Budget trip to Washington DC

[MrsPete]

Glad I saw this thread.

My uncle, cousin, wife and two kids will be visiting us from Europe end of June. They would love to go to Washington D.C. They are five people and if we drove from here, we would need at least two cars.

Does anyone know how far Amtrak is from there - would a cab do to get to a hotel nearby.

Any other reasonable, safe and clean hotels we can look into?

(They will have two children 18 months and 6 years old).

TIA.

Amtrak stops at Union Station, which is kind of a mall with the train station, a Hyatt hotel, shops, and restaurants (both fast food and nicer stuff). There's also a Metro (subway) station in the basement, so this location simply couldn't be any more convenient.

From Union Station you can walk to the Park Phoenix Hotel -- it's only about one block -- which is safe and affordable. The only downside is that it's an "historic hotel", which means tiny rooms. Ask for a room on a high floor so you won't hear the bar music at night. We paid $99/night. From the hotel you can see the Capitol Building, and it's about a five block walk.

 

[MrsPete]

I wouldn't hold your breath on getting anything like this at this stage. You usually have to request 3 or so months in advance.

Nah, getting into the new Capitol Building Visitor Center isn't hard. With a group, it's better to have reservations, but you'll get in with or without them. Without them, you'll have to wait. They are free, but they're TIMED tickets. We went with a group, and we were given stickers (which had to be worn visibly on our shirts) that showed our time and our congresswoman's name. I saw LOTS of other people who only had a time.

Notes on this place:
It's hard to find. They didn't want to mar the landscape with another building, so they put this UNDER the Capitol Building. First find the Capitol Building (easy), then walk around 'til you have the Capitol on one side and the Supreme Court BUilding on the other side. You'll see some steps leading down to a very unassuming entrance -- that's the Capitol Building Visitor Center entrance.

You will be searched when you enter any public building in DC, but they are really serious at this spot. They took granola bars that we had in our purses, and they threw them in the trash. We thought that was horrible; at least they could've had boxes in which to collect food that could've gone to DC's very large homeless population.

The program is very well done. You'll see a movie first, then they'll take you out and line you up between rope-ribbons. Be sure that you and your party stay in the same "area". A different tour guide will take every "area". They'll give you all headphones, and you'll only be able to hear YOUR tour guide's voice. This allows multiple groups to be in the same room -- without hearing multiple tour guides. Ingenious.

The cafeteria in the basement is a good choice for a meal. It isn't cheap -- no food in DC is cheap -- but it's good quality and very fresh. I bought a large salad, a drink, and a cookie, and it was about $9. In contrast, food at the Natural History Museum was 2-3Xs the cost and wasn't fit to eat. You can order boxed meals from the Holocaust Museum, which are better prices than the other museums (they aren't part of the Smithsonian complex).

 

[MrsPete]

Hi all I need some help. My husband go laid off from his job and we already had a weekend trip planned for the middle of June, got hotel from priceline so its already pd for and no canceling. We had planned on going to the zoo which I think is free, any other budget friendly things to do for a family of 5?

The zoo is indeed free. It's a bit out of the way, but you can take the Metro to a spot within a couple blocks of the zoo. It'll be HOT in June, but you'll be able to take your time meandering through the Reptile House, which is air conditioned.

Other ways to save in DC:
Look at Restaurant.com ahead of time; there are loads of DC restaurants on that site, and that can cut the cost of your meals.

The Spy Museum and the News Museum charge entrance fees. Pretty much everything else is free. With all the free stuff available, you can easily skip these.

If you want to see the Bureau of Engraving, where they print money, you'll need reservations. Since you're going on a weekend, this might be impossible.

Don't neglect Arlington National Cemetary (again, Metro out there). It's free, and you can see the changing of the guard. This place was originally Robert E. Lee's homeplace, and it was taken from him as a personal punishment after he chose to go with the South during the Civil War. The North made it into a graveyard for Union soldiers, and he never again set foot on his own estate. Later it was made into what it is today.

Something is available for free every night at the Kennedy Center. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's not so good . . . but the Kennedy Center is worth seeing! The halls with the flags are amazing, and you have to see the bust of Kennedy -- look at the two sides of his face: one is a young man, the other is what the artist believes he might've looked like had he grown to old age. Getting to Kennedy Center isn't always easy; the Metro doesn't really go close. You might need a taxi.

If you can afford one splurge, make it a Monuments by Moonlight tour. It'll be cooler, and it's a great way to see all the monuments without walking (do not underestimate the distance between those monuments). Although I'd seen the monuments multiple times, I learned a great deal from our tour guide and thoroughly enjoyed this tour.

 

[Aristomommy]

We visited DC last year during Memorial Day weekend. My best tip is to eat at the Museum of the Native American. You will pay about the same as the fast food, but they have the most amazing meals that are home grown right in their gardens. The food is unique to Native American cuisine and tastes so fresh. You can see many locals eating there during lunch break.

We visited the free museums although I heard great things about the Spy museum. We may visit it next time. Our favorite was Air and Space museum, there is so much to see. It is easy to use public transportation, we used busses mainly. The circulator is a great way to get around the mall area.

Have a great trip!!!

 

[ntink]

I second a few PPs -
Our family loved the night time monument tour (learned a ton and there was something so special about seeing Lincoln at night) and the food at the Native American museum

 

[donaldbuzz&minnie]

Union Station has a food court in the basement, plus other fast food options scattered around the building if you're in the vicinity of the Capitol, or you want to ride the Metro to that area. It's a beautiful restored train station, worth seeing anyway.

Have a fun trip!

 

[Ava]

We visited DC last year during Memorial Day weekend. My best tip is to eat at the Museum of the Native American. You will pay about the same as the fast food, but they have the most amazing meals that are home grown right in their gardens. The food is unique to Native American cuisine and tastes so fresh. You can see many locals eating there during lunch break.

Thank you for this tip! I love DC but am always at a loss as to where to eat in the mall area. My partner is vegetarian so the hot dog carts are out, and we always end up paying way too much for a slice of pizza in whichever museum we're in at lunch time. Next time we'll check out the Native American museum, if only for the food.

 

[PrincessTiffany]

Do they still give tours of the White House? If so, who do you contact to get those tickets and how far in advance do you need to request the tickets? Thanks!

 

[belle22]

Any tips for Fourth of July in DC?

Do they have a parade? What is usually in the parade? What is the route of the parade? How early do you have to arrive to see the parade?

Fireworks - How early do you have to go to get a good seat at the Mall? Where does the Orchestra play?

 

[Samsma]

PrincessTiffany- I am waiting for my answer from my Congressman right now. We requested a tour from his website about a month ago and they said they won't know anything for sure until about 3 weeks from our trip (June 28-July 2). When are you going?

 

[PrincessTiffany]

PrincessTiffany- I am waiting for my answer from my Congressman right now. We requested a tour from his website about a month ago and they said they won't know anything for sure until about 3 weeks from our trip (June 28-July 2). When are you going?

Not until next spring. I was just trying to confirm that they still did the tours and if they did, how would I go about getting tickets. A friend of mine had told me that she thought they stopped giving tours after 9/11, so I didn't know if they had resumed.

 

[PolyHereWeCome]

Most of the government tours offer same day walk-up tickets too. We weren't able to get National Archives or Bureau of Engraving tickets in advance, but we were able to get them the day of.

Our family of five visited DC in April. Every activity was free. The kids loved the Air and Space Museum, the Museum of Natural History, and the National Archives. We all thought the zoo was a bit of a let down. Our only expenses were parking ($39/day for hotel parking!), metro, and food. The metro was really convenient. By the end of the week I got tired of paying so much $$ for food, and we ended up eating lots of $5 footlongs from Subway .

We just got back from 3 days in DC, and our tweens also loved the Museum of Natural History, American History Museum, Hishhorn and Sculpture Garden, and to a less extent the Air and Space Museum. We also liked the National Archives, and did get tickets by contacting them on-line about 10 days before we left. Couldn't get tickets to Bureau of Engraving and Printing or Washington Monument (the latter has a small on-line charge but still couldn't get), but we didn't mind missing these two as there was so much other free stuff to see -- and the Old Post Office offers a great view instead of waiting in line for the Washington Monument (also a decent food court, much better than the one we ate in the following day off the Air and Space Museum). We were told they haven't resumed White House Tours since Sept. 11th, but think some special tours are always offered if you are special (we're not, but still would have been nice to have even been able to get closer to the lawn).

Definitely worth either contacting your Congressman/woman to get Capitol Tour Tickets or wait in line for same day tickets. But do not bring a backpack or water or food -- this was the only place where we didn't bring these things because we had read the warnings on the tickets -- we saw lots of people turned away with backpacks, etc. We did bring large water bottles and snacks to every museum and had ZERO problems -- that saved us a lot of $$, as water bottles were easily $3/bottle and our kids liked being able to snack on animal cookies and goldfish crackers (and so did I rather than paying huge prices onsite).

Save yourself the money of tour buses and just walk! We got great exercise and could go where we wanted when we wanted.

We stayed at the Embassy Suites on 10th & K near the Convention Center and left our car parked the entire time ($33/day -- ouch) and spent $0 on taxis/buses/metro because we just walked; only transportation we paid for besides the parking was when we went to the Zoo (well worth the $15 parking fee -- we would have paid about that for the 4 of us via roundtrip Metro and didn't have to scale the hill -- we were there for 3+ hours, from about noon to nearly 4 PM on the Saturday before Memorial Day, and had no problem parking and sopleased it wasn't more because think it's $20 to park if you're there more than 3 hours).

Well worth the 6 hour drive to/from DC and would go again in May, but would think twice about going in June-August as it was already feeling warm and muggy in May; if you like going to Disney in the summer then you'd have no problem. Have fun!

 

[D&DDisney]

Subbing for some great infomation.

 

[belle22]

So you were able to bring in food/water into all places but the Capitol? Anyone else confirm this? Strollers - are they welcome everywhere?

 

[D&DDisney]

Not until next spring. I was just trying to confirm that they still did the tours and if they did, how would I go about getting tickets. A friend of mine had told me that she thought they stopped giving tours after 9/11, so I didn't know if they had resumed.

Go to http://www.house.gov/ and look up your congress person. Go to his/her website and there should be a place to order your tours there. We ordered ours a few weeks ago for July trip. Said we should hear back if we got the tours about 2weeks before we leave.

 

[D&DDisney]

Can anyone tell me what you CAN bring into the White House/Capital tours? Is a purse okay??? Cell phone??

 

[lastminutemom]

You can bring nothing into the White House.. so it is kind of a pain, you need to go back to wherever your stuff is to continue touring. I can't remember if you can bring a camera.

I think the Capital is a lot less restrictive. You have to get tickets from your Congressperson and I think they send instructions with all the rules.

 

[Samsma]

If you bring a purse and camera along at the White House or Capitol and can't bring it in, do they have a place to leave them?

 

[louey]

Can anyone tell me what you CAN bring into the White House/Capital tours? Is a purse okay??? Cell phone??

I would like to know this too. We are on the list to get a tour, I called the day after Barack was sworn in. I gave her several dates to pick from and she told me I would hear something approximately 3 weeks prior. At that time you have to submit everyones personal info that is going with you I can't wait! If anyone does or has done the tour I would love to hear about it.

 

[minniebeth]

I can't comment on the White House, we didn't go there, but toured the Capitol last summer. Unless they've changed the rules since then, you can bring a purse and camera case, but NO liquids, drinks, etc.
We had a guided tour with one of our Congressman's staff and I left my purse in their office but had my camera case. Where you had to check it was going into the House Galley...nothing there permitted, and yes, you checked it at a security desk and got a claim ticket.
Hope this helps, but I would make sure of current guidelines...