We are planning a trip to D.C. the first week of April. We do lots of walking and riding on public transportation. We will not have a car. I am looking for a hotel or B&B around $150 a night. What areas should I look at and are there any specific suggestions? Also, any day trips from D.C. that would be fun and interesting?

Your first topic has been covered on the forum recently, so you might try a search if you haven't done so already.

Day trip: A new museum theater, education center, and orientation center have just opened at George Washington's Mt. Vernon estate. The reviews in the paper here in D.C. have been glowing. It looks great. See here:

http://tinyurl.com/yxvxbl

You could look into Red Roof Inn near Chinatown, Holiday Inn which is nearer to the capitol, or you could try Priceline and probably get a pretty good hotel at a fairly low price. First look at Biddingfortravel and get an idea which area to bid on.

Washington subways are great - I use it all the time. But for visitors I generally recommend staying in the city as it will save you about two hours a day commuting!

We just returned from our Southeast tour which started in Washington DC .We stayed at the Harrington hotel(only two blocks from te mall).Very well situated.We paid 115 $ for two in a renovated nice room with complete bathroom.Paul

You should post this under Washignton DC. That week is usually peak cherry blossom time so hotels will be expensive. I would suggest the Hilton Garden inn on 14th Street. It is directly across froma metro stop and close to the mall. I would book a hotel now just to be safe and keep looking. the prices are only going to go up. You could also look in Old Town Alexandria which is very nice and take the metro into the city from there. IMO the Harrington is a dump/toursit hotel.

Look also at the Tabard Inn. This is a great, small, low cost, Dupont Circle area hotel and is perfect for those with no car as it two blocks to Metro (the Metro is at Connecticut Ave. & Dupont Circle). Each of the 40 rooms are priced differently - most of them are well within your budget. An added plus is that they have the same prices year round and don't jack up the price during the busiest times of year (like April!)

Their official website appears to be down at he moment so you should call them. Here's another site I found that has some info on it - including map, phone, fax, etc.

http://www.atmos.berkeley.edu/ids/oct99/tabard.html

And in case the officail ites comes back up:

http://www.tabardinn.com/

bardo, pardon me for catching me while you are here, but if you have any ideas for a DC limo service, would you check my post on that and let me know please? Thanks very much.

The best recommendation I have for a reasonably priced hotel is the State Plaza Hotel. It is located in the Foggy Bottom area (on George Washington University's campus) and also has great rates (especially for AAA members). It is walking distance to the national mall and all the monuments, and also a 3 block walk from the metro.

My sister and I just got the Omni Shoreham for 125 a night on priceline. the hotel is fabulous and is just one metro stop from Dupont Circle. Also, if you want breakfast, go across the street to Open City Cafe, it is excellent!!!!!

Hi again

I just returned from Europe and since we were going to be in Berlin, Vienna, Munich, Frankfurt, and Salzburg I thought that it was a good time to try Priceline. It truly was great as you choose the section of the city that you'd like and then the number of stars. With the exception of Munich's having the Octoberfest we booked all great 4 stars for much better prices.

I would recommend trying Priceline and try it early cause if your bid doesn't work then you've got a couple other days to bid up.