Has anyone ever gone to Udvar-Hazy without a car? We'd like to go one of these years, but we usually don't have a car when we visit DC.
It's technically possible (see their website
here, scroll down to the public transportation section), but I would not recommend it. No matter where you start, you'll have to take a bus, and DC area buses are not very reliable (not on schedule, can be confusing if you're not familiar with the bus lines, most do not have dedicated bus lanes so they get stuck in traffic with everyone else, etc.) and it'll take a lot of time. It is a cool museum, but if you don't have a car it's not worth it unless you're really interested in planes/space shuttles/etc. (there are basically no museum exhibits, just a lot of vehicles).
Is it easy to figure out the metro? Worried about getting lost
Yes, the metro is very easy, especially for tourists. By "metro" I only mean the trains--the buses are not easy or reliable and I would not recommend them, but most of the attractions are near train stations so you shouldn't need the bus. One thing you should understand is that the fares are based on how far you go (further = more money) and what time you go (during rush hour = more money). If you know you are going to be taking a lot of trips (especially if you stay outside the city), the easiest thing would be to buy a
7-Day Fast Pass for each person (you cannot share metro cards; kids cost the same as adults). Beware the 7-Day Short Trip pass--the restrictions during rush hour mean you could get stranded trying to get back to your hotel and it looks like you are required to put value on each card in addition to the pass which is a pain. If you don't think you will use the metro enough for the Fast Pass, order Smarttrip cards for each person with at least $20, and keep track of how much value is left each time you leave the metro station. Adding extra value can be easily done at every metro station at the blue automatic kiosks (follow the instructions), but it can take a long time and they tend to have long lines during rush hour, so do this during the day.
As for good hotel locations, I did a quick search online and there are hotels downtown within your budget. I would recommend staying downtown if you can, because you'll waste a lot less time getting in and out of the city. DC is divided into four quadrants (NW, SW, SE, and NE) with the U.S. Capitol in the middle. Most tourist attractions are in the lower NW quadrant and on the blue/orange/silver metro lines, so that's the area you want to target. The best addresses are:
-the area just north of the national mall--this is the most convenient to most of the major attractions (NW addresses between 15th St NW (the White House) and North Capitol Street (Union Station) and below H St. NW. If you stay in this area, you will rarely need to take the metro, but if you do you are near the red line, which is the line that goes to the National Zoo. To get to the blue/orange/silver lines, you'll need to either walk a few blocks extra (this is the easier option) or transfer trains (this is a little harder, and you should absolutely not try to do this during rush hour because the transfer station, Metro Center, is VERY busy).
-the area between Foggy Bottom metro, Dupont Circle, and the White House--a little further away, but still easily metro accessible to all major attractions and with lots of food and shopping (NW addresses between 25th St. NW (the east edge of Georgetown, which is a nice neighborhood for eating and shopping but is not at all metro accessible) and 17th St. NW (the White House), and below N St. NW. (the south end of the Dupont Circle neighborhood). Going northwest of here means you'll be on the red line, which means you'll have to transfer trains which is an unnecessary pain.
-the area just south of the national mall (SW addresses north of I-395). Most of the hotels in this area are near the L'enfent Plaza metro stop and they tend to be a bit pricey.
If you want to stay outside of DC, the best places to stay are in Arlington County on the blue or orange line. The stations you're looking for (for safety of neighborhoods and proximity to the city) are:
-on the orange line, Rosslyn, Court House, Clarendon, Virginia Square, or Ballston (you can also take the silver line to these stations). Of these, I'd recommend Ballston the highest (tons of restaurants, very family friendly neighborhood), but Courthouse would be my second choice (it's called court house because that's where a lot of the government buildings are, so a lot of places are closed at night and it can be a bit eerie). Rosslyn is not a good choice right now because they are doing construction at the metro stop so it is harder to navigate and can be loud if you try to sleep in (also, even without the construction, there are so many major roads that intersect around Rosslyn that there are a lot of pedestrian/cyclist accidents, so I would not recommend it to families with kids for safety reasons anyway).
-on the blue line, Pentagon City or Crystal City (the trains are less frequent on the blue line these days, but you would be on the same line as Arlington Cemetery).
All of these places will have Arlington, VA, addresses, so look at a map to see how far they are from the metro (you want less than a half mile) or look at the hotel's website because they'll usually say how far they are from what stop(s).