I am arriving with a group of 21 on Friday and just have a couple of questions:

We will have 4 vehicles and the closest metro station is Silver Spring and I noticed that there is not parking. Could someone give me the most economical way to park 4 cars near the station for the day?

We already have our metro cards but will need to load them with the weekly pass. Can I do this with one credit card or will I need multiple cards to load 21 of them?

Thank you so much for any information!

Tina

Try googling "parking near silver spring metro station". It turns out that there is parking at the silver spring station.

I have never loaded 21 Smarttrip cards at one time, but consider the possibility that your card is rejected or damaged. I would carry a spare, maybe a couple of spares. In addition, doing 21 cards at one kiosk, one at a time, will take a long time to accomplish.

Can you load the passes in advance, on line? My kids live in DC and I do not, so we keep SmartTrio cards always loaded with an account online. 3 of us are on the same account.

Silver Spring may be the closest for you but Greenbelt (end of the green line) has a huge parking lot that is sometimes free. One tip - Don't buy a refrigerator magnet and stick it in your pocket with your Metro card.
I was given a small magnet card at the Forest Service Information Center and stuck it in my pocket. I had to show my fare card to the attendant at the Metro station to get back to my car.

Thank you all!!

Parking is only free on Sundays at most Metro stations. This is a recent change. There are municipal parking garages near the Silver Spring station but I don't know how quickly they fill during the week. Greenbelt's lot is large. You may have to walk farther to the station if you park in SS.

Silver Spring has tons of parking available in nearby garages. none are owned by metro, as far as I know, they are mostly govt-owned by the county not the city. They cost about $10-12 per day. None are every full to capacity that I know, parking is no problem. There is no magical cheap way to park four cars, but these garages are very cheap compared to downtown DC, so the most economical way is just to park at one of the county garages near the metro station.

Parking is free in these garages on both Sat and Sunday, they are NOT owned by metro.

https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/D...-garage-5.html