joychoquette4462

I'd love to visit DC with my family and would like to go this spring. We'd be driving down from New England and I wonder if there are good places to park and take the Metro into the city. I'm out of practice driving in cities.

Also, it would be appreciated if anyone has tips on a safer part of the city to look for a hotel.

Thanks!

k_marie

Look for a place to stay in the North West quadrant of the city.

From NJ, we take 95 South, then the Baltimore-Washington Parkway 295 S. If we are headed to the Washington NW area, we take the beltway to the targeted exit.

For mny years when my husband attended committee meetings in Bethesda, we would bring the children and stay in Bethesda or Rockville, Maryland. Metro to the mall took about 45 minutes as I recall. The children were young, they loved swimming in the hotel pool at the end of the day, it was fun and we were piggybacking onto a business trip.

Now at a different point in my life, I don’t want to spend that much time each day of my mini-vacation on the train! I like the Penn Quarter neighborhood because it’s close to the mall and there are plenty of restaurants within walking distance. And, yes, I feel safe there. We prefer the Grand Hyatt (easy access from 295 South to Route 50) and no longer use the parking facility attached to the hotel. Much more reasonable rates were at the office building parking facility on 11th street half block away from the hotel.

Here’s another place to consider. We have not stayed there but it may meet your criteria.

https://www.hilton.com/en/hotels/was...hase-pavilion/

PrairieHikerI

Coming in from the North, you can park for up to 10 days in certain spaces at the Greenbelt Metro Station. Not sure how much demand there is for these spaces.

thursdaysd

Could you take Amtrak instead of driving? Coming from the south I almost always do that, staying in Crystal City, but there's a train station close to where I live. If I were staying further in I would look at the Dupont Circle area.

tomfuller

Depending on the day of the week/weekend, Parking at Greenbelt has worked for me. You could also park at an Amtrak station like Aberdeen and take one of the NE Corridor trains to Union Station.
Greenbelt is at the end of the Green line so you get on the train and the train leaves on time. There are stops on the green line before you get to Washington Metro station which is underneath the Washington Amtrak station.

obxgirl

Aberdeen, MD is 70 miles from Washington DC. That doesn't seem very practical.

Greenbelt is a perfectly nice place to live but a boring place to stay when visiting the DC area.

k_marie's suggestions are good ones. There are a number of hotels in Bethesda/Chevy Chase that are w/in walking distance of the Friendship Heights metro station. About a 30 min ride into the heart of the city. Lots of excellent restaurant choices in the B/CC area.

Regardless, check with the main DC Metro website prior to your visit to make certain there is no track work or other disruption to the lines you'll be using during your visit. https://www.wmata.com. There will also be info there about purchasing fare cards and/or passes.

Christina

It isn't just boring, I think Greenbelt has a higher crime rate than some others, I wouldn't leave my car there for days.

I hate I95 and don't use it when driving from New England, but others don't seem to mind it. In any case, there are places I think have more going on so you could go out to eat or do something at night, AND have fairly cheap parking.

I'd suggest Silver Spring MD, it's just a few miles south of the beltway and has a red line metro station. There are various county parking garages around where you can leave a car overnight that are pretty cheap, like around $15 maybe for the day. There ar eplenty of restaurants, bars, and theaters, etc for stuff to do at night.

NOt as many hotels as you might expect, one closed, but the Doubletree and Courtyard Marriott are within a few blocks of the metro station.

Bethesda is another option, I just don't think it's as great to walk around near the hotels at night, although there are some things on Bethesda Row. Which is close to the Hyatt, actually. There is another hotgel there that is in a bad construction area and right on the street with no setback, I would not stay there myself. It's the AC by Marriott. I think there is a Hilton Garden Inn around there also. Hyatt has a pretty cheap garage under it, not sure who runs it, I think IMPark
this is it, $12 a day. It's not an open lot, either.

Sassafrass

Old town, Alexandria. You would have the car to visit Mount Vernon and there are some good theaters in the area.

obxgirl

Metro's yellow line is closed until May of this year. Staying in Alexandria and relying on Metro to get into DC is still feasible on the blue line which has added cars to compensate for no yellow line service. Again, recommend checking prior to a visit to see if there is planned work impacting a station you might want to use, especially on weekends. One recent weekend there was scheduled maintenance causing single tracking & long delays for trains on the Greenbelt end of the green line.

mjs

Just curious why you are driving. One can get inexpensive Amtrak tickets if you book well enough ahead and you could fly round trip for something close to $100. Stay in the city and don’t worry about commuting or your car. It’s at least about 800 miles round trip from New England

shelemm

For a good idea on hotel prices, check out the Holiday Inn Ballston, the Days Inn DC/Connecticut Ave, The Quincy in DC, and the Capitol Hill Hotel in DC. These fall into the 'affordable' range with acceptable locations for getting around and pretty nice environments. Of course, if you can go up in price, then that opens many other options. How you decide to get to DC is up to you. There no 'one size fits all' way to travel.

Christina

I stayed in that Days Inn on Ct Ave many years ago and it was fine, but I don'ty know about now. It is a great location and neighborhood and it is consistently one of the cheapest hotels in DC.

I suspect they are driving due to it being an entire family. Also, I drive to/from VT routinely to go skiing or visit family because I hate flying. I'm not afraid of it, I just hate it and when you add in the time to get to the airport and from, you have to get there in advance, you have to then rent a car and return it, etc (you wouldn't for DC of course), it doesn't really take all that much more time. Driving takes me about 8.5 hrs and flying takes about 6-7 to where I'm going as I have to then drive at least an hour or more from the airport to get to where I"m going. So one hour drive to the airport, I get there at least 1.5 hrs in advance, flight is about 1.25 hrs, then disembark and get bags (at least a half hour there), get a rental car (maybe 1/2 hr), then drive to southern VT (maybe 1-1.5 hrs). We don't even know where they are in New England, there aren't that many Amtrak stations in VT at all, maybe none in NH, not sure. It mainly goes up the coast to Boston and Providence. There are a few stops on a different line in VT. I"m a lot more comfortable in my car also.

Saif123

There are several park and ride lots near metro stations where you can park your car and take the metro into the city. Some good options include the Metro's Greenbelt, Shady Grove, and Vienna/Fairfax-GMU stations, which offer both daily and overnight parking options.
It's important to note that parking in D.C. can be difficult and expensive, so using public transportation is often the most convenient and cost-effective option.

joychoquette4462

Thank you this is so helpful! Sorry I'm so late in replying.

joychoquette4462

Awesome, thanks!

joychoquette4462

Thank you all so much for the information, suggestions, and ideas. I'm sorry I'm tardy in responding but appreciate everyone's ideas.