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

[clori]

My trip was a mixture of splurge and budget. It was a dream trip for my 80something year old parents. I had to really take the amount of walking into consideration - we had one manual wheelchair for my parents to take turns - they both walk at home but not long distances/hours. We splurged on Embassy Suites Alexandria which is right across the street from the metro. I also knew most nights we would be in early for my parents plus my kids wanted to swim so the separate living rooms (we had two rooms) were nice. We took the Metro I think two stops from DCA to/from the hotel even with a wheelchair and our luggage. We were there Sat to Thursday and splurged on teh 7 day pass which had no time or distance limits for the subway.

For food we ate at Capital Visitor's Center food court which had nice portion kids meals (my kids and parents had them) with items like roast chicken. We also ate at Ronald Reagan food court, Pentagon City Food Court. One night we went to the grocery store near the hotel and bought things like a rotissiere chicken that we ate in the room. The free breakfast and evening drinks were nice. We also brought food back from 5 brothers which was the first time we even heard of it though now there are a few here.

We took the Metro to Arlington National Cemetary then inside took the tourmobile. We also did an evening monument tour to minimize walking for my parents (royaltrolleys) which dropped us off at our hotel on he way back. My kids knew ahead of time that they could not get unlimited souveneirs though they don't ask for much most of the time.

 

[crisi]

Also, remember that food tends to be one of your two largest expenses in DC. A hotel that provides a full hot breakfast will give you an avg. food cost savings of $12/pp/day, and if you eat a big breakfast you can often manage to just skip lunch and go straight to an early dinner; also, it saves precious touring time, too. IMO, it is worth it to pay a bit more for your hotel if they feed you. In our family, we value a good hot breakfast buffet at around $50/nt.

We stayed at the Embassy Suites Convention Center. It wasn't the cheapest hotel we could have stayed in, but we walked everywhere (except bought Tourmobile tickets for a day of memorials and took the Metro to the Zoo), saving us subway fare, and the breakfasts were big. They had "grab and go" breakfast as well, so we'd eat, then grab a banana for the road.

Coming back they had snacks - not much, that really salty snack mix stuff, pretzels, goldfish crackers, plus their hosted bar and soda for the kids. That made a nice "we aren't in a huge rush to get dinner" stop.

That was worth easily $50 a day - probably more. Plus it had the advantage of a door between us and the kids.

 

[jwfla422]

This is a great thread! Thanks to all of you who have posted and please keep it going. I too, am going to DC after a family event in Baltimore the 2nd week of June (hoping it's not too horribly hot although we're South Floridians and are used to the heat). All of the hotel rates seem to be going up on the first night we plan to stay there (for 4 nights).

It has been many years since I've been to DC (well before 9/11) and my dd has never been there. We will not have a car and plan to rely on the Metro. Looking for under $200 a night (and a hotel with breakfast) otherwise would be less and no roach motels..I know that could be asking for too much LOL! But please keep the hotel reviews and experiences coming..even those in the VA/MD areas that are close to the metro. Thanks again for all this wonderful information!

 

[rigs32]

My favorite under-appreciated site in DC? The Albert Einstein Memorial. It's across the street from the main set of monuments, but when I was there in November, my SO and I were the only people there. We took some fun photos.

http://www.visitingdc.com/memorial/albert-einstein-memorial.htm

A favorite spot for food is Busboys and Poets. They have a few locations now. A bit crowded and loud at times, so perhaps not super family friendly, but we always go.

I checked out the Newseum for the first time in Nov as well. My brother works for a major sponsor, so we got in free, but it's not a cheap place. BUT they have had significant discounts on groupon before. There's a patio on the top floor that lets you take great photos with the Capitol in the background which was a bonus.

Major Tip: Watch discount sites like groupon and living social. I always monitor them when I know I'll be traveling and have found some good discounts.

 

[trinchick]

You may also want to look at the Sheraton Suites in Alexandria. It's an all-suite hotel with a pool. Don't just book on their website, though, as they have a number of rates, some of which include breakfast, as well as a AAA discount. Generally around $100 and gets great reviews on Tripadvisor. We're staying there for the first time in August.

 

[HeatherC]

I just booked the Residence Inn at Pentagon City for $107 a night for four nights in June. Has a kitchen too. Great price! Would love to be a little closer, but will use metro. Really good reviews too.

Since this is a spur of the moment trip, I need to keep it as cheap as possible.

Never expected to find a suite hotel for that price during the summer.

 

[mgroshans]

We will be going on June 30 for 3 nights and staying at the Westin in National Harbor. What are the options for getting to the museums and monuments? We will have a car, but from what I have read, driving to them isn't the best option. Can we drive to Arlington or should we take a different means of transportation to get there?
Thanks!

 

[Mattsmommy]

I just booked the Residence Inn at Pentagon City for $107 a night for four nights in June. Has a kitchen too. Great price! Would love to be a little closer, but will use metro. Really good reviews too.

Since this is a spur of the moment trip, I need to keep it as cheap as possible.

Never expected to find a suite hotel for that price during the summer.

I stayed there last month. Very nice hotel. The breakfast there is well stocked. They had egg, waffles, cereal, oatmeal, yogurt, fruits, breads, muffins. It wasn't a continental breakfast like most hotels.

The metro is only a couple of blocks away.

 

[ErinC]

We will be going on June 30 for 3 nights and staying at the Westin in National Harbor. What are the options for getting to the museums and monuments? We will have a car, but from what I have read, driving to them isn't the best option. Can we drive to Arlington or should we take a different means of transportation to get there?
Thanks!

We stayed at the Wyndham National Harbor in April. We had a rental car. We drove each morning across the bridge into Virginia to the Huntingdon metro stop. 10 minute drive. I think parking was $9 a day. Then we bought metro tickets into dc and back for 4 of the 7 days we were there. A few days we didn't go into dc. It was a great station because the yellow line seemed to be the line we always needed to be on anyway. We did switch lines a few times, but I thought the yellow was the one we ended up on the most anyway. This is the end of the metro, so we always had a seat riding into dc. Overall we may could have stayed cheaper in DC, but we are a family of 5 and that makes it really hard for us to find something for the whole week. We rented the wyndham which was basically a 2 bedroom condo with a full kitchen. It was nice to not be cramped all together in one room for a week. We did the monuments by moonlight tours one evening with dctrails.com. They were awesome and picked us up at our hotel and dropped us off when it was over. That way we didn't have to worry about catching the metro that late at night. There was a pool but it wasn't open in April. I think the indoor pool may have been, but we never got around to using it. We stayed a week and still didn't get to do everything I would have liked to have done!