Washington DC on a budget? Can it be done??

[shoney]

very cool.. they will enjoy it Here is a link with some of the events http://dc.about.com/od/specialevents/a/RollingThunder.htm I am sure they have their own site also.

We are in NJ and drive down. We are heading to Disney in August and are taking the autotrain. I am looking for a hotel also so we can spend the day in DC before catching the train.

Thanks for the link...the boys would love to see all of the bikes!

I always pictured my 40th to be somewhere tropical...but it just didn't work out. Aside from the budget, I couldn't take the kids out of school again...just pulled them out 3 days for Disney!

Traffic Memorial Day weekend would be a nightmare from LI. so, I used some of the hotel budget towards the airfare. I think it should work out ok.

To the OP, sign up for groupon, living social, etc... I just bought tix to the museum of crime for $10 (22.00 value). Also check restaurant.com...I bought one for Oohs and Aahs (saw it on Diners, driveins and dives).

there is also this site for discounts as well...

http://culturecapital.tix.com/Schedule.asp?OrganizationNumber=2463

 

[Boston Tea Party]

We are going to dc over Memorial Day weekend. We booked the Marriott Crystal Gateway in Crystal City. there is a metro stop right there, so it will be very easy to get into the city. We got a great rate using a triple A discount...$109 w/breakfast for a family of 4!

We have stayed here as well and found it affordable and easy to get to the Metro.

 

[lizzytizzy]

Would you be willing to drive a little? Fairfax, VA is 20 minutes away. Over the Easter weekend, I was able to book Residence Inn for $80 AAA rate. Free breakfast, free internet. It's great! I don't like staying in the middle of the city because of the high hotel prices and you have to pay for parking in the hotel. Did I also mention free parking at Fairfax?

 

[it's kelly]

We just returned from DC a couple weeks ago for the Cherry Blossom festival. I bid on a room on Priceline and we stayed at the Marriott Residence Inn on Vermont Ave (may be Vermont St.) for $70.00/night. The room was very nice and has a kitchenette with 2 burner stove.

 

[GC&S]

We just came back last week from a 3 day stay. We stayed at the Sheraton in Arlington. It was $152/nt, included free parking, free breakfast for 2 and free internet. They had a free shuttle to the metro. They do have an indoor pool (it's not huge).

Look at sites like Expedia, Travel Zoo, etc. I looked for 3 weeks and the prices changed almost hourly. I was looking for free parking because hotels charge from $40-60 per night for parking. Crazy.

We bought the 7 day metro pass for $32/each. We would have paid more than that with all the riding we did so it was a good deal. Plus we didn't have to keep putting money on it.

We have also stayed in Alexandria at Embassy Suites and the metro was right behind us. We stayed at a hotel right by the Capitol two years ago when I found a prices for $69/night. It was a beautiful hotel and it was very convenient.

We found a great food court in the Ronald Reagan Building. There's also a food court in the Old Post Office. We bought drinks from street vendors. You can take bottled water into the musuems (they charge $3.75 for a small water). We bought huge bottles for $2 from the street vendors to take with us.

 

[it's kelly]

I should of included that breakfast was included as well as 'light snacks' during the evenings Monday-Friday. Breakfast was daily I believe. There was no pool though.

 

[gower525]

We are going to dc over Memorial Day weekend. We booked the Marriott Crystal Gateway in Crystal City. there is a metro stop right there, so it will be very easy to get into the city. We got a great rate using a triple A discount...$109 w/breakfast for a family of 4!

Rates do fluctuate though. Weekends are cheaper.

I suggest you post your question on the DC forums of tripadvisor. There are some very helpful people on there that will search hotels for you if you give them exact dates, budget, # of beds needed. they will even search hotwire and other un-named sites and let you know what hotel it is.

Good luck!

We are staying at the Marriott Crystal Gateway too in June! Let me know how it is.

 

[jojo0612]

For those of you who recently took a trip to DC, can you suggest some of the 'must see' places to visit? We plan on doing the musuems, but were there any you would highly recommend? My kids are 11 & 8.

 

[clori]

With kids your kids age you can probably see just about anything and they will be happy. I went last year and had dd6, dd10 (11 about 3 weeks later), and a dd's friend 12. They were bored after a bit on the tour of the capital. My kids really enjoyed the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and National Archives. They all enjoyed the parts we saw of the Smithsonian - Air and Space, American History, Natural History, Post Office Museum, and some outdoor areas like a sculpure garden and the carousel). The museum and play at Ford's theater was fun with the audio tour.

We did an evening monument tour that was fun but a tad too late for dd6. I was not expecting Arlington National Cemetary to hold my youngest interest that long but she thought it was fascinating. The old post office pavillion clock tower was short but fun. Only dd10 did the Library of Congress tour but she liked it. We didn't go inside the White House but did the visitor's center where the girls did the junior range free booklets allowing us adults to look around longer.

 

[McKelly]

We just came back last week from a 3 day stay. We stayed at the Sheraton in Arlington. It was $152/nt, included free parking, free breakfast for 2 and free internet. They had a free shuttle to the metro. They do have an indoor pool (it's not huge).

Look at sites like Expedia, Travel Zoo, etc. I looked for 3 weeks and the prices changed almost hourly. I was looking for free parking because hotels charge from $40-60 per night for parking. Crazy.

We bought the 7 day metro pass for $32/each. We would have paid more than that with all the riding we did so it was a good deal. Plus we didn't have to keep putting money on it.

We have also stayed in Alexandria at Embassy Suites and the metro was right behind us. We stayed at a hotel right by the Capitol two years ago when I found a prices for $69/night. It was a beautiful hotel and it was very convenient.

We found a great food court in the Ronald Reagan Building. There's also a food court in the Old Post Office. We bought drinks from street vendors. You can take bottled water into the musuems (they charge $3.75 for a small water). We bought huge bottles for $2 from the street vendors to take with us.

Did the 7 day metro pass have time restrictions?

 

[brymolmom]

I'll add my 2 cents:

We did a 3 night trip last April break for a Thurs - Sun. I would highly recommend the Marriott Wardman Park - We got it for $109 with parking included plus kids eat free promo. Great location - walking distance to the zoo plus metro right outside the door and plaza across the street with good food to take to-go and eat in your room.

I went into this mini trip thinking it would be very inexpensive outside of the hotel because as everyone says 'everything is free'. Well, that set my expectations way too low and I have to say we spent quite a bit more than I had anticipated. You don't HAVE to do it, but you definitely can. This is how/why:
1) If you're going to do a tour of the Capital (I think it's the same for White house too - but we didn't do this) - they don't let you bring in ANY food or water, opened or unopened. So where I would usually save some $$ by bringing water and snacks in our backpack - since we had a tour planned I knew I had to throw everything away so I just brought one little bag of animal crackers. THis impacted us as we had to buy a couple snacks during the day that we otherwise might not have.
2) The Metro - while awesome, is a bit more expensive than I had thought it would be. I wanted to get a 'day pass' which is less $$ - however, they don't let you use them during peak times. And since we only had 2 days to sightsee - we wanted to get in early and couldn't wait until after 9:30 I think it was.
3) Yes, the Smithsonians are awesome and we will return. But since they're so awesome we felt compelled to give our 'voluntary' contribution upon entering. ALSO - and this one is BIG for my family - My kids are into all the 'shows' and they offer and advertise a TON a WHOLE BUNCH of shows that are very pricey (Imax type stuff - cool, but pricey for a family of 4).
4) Food is expensive and even though I did a bunch of reading about reasonable places close-by - my family has NEVER done as much walking as we did in the 12 hours on our first day in DC - not even in all our trips to WDW (which is a lot of walking...then sitting for a show or ride...then more walking - DC is ALL walking and standing). SOOO, everyone was too tired to go an extra mile or so to the better eateries or the ones with better bargains - we ended up in the most convenient places (like the Smithsonian food court) - and it was $$$.
5) On day 2 - we quickly realized in order to see as much as we wanted we needed a plan - so we purchased a MONUMENTS BY MOONLIGHT tour. It was expensive, and like I said we didn't HAVE to do this - but we were able to see SO MUCH MORE because of it - and my kids were not going to make 12 hours of constant walking again the 2nd day. It was worth it!
6) By far the most 'free' thing we experienced was the zoo. We could walk from our hotel - weren't asked for any $$, weren't offered any shows and we brought our lunch and snacks with us in a rolling cooler.

Very fun. Would do it again. But likely spent about twice as much as anticipated.

 

[shoney]

Thanks for sharing that! You make some very valid points. I can see the extras at the museums (imax and such) really adding up!

 

[GC&S]

Did the 7 day metro pass have time restrictions?

I don't think so. My DH used it at 6 a.m. and we used it at 1030 at night as well as various times during the day. We never had any problems.

 

[GC&S]

For those of you who recently took a trip to DC, can you suggest some of the 'must see' places to visit? We plan on doing the musuems, but were there any you would highly recommend? My kids are 11 & 8.

The Washington Monument (if it is open)

Bureau of Engraving and Printing BUT you have to be in line by 7 am to get tickets. My DH got in line at 6:30. He was about 20th in line. At 8:45 they were out of tickets (and the line went on forever). It was a good tour.

Air & Space Museum

There is a spy museum which we did not have time to do (not sure if it has admission cost)

Natural History Museum and American History Museum.

We took our dd (9) to Arlington Cemetary. She did ok. Wasn't the highlight of her trip. They might like changing of the guard.

Any place that has a gift shop

The Old Post Office has an observation tower which has a great view of Washington. Also has a food court.

We did the National Archives because I thought it was important to see the Constitution. My dd not so much.

 

[crisi]

We were there last summer, the kids were 12 and 13 (or almost 12 and 13, their birthdays are right around when we went)

The Spy Museum does have a cost and it isn't cheap.

The stuff we thought we'd love, we didn't spend too much time on (Air and Space and American History). But we were in the Natural History museum for hours. My son and I did the Holocaust museum, which he was really into and now is reading Holocaust books (he isn't a big reader), but the rest of the family skipped it for more time at the Natural History museum. We did the National Zoo as well, which was good - Pandas and the O Line - but it also gave us a chance to take the Metro, my kids hadn't been on a subway before.

Your rep can get tickets to Bureau of Engraving, which is a great tour. Also the Capitol, if you are interested, and the White House.

We also walked our feet to stumps - way more walking than at Disney. And we found food to be pretty expensive, but my husband isn't a budget guy on vacation - we could have done cheaper. Eating at the Smithsonian gets expensive - a membership gets you a discount and pays for itself. Or, if you can stand more walking, head a few blocks off the mall. And we stayed right at the Convention Center Embassy Suites...which was not cheap - but we could walk to the Mall.

 

[PinkLemonade7503]

The building museum is fun. They have a neat Lego exhibit.

I recommend frozen hot chocolate from Serendipity 3 and maybe cupcakes from Georgetown cupcakes.

I would take the time now to look at the websites of some of the museums you think your family will be interested in. Then plan food around them. DC is weird in that you think you can just walk and find what you need (like a place to eat) but sometimes it doesn't work out very well. I feel like a lot of the eateries are street vendors or fine dining. It can be hard to find a good lunch place on the fly. Like others said, it is a lot of walking, so you don't want to add to that when hungry. The food at the museums is not great, especially for the cost.

The zoo is really great.

We live locally and try to go see things every few weekends. It is draining, and you need to have a plan to pack it all in. Some of the museums close pretty early, so check out hours as well.

The metro is surprisingly expensive in my opinion. We Occasionally drive in, bc we can park cheaper than we can ride the metro. Buuuut, then you have to find a parking space.

 

[shoney]

you could also try this:

http://www.freetoursbyfoot.com/dc/faqs.asp

for tours....the walking tours are free and the bus tour is $10 pp (you have to pay for the bus). They work on tips.

we are going to do the ghost tour in May.

 

[princesspwrhr]

There are restrictions on the passes for the Metro http://www.wmata.com/fares/purchase/passes.cfm

Basically for the 7 day pass - as long as the trip would normally cost $3.25 or less than it's covered on the pass. If the trip would normally cost more than that, you have to pay the difference. In a nutshell, don't travel during "rush" hour and you're fine.

The day pass is $9 per day all you can ride between 9:30am - 3:00 am

For food, depending on how beat you are, you can also take the Metro to Union Station and eat in the mall food court.

 

[pintamino]

When my parents came to visit they stayed at the Embassy Suites in Friendship Heights - I thought it was a pretty good location for the price cut. I've stayed at the Hilton (I think?) in Bethesda and Embassy Suites in Dupont and they're both nice.

you could also try this:

http://www.freetoursbyfoot.com/dc/faqs.asp

for tours....the walking tours are free and the bus tour is $10 pp (you have to pay for the bus). They work on tips.

we are going to do the ghost tour in May.

I'm a local and a friend and I did the Lincoln assassination tour a few weeks back and really enjoyed it. Guides do work for tips though, so keep that in mind.

There are restrictions on the passes for the Metro http://www.wmata.com/fares/purchase/passes.cfm

Basically for the 7 day pass - as long as the trip would normally cost $3.25 or less than it's covered on the pass. If the trip would normally cost more than that, you have to pay the difference. In a nutshell, don't travel during "rush" hour and you're fine.

The day pass is $9 per day all you can ride between 9:30am - 3:00 am

For food, depending on how beat you are, you can also take the Metro to Union Station and eat in the mall food court.

Don't travel during rush hour anyway... it's crowded and we are undercaffienated and cranky you'll do yourself - and the commuters trying to get to work - a favor by waiting until 10 or so to get going. I don't miss rush hour metro. If you're going to be out late, watch the operating hours - Metro is not 24/7. If you want to get to Georgetown, I'd recommend the Circulator from Dupont Circle, which is only like $1. If you want to do the zoo (not worth it, IMO - and like other things in DC, TONS of walking), keep in mind the Woodley Park metro station gets very crowded due to tourists. (I unfortunately lived here, weekends were awful).

I used to work right near Union Station, and didn't really like any of the options there -- there are more reasonable and tasty places right around. Lots of little deli/sandwich shops, a great bar down the street, Ebenezer's Coffee shop... Cosi is all over the city, which I'm not a huge fan of, but it's fairly reasonable (like Panera) but a bit slow. I like Pret a Manage a lot too because it's fast. And Five Guys is a DC local classic!

And it's a pain in the butt to get to (like a mile of walking), but I love the Pentagon memorial. You can metro to the Pentagon stop or they open one of the lots (I *think* Hayes st, but not sure) on weekends to open parking.

 

[drnp]

For those of you who recently took a trip to DC, can you suggest some of the 'must see' places to visit? We plan on doing the musuems, but were there any you would highly recommend? My kids are 11 & 8.

All of the suggestions here are great. My kids liked going to the National Archives to see the original Constitution and Declaration of Independence. The library of Congress is also very cool, and there is a young readers center in there.
Our Rep set up our Capitol and White House tours and those were fantastic. We also bought a flag through our Rep's office. I purchased it in advance and asked for one that was flown on a day during our trip, so it became a unique souvenir of our trip.

Also, consider just taking a ball or frisbee with you and play with your kids on the National Mall for a while. I played catch with my old man on the Mall when I was a kid and can still vividly remember it.

For cheaper hotels, consider a hotel that has a free shuttle to DCA, even if its not on the Metro. We just took the hotel shuttle to DCA and hopped on the Metro to get into town. If we were tired at the end of the day, we just cabbed it back. The good part is that the prices are much lower for hotels close to the airport that aren't directly close to the metro.