<p>Dear Parents and Students:</p>
<p>Please help us plan a 2 day visit in DC. We will be driving in Sunday night, staying for next 2 nights, visiting the usual places. Where should we stay within reasonable budget ? If we stay farther out, is there shuttle bus that bus tourists into town ?</p>
<p>Self-tour or get tour package from the motel ?</p>
<p>Thank you in advance.</p>
<p>I would recommend that you stay in town if at all possible. Traffic from the suburbs into DC has become pretty bad all day every day, at least on week days.</p>
<p>What kind of things do you want to do? Smithsonian? art museums? zoo? shopping? White House/Capitol?</p>
<p>There is so much to do for free in Washington. If it were my first visit, I would go down to Independence/Constitution Avenues (“the Mall”) and let my mood be my guide - Smithsonian, Washington Monument, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, an art museum maybe, Capitol building. Wear yourself out doing as many of those things as appeal on one day … it is all walkable.</p>
<p>Another day you can return to the same type of activities, or go to Georgetown or Dupont Circle area for shopping.</p>
<p>You can stay further out if you do it on a Metro line, so that you don’t have to deal with traffic.</p>
<p>Ditto the advice on the in-city hotels and weekend rates. Use search engines or travel sites to try to get the best deal you can find. Staying out in the suburbs really won’t save you any money (at least not much) and you’ll add to your commuting time and costs. The DC Metro will get you anywhere you want to go.</p>
<p>I’d skip any prearranged tour and just get a map and/or a guidebook. Most of the sites in DC are close together (on or around The Mall) and easy to find. Walking the length of The Mall takes you past all the Memorials and the Smithsonian - all free! Be sure to check out the Albert Einstein statue. It’s one of my favorites. </p>
<p>If you do want to do a tour check out the DC Duck tour. They take you around town in an old WWII “duck” which goes from the road to the water and they take you around the Patomac. The tour is a bit more “off beat” than your usual double decker tour bus.</p>
<p>Is this a college trip, vacation, or business trip with free time? How many are you? Children?
There is an awful lot to see here for a two day trip. Are you interested in Government workings, monuments and museums, Library of Congress, National Zoo (and Pandas), art galleries, trendy shopping?</p>
<p>There’s so much to see you can’t possibly do even a fraction in two days. It really depends on what your interests are. I’d be happy to never ever see the Air and Space Museum again, but for years we had to go every trip because it’s the only place my kids like. I wouldn’t miss The Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial, The Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, and whichever Art Museum had the best visiting exhibit, though my absolute favorite art museum is [THE</a> PHILLIPS COLLECTION](<a href=“http://www.phillipscollection.org/]THE”>http://www.phillipscollection.org/). The White House I hear has long lines - I haven’t been since I was in high school. I’m a believer in self-touring, but a half day on a Duck sounds like fun to me. Usually we stay with family, but I have stayed at a hotel off Dupont Circle which was very convenient. Really anything near a metro stop will make it easy to get to the mall. You might want to check out the Kennedy Center’s schedule and see if something interests you there.</p>
<p>When son and I visited DC a couple years ago we did stay out of the city–were there on week days. We stayed out in Fairfax and hotel had a shuttle to the Metro station. Taking the Metro in was easy and quick. We have stayed in the city on other visits–that’s nice if you find good rates.</p>
<p>One place my son wanted to visit as he was young the last time he saw it was Arlington cemetery. He was very moved by the visit and all the new graves from the past few years. The Holocaust museum was another emotional stop. We also worked in the WWII memorial (had never seen it before) along with the other memorials, the capitol, and some of the Smithsonian. We were only there 2 days also, so you do have to pick what is most important to your group.</p>
<p>I don’t know how set in stone your plans are, but you can often get great deals on the in-town hotels in Washington on the weekends.</p>
<p>Where NOT to stay? Hyatt Regency-Capitol Hill. Stayed there last summer and was very disappointed in the cleanliness of the [bath]rooms (considering the hotel’s caliber). Arlington is just across the river and you can take the Metro into DC.</p>
<p>When we visited GW and Georgetown, we got a good three-day weekend rate at
I would recommend it if you can get a good room rate.</p>
<p>large suite with kitchen
right near the Foggy Bottom metro station and basically ON the GW campus
close to Georgetown and other DC colleges if you are doing any college visits.
walking distance to the Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, Washington Memorial, Smithsonian, etc.
It is an older hotel but it was just fine for a college visit. We liked the location and the “roominess” of the rooms.
You can design your own tour of the DC area. Smithsonian museums are close to each other and free.
You can take the metro train almost anywhere you want to go - if you fly into DCA, you can easily take the train into town, too.</p>
<p>We live about 30 minutes from DC. My daughter just had some friends from college come visit her. They did an evening segway tour. They had the best time! My daughter and one of her local friends have toured DC many times and came up with this idea to keep everyone happy. It was $65 for a 2 hour tour but they all said it was worth every penny. They said they would do it again anytime! </p>
<p>Also a lot of people visiting DC stay in Alexandria. The hotels are a little cheaper. The metro’s close by. It is a safe area with a lot of restaurants to visit in the evenings. You might want to check out hotels there.</p>
<p>If you are driving in , it may be cheaper for you to stay in a motel in Arlington or Alexandria where parking may be free and then metro in. All the DC hotels charge around $25-30 a day for parking.</p>
<p>It really takes 2 weeks to see DC right. But anyway, hit “the Mall” (where all the Smithsonian museums are). The US Capitol building and statuary hall. There are all kinds of events if you time things right (piranha feeding at the National Aquarium anyone?). To save time stay near the metro lines. If money is no object you can stay at the Watergate or Mayflower. Definitely see the Library of Congress buildings. Naturally Air & Space, Holocaust, Folger Library, National Archives, Bureau of Engraving, the memorials including the Albert Einstein memorial, the national galleries, the Newseum, the International Spy Museum, the Corcoran, the tower at the old patent office. I liked the National Building Museum and the Postal Service Museum.
Union Station. There’s also Ford’s Theater and the National Geographic Society Museum. With proper timing you can get tours of the FBI and State Dept. I think. You could go to the National Cathedral, Chinatown, and Georgetown. NASA Goddard is nearby. There’s also the US Navy museum, the National Firefighter’s/Police Officers Memorial, the Iwo Jima memorial, Arlington National Cemetery, and the Pentagon too. The Naval Academy in Annapolis is not too far if you have the time. I like the Theodore Roosevelt memorial (very out of the way), but hated the new FDR memorial (the old one was a plaque on a rock in front of the IRS).</p>
<p>My favourite place to visit in DC was the American History Museum. When I visited, it was temporarily relocated to the Air & Space Museum (also interesting) so I don’t know where it is usually located. Described in my guidebook as “America’s attic”, it features a lot of fun pop culture items including Dorothy’s red slippers from The Wizard of Oz, Kermit the Frog, the M<em>A</em>S*H signpost.
<a href=“http://americanhistory.si.edu/index.cfm[/url]”>http://americanhistory.si.edu/index.cfm</a></p>
<p>I also enjoyed Georgetown and wandering around the Mall and seeing the memorials.</p>
<p>I stayed at the YHA because it was reasonably priced and fairly central. The YHA also offered free evening walking tours.</p>
<p>I ate at the Capitol City Brewing Company (1100 New York Avenue, NW)because it offers $5 appetizers 4-7pm on weekdays. 3 appetizers between 2 people = cheap dinner. [Capitol</a> City Brewing Company - Washington’s Best Brew Pubs](<a href=“Capitol City Brews”>Capitol City Brews)</p>
<p>Stay further out and take the Metro into the city. And remember: on escalators, you stand on the right, and walk on the left. That way, you won’t clearly be tourists.</p>
<p>To make the most of your time, consider taking an evening tour of the monuments, since they’re open 24/7. Don’t use your car, if you have one–take one of the bus tours. You won’t be able to go up the Washington Monument, but you can get an equally good view from the tower at the top of the Old Post Office. It’ll also spare your legs, since it can be a long way out to see Mr. Jefferson. I’m not normally a guided tour person, but I’ve really enjoyed seeing the monuments this way. </p>
<p>Try contacting your congressional and Senate offices right now to see if they can get you a VIP tour of Congress. Also, if you want to go to the National Archives, contact them right away about getting a reservation. If you can’t, no worries, since there’s more to see than you can fit into one visit. Or five. </p>
<p>Staying around the mall might be cheaper, but the neighborhood has nothing to offer at nighttime. Dupont Circle is a great, if pricier choice, with a metro right there and lots of restaurants. Georgetown has a lot of nighttime attractions, but if your hotel isn’t near a metro stop, you’ll spend a lot of time waiting for the hotel shuttle.</p>
<p>There’s no FBI tour at this time. </p>
<p>The Spy Museum is excellent, but there’s an admission charge. But it might be open later than the Smithsonian museums.</p>
<p>If you haven’t found it already, take a look here [Package</a> Deals](<a href=“http://www.washington.org/visiting/browse-dc/package-deals]Package”>http://www.washington.org/visiting/browse-dc/package-deals) for hotel packages and “getting around DC.” Before I book a hotel, I review its ratings on [Reviews</a> of vacations, hotels, resorts, vacation and travel packages - TripAdvisor](<a href=“http://www.tripadvisor.com%5DReviews”>http://www.tripadvisor.com) . Tripadvisor also has a search that allows you to find the best discounts at hotels using online booking companies like travelocity and hotels.com. While I sometimes use this search function, I usually go the hotel’s website first to see if they offer the same or better rates. </p>
<p>Because you don’t know your way around, I think one of the tours would be a good way to start. After that, you can decide where you want to spend some time. </p>
<p>When we’ve visited DC, we’ve stayed in the city and walked, walked and walked to most places. The metro works well. If you stay outside of DC, take a look at Alexandria. It has some history and local color. In the last year we stayed at the Alexandria Embassy Suites which is right across the street from the metro. There were several other chains close to the subway as well. </p>
<p>Enjoy your visit!</p>
<p>Stay at the Holiday Inn right behind the Air & Space museum and right near l’enfant plaza. From L’enfant plaza you can get most anywhere on the metro.
The hotel has a roof top pool and you can see the capitol building while swimming - my kids thought this was cool. If you fly into Reagan then you can take the metro to the hotel.
Staying in town is a time saver, for sure.
If you stay outside, stay near a metro stop and plan to get up early.<br>
Two days isn’t much time - what you do will depend on what your interests are - the new Nationals ballpark is really nice, (even if the Nats aren’t), the zoo is awesome. Alot of people could spend all day in air and space.
But those are options - the monuments are a must, IMO.
If walking is a killer then pony up for a tourmobile pass - you can go on and off all day and it even goes out to Arlington.</p>
<p>You need to plan ahead and get tickets for Holocaust but very worthwhile - just do something fun afterword.
Unless you get there when it opens you will also need to plan ahead for the Spy Museum - it’s really good though.</p>
<p>Do NOT shy away from the metro - it is very clean and safe and easy to use. you can get a map of stops on the website. you may not even need to rent a car if you hotel is near a stop or provides a shuttle to a stop.</p>
<p>I would say that if you plan on using the metro and get a tourmobile pass then you don’t need a tour from the hotel many of which are highly structured.</p>
<p>Plan to get up early and stay up late!</p>
<p>Thanks for all your replies. My wife, my son and I will be travelling thru DC on way to Atlanta for business/pleasure, and stop in at our capitol for 2 day visit. It will be sunday - monday. </p>
<p>Wouldnt most buildings shut down for visiting on weekend? ( Capitol, White House ) ? Also how does one visit the White House - advance reservation or just show up and show up and wait-in-line ?</p>
<p>We lived in DC for many years BK (before kids). When we visited after moving away, we either stayed with friends far out or – much more convenient – stayed around Dupont Circle, Georgetown, or Bethesda/Chevy Chase. Do not stay around New York Avenue – this is not a safe area.
I think we stayed at one of the Embassy Suites around Dupont Circle; I believe there is a swimming pool which is nice for kids during the summer.<br>
We visited the Library of Congress – probably before computers – and my kids were amazed at the miles of card catalogues. Have fun.</p>