# Tell me about Washington, DC **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 27, 2015, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-washington-dc/713739 "2015-02-27T01:31:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-washington-dc/713739/21 "2015-02-27T12:20:48Z")
> [@Drum\_God](#): > > [ol] > > [li]I want to see the Air & Space Museum. I would like to see the Udvar-Hazy Center, but it’s not on the Mall. Is it an expensive ride out there? I don’t know that I can sell my wife on the idea of looking at a bunch of airplanes. How can I hook her?[/li] > [/ol] > Thanks, y’all. I was out in DC in November and Udvar-Hazy was on my must see. You can get there on transit, but you need to plan it, because that adds time. Take the silver line all the way out, as far as it goes. Then, you get a bus that will take you right there. I’d say the train was ~30 minutes with another ~30 on the bus, but it’s been a while, so I could be wrong. I also went on a Saturday, so I don’t know how that affected the bus times. You can also take a Metro bus from the Mall to Dulles and transfer to the other bus there. Was it worth the time? Incredibly so. I loved Udvar-Hazy, and would absolutely schedule the time again. ---
**Author:** ![Drum\_God](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drum_god/32/44_2.png) [@Drum\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drum_God)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-washington-dc/713739/22 "2015-02-27T14:49:16Z")
Thank you so much everyone. I will check out Priceline and see about bidding. Hopefully I will get the Omni. I’m also working my way through those other threads. Lots of good ideas. What sort of weather should we expect? I’ll check weather forecasts when the time gets closer, but I have no idea what mid-March looks like in that part of the world. If y’all ever visit the Austin, San Antonio, Houston areas, let me know. I may have some good suggestions for you. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-washington-dc/713739/23 "2015-02-27T14:58:38Z")
We did a family vacation in D.C. the summer before last (early August). Since several have answered you point-by-point already, I’ll give our general experiences and it’ll cover most of your points I think. We stayed in Arlington, at a hotel within site of the Iwo Jima memorial. I don’t remember the exact name of it, but my wife probably does. PM me if you want any more specific info. It turned out to be a perfect area to stay-- the hotel was well under $100, I think around $70 a night. Not super fancy but it was clean and had a decently nice pool (important for our 7 and 10 year old boys). The neighborhood felt very safe and was a little less crazy busy than D.C. proper. From there it was an easy few block walk to the Rosslyn Metro station. As mentioned, the metro is great for getting around. DO NOT RENT A CAR! The traffic in D.C. is nuts. Between the metro and a fair amount of hoofing it, we covered a lot of ground, even with two kids. You buy a metro card for each person from a machine and put a certain amount of money on it. The amount defaults to $20- you can change it to less, but we thought that was a minimum and put $20 on each card. Even after going all over D.C. on the metro for a week, we still had a few bucks left on the cards when we were done. As mentioned, the Smithsonian museums are all within walking distance of each other along the mall, so it’s easy to hit more than one a day. I think we averaged two a day-- I like to read all the info and linger, so I could have stayed longer, but with two kids we move through a museum pretty quickly. You could do 3 a day if you really wanted to cover a lot of ground. It’s more about how deep you want to get than logistics. In my opinion the Air and Space Museum is a must-see, so hopefully you can convince your wife. I remember Archie Bunker’s chair and I think we saw the Fonz’s jacket-- if you go to the American History museum (and they haven’t been rotated out or something) they’re on prominent display and you can’t miss them. We went to the National archives to see the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights. I thought it was one of the highlights of the trip; the kids, not so much, unsurprisingly. The line to see them was really long- they only let small groups at a time into this dim, climate-controlled area where they’re displayed. The Declaration is so faded it’s almost gone-- apparently it spent years on display in a patent office opposite a window where the sun beat on it every day. Amazing how casually our national relics were treated back in the day-- the flag from the star-spangled banner has swatches cut out of it that were given to prominent people as souvenirs in the past :smack: We walked all along the mall and saw most of the memorials. One day we did pay for a cushy air-conditioned tour bus to see some of the most prominent memorials-- WWII, the Vietnam Wall (very impressive), Korean War, Lincoln Memorial (soon after they had cleaned off the green paint some nutcase had splashed on it-- fortunately it was open, but unfortunately, there was a big scaffold next to it that made it hard to get good photos). It was nice to give the feet a rest that one day but we did plenty of walking along the mall and seeing some of the memorials twice. I would have liked to see the Jefferson Memorial, but it’s aways off from the mall and we were walked out that day. We saw the Arlington Cemetery, and that was very moving, seeing the sheer volume of rows and rows of identical white crosses. The Kennedy eternal flame memorial looked surprisingly shabby though-- the original flame had malfunctioned at some point (not so eternal after all) and they had a not-impressive looking secondary flame going. One place that I don’t think many tourists go to, but I would recommend, is the Pentagon. What an enormous structure close up! We went to see the 9-11 memorial, which I thought was well-done and very emotionally resonant. It’s a series of metal wave-shapes that come out of the ground, each with a small pool of water underneath. The waves point toward the Pentagon in, I assume, the direction the plane hit. Engraved on each one were a few names of the people who died in the crash. The Pentagon itself was kind of eerie-- it was on a Sunday so it was mostly deserted, but there were signs everywhere to not take pictures and to report anything suspicious. Of the few tourists who were there, I saw one couple taking pictures of each other with the Pentagon in the background, and security immediately materialized to tell them to stop (they didn’t get taken away though). I took a few shots of the memorial itself and my 10 year old nervously told me to stop so I didn’t get arrested. I told him it was fine as long as I didn’t point it at the Pentagon itself (not sure if that was actually true 🙂 Another place to go I would recommend that many tourists don’t get to is the island that the Teddy Roosevelt Memorial is on (called Teddy Roosevelt Island I think, believe it or not). It was a pretty ambitious walk from our hotel, but not too bad, even with our 7 and 10 year olds (we do a lot of walking though). It’s a really pretty walk across a bridge over the Potomac, and the island itself is a wooded nature-preserve type area with a number of hiking trails. It felt like a really appropriate area for Teddy’s memorial, with hs love of nature and his establishing the National Park system. In the middle of the island is the Memorial, with a giant statue of Teddy holding his arms up (took a shot of each kid posing with their arms up in the same position). There are also several giant stone slabs with some of his more memorable quotes engraved. It turned out to be a great trip, and the kids even seemed to have a great time, even though much of it you wouldn’t think of as kid-friendly. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-washington-dc/713739/24 "2015-02-27T15:53:32Z")
> [@Drum\_God](#): > > Thank you so much everyone. I will check out Priceline and see about bidding. Hopefully I will get the Omni. > > I’m also working my way through those other threads. Lots of good ideas. > > What sort of weather should we expect? I’ll check weather forecasts when the time gets closer, but I have no idea what mid-March looks like in that part of the world. > > If y’all ever visit the Austin, San Antonio, Houston areas, let me know. I may have some good suggestions for you. Evenings could still be chilly to downright cold. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-washington-dc/713739/25 "2015-02-27T16:03:43Z")
> [@UTejas](#): > > …Farther out, there are hotels in Springfield, VA reasonably close to the metro… The areas of Springfield near the metro can be a bit sketchy - more run down than violent, but it certainly portrays images of having seen better days. Bleak concrete strip malls, chipped sidewalks, and an above-average population of sex shops. It may get better with the reopening of Springfield Mall, which famously went on a painful 15 year decline as stores left, and left, and left, leaving a 3/4 empty shell of a mall before it finally closed. Then it reopened with a lot of fanfare with only a few shops. We will see. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-washington-dc/713739/26 "2015-02-27T16:08:25Z")
> [@solost](#): > > … > One place that I don’t think many tourists go to, but I would recommend, is the Pentagon. What an enormous structure close up! We went to see the 9-11 memorial, which I thought was well-done and very emotionally resonant. It’s a series of metal wave-shapes that come out of the ground, each with a small pool of water underneath. The waves point toward the Pentagon in, I assume, the direction the plane hit. Engraved on each one were a few names of the people who died in the crash. The Pentagon itself was kind of eerie-- it was on a Sunday so it was mostly deserted, but there were signs everywhere to not take pictures and to report anything suspicious… Before 2001, you could actually go inside the Pentagon. There were a few places you could just wander around without an escort or pass, but they also had guided tours that would take you around the building to see different offices, and of course they would arrange it so that you didn’t accidentally bump into a classified briefing or anything. ---
**Author:** ![Motorgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Motorgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motorgirl)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-washington-dc/713739/27 "2015-02-27T18:35:29Z")
> [@Lamar\_Mundane](#): > > Don’t pay $100 for a noisy 3\* hotel in Virginia when you can get a 4\* for $80 in the heart of DC. Seriously. Trust me. > > [Omni Shoreham](http://www.omnihotels.com/hotels/washington-dc-shoreham?gclid=CKTet_yugcQCFVKFfgodDC0ASQ) > > Oh, and join their loyalty program (free) and get express checkin and free wifi if you’re staying more than one night. Thank you for this link! I am finding myself in DC much more often lately and my meetings are always near Dupont Circle. The rate for the next nights I need to be there is not as low as $80 but it’s still more than $100 per night less expensive than the best deal I found at another hotel. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-washington-dc/713739/28 "2015-02-27T18:56:27Z")
I’ll recommend once again [this](http://www.highlandermotel.com/hotel-overview.html) hotel in Arlington. It’s 3 minutes’ walk from the Virginia Square metro station, which means you can be at the Smithsonian museums, the Capitol, the Zoo, or any other downtown DC destination in 15-25 minutes. There’s a mall and several restaurants within walking distance (including a cheap all night pizza and sandwich place next door). I lived a block away for several years. It’s not luxury, but it’s decent and relatively cheap accomodations. ---
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-washington-dc/713739/29 "2015-02-27T20:35:14Z")
Archie’s chair, Fonzie’s jacket, Dorothy’s ruby slippers, and any other pop culture items the Smithsonian is currently displaying can be found in the [American Stories](http://www.si.edu/Exhibitions/Details/American-Stories-244) exhibit at the American History Museum. It’s on the same floor as the Mall entrance. ---
**Author:** ![Drum\_God](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drum_god/32/44_2.png) [@Drum\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drum_God)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-washington-dc/713739/30 "2015-02-28T00:31:05Z")
> [@Lamar\_Mundane](#): > > I tell this to everyone but I think only one in 20 ever takes my advice. [Priceline.com](http://Priceline.com)!!! > > D.C. has a million hotel rooms and unless something big is happening like a major demonstration or the Inauguration, about half of them sit empty. Go to the website, pull up D.C., pick Dupont Circle, and bid $85. Most of the time you’ll get the Omni Shoreham. It is a big 4\* hotel overlooking Rock Creek Park with a Metro stop literally across the street and three blocks from the National Zoo. > > Look here - $80. [Washington DC Area - BiddingForTravel.com](http://biddingfortravel.yuku.com/forums/92/Washington-DC-Area/Washington-DC-Area?page=1#.VO_6d_nF_To) It works. Just trust it. > > Dupont Circle is a lively place full of every kind of restaurant imaginable and a couple of stops from the Smithsonian ( have to change from the red to the blue line at Metro Center but that is a simple thing.) Really. > > Don’t pay $100 for a noisy 3\* hotel in Virginia when you can get a 4\* for $80 in the heart of DC. Seriously. Trust me. > > [Omni Shoreham](http://www.omnihotels.com/hotels/washington-dc-shoreham?gclid=CKTet_yugcQCFVKFfgodDC0ASQ) > > Oh, and join their loyalty program (free) and get express checkin and free wifi if you’re staying more than one night. I want so badly to do this. According to its own website, the Omni is booked for the dates we need. Do you think that bid would put us in a similar hotel in the Dupont Circle area? ---
**Author:** ![Drum\_God](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drum_god/32/44_2.png) [@Drum\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drum_God)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-washington-dc/713739/31 "2015-02-28T00:32:10Z")
> [@sciurophobic](#): > > Archie’s chair, Fonzie’s jacket, Dorothy’s ruby slippers, and any other pop culture items the Smithsonian is currently displaying can be found in the [American Stories](http://www.si.edu/Exhibitions/Details/American-Stories-244) exhibit at the American History Museum. It’s on the same floor as the Mall entrance. Thanks for this. My wife will be looking forward to that. We’re going to have a great time! ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-washington-dc/713739/32 "2015-02-28T00:44:54Z")
> [@Motorgirl](#): > > Thank you for this link! I am finding myself in DC much more often lately and my meetings are always near Dupont Circle. The rate for the next nights I need to be there is not as low as $80 but it’s still more than $100 per night less expensive than the best deal I found at another hotel. My pleasure. Just for the record, it is in the Dupont Circle neighborhood, but not right around the Circle itself. It’s one stop from the Dupont Circle Metro (Woodley Park-Zoo). It’s only a mile away, but that part of town isn’t really walker-friendly. Still, it’s a great place to stay. A lot of business travelers stay there, so it gets quiet pretty early. No kids soccer teams running through the hallways screaming. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-washington-dc/713739/33 "2015-02-28T01:12:57Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > Fonzie’s jacket and the All in the Family chairs are on exhibit, in fact they have their own line jsut for those items (as well as Dorothy’s slippers). We saw those three years ago, and there weren’t separate lines for them. They were just on display with all the other stuff. > [@Lamar\_Mundane](#): > > I tell this to everyone but I think only one in 20 ever takes my advice. [Priceline.com](http://Priceline.com)!!! I wish I could have used Priceline, but they won’t let you if you’re in Thailand. ☹ I have [my own thread asking about DC](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=617462&highlight=Washington) from three years ago. We stayed at the [Tabard Inn](http://tabardinn.com/) and highly recommend it. But it cost us $200 a night. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-washington-dc/713739/34 "2015-02-28T01:43:03Z")
I may be wrong, but I think the Baron Hotel near Dupont is on the affordable side. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-washington-dc/713739/35 "2015-02-28T02:14:21Z")
In my estimation, U Street (around 14th) NW and Adams-Morgan are the most happening parts of DC. The most happening part of Adams-Morgan is upper 18th Street (near Columbia Road) NW. At least, those were true when I lived a night life up until a few years ago when I quit going out and just cocooned. For me the valuable aspects were the vivacity in diversity of the multicultural neighborhood, making it a perfect seedbed for the grass-roots arts, and its level of political awareness that is a carryover from Dupont Circle (I was a member of a radical arts collective that started out at Dupont Circle and later moved to Adams-Morgan). Notable is that it’s one of America’s successfully racially integrated urban neighborhoods. I’ve always wanted to visit Roosevelt Island. Not for the heroic statue (didn’t know it had one), but for its nature-preservitude, which is in keeping with the guy it’s named for. You don’t get to see all that many urban nature preserves. Roosevelt Island is not especially easy of access (which I guess must help with preserving the nature, come to think of it). If you don’t have a canoe, the only access to it is pedestrian; no motors allowed. The pedestrian bridge is accessible only from a parking lot which is only accessible from the southbound lane of the George Washington Parkway. Or you could start in Arlington and walk a few blocks to get to it. One of these days I will. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-washington-dc/713739/36 "2015-02-28T02:22:36Z")
> [@Drum\_God](#): > > I want so badly to do this. According to its own website, the Omni is booked for the dates we need. Do you think that bid would put us in a similar hotel in the Dupont Circle area? I missed this post. I have used Priceline for this stay probably 20 times (last company was HQ’d in Dupont Circle) and the only other hotel I got (maybe 4 or 5 times out of the 20) was the Washington Hilton Dupont Circle\*. Not quite as nice as the Omni IMO, but a great deal for that price. Crap. Just checked their site and it, too, is unavailable that week. There must be something big going on then. Sorry. I’d still give the site a try. Any 4\* for $85 is a steal in that area. If there is nothing available you aren’t out anything. - Also known as the Hinkley Hilton. It’s where President Reagan was shot. ---
**Author:** ![Drum\_God](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drum_god/32/44_2.png) [@Drum\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drum_God)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-washington-dc/713739/37 "2015-02-28T04:11:31Z")
I’m going to try the Priceline bidding for Dupont Circle as suggested, but I can get the Red Roof Inn in Oxon Hill for $73.59. The website says it’s 10 miles from DCA and 6.4 miles to the National Mall. Does that sound like a decent place? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Nylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/77aa72/32.png) [@Mr.Nylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Nylock)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-washington-dc/713739/38 "2015-02-28T04:42:20Z")
> [@Drum\_God](#): > > I’m going to try the Priceline bidding for Dupont Circle as suggested, but I can get the Red Roof Inn in Oxon Hill for $73.59. The website says it’s 10 miles from DCA and 6.4 miles to the National Mall. Does that sound like a decent place? Oxon Hill is sketchy. It’s so sketchy, I could probably afford to buy a house there. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Knig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@Typo\_Knig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Knig)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-washington-dc/713739/39 "2015-02-28T05:27:22Z")
> [@Drum\_God](#): > > I’m going to try the Priceline bidding for Dupont Circle as suggested, but I can get the Red Roof Inn in Oxon Hill for $73.59. The website says it’s 10 miles from DCA and 6.4 miles to the National Mall. Does that sound like a decent place? I worked in Oxon Hill for many years. Yes, it can be sketchy. Probably more so at night. And it’s not that close to Metro. There are fast food places of every variety on Oxon Hill Road, plus a great local pizza joint and a fantastic french bakery on nearby Livingston Road. PM me for details. If you want to see DC cheaply and easily my advice is to find a hotel out in the 'burbs near enough to Metro that you can walk, or the hotel has a shuttle. You might do better price-wise in Springfield VA. Or not - I haven’t had a reason to price a hotel there. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Knig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@Typo\_Knig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Knig)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-washington-dc/713739/40 "2015-02-28T05:36:19Z")
After reading more of the thread, I want to add that Springfield Mall just re-opened this fall. Not enough time to make surrounding neighborhoods less sketchy. Although I’m disappointed to say I don’t know where the sex shops are in Springfield. The one strip club is pretty discreet, but that’s not the same thing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-washington-dc/713739.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-washington-dc/713739.md?page=3)