We just got back from a fantastic week long trip to the DC area. We based at the Hilton Silver Spring, MD only because of HH points - Nov and Dec 2003 are point stretchers so each night only cost 6K points, quite a bargain when you've got 300K points in the bank... Since we are very picky bargain hunters, we were determined only to stay the full week if the hotel and the neighborhood passed the white glove test.

Contrary to the overwhelmingly negative Silver Spring comments at this site, we were pleasantly surprised when the classical music of this very elegant hotel greeted us in the lobby. We were upgraded to a beautiful suite with 2 TVs. The hotel was 3 safe and easy blocks from a clean and new Metro station, 2 blocks from a gourmet grocery, 1 block away from an AMC multi-plex in a mall, 1 block away from the brand new Discovery Channel corporate headquarters, 2 blocks away from a Zagat restaurant, etc.

I would wholeheartedly recommend all Hilton point hoarders to check out this incredible vacation deal.

I live not too far from there and do agree that some of the comments on here about Silver Spring seem exaggerated to me and off-base. I don't know why people say such negative things about it in comparison to other suburbs. It's not that exciting, though, and there are not a lot of good restaurants, but it's okay and convenient if you have some reason to stay there--or get points and get a free room. I don't ever recommend tourists stay in surburbs, though, when visiting DC, but that's my own personal traveling preference. I wouldn't recommend someone stay in Silver Spring rather than DC.

That metro station isn't remotely new, however. It's been there over 20 years.

Why were you upgraded to a suite? #-o

I guess the Silver Spring Metro station looked new to me because it was so clean and bright when compared with my other experience of stations on the Paris Metro.

We got a suite because we asked. It was probably a slow week.

If we had been looking for nightlife, we would have stayed closer in. However, our family vacation plans were to tour heavily during the daylight hours and then swim in the indoor hotel pool at night. It worked very well for us.

I just wanted to post a postive because the suburb is NOT a ghetto as I had been led to believe.

Sorry you didn't see anything at the American Film Institute: they have the best movies which are introduced by a film expert giving a 5-10 minute lecture on that particular film - you were a block away.....

Bardo, we passed by AMI everyday and it looked amazing! Chinatown was playing and I would have loved to see it there. I think they were also having a members only for the new Tom Cruise film.

To everything there is a season, and it was my season for a family vacation..we saw Elf instead

Thanks for the review, wsoxrebel. I guess we travel much like you ... full steam ahead most of the day, and we do not go back to the hotel during the day, so we don't care about it being convenient to nightlife. We'd much rather sleep in the outskirts and save $100 for comparable lodging, even if we must spend 1/2 hour getting into town. We'll look into S.S. for a future trip.