Flying out of National (DCA) - Quick Question

[Broncobilly83]

We are flying out of National in DC for our upcoming trip (only airport locally that has direct JetBlue flights) and for the first time, our normal way to get to and from the airport will not be available.

In the past, we had family drop us off and pick us up as they worked in that area and would be heading to/home at our normal flight times, but that is no longer an option, and I would prefer not to have to drive out at 4-5 AM for a 7 AM flight, so we were planning on driving out the night before and staying at a local hotel to the airport.

My question is 2 fold:

1) Some hotels in the area charge either a lot less or nothing to hold your car if you are traveling and stay a night with them. Would you take that offer, compared to parking at the airport proper?

2) Does anyone have any suggestions to which hotel we should stay at?

 

[houseofduck]

I have used http://www.buyreservations.com/ to do park/stay/fly rates. It has worked well for us. DCA is one of the airports.

 

[hockeymom519]

Curious to see the response. We're in the same predicament for our trip next month.

 

[andigomeep]

We usually catch the 7 am jetblue flight out of DCA when we fly there, we have a almost 2 hour drive so I feel your pain! We typically just choose to drive it and park at the airport but we did stay at the Holiday Inn in Crystal City once and it was nice and I think they also did park and ride. Be aware of what time hotels start making the run in the morning and how often they run through the day (continuous or on demand)

We will pay for convenience though and just park in the daily lot and it's about $160 for a week.. yeah it's a lot but after a long day of traveling with a young child the ability to just walk across to the parking lot is priceless. Long term parking would be less, probably around $100.

 

[Broncobilly83]

So your suggestion is just to stay at a local hotel the night before and have a 5-10 minute drive to the airport? The 7AM JetBlue is exactly what we are doing as well