Clarendon & Ballston - farther out on the orange line. Very fun neighborhoods with lots of young people, bars, restaurants but a bit farther out, about 30 minutes on Metro into DC.>>>>>>>>>
no way, more like 10 min. maybe.
One of my kids lived in Ballston, the other in Arlington Courthouse. They both now live in DC. Clarendon seems to have the most going on in terms of Arlington. We stayed in Ballston and Arlington Courthouse when they were there but prefer staying in DC (Dupont Circle, Georgetown, Chinatown, etc.).
We often stay with our S near Virginia Square in Arlington, VA when we visit DC. It’s a pretty quiet neighborhood, but walking distance of the metro, library, shopping mall and grocery store as well as a few restaurants. We had to catch the metro in to the MALL to see the Smithsonean and other tourist sites.
When we have wanted to stay closer to the Mall, we have stayed at the Phoenix Park Hotel, which is an older place but very near the train and metro station. There is an inexpensive food court in the train station, where we were able to get food to satisfy all the 8 of us who were traveling together without breaking our budget.