If Priceline doesn’t give you anything in DC proper, you can always try the same price in VA, but I have always found Arlington and Crystal City pretty depressing. They’re like the worst of the 1980’s. Too much glass and traffic. It’s like the set of Miami Vice without Crockett and Tubbs.
If you can find something in Dupont in your price range, I’d really consider it. You’ll have a very different experience if you are staying in Dupont which is an interesting, walkable neighborhood with lots of places to eat just a couple of stops from the museums vs. staying in a motel outside the town. Just my 2 cents.
Thank you for the responses. I will take Oxon Hill off my list. I’m going to try the Dupont Circle bidding. How do Alexandria or Georgetown look?
My wife rally wants to see the Arlington National Cemetery, especially the Kennedys. Are there long lines for that? What about changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns?
When we went to Arlington in August there were no lines for anything and no place was especially crowded. We had no problem seeing Kennedy’s eternal flame or anything else. We didn’t see the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown, so I can’t answer that one specifically.
Since your wife likes pop culture stuff, she might be interested in checking out the Darth Vader grotesque at the National Cathedral.
Wow, you can even buy a souvenir replica of it. What a country!
No lines at the Kennedys for us either three years ago. A small crowd but not too crowded. And we did watch the changing of the guard, and it was the same – small crowd but not too crowded.
The Metro stops right at the cemetery. We took it there, then afterward walked back into DC over the bridge, and that’s kind of nice.
I also say yes to Mount Vernon. Fantastic place. Liked sitting on Washington’s porch in the rockers, watching the river. And he had a distillery not too far away that they rebuilt. That’s worth a look too.
When the museum is really busy, like during the cherry blossoms, or holiday weekends, they set up a separate line for those three items to keep it moving. Everytime family visits us in DC they want to see those items so my wife and I take them down to the Mall.
That was it then. We just went on a regular weekday past cherry blossom time.
This thread is well timed for me as I was going to start one myself for advice about visiting DC in the near future.
So if I’m following right regarding hotels, DC proper is ideal of course, Dupont Circle is good, Arlington seems to be getting a mixed review here.
What are the exhibits/features at the Newseum?
Unless you want to walk a good ways or take a bus to the nearest Metro station Georgetown isn’t a great choice. I’ve never seen lines at Arlington (my wife’s maternal grandparents are buried there, not far from JFK, so I’ve been there several times).
Yeah, don’t expect lines at Arlington Cemetery, but please remember that it is an actual cemetery. I was at a funeral there not too long ago for the father of a friend and tourists were snapping pics like we were performers at Disneyland. It was weird and disrespectful.
I say being near a metro center trumps being in DC proper. E.g. outside of DC, but near a station, over Georgetown. Unless there are frequent shuttles, although even then I’d probably still prefer to be near a station.
Here is an overlay: DC Metro stations - Google My Maps
Thanks Ruken for that link!
Ditto. Thank you for the Metro overlay. Very handy.
Thank you all for the helpful information. I still haven’t nailed down the hotel yet, but we’re getting there. The obvious solution is that I need to up the budget. The $85 bid for Dupont Circle was not successful. Neither was a $100 bid. I’m gonna find something, though.
But now I come to you hat-in-hand to ask about the Metro train service:
[ol]
[li]Do I need to worry about schedules or should I just show up at the train station?[/li][li]Suppose my hotel is on the red line and my destination is on the blue line. Do we just show up at a red station and ride to the first blue station, get off, hang around the platform until a blue train shows up, and get on?[/li][li]How do I know what direction I need to go? Do both directions arrive/depart from the same platform or do we need to be careful how we enter the station?[/li][li]If I understand correctly, the card is sort of like a toll road. I swipe the card when I enter a station, I ride around to wherever I want to go, then swipe the card when I leave. The requisite amount is then deducted from the card’s value. Is that about it? What if there is not enough value on the card to pay the fare?[/li][li]Do I physically pass the card through a reader or does it have an RFID chip like my car and I just go through the turnstile with the card in my pocket?[/li][li]The trains in Austin and Dallas work on the honor system. You buy a ticket at the platform and get on the train. A transit cop can randomly ask you for your ticket. Woe be you if you don’t have one. I gather that is not the case in Metro DC. You simply cannot make it to a train without a ticket. Correct?[/li][/ol]
Thank you all. The SDMB is an amazing trove of information.
Try the Highlander Motel in Arlington – just a block or two from Metro, basic and cheap but clean and acceptable accommodations.
Do I need to worry about schedules or should I just show up at the train station?
Stations open at 5AM M-F and 7AM weekends, and close at midnight Sunday-Thursday and 3AM Friday and Saturday. Weekdays the trains come fairly frequently. Weekends they can be 20-25 minutes apart, possibly more.
Suppose my hotel is on the red line and my destination is on the blue line. Do we just show up at a red station and ride to the first blue station, get off, hang around the platform until a blue train shows up, and get on?
There is a completely separate platform for the other line. You can really only transfer to other lines at specific stations (see map linked below). Follow the signs to the appropriate stair/escalator to the other platform. You can move freely within the system once you’re “in”.
How do I know what direction I need to go? Do both directions arrive/depart from the same platform or do we need to be careful how we enter the station?
This is the system map. Stations where you can switch lines are marked with bullseyes. On the platforms, direction is indicated by the last station on that line, for example going west on the Orange line the signage will indicate that train/side of the platform is going to “Vienna,” and the opposite side will say “New Carrollton”. Most platforms are centered, as in the trains come in along the sides, but some, notably many of the transfer stations downtown, have at least one platform where the trains come up the middle, so you’ll need to be careful about which side you wait on.
And feel free to ask just about anyone in the station if you get confused. Despite our reputation, we’re mostly pretty nice and more than happy to help.
If I understand correctly, the card is sort of like a toll road. I swipe the card when I enter a station, I ride around to wherever I want to go, then swipe the card when I leave. The requisite amount is then deducted from the card’s value. Is that about it? What if there is not enough value on the card to pay the fare?
Yes. If you don’t have enough, there is a machine marked “Exit Fare” next to the gates where you can add the appropriate amount to your card to exit the system. You can only add exactly what you are short on these machines.
Do I physically pass the card through a reader or does it have an RFID chip like my car and I just go through the turnstile with the card in my pocket? The trains in Austin and Dallas work on the honor system. You buy a ticket at the platform and get on the train. A transit cop can randomly ask you for your ticket. Woe be you if you don’t have one. I gather that is not the case in Metro DC. You simply cannot make it to a train without a ticket. Correct?
Paper cards go into a slot on the front of the gate and pop up out of a slot at the top. When you take your card back the gate will open, and you only have about 3 seconds to walk through before the gate closes. If you have exact fare for the ride you took, the gate will “capture” your card and the gate will just open without giving you the card back. If you get a “SmarTrip” card, you just touch it to the pad, but as a tourist there isn’t really any reason for you to get one of these, unless you plan on visiting often. You cannot enter or exit the system without proper fare.
To amend that last sentence, as long as you have a fare card with the minimum fare you can enter the system, but of course you can’t leave without paying the full fare for the ride you took (although if you’re short and you tell the Station Manager you don’t have any more money, they’ll almost always just let you go through; they’re not going to trap you inside the Metro forever if you’re short a couple of bucks).
While I’m not passing judgement on that motel, It’s a great location for the metro. The pizza shop next door is where I grew up in the 1950s-60s. Still there, still good. I eat there three times/year when I return home.
Paper fare is an extra $1 for each trip. The SmarTrip card will initially cost $10 and have an $8 balance. Minimum SmarTrip fare during rush hour is $2.15. So it’s hard to not be better of with a SmarTrip.
OP should note that every person age 5 and up will need his or her own card. You can’t swipe more than one person through with a card.