elbegewa

My wife and I are planning a trip to Washington DC and need suggestions re hotels.

We are shocked at the cost … being from Washington State we are used to good 3 star hotels costing around $100 … from what I see in DC the cost may be double to triple that. We’d like it to be clean and comfortable, but don’t want to spend more than $150 or so per nite if feasible. We don’t mind staying outside the city as long as its near a metro stop. We’ll have a rental car (see below why that’s needed).

The first half:
We fly into Reagan late in the day Thurs. May 20 and stay until Saturday May 22 when we drive to New Jersey for a planned visit. My first impression is to stay on the east or north sides convenient to I-95 heading north and convenient to a metro stop for spending Friday in the city.

The second half:
We drive back to DC Sunday May 23 and fly out from Dulles Wednesday May 26. We spend one day visiting with friends in the Fairfax area. My first impression is to stay on the south side convenient to drive to Fairfax and convenient to a metro stop for spending Monday in the city.

The above itinerary is fast and busy, but allows us to visit friends and to spend 2 days touring some of the sites in Washington that we haven’t seen previously.

MikeT

I checked Kayak and found tons of great places in the city for the first part of the trip, which is surprising since it is Commencement at Georgetown and U-Md. The later part is harder because it is during the workweek when prices go up. There were some places around $150 in Crystal City, which is a great option.

If you are going to visit the city, don't stay too far out in the burbs because you spend too much time commuting.

azzure

I just returned from a stay at a friend's apartment in Rosslyn...there are a lot of hotels there, and the Metro station is very convenient for travel into DC. (I used a 7-day "short trip" Metro pass which worked out great.) Not sure how much lower the hotel rates would be, but you might want to check.

artsbabe

Well, here's a thought for the first half of your trip.... I normally would recommend that you stay right in DC, but, given that you want to hop on 95 to head north, you might think about this option: land at national and take the subway (you'll need to transfer) out to Silver Spring. Stay at the Courtyard by Marriott right in downtown. On Friday, you can walk back to the Metro station and go into DC. You can pick up your rental car in Silver Spring -- there are outlets for the major chains. Then, it is an easy, short drive up Colesville Road to hop on 495 to 95 north.

obxgirl

This is a very popular time of year to visit the area. Our family is detailed back to DC for a couple of years and it's been a kluge trying to find places to stay that are within per diem. Hotel rates are easily 30% higher this month but there are places in your range tho as you've already mentioned, they're mostly not going to be downtown.

Keep in mind that the "closer in" places outside of the city with metro access charge for parking so that will impact your budget. Alexandria, Crystal City, Roslyn, Falls Church & Silver Spring (latter two aren't esp. close in).

Keep looking though and good luck with your trip.

longhorn55

Artsbabe has a good plan so you can avoid the cost of paying for a rental car you won't use in D.C. and the cost of parking at the hotel. (Yes, even hotels in the suburbs generally charge for parking.)
When you return on Sunday, you'll probably want to stay in Virginia. I'd recommend one of the areas in Arlington close to Metro (Crystal City, Rosslyn, Courthouse, Clarendon or Ballston). Again, drop the car to avoid rental and parking costs. Dulles is about a 40 minute drive from Arlington, depending on the time of day. You can take public transportation (cheap, but more than 40 minutes) or a taxi to Dulles (probably around $60).

elbegewa

We’ve just finished making reservations, as follows. Thanks for all your suggestions … as you can see, we’ve taken many of them to heart. Feel free to let me know if any of our choices seem bad. Now we will turn our attention for what we’ll do in Washington this time (last visit was in 2002).

Re costs: it’s amazing how much cheaper hotels are on weekends rather than workdays – gives a real sense of how important Washington is to much of the world’s economy.

The first half:
We’ll splurge and dent our budget and stay in Crystal City at the Hampton Inn (close to the Metro) for a relatively good price of $177 per night incl. tax. We’ll wait to pick up our rental car at DCA on the day we leave.

The second half:
For the second half we’re mostly there on weekdays so the costs are way beyond our hoped for budget. We want to be close to a metro stop to get into the city, but everyplace suggested was $200-$300 per night or more … we’re unwilling to pay that much for a place to sleep … there are better uses for money. And we need a car to get to friends’ houses in Fairfax and to IAD- Dulles. So, we came down to a choice of either paying apx. $158/night and staying in a 3 star suburban motel towards Fairfax (inconvenient for metro) or spending apx. $150/night for the Econo Lodge in Falls Church only a block or two from a metro stop (2 star motel – reviews seem like it may be OK (?)). (All nightly rates mentioned incl. tax and other charges). With a bit of trepidation we chose the latter.

After we return, we’ll post a trip review.