc.com/m_metrorail.htm
As I do not live in the DC area, I am not familiar with the Holiday Inn you mention. Sorry that I cannot be of more assistance.

For $14 round trip the Washington Flyer will take you to the Metro's West Falls Church station which you can ride directly into DC. You won't need a car if you're staying downtown. I don't know how far your hotel is from the closest Metro station.

Here's a cut and paste from another thread that I thought might apply?

Author: gail
Date: 02/19/2004, 06:13 am
Message: washingtondchotels.com is another good comparison website. Easy to go to links of individual hotels and compare amenities and prices. Two years ago it had the best deal on our hotel compared with other ways to price/purchase.

DEFINITELY stay somewhere in the city, near the attractions rather than out in the sticks near Dulles. You will consume far too much of your limited time going back and forth. Many posts on this board about hotels in DC (think DuPont Circle)

You may not realize it, but the dates of your visit are right in the middle of the Cherry Blossom Festival. The good news is that you will be able to see the gorgeous, once-a-year spectacle of the flowering cherries along the Tidal Basin (strongly suggest you make time in your schedule for this lucky opportunity). The bad news is that the Mall, metros, and tour buses will be more crowded than usual (for spring) with locals and out-of-towners who go on to other nearby attractions after seeing the blossoms. As some else said, use the back entrances (on Independence and Constitution Avenues) for the main Smithsonian Museums rather than the front doors which face the Mall - lines to get in are much shorter.

I'm assuming that by the "space museum" you mean the original National Air and Space Museum on the Mall, rather than the new annex (Udvar-Hazy Center) out by Dulles Airport. This is quite doable if you are at the doors when they open at 10:00 AM, stay awhile, go back to the hotel to pick up your luggage (don't think there is any luggage storage at Museum) and then head out to Dulles.

There is NO luggage storage either at the Udvar-Hazy H Center or at Dulles, so it is very difficult for on-going Dulles passengers with baggage to go there even though it's just a 15-minute drive down the road from Dulles! It's been suggested that passengers check their luggage early with their AIRLINE, and then go down to the UH Center - but this seems a bit convoluted to me! A real shame since UH Center is really impressive - far mopre visually spectacular than the Mall Air and Space Museum (though this has a lot of good exhibits).

Your hotel at 15th & Rhode Island Ave. NW is not the most convenient - about 7 blocks to the nearest metro(equally distant from Dupont, Farragut and MCphearson) . Your might look for something closer to the mall and/or a metro station. Do a search on this board and try for something a little closer.

Wanted to expound a bit regarding hotel. It's a good location: close to the restaurants on 17th st (between P st.& S st.) and a gourmet grocery (Whole Foods @ 15th & P st) that has a large eating area and is close to your hotel. It's just that you'll have to walk 7 blocks to the metro when you want to go to the Smithsonian and the Monuments.

Why don't you book a room with Priceline. Downtown Hyatt is usually available at about 45 plus fees.

Thank you all very much for your valuable advice. We've decided to book Grand Hyatt instead primarily for its metro position. We will take the shuttle from the airport and take the tube/metro to Metro Centre thus saving us a few pennies. It now seems the highlight for my husband this coming trip will be the new plane museum in Dulles which we were oblivious to prior to this link. We will somehow have to work out the luggage problem. Thanks all again.

Not to throw a fly in the ointment, but with luggage and a couple of kids, I wonder if it wouldn't be worthwhile to look at something that involves a little less in the way of navigation and baggage handling after your overseas flight. As a starting point, the Supershuttle would run $22 for the first person and $10 per person thereafter on a one-way from Dulles to your hotel (website is www.supershuttle.com). It's possible that there is some kind of break for buying a roundtrip, so you could contact them to find out. I'm guessing that even a taxi might fall within that range, (but I always fly into National, so we'll need to find out from someone who has experience with Dulles.) My point is that with four people, the cost per head for a cab is often not too bad and it would certainly provide some serious advantages in the way of convenience.

Sorry, but I meant the Washington Flyer. This worked out to be USD14 return for each adult. Don't know the kids price. The downer is we have to get off at West Church Falls and take metro to Metro Centre where hotel is conveniently located, I hope!! We are hoping to be good and not to take too much luggage with us. And shop of course when necessary.

Bing, Check to see if there is a family or group discount offered for the Washington Flyer.

Bing,
FYI, here's is a map of the area around Metro Center. The black boxes with white arrows are the 4 entrances to the metro center station (it's a big one). It looks like the 11th St. exit is the one closest to your hotel.

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

There is one more option for transportation from Dulles to the city- the bus ("5A Metrobus") which goes hourly from the Dulles terminal to the L'Enflant Plaza metro station downtown. From L'Enfant Plaza, you can take the metro "back" to the Metro Center station which will place you close to your hotel. The advantage of the Metrobus is that it's cheap - 2.50 USD.

For each person it would be $14 for a roundtrip WF bus to WFC Metro. Then Metro to Metro Center at peak fare of $3.30 and return fare of $2.20. That's $19.50 *4 for a total of $78 for the pleasure of riding the Flyer bus and Metro.

I've not taken the 5A bus, but have taken the 30A between BWI & Greenbelt several times. While it looked like a standard Metrobus, the seating was more comfortable and a few seats had been removed in order to install a multi-tiered luggage rack. Other than those two modifications, it was a "standard" bus, *not* a motorcoach with under-bus luggage compartments. I'm sure the 5A has a similar configuration. I corresponded with a party with parts of their extended family arriving at Dulles on different days who made a couple of trips on the 5A Metrobus, and they were quite satisfied with it. For a $68 savings, I'd give it a try.