DanK

I will be in DC in May for a week long class. My wife intends to accompany me with our two children who will be 3.5 & 1.5 years old at the time.
We have three criteria for lodging.
1) (wife) Walkable to areas of interest so she doesn't need to get kids on Metro
2) (wife) Suite-ish rooms so kids can nap, perhaps kitchenette.
3) (me) affordable --$200 per night range.

Is this a fantasy? Any reccommendations?

thanks

Anonymous

You will probably need to compromise on that wish list. Since it's impossible for any hotel to be within walking distance of lots of sights, I suggest that you focus on the other criteria and spring for a few cab fares -- they're very reasonable within the heart of DC.

Check out the Residence Inn Thomas Circle.

MikeT

or the Residence Inn in DuPont Circle.

kayd

Or Embassy Suites on 22nd Street NW. It has an indoor pool that the kids might like.

curiousgeo

Or the Doubletree Suites on New Hampshire Avenue in Foggy Bottom, close to George Washington University.

bardo1

Residence Inn in Dupont Circle (2 blocks from Metro) is a good suggestion, but if your family is truely averse to Metro (though they DO have elevators for strollers) they'll need to take a $7 taxi or a $1.50 bus to the Mall/Museums or Zoo.

I would also suggest Capitol Hill Suites
- 1 block to Capitol South Metro station and 2 blocks to the US Capitol bldg. and 5 blocks to the National Mall.
It's in a quiet residential area of $1 million townhouses with lots of dining options within a few blocks.

www.capitolhillsuites.com
(click on "special offers")

$200 IS the low end for rooms in DC (the average rack rate for a double is $350) but certainly doable with heavy research - not a fantasy at all.

I recommend you reserve a place as far ahead as possible. There are times when the whole city is booked solid months ahead - sometimes with no obvious reason.

Another suggestion is to visit the Zoo during prime viewing hours: 8AM to 10 AM
- when all the animals are out and active and before the heat and crowds arrive.

There is also an inexpensive ($8?) 1 hour river cruise that leaves from Georgetown Harbor the kids might like.

And if someone has a change of mind, most kids love riding the subway trains.

KathrynT

We recently stayed at the Embassy Suites and really enjoyed our stay there. It had plenty of room for our family and we were treated very nicely. The only problem I forsee for you is that it is not really walking distance to places of interest with young children. However, cabs were easy to catch right in front of the hotel and not very expensive. The closest metro is a 4-5 block walk.

KathrynT

I forgot to mention that our price for the Embassy Suites was just under $200 this past July.

The Omni Shoreham sounded very nice - lovely grounds and pool and walking distance from the zoo. However, it would be further away from other attractions.

I think you will have to use some sort of transportation to get to many of the sights as they are somewhat spread out. The DC metro is really not that hard to use but your wife may feel more comfortable with cabs.

DanK

Thanks for all the input. Ironically enough my wife loves the tube in London, Shes just worried about navigating it with two kids and without me.

The Capitol Hill suites look like what I am looking for. They seem quite a bit cheaper than similar acomodation Ive seen on the internet.

How is C H Suites, cleanliness wise?

bardo1

Dan,

CH suites are very clean and quite nice.

FWIW, the Washington Metro is only 1/10 the size of London's and is very user friendly (and now I'll stop mentioning it).

Emucom

Last time I was in DC (1998) I stayed at the Holiday Inn Eisenhower in Alexandria and took the Metro everywhere. I think I paid $99 a night at the time.

Yawn_boring

DanK,

there's no kitchen, but I got the Omni Shoreham end of Sept. for $125 on Priceline.

LN

Dan

As a fellow DC person I will also reiterate what Bardo says. The Metro is very, very easy to use. Super clean and generally Metro people available to help you.

I'd also say that taking cabs to your destinations is a great idea too, our cab fares are by zone and are generally very reasonable.

hed

Metro is great, but if you are in Georgetown, there's no Metro stop. In addition to the regular buses, you can use the new DC Circulator (red buses) and Georgetown Shuttle (blue buses) to get to the subway. The Circulator travels some useful routes. It's new this summer, so it may not be in the guidebooks.