Metro passes - Which one?
 

Probably staying in the Key Bridge area. Is a metro ride from Rosslynn to main tourist sites considered a short ride? Or am I better with Fast pass?

7-Day Short Trip Pass $22.00
Valid for seven consecutive days for Metrorail trips costing up to $2.20 between 5:30-9:30 a.m. and 3-7 p.m. on weekdays. Pass is valid for any rail trip at other times. If trip costs more than $2.20, you must use the Exitfare machine to pay additional fare. Pass will be returned for continued use during valid period.

7-Day Fast Pass $32.50
Valid for seven consecutive days of unlimited Metrorail travel

You're fine with the short trip pass, as most of your trips will be fairly short from Rosslyn.

We used the short-pass while at Rosslyn, and just as Ann41 stated, we never made a trip during peak hours that required us to pay extra.

7 day short trip pass.

I'm going to be staying in Bethesda in about three weeks. How does one purchase the short trip pass?

try this:

http://stores.skipjack.com/wmata/Sea...trorail+Passes

You can purchase a short trip pass (and any other pass/farecard) online at www.wmata.com

You can also purchase them in the dispensers at the entrance of the stations. The machines are a little confusing ... the first thing to look at are the selections, and whether you want to purchase:

Fare cards - have a given value, whatever you wish to put on them, eg: $20. Balance reduced each time you ride somewhere

pass - these can be the $6.50 all-day visitor pass, the $22 short-trip pass, or the $32.50 Fast Pass

I found the first time when I put money in ($5) & waited too long, it just gave me a $5 farecard ... I wanted a all-day pass (the price back then)

Some of the machines take credit cards, and there's a limit to how much change will be returned if you use cash.

I've found that I use the Metro so often that I've purchased a "SmartCard" - a credit-card sized electronic farecard that only has to be held in proximity of the turnstile, rather than actually inserted, and it's much more durable than the paper passes & farecards. Some of the stations sell them for $10 - $5 for the card + $5 fare already encoded on them.