has anyone stayed at the sheraton suites in alexandria this ia our first time in the DC area. any bad things anyone heard, and how about the area is it safe?

If it is where I think it is, in Crystal City, the area is fine. Close to Metro, some restaurants in the area. We walked the area at night, no problem at all. It's close to the Pentagon and there are office buildings and condos in the area. I highly recommend the area myself, but everybody has a different opinion.

Don, the Sheraton Suites (on North St. Asaph Street) is at the north end of Old Town Alexandria, and roughly two blocks off of the Potomac River. (Vicki, there is a Sheraton in Crystal City, but that's Arlington.) The area is quite safe. This is, I think, the third incarnation for the property, which is about ten years old.

Your biggest problem at the hotel is that it isn't "really" in Old Town (the interesting and historic parts of which start about half a mile to the south), and you'll be dependent upon the hotel's van to get to either the Braddock or King Street Metro stations. Both are about a mile away; too far to walk but only about five minutes by van.

The area around the hotel is a mix of commercial properties (the headquarters of the United Way is across the street) and new townhouses. Old Town follows a grid pattern, so you'll have no problem navigating. King Street is straight down St. Asaph; that's where the restaurants, night life, and interesting shops are located. Washington Street is one block west; there are two historic homes occupied by Robert E. Lee about four blocks away and a few cobblestoned side streets, but the interesting part of Washington Street is six or seven blocks south.

Get a map of Old Town off of Yahoo! (use zip code 22314 and drill in a few steps to get street names). You'll enjoy the ambience, and DC is just a few Metro stops (15 minutes, max) away.

If this is your first trip to DC, that would not be the place I would recommend. You'd probably be better off staying in Arlington - either in Ballston or Rosslyn. The Sheraton in Alexandria is not close to much. If you walked to Old Town, it not only would be a trek, but you'd have to walk through some less desirable areas. Arlington is much closer to metro (which you'll be taking if you want to go downtown) and restaurants. Rosslyn and Ballston are both very safe areas - although you should never go out by yourself no matter where you are.

We stayed at the Sheraton Suites in Alexandria in May 2000, and our advice is don't stay there. The hotel itself is ok, but the hotel staff were rude. We reserved our room and were told that breakfast was included, however, when we checked in we were told that since we had a special hotel rate, breakfast was not included, but we could pay $16 a person for breakfast - no thanks! We reserved a one bedroom suite with two beds and were given a suite with only a king bed. The hotel shuttle took you to Ronald Reagan Airport to catch the metro and would pick you up there, but there were several times when we stood at the airport for over 90 minutes past the scheduled pick-up time. Unless things have changed, I wouldn't recommend the hotel!

We stayed at the Embassy Suites in Alexandria last May and would recommend that if you're looking for Metro proximity. The Metro is just across the parking lot and extremely convenient. We used it at all hours and felt fine.
The plus to Embassy Suites was that the room included a breakfast buffet and also a free bar session from 5-7 (I believe were the hours). Since it was just my husband and myself this was a nice extra. The room we had was an actual suite with bedroom bathroom and separate sitting room with sink/refrigerator.

The negative is that you do have to use the hotel van if you want to get to Old Town, but it wasn't that inconvenient and came quickly when we called for a pickup.

Good luck!

At the Embassy Suites, you are basically in Old Town. I worked about 2 blocks away from the hotel, and regularly walk down King Street from my office to the water during lunch. It takes 22 minutes one way. In 5-10 minutes from Embassy Suites, you will be walking past antique shops and restaurants on King Street.

I agree with Diane. We stayed there with our kids a couple of years ago and the room was all right but I still remember how rude the staff was. We had never visited DC before and had some questions and received no helpful advice from the hotel front desk. They wouldn't even give us a recommendation for an appropriate family restaurant within driving distance the day we arrived (we were tired and just wanted to grab a good meal and go to bed before beginning our touring the next day.) I thought maybe it was just the person at that time, but after you ask a couple of questions on a couple of occasions and you get a contemptuous smirk every time, you stop asking. And stop staying there.

Just got back from spending the weekend at the Embassy Suites in Alexandria. Would highly recommend it!! Rooms are decorated very nicely and and were in great condition. Nice complimentary happy hour,5:30-7:30,popcorn and chips and a bartender fixing what ever you ordered.(People were tipping him a dollar a drink though) Complimentary shuttle would take you within a 2 mi radius so we used this to go out to eat in Old Town. (Much cheaper than a cab) Great complimentary breakfast next morning. Plan on asking for a room on the far side of hotel next time though so as not to face Metro station. Did hear train wistles some but not too disturbing. Very convienent being across sreet from Metro. Metro is very easy to use. I'd suggest getting the all day pass for $5 so you won't have to worry about adding up the fares. Also, Embassy Suites let us keep our car in their parking lot (oh, parking is $12 a night)after we checked out(12PM nice late check out) so we could do some more sight seeing in Washington until 6PM. That was a real plus since the day we arrived it was raining. We are already planning a spring trip back there and plan to stay at the Embassy Suites again. Very good value for the money and convenient! Good Luck and have fun.