DC hotels under $180 / close to subway
 

Upon brief searches, the Harrington has been removed from our list of possibilities. "Vile pit" is not way up their on our preferences (ha!)

Any suggestions for family of four, very close to metro, or preferably very close to "the mall"?

Of course "under $180" is subject to time of year, days of week, and special events ... but here are some suggestions:

Rosslyn (Arlington) area: Hyatt, Holiday Inn, Best Western ... and a Marriott (Courtyard?) .. all frequently have deals & are REAL close. Quality Inn Iwo Jima and next door Inn at Rosslyn a bit further walk (about 1/2 mile). I've stayed at Hyatt, HI, QI, and IR. Note: IR used to be Motel50. It's old, it's clean, but showing some age.

Red Roof Inn /DC Chinatown: stayed there: convenient, clean. Not a typical "roadside" RRI, but still no shampoos, shower caps, etc., but good basic lodging.

Radisson/Barceo: Stayed there and they often have <$100 rates. Great location.

Days Inn Camp Springs MD: about 1/3 mile from Branch Ave Metro Station. Stayed there, NOTHING in the area if you don't have a car. Free breakfast, but eat before you return in the evening or settle for delivery pizza.

Holiday Inn Eisenhower Ave (Alexandria): Stayed there -- Rooms often <$90. Next door to Yellow line.

Will you have a car?? If so, stay up in Laurel MD area and drive 15 minues to Greenbelt. We stayed at a Red Roof for $39 during Cherry Blossum Festival and the GreenLine ride in took about 25 min.

Embassy Suites Alexandria: pushing your $180, but might be worth it.

My feeling is that since I only use the room for sleep/shower, as long as the hotel is near a metro, it's "close enough". If your travel is like mine, it can be well worth your while to rent a car and stay in the outskirts, if you don't mind the commute time. Greenbelt Metro station almost ALWAYS has parking spaces. Good luck ... but please post more about what you want so that others can give better suggestions as to your travel-styles.

We've stayed at the Metro Marriott at 12th and H 4-5 times and I don't recall ever paying over $150 a night for it.

The Metro is basically in their basement.

Booked it thru their website and also used The Entertainment book.

Very nice hotel about 4 blocks to the White House and about 8 from the Mall.

We saw the 4th of July fire works from our room one year. We got driven from the steps of the Capitol due to a BIG rainstorm.

Totally agree with The Harrington...especially the bar/restuarant!!! ((N))

Try the Courtyard in Chinatown (or what used to be Chinatown). It's a great location, but rates may have gone up since I stayed there a few years ago.

Also the Red Roof Inn in Chinatown.

My most recent stay, just last Fri/Sat, was a Comfort Inn just N of 13th & M. I don't know the rates (I got employee rate as I moonlight at a Choice hotel now) but it's not "ALL" that convenient, severl blocks to Metro Station, and with constuction across the street will be noisy in the AM except Sunday. The "street noise" (sirens, horns) was a little bothersome for me, but the hotel was clean, it had a nice continental breakfast bar, and the staff were very friendly and outgoing. Were I not a Choice employee, I would still pay up to about $100-$120 for this room. I was concerned about how safe the walk would be, but would rate the walk to MetroCenter as absolutely no problem.

Look at various subway stops at www.stationmasters.com -- they show hotels within about 1/3 mile of each station. I know there are some hotels near Courthouse and Clarenden on Orange line. There's a Red Roof in Alexandria maybe 3/4 mi from Huntington, with frequent Metrobus passing the hotel. We stayed there with a car during a weekend, so drove to station & found parking. Red Roof rooms are too small for family of 4, imho, but often inexpensive enough to rent 2 rooms.

Do you want a hotel in a location where you would just return to sleep or are you interested in staying in an area that would be fun to explore with nice restaurants? If it is the latter I'd recommend one of the Old Town Alexandria hotels located within a block of King Street station (Embassy Suite, Hampton Inn, Hilton). Old Town really is lovely and there are many nice restaurants within the immediate area. I stayed at the Hampton Inn - King St and it was really quite nice - great service, clean, everthing ingood shape, and nice continental breakfast. I thought it was a great deal for the price $115 - $140 a night when I've visited, with parking at $8.00. This is my favorite DC neighborhood with lots of nice shops and histroical buildings. It's about 20 minutes by subway to the Mall.

The advantage to Rosslyn is the prices tend to be a bit cheaper and some of the hotels offer free parking. I think the walk to Georgetown is about a half mile and as long as the weather is fairly decent the part of the walk from the start of the bridge in Rosslyn on into Georgetown is romantic.

In the summer of 2003 we stayed at the Holiday Inn Washington Capitol / Smithsonian. It's only about 2 blocks from the mall and I think we paid about $150 a night. The hotel was basic Holiday Inn, not fancy but clean. Parking was about $16 extra per day. The metro station was a few blocks away. The only drawback was that there weren't a lot of restaurants in the area.

We used Hilton points and stayed in Silver Spring MD at the Hilton and it worked great for us. We could walk to the train a few blocks.
However..I just checked their rates and I guess the neighborhood has continued to gentrify since we were there! Ow! I do see a Days Inn close by, maybe you could look into that.

Look at the Hilton Garden Inn downtown. Relatively new. Across the street from Metro. Easy walk to the mall/WH. Decent dining nearby.

Post your dates and advice will be more specific. What kind of accomodations (number of beds) for the four of you?

Good call on the Harrington.

March 12-15 / 05 (approximately - during our school spring break).

The family I'm posting this for are mom, dad, & two teenagers. Two double or queen beds in one room is fine. Mom is fussy though - would want it "nice / spacious / clean" & a "full breakfast". The rest are fine with basically clean & a continental breakfast. Mom would want it to be in a nice area with shops, good dining, etc. Dad's big issue is he does not want to walk at all (not more than a block or two) to subway stops or "the mall" (if hotel is that close). They will be driving their own vehicle & parking it.

I'll second the Radisson Barcelo, if they have anything left. Huge rooms w/ 2 queen beds. Spring break is an extremely popular time in DC - I imagine many places have been booked for months for your particular dates. I would book a place ASAP.

The Marriott Metro Center is on the same block as the Metro stop. When we stayed there, they went out of their way to find us a room that could accommodate a rollway in addition to the two beds, so neither of my kids had to share.

I'm going at the same time. I got the Holiday Inn Downtown for $119. It's not fancy but I hope it's OK.

Any searches of the Radisson Barcelo bring up $300 + per night.

Thanks for the other info. Will look into it.

I think finding a place that meets your requirements is not going to be easy. With school break, Mom's need for spacious and full breakfast, and Dad's to "walk no more than two blocks".

The Embassy Suites near Dulles might fit all your requirements ... they provide free shuttle to the Metro station, have a free breakfast, and have some delux "over-sized" rooms. But both the ride to the station, and the ride into "downtown" are going to consume a LOT of your time.

As for walking only 2 blocks: just a visit to Smithsonian American History + Air & Space are going to be more than a 2 block walk - you could take a cab.

Overall, I think you're going to have to compromise on the requirements somewhere, be it price, location, size, or amenities. Good luck. Don't overlook some of the nicer hotels in Laurel/Greenbelt MD areas

Yep - there will definitely have to be some compromises. Dad is fine with lots of walking "once" he gets there. Just doesn't want to have to walk with luggage or back & forth from a subway stop to the hotel in the mornings or late evenings, after their day exploring & walking the Smithsonians, etc.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

As with the others - try the suburbs, Arlington has nice hotels near the subway stations. There is a Holiday Inn and a Comfort Inn near the Ballston subway stop in Arlington. Not sure the prices, but they are both located in Glebe Road in Arlington.

There is an Embassy Suites in Arlington - near the Crystal City subway station. Other hotels are near that same subway station. Good luck.

I disagree with staying in the suburbs - best location to stay in Washington DC is in Dupont Circle - there is a metro line running through this neighborhood. My friend had got a great deal through priceline: Under $100 a night at the Hilton in Dupont Circle. Try Priceline for some more options.

Priceline would be tricky -- they would need two rooms, as it's a group of 4. You can bid on two rooms simultaneously on PL, to make sure they're both in the same hotel, but you can't be sure that you could get rooms that are adjoining, or even on the same floor. Still, two rooms would be a possibility if the teens are older. I've gotten rooms in DC on PL for under $100 -- in fact, the Marriott Metro Center room I mentioned above cost $60.