Washington DC on a budget

[haley's mom]

So we are looking at taking a long weekend in May (the week prior to Memorial Day). Kiddos are off school on Thursday and Friday.

We have never been to DC before. We would drive from Pittsburgh.

Looking for hotel ideas, areas to visit, etc.

We will be taking both kids, 12 and 8.

Thanks in advance!

 

[tseitel]

HI, I dont know about hotels, cause I live only 25 minutes away, but the Smithsonian is fantastic. My kids fav are the Air and Space Museum and the Natural History Museum. From there you can walk to the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial, passing thru the WWII memorial on the way. There is a tour bus that goes on a route and will take you thru the National Cemetery. I believe there is still a tour of the White House, as well, but I haven't done that in years.

 

[amylynne01]

DC is a great budget vacation because all the monuments and museums are free! You can pay for a tour trolley like Tour Mobile to reduce your walking. When DH and I went back in 2005, we stayed at a friend's apartment in Bethesda and took the Metro in. I think it's worth it to look at hotels outside of DC because they are significantly cheaper. My parents stayed in Crystal City in VA last time they went last September. Their hotel was a 5 minute walk to the Metro station and a 20 min ride in.

 

[bellarella]

It looks like the Embassy Suites Crystal City has fabulous rates for that weekend. It's a great location close to Pentagon City Mall and the Metro Station there. I believe they do free breakfast. It would be a great way to get into the city and close to all the Smithsonian Museums.

 

[kiddisney]

besides crystal city we've gone to arlington -there's a sheraton suites & the metro is a shuttle (sheraton) stop away

 

[lisa-upnorth]

I am heading to DC for the Memorial Day weekend. I have never been either but we can't wait to enjoy the zoo and the museums and monuments. I had been reading about priceline's name your price and decided to try it out for DC. You should to!!!! We got the Hyatt Capital for $90 on Memorial Weekend! We are taking the train into union station on Friday morning.The hotel is a few blocks down. Located closed to where we wanna be We got Fri,Sat,Sun nights for $323 with tax!! If you try it-
-enter Dc and then narrow your area to the capital or any other area you want to be closest to.
-enter 3 1/2 and 4 star hotels as your options only
-start your bidding at $75 a night and go up by $5 each try until you reach the max you want to pay.My max was under $100 so I am happy!!

 

[lisa-upnorth]

http://www.washingtonregency.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels/index.jsp

 

[pjm-guy]

There's an Embassy Suites in Alexandria that is across from the King Street metro stop that we've stayed at twice. They give you free cooked breakfast and have popcorn/hors d'ouvres (spelling) in the evening. There's a pizza shop around the corner for kids and a Joe Theisman's pub down the street for table service bar food. We love DC and use the metro for all our sightseeing while we are there. If you're baseball fans and can catch a Nationals game, the ballpark is beautiful and agin, right by the Metro for easy in and out to the hotel. Enjoy!

 

[juliebean]

We love Washington DC! We drive and then stay near the end of the subway line closest to Rockland, MD. We go there, because we like to go through the Amish areas just above in PA. We stayed at a Springhill Suites (we have three kids - most hotels don't work for us) with a great breakfast and a very nice indoor pool. Both of the options the PP listed sound great too!

I would try to spend a whole day at the zoo. We usually plan two or three days just down on the mall - my kids enjoy all of them - but particularly the Air and Space, Natural History and we always try to check out the Lincoln monument around sunset one day - it's beautiful. We have never tried to get tickets to the White House, but there is so much to do - I'd definately try to get a guidebook from the library to figure out what you'd most enjoy.

Have a great time! Since most of the museums are free, it is easy to go and spend 2 or 3 nights, buy lunch and dinner and stay close to $500 for a fun little vacation. Although - they have really nice souvenirs...so I'd make sure the kids have some money to spend!

 

[walkdmc]

You MUST MUST do the monuments by moonlight tour on the open sided bus. Do not do the fully enclosed bus, make sure it's the open bus, with hard wooden benches. This was hands down the best thing we did in DC.

We stayed in Alexandria, VA for cheaper than staying in DC. We were a very short Metro ride away from DC.

I think we stayed at the Comfort Inn in Alexandria. It was about 5 years ago but we enjoyed the stay and they had free breakfast.

 

[sdenis]

We went last year with our 3 kids. We stayed at Embassy Suites at Crystal City and brought our bikes. Embassy Suites rocks because you get a HUGE all you can eat cooked to order breakfast every morning and they have a manager's reception with drinks and snacks every evening. They're snacks are so good that we substituted dinner once for it. Seriously, take your bikes if you can! It's only 2 miles from the Mall and you'll haul *** by covering a lot more ground than if you walk. Plus, as someone already mentioned, all of the museums are free. If you take your bikes you'll save on public transportation and time. Meals will be your next most expensive thing, that's why I recommend Embassy Suites.
Have fun! We had the MOST MEMORABLE trip last year. Went during Cherry Blossom festival. It was AWESOME!

 

[elgerber]

There's an Embassy Suites in Alexandria that is across from the King Street metro stop that we've stayed at twice. They give you free cooked breakfast and have popcorn/hors d'ouvres (spelling) in the evening. There's a pizza shop around the corner for kids and a Joe Theisman's pub down the street for table service bar food. We love DC and use the metro for all our sightseeing while we are there. If you're baseball fans and can catch a Nationals game, the ballpark is beautiful and agin, right by the Metro for easy in and out to the hotel. Enjoy!

We stayed here last Memorial Day weekend. It was a great place!! Breakfast was great, although crowded. It was right across from the train. We did eat at Theismans for dinner, it was really good. There are 2 cupcake shops within walking distance (silly I know, but we have none here, and I LOVE cupcakes).

 

[Nik's Mom]

We took the kids to Washington DC last summer and had a great time. We were there for 4 days and it still wasn't enough to see everything. The museums are great, but be sure to get there early. They can get very crowded!

Be sure to check http://www.travelzoo.com/ and go to the Washington DC section for deals. We got a great rate on the Embassy Suites that was walking distance to the museums. You have to keep checking that website, because the deals change all of the time.

 

[Swimalie]

If you have time and since you have a car, I highly recommend the Udvar Hazy Air and Space Museum at Dulles Airport. It's part of the Smithsonian. They put their rare planes and others out there and it's well worth the trip. In fact, there is an actual space shuttle inside. Amazing to see. Plus a tower where you can watch the planes take off and land. The museum is free but parking is $12 per vehicle.