Is there another option to hotel parking (at $30) for the Embassy Suites Convention Center (the 10th street one)?

There are parking garages within a few blocks that will probably be less. You can put the address in Mapquest and then put parking in the find a business section. The map will pop up again and garages will be listed on the left. You can call a few and find out how much they are. Central Parking is a company that has many lots in DC.

Union Station is $18 (or $19)/day. Some garages near Dupont Circle are less than $20/day. They might be a little more downtown. They don’t all have 24 hours in/out service which is not a problem unless you need the car while they are closed (I guess that is obvious).

i will be there, too, this summer and found this great website to help out.( in fact, i probably saw it on here)

www.dc.bestparking.com

it is amazing! shows prices for dates and times you enter.

sundays and evenings til early morning are free street parking.

the embassy rate is high, but it does give you in and out service whereas the others do not.

i am not looking forward to this expensive parking nightmare, and wish i didn´t have a car, but i do, as i have two seniors in the car and we are driving from elsewhere.

the car will be nice to tour around in the evenings to see the monuments lit up and go see all the memorials. when the offices all close down and people leave the area it is not difficult to find temporary street parking to go take photos, etc.

also, some early bird special or after 5pm rates probably available in areas where you might want to go for dinner.

Thanks! I might check out some of the cheapies. It does seem convenient to just park it and forget it though.

"when the offices all close down and people leave the area it is not difficult to find temporary street parking to go take photos"

It's a bigger challenge then you think. The area around the Memorials is very confusing to drive in, and I've lived here 14 years. Parking is not always available close to the Memorials at night.

i guess we have been lucky.. especially on sundays and after hours.. we still have ot walk a bit but it was better for us than paying for the night tour.

however.. i do agree, that for a first timer.. getting around some of those loops is a riot! and if getting lost temporarily stresses you.. don´t do it.

we even found metered street parking for many of the museums last august during the day. i guess we were very lucky.

It depends where you are, but it can be very difficult finding street parking at night in DC. First, many people who work there do NOT park on the street in the daytime, so that isn't a factor. Hardly anyone does. It is almost impossible to find street parking around Dupont Circle, Penn Qtr, Georgetown, etc., in the evenings. But you wouldn't be going there to take photos, I suppose. But the areas around the memorials and monuments don't really have anything to do with people in offices inDC during the daytime, and workers because they aren't in the area where people work.

It is true that some streets have parking restrictions specifically during rush hour, though, and those are up 6 or 6:30, I believe.

There is a large parking lot..and I mean LARGE, where the old convention cehter used to be.

I have never seen it completely full either during the day or in the evening.

It is near the corner of NY Avenue and 9th Street.