amcneal

We'd like to take the grandkids to DC for the 4th of July. Want to be there for the fireworks and festivities. Do you have any suggestions for getting in, out and around for that purpose? Also what campgrounds in the DC vicinity would you recommend?

weski

Whatever you do, use METRO, the subway system. The only way to get around that weekend. No parking. Find a campsite that is in range of the orange or blue lines (www.wmata.com) and ride into town. Depending on kids ages, The scene around the Wash. monument is picnic blankets and folks stake out their places very early and party all day in the hot sun. Personally, we prefer watching the Washington Symphony at the foot of the Capitol and watching the fireworks from there. The Mall area is about 2 miles long and it it packed. Remember to wear sneaker, a hat, bring water bottles and possible thunderstorms...have fun! Make your campsite reservations NOW!

kaudrey

Hi,

The mall is a zoo on July 4th. I am not going to try to discourage you from doing this, because the kids will like it, but I can tell you it is comparable to New Year's Eve in Times Square.

Metro is the only way to go. People go to the mall early in the day and stay there all day, as weski noted. It will be packed. You sort of have to go in mid-day if you want a good spot on the mall to sit with the kids on a blanket. I also like weski's idea of being down by the Capitol.

Also, be prepared for it to take a LONG time to leave after the fireworks by metro. There will be hundreds of thousands of people all trying to use a few metro stations to get out of the city. It literally can take HOURS after the fireworks to get on a metro. Not sure how old your grandkids are, but it is something to keep in mind, since the fireworks aren't until about 9pm or so, I think.

I live in Alexandria, and I sometimes go down to Old Town and watch the fireworks from there. It gets pretty crowded down there, too, but not as bad.

Sorry, I don't know about campgrounds.

Hope this helps a little.

Karen

rb_travelerxATyahoo

I'm relying on memory, so please don't hold me to this. I SEEM to recall:

Campground near Greenbelt - "Cherry Hill", maybe? Was close to, or maybe even had a shuttle to the Greenbelt Metrorail station.

A campground in MD, east of DC that had shuttle service to New Carrollton ... in fact, it appeared the company that owned the campground also owned, or were affilated with a tour company, which I *think* was "About Town"

Don't make the mistake of thinking that the Smithsonian station is the only one you can use (probably because it's in the middle of the Mall). For fireworks & Cherry Blossum Festival it gets so crowded they close it down to arriving passengers. Plan to spend a few hours "under the stars" while the crowds thin out.

I'm told that the view from IwoJima Monument (Rosslyn Metro stop) is GREAT, and you can find lodging nearby too. I've stayed many times at Quality Inn Iwo Jima, but not during fireworks.

flyfaraway

You might consider going to gravelly point which is a park right by Reagan Airport. I didn't live here last July 4th, but it seems like a great spot to go..

rb_travelerxATyahoo

The campground with a shuttle is a KOA in Millerton(?) but the shuttle return is too early to catch the fireworks ... but you could easily drive from the campground to NewCarrollton.

cfc

The view from the Iwo Jima is wonderful, as is the river bank near the Pentagon. But ANY of the Metro stops will be jampacked. We did Iwo Jima/Rosslyn one year, and it still was hours before we got home.

Depending on the age of the kids, you may wish to be aware that food isn't necessarily readily available except at specific parts of the Mall (and jammed there). Most people picnic, but of course, that means carrying in whatever you want to eat.

It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience BUT you really won't feel like doing it again once you've dealt with the crowds.

The only people who don't have a tough time of it are those staying in the Foggy-Bottom/Georgetown or Capitol area who are willing to walk quite a ways to and from the fireworks.

LN

The DC fireworks are spectacular - no doubt about it - but you'll have to get there VERY early to get a space for a blanket for your family. Please take a picnic basket with food and water or soft drinks (alcohol is not allowed). I believe they've also outlawed smoking at the festivities. In the past we've watched the fireworks from the Virginia side of the Potomac - adjacent to the Pentegon (could be closed for security reasons now) from the mall itself (almost any spot is good) and we wastched them from a friend's boat anchored in the Potomac. More people come each year. It's good advice to use the subway or get a hotel room you can walk to.

For campgrounds there's one in College Park MD and another in Millersville MD. Millersville seems quite a distance but the College Park campground is very close to I-95 beltway and close to commuting. I am not exactly sure how close it is to the subway there as I think the subway is closer to Silver Spring or New Carrollton.

raghu

Don't even think about driving in. It's difficult enough walking through all those people on what will most likely be a very hot and muggy July evening. Use the metro.

Pick a spot between the Washington Monuments and the Lincoln Memorial. It's really crowded but it's worth seeing the fireworks against the backdrop of these monuments.

Some photographs are at http://www.indospectrum.com/travels/dc.html

hotdogz

There is camping at Greenbelt Park (National Park Service) in Maryland, just outside DC. The website says it is $14. 2 miles to the Greenbelt Metro station, and probably about the same to U of MD College Park station. This is a "tent camping in the middle of the woods" experience, perhaps preferable to the commercial campgrounds, perhaps not.

http://www.nps.gov/gree/index.htm

ALW

An additional thing you could do is visit the National Cathedral -- they have one of the few rings of church bells (the big ones that swing, with one ringer per rope) in the country, and they ring a peal (a 3.5-hour long pattern) each 4th. You will want to check closer to the date, however, to be sure that the cathedral itself will be open that day (the ringers sometimes perform when the cathedral isn't open to visitors).

Stephanie

Just my opinion. I spend one 4th Jul walking around the N.W. area of D.C. Very crowded. Be prepared to walk to another subway as some stops like the Smithsonian are so crowded you can't get into them. That is what happened to me and my group - we walked to L'Enfant to catch the yellow line. Also, if you could stay a little further away from the Washington Monument, where the massive crowded is, to view the fireworks, the better. I'd also agree with everyone, make your reservations ASAP.

bardo

Your best two options are Greenbelt National Park http://www.nps.gov/gree/ or Cherry Hill Park http://www.cherryhillpark.com/

Both are about a 5 minute drive to either College Park metro or Greenbelt metro stations on the green line. If you don't want to drive to the metro station, Cherry Hill Park offers bus service to the metro.

http://www.wmata.com/metrorail/systemmap.cfm

Kal

We've spent 5-6 4th of July celebrations in DC and we'd do it again in a heart beat.

As weski mentions, they put on a show "A Capitol 4th" that usually airs on your local PBS channel. If the weather is nice, get to the West steps of the Capitol early so you can get a good seat.
Try to sit off to the side so you can peek down The Mall and see the f'works afterwards.

If you can score some seats on the Cap steps, mo' bettah because you can then see The George and Lincoln Monuments light up in the f'works. Take a camera.

You can bring some blankets to sit/lay on or alum chairs. Take plenty o' water too. Vendors are nearby but $$$$.

One trip we were there during the killer heat wave and it was almost 100 degrees/99% humidity. YUCK!

The first two trips we stayed at the Key Bridge Marriott in Arlington.

Thought we could just "hop on the Metro" and get back to the hotel after the f'works. WRONG!!!
We wound up walking back all the way thru G'town then over the Potomac. BEAUTIFUL!
And since we were there with about 400,000 of our closest friends, it was pretty safe.

The last few trips we stayed at the Metro Marriott. It was only a few blocks away from the WH and The Mall. It came in handy about 3yrs ago when it POURED on the 4th.
We wound up watching the f'works from our room while our soaked bones were drying out.

You may want to see if they let people up in the Old Post Office Tower for the f'works.
Regardless, you should take you G'kids up there anyway.
GREAT view of the whole Cap Mall and beyond and it's more open than The George/better photo ops.

Man! I wanna go now!!!
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