Typically, Dulles and BWI are less expensive to fly into than Reagan National b/c it's practically in the city and it has a metro stop. Check though as you can sometimes get cheaper flights into Reagan. It may also be worth the surcharge for your time and $ using Reagan rather than the other two airports.

I looked at the Marriott websites and the hotels are all over $200/night for your dates.
Same with Starwood, Hilton and Kimpton.

The Holiday Inn Washington-Central/White House is available for $199/night on the Holiday Inn website.
The Holiday Inn National Airport/Crystal City is available for $122/night on the Holiday Inn website. I think that was advance purchase.
The Holiday Inn Rosslyn at Key Bridge is $177/night.

The last two are in Arlington County, VA across the river and both are within walking distance of a Metrorail station as far as I can tell.

If you don’t mind using a “blind” bidding site and paying ahead of time, I’ve once used Lastminutetravel and have seen it recommended a lot on TripAdvisor and a few times here.

On that website, there is a 4.5-star hotel in Dupont Circle/Kalorama/Washingto available for $167/night. It is probably the Dupont Circle Hotel which is really nice.

There is a 2.5-star hotel in Dupont Circle/Kalorama/Washingto for $115 which is the Days Inn Connecticut Ave. I stayed there. It was a clean and basic budget hotel. The Days Inn website might have a good rate for that hotel also.

The 3.5-star hotel in Dupont Circle/Kalorama/Washingto for $143 is probably the Marriott Wardman Park.

The way a person can figure out which hotel is which on LMT is by the photos and descriptions. You can Google the number of rooms or other descriptions and then match up the photos. You can also generally cancel up to 3 days in advance and get your money back. The cancellation policy is included with the rest of the info so double check it before using. I have not had an opportunity to test the cancellation policy.

Personally would not rec. flying into BWI or Dulles due to the complicating issues of ground transport for someone who does not know the area. Stick with reagan Airport.


Bardo has provided a very nice link to Metro/Hotel locations.

The L'Enfant Plaza hotel sits smack on top of the metro station.

Just booked our flights into Reagan - thanks for that recommendation. I am getting the sense that $200/night might not be realistic. Trying to talk DH into upping our budget so we can stay in a centrally located area

Also wondering if there are any 'must see' attractions that we might not have thought of. We are planning on seeing the monuments and some of the smithsonian museums. I have heard the spy museum is lots of fun.

I really appreciate all the help. It's hard to plan a trip into a city where we know nothing about the layout.

>> It's hard to plan a trip into a city where we know nothing about the layout.

How did your trip go, k12lima?

We had a great time. We actually ended up at the Holiday Inn Capitol http://www.hicapitoldc.com/ , which really can't be beat for the location. My son and I walked more than 6 miles and more than 7 hours each day, and it was wonderful to be able to be at the hotel so quickly after we got done exploring. We walked from hotel to Capitol building to Arlington Cemetery one day, and we hopped on the Metro and had a 4 block walk to the hotel afterwards. So, it was close to a Metro stop, but we ended up downtown and only a block away from the mall.