D.C. experts...

[pixiedustaholic]

Southwest is offering up $30 one way airfare from my hometown to BWI...the catch is that I need to book by midnight. I would like to take a family trip to D.C. in March and this would be very affordable for us and save us from such a long drive.

I need recommendations for a hotel that is:

safe
affordable
convenient
near Metro

Since we would possibly be flying, it would be great to have one with a shuttle to/from airport or an affordable cab ride. If you don't have a specific hotel, can you recommend a certain area for me to look at?
Thanks in advance.

 

[Hoodie]

BWI is about 20 miles from DC (It's actually closer to Baltimore). WMATA (the DC Metro) does run shuttles from BWI to the Greenbelt Metro station where you can pretty much go anywhere.

A lot would depend on where you'd like to be, how long, and what you want to see. Hotels in and around DC generally run at least $100 a night and depending on when you plan on coming, you could overlap with the Cherry Blossom festival (good and bad - good for the blossoms, bad for crowds and expenses).

 

[Christine]

As the other poster stated, BWI is not in DC so you are going to have to make arrangements to get into town. You can take the bus to the metro as stated. Another option is to catch the MARC train from the airport area to Union Station in DC. Go to the MARC website and lookup the train schedules for getting you into DC (MARC is a commuter train). From Union Station, you can catch metro pretty much anywhere you need to be or you can take a cab from there.

Since I live in DC, I can't comment on the hotels as I don't use them. There have been tons of threads over the last year, though, that discuss hotels so you should be able to get some tips there with a search. I will warn you, though, that hotels in DC and in nicer areas of surrounding suburbs (located near Metro) are not cheap so be prepared for sticker shock on that.

 

[pixiedustaholic]

Thank you. I realize that BWI is farther out and that was my concern with getting to a hotel and then having a metro stop close by. I just don't want to save on airfare to spend a lot getting to the hotel. I am actually looking at March 17-March 22nd. I have a list a mile long that we want to see. DD and I went a year ago on a field trip with her school and felt rushed and unable to appreciate what we were experiencing. (Like just getting to basically walk by the Vietnam Wall and having only 15 minutes at the Lincoln Memorial, etc. ) I have found a couple that have gotten decent reviews for about $109-$123/night.

 

[NotUrsula]

For that fare, I'd grab it and do the rest of the planning later. SWA will always give you a credit if you end up canceling.

However, if by March you mean the end of March near Spring Break time, then realize that you are likely to be paying at least $200/night for a hotel within easy Metro reach of DC, if not way more. You'll also need to get into DC from BWI: you should figure that at about $7 pp each way on weekdays, and $20 pp each way on weekends. (Last time I took the family via BWI, we arrived on a weekday and took MARC to Union Station. To go back, we then used Priceline to rent a car from National Airport and drove to Baltimore for our Sunday evening flight home; for 4 people it was cheaper than Amtrak and gave us a lot more flexibility for that last day.)

Personally, I like staying as close in as I can, but if I can't manage something within the District then my preference is Old Town Alexandria, Crystal City or Arlington near the Key Bridge.

 

[MomNeedsVacay]

Name the hotels and locations.. I'll tell you if they're any good. I live in Alexandria, VA...

 

[crazyme5kids]

I took three of my kids to D.C. in August (spur of the moment trip). We stayed at the Hotel Madera. It was very close to Dupont Circle, maybe a two block walk. I paid $179 or $189 a night. I would stay there again.

 

[Belle0101]

Southwest is offering up $30 one way airfare from my hometown to BWI...the catch is that I need to book by midnight. I would like to take a family trip to D.C. in March and this would be very affordable for us and save us from such a long drive.

I need recommendations for a hotel that is:

safe
affordable
convenient
near Metro

Since we would possibly be flying, it would be great to have one with a shuttle to/from airport or an affordable cab ride. If you don't have a specific hotel, can you recommend a certain area for me to look at?
Thanks in advance.

I don't know what kind of hotels your family is used to staying at but here is the place we stayed at this past August.
http://www.americanahotel.com/

As a comparison, we are used to staying at Comfort Inns. My sister is used to staying at Holiday Inns and as a result she finds Comfort Inns to be both shabby and beneath her. The Americana isn't fancy by any means but we had waited too long to book our trip and everything super nice was way out of our price range. It ended up being ok.

Affordability: We were able to book it for under $100 a night using a promotional code from their Facebook page.

Near Metro: The metro station is underneath the Marriott Hotel which is in the very next block. It's the Crystal City Mall Station stop. Crystal City Mall is under the hotel and has shops, sit down restaurants, fast food eateries and a drug store.

The Pentagon station stop is also nearby but Crystal City is closer.

It was about a 20 min. ride on the metro from Crystal City to the Smithsonian stop. That's the farthest stop we ever went to. We got off at the Arlington, Federal Triangle and the Pentagon stops to see different things too.

They have a free breakfast which at the time consisted of donuts (DS10 said they were Dunkin' Donuts. I just know they were good!), bagels, cereal, oatmeal, apples and oranges. Beverages were OJ, coffee, tea, milk and water.

There isn't anything for kids to do at night. No pool, no game room, limited kids type TV stations.

My uncle, and I kick myself for waiting too long, had booked a hotel for $134 that had a pool, hot breakfast and was equally close to a metro station.

Best of luck!!!

 

[Pixie Dust for Me!]

Try the Marriott residence inn Bethesda. Loved it.

 

[golfgal]

Embassy Suites in Old Town Alexandria. There is also a Residence Inn or Staybridge or something across the street from Embassy Suites. Both are right across the street from the metro station. Alexandria is a very safe town, free trolly to take you into downtown and the shops/restaurants there. You could priceline a hotel if you want too. We stayed at the Westin in Alexandria. It is a very nice hotel but don't eat there-VERY expensive. It's a little further away from the metro but still easy walking distance.