washington D.C.. Please help HOTEL HELP PLEASE:)

[hippiechicken]

I should have known to come to the Disboards!!
I'm going to DC for 6 weeks this summer. Thanks for the great advice on this thread--I wish I would have found it sooner!! I booked a place through vrbo.com and have gotten all my tickets online for the monuments and am patiently waiting for my senator to email me back.
All I need now are cheaper airline tickets!!

 

[Hmom]

Has anyone here used hotwire and had good experience with them? SO nerve wracking not having a clue what you are getting until after you pay

A lot of times if you cut and paste the hotel description on hotwire into google and search it, you can find out what hotel it is. Try that and see if you come up with anything. That sounds like a great price for any 4-star in Old Town.

We've used hotwire several times. We've often ended up with very nice Sheraton hotels. We even had a Sheraton Suites for $35/night outside of Chicago. You can sort of almost figure out the hotel or at least which one of a few it might be. If they have a tripadvisor.com rating, search on tripadvisor for the town (you might need to search one or two depending on the area), amenities and tripadvisor rating. You can usually match it up pretty well. Kayak.com is another good site. It searches other sites to come up with the best price offered publically. You can search by amenities, location, price, etc....

College Park is okay. It's not ritzy but it's not horrible either. The University of Maryland is there so it's a busy area filled with lots of college kids (even in the summer). Besides the university there's nothing too special so it's not a particularly pretty town or anything. You'll just want to be smart and I wouldn't roam the streets at night or something.
What hotel are you looking at? The area right around Ikea is a little nicer, and the main downtown area has a lot of college bars.
Are you planning on walking to the metro? I don't recall any hotels within walking distance.

Thank you! We won't really be in the hotel much, so a pretty area doesn't matter so much as a safe area. I can't remember which hotel looked like it was right next to a metro stop. Now I have to go find it again! Several of the hotels offered free shuttles to the closest metro stop.

 

[Trentmom]

I should have known to come to the Disboards!!
I'm going to DC for 6 weeks this summer. Thanks for the great advice on this thread--I wish I would have found it sooner!! I booked a place through vrbo.com and have gotten all my tickets online for the monuments and am patiently waiting for my senator to email me back.
All I need now are cheaper airline tickets!!

Which monuments did you get tickets for already?

I plan on getting tickets for Washington Monument before we go and was thinking Ford Theater too would be neat

I was not sure what others ones I could or should get before we go

Thanks

 

[hippiechicken]

Which monuments did you get tickets for already?

National Archives, Holocaust Museum, Ford Theater, and Mt. Vernon--I think that's all.

I do need to get my Harry Potter ticket still!!

 

[Trentmom]

National Archives, Holocaust Museum, Ford Theater, and Mt. Vernon--I think that's all.

I do need to get my Harry Potter ticket still!!

okay thanks

will check them out

 

[clori]

I have advanced tickets for the National Archives and Fords Theater. I wanted to get Washington Monument but the dates weren't posted yet. By the time I checked again a week or so later they were up but completely sold out. I just checked again for my days in April and it told me the next availible date for a party of 8 wasn't until June 20th. If you want advanced tickets for the Washington Monument I would grab them as soon as you can. I'm only doing the children's section of the Holocaust museum so not getting tickets there.

 

[Trentmom]

I have advanced tickets for the National Archives and Fords Theater. I wanted to get Washington Monument but the dates weren't posted yet. By the time I checked again a week or so later they were up but completely sold out. I just checked again for my days in April and it told me the next availible date for a party of 8 wasn't until June 20th. If you want advanced tickets for the Washington Monument I would grab them as soon as you can. I'm only doing the children's section of the Holocaust museum so not getting tickets there.

wow..they do sell fast

My dates are available tomorrow for sale for Ford Theater and available now for Wash Monument. Every day has at least 100 tickets

but will make sure I grab them soon

Just so hard to pick which day we will do what...as don't know how far things are from each other

 

[Hmom]

Just so hard to pick which day we will do what...as don't know how far things are from each other

Kind of like planning a trip to WDW before the park hours come out!

washington.org has a good map...not sure if it is on their website, but somehow I have their book from last year. We walked from the Archives to Ford's Theater (and everywhere else!). It didn't seem that far at all & looking at the map, they are just 3 blocks or so from one another. It was the week before 4th of July, but it wasn't super hot that day. I am sure that would make a huge difference.

We've decided to go to DC in October!

 

[Trentmom]

Kind of like planning a trip to WDW before the park hours come out!

washington.org has a good map...not sure if it is on their website, but somehow I have their book from last year. We walked from the Archives to Ford's Theater (and everywhere else!). It didn't seem that far at all & looking at the map, they are just 3 blocks or so from one another. It was the week before 4th of July, but it wasn't super hot that day. I am sure that would make a huge difference.

We've decided to go to DC in October!

Exactly

This is way harder than planning a week at disney

Thank You...will check that out


Have fun on your trip

 

[IdesOmarch]

The Natural History museum has a wonderful cafe!!
Air and Space has a decent McDonalds

Yes this, I would recommend eating at the NH museum, very nice cafe.

Also, I do this quite frequently (visit DC) and I sometimes stay at a hotel in Virginia. I would advise using cabs. They can drop you off by the museums. You can walk to most of the monuments, Air & Space museum and NH museum from being dropped off at any one of them. And you can always easily flag a cab down when you need to come back. Definitely don't try to drive, unless you want to do some site seeing and you don't want to park.

 

[luvmyfam444]

As locals, we don't eat near the tourist locations often. That said, one thing I often put on the DC threads is the suggestion that you go to Chinatown to eat. Near the mall, but real food and really good food.

But DON"T walk there - we walked from the White House & it about killed us! those blocks are NOT anything like our blocks in the south! The cop we asked said - sure it's walking distance! NOT

We ate in Chinatown - @5 Guys Burgers - thought it was something unique - til we get home & find out there's one 25mins from us but it was still great!

As far as finding out about restaurants yelp.com is great for reviews & they also have an app that will find a restaurant using your GPS location & you can read the reviews & choose - we used this in ATL & had success (I didn't have that phone when in DC yet)

 

[luvmyfam444]

LuvMyFam444...What company did you use for your moonlight tour of monuments? Thanks!

www.bikethesites.com