Washington DC vacation inquiry.

[Souj]

So I plan on going on vacation with my girlfriend to Washington DC. I've got the 9th -17th of July off, though I really doubt I'll use it all in DC.

I live in(near) Chicago and I think I plan on renting a car and making the 12hr trip, partially due to GF's fear of flying. We plan on doing touristy stuff, museums, zoo, monuments, etc, but hotels in close proximity are quite a bit more expensive than I'd like, so I think I'm going to stay a little further away from the tourist stuff and drive the rest of the way.

My questions are; how bad are the parking prices, how many days would I need to see most of what DC has, and is there any good places I should be looking to stay at? I know DC has its share of shady places to stay away from.



As a bonus, here's me in my girlfriend's cosplay from Acen this last weekend.

Spoiler: show

[BaneTheBrawler]

why renting a car, instead of driving your own? seems like that'd be expensive. might be more cost-effective to take a train; i know amtrak has some pretty neat tour type trips you can book.

[Souj]

I didn't think about a train. I'll look into that. And actually found a hotel that I booked, since it was only 900 for 4 nights and just a block from the white house.

[tyven]

So I plan on going on vacation with my girlfriend to Washington DC. I've got the 9th -17th of July off, though I really doubt I'll use it all in DC.

I live in(near) Chicago and I think I plan on renting a car and making the 12hr trip, partially due to GF's fear of flying. We plan on doing touristy stuff, museums, zoo, monuments, etc, but hotels in close proximity are quite a bit more expensive than I'd like, so I think I'm going to stay a little further away from the tourist stuff and drive the rest of the way.

My questions are; how bad are the parking prices, how many days would I need to see most of what DC has, and is there any good places I should be looking to stay at? I know DC has its share of shady places to stay away from.



As a bonus, here's me in my girlfriend's cosplay from Acen this last weekend.

Spoiler: show

driving and parking in DC is a nightmare. If you don't want to stay near the sites just stay in a suburb with a metro stop so you can take the subway in and out of the city. I would recommend arlington VA but I can help you find a hotel within walking distance of a metro stop and restaurants, feel free to PM me.

DC is pretty easy because it is so small and everything worth seeing is in pretty close proximity. I would think 4 nights would be plenty but you could prob do it in 3 nights if you arrive early your first day.

[tyven]

I didn't think about a train. I'll look into that. And actually found a hotel that I booked, since it was only 900 for 4 nights and just a block from the white house.

that's good. A lot of touristy stuff is kind of a hike from the whitehouse but you will have super easy access to the red line (zoo) and orange line (museums, capitol hill) from that part of town.

PM me if you want restaurant recs

[BerenTebogo]

DC in mid-July is going to be super AIDS. Look forward to every museum and attraction being so fucking full of the morbidly obese and their spawn that you cannot move.

But have fun and stuff.

[Souj]

Date couldn't be helped much lol
And damn, $400 for cheapest amtrak. Maybe I will just take my own car. Or I think I'll just make her fly. So much cheaper and faster.

[Zealot]

Once you get here transportation is very easy. If you have a place to park outside the city, just do that and metro everywhere else.

Be sure to visit the original Jumbo Slice and Ben's Chili Bowl.

[Brill Weave]

Go to the Udvar Hazy Air & Space museum right by Dulles. It's fucking fantastic.

[Byrd]

We were there for a week a couple of years back. The Metro is amazing, we drove only once while we were there (to Baltimore, to see an Orioles game).

One thing we were impressed by was every official government building is free - Smithsonian, Supreme Court, Library of Congress, Capitol Building, etc. The downside is that they all close at 5pm. So while it's cheap, you can only get in so much time during the day before you just run out of days. If you visit museums at day, you can still see many of the monuments in the evening.

We were there a week, and felt like we could have used two, because there were lots of parts of the Smithsonian we didn't get to that we wanted to. We'll probably go back again some day down the road. By the way, if you're looking to go to a baseball game and you have a car, I would definitely recommend Camden Yards over Nationals Park, it was a far better ballpark experience.

[Zealot]

The National Portrait Gallery right outside the Chinatown/Gallery Place metro stays open until 7 if that's your thing.

And yeah, Nationals Park is pretty run-of-the-mill, Camden Yards is one of the best ball parks in the nation.

[Zetanio]

Going to museums is going to be a fucking disaster at that time of year. Like unbelievably awful.

There's a bunch of great restaurants. Ben's Chili Bowl is a must. The Dubliner near Union Station is the best Guinness in the States and their food is killer. There's also a metric ton of foodie/serious restaurants. Acadiana is a pretty solid spot for Cajun-ish food. My favorite thing to do is walk through Capitol Hill in the real early morning down through to the Mall then dip out of that area for lunch because it's overrun. Afternoons in Georgetown are fun as well as other areas outside of the crush that is in the Capitol area.

Don't take the train, it's fucking forever.

[Souj]

The hotel and the place I used to book it seem to be having trouble with my reservation. They said it's straightened out now, but I'll have to wait till monday/Tuesday to make sure. If that all clears up, then I'm buying plane tickets.

I'm sure everything will be super overcrowded in mid July, but I'll just have to deal with it. GF wanted to go, it's her birthday, vacation time lined up with it, and if I do this I can not feel guilty about going to Dragon Con in September.

I'll be sure to check out what Resturaunts I can. Pretty sure the five days we'll be there, we'll be eating out every meal lol

[Wulfgang]

I've lived in the heart of DC for close to five years now. Ben's Chili Bowl is vastly overrated; I live like four blocks from the original location on U St and I go through the same cycle once a month:

1) Drunk with buddies out at 2 AM
2) "Hmm haven't had Ben's in a while, let's nom some food"
3) Spend the next 24 hours in gastrointestinal hell; vow to never go again
4) Start at step #1 a month later

Jumbo slice is an abomination as well, but I'm from NY originally so heavily biased.

Have you looked at hotels in Crystal City? They should be pretty cheap and it's an easy metro ride (~5-10 mins) on the yellow line into the heart of DC / National Mall area. Do not try to park in DC; leave your car somewhere safe, ideally at the hotel. Nearly impossible to find a spot downtown, and if you do find a spot, DC has the most ridiculous parking regulations and enforcement ever; unless you have a guest pass, 90% of street parking is zoned and limited to two hours.

[Pringles]

FYI the metro is going to be in a lot of single tracking or closed all together as a part of a year long fix to repair damage that they let slide for the past decade. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...b9db9fa044.jpg

As for tourist advice, if you plan on visiting the Capitol building, the last half of July the second floor will be closed until September to remove all the interior scaffolding from a two year restoration on the Capitol dome and the best time to visit is lunch time because that typically is the slow time we see there.

As for other museums, July is actually a better month to visit them. March-June are peak times because of school trips all do their trips during that time. July is the time of year that all the southern family reunions arrive upon the city and all the international visitors come too. Most of the Smithsonian's are open until 7pm this time of year because that's their summer hours. They also open at 10am.

Washington monument you need to get tickets for in the morning. They start handing out at 7am (and the line starts sometimes before 6am) and once they run out for the day you're done. You can sometimes book them ahead of time online the day before (it will be free), but long gone are the days that you can stroll up and get in anytime you want.

What is open before 10am is the Capitol opens for tours starting at 8:30 am and tours are every 10 minutes until 3:20pm. You must be on a guided tour to enter in the actual Capitol and they last about a hour door to door. (If you send me a PM and want a private tour that let me know, my job is to give tours of it and my off day is Thursday and I can do that if you'd like).

The Supreme Court is open 9am-5pm and you can visit the chambers in or out of session (they'll be out in July).

The library of congress is open 9-5 and they do self guided tours all day long or guided tours on the half hour starting at 10:30-3:30 minus 12:30.

Any other touristy thing you wanna know send me a Pm. It's basically my job to know most things about the things to do in the city on top of the Capitol building.

[Airenn]

IF YOU EVER GO TO BOSTON DONT FUCKING DRIVE EVER

[thetruepandagod]

Why would anyone go to DC unless they are looking to get shot so their spouse can collect life insurance.

[Airenn]

No fucking joke. Had one of my worst/scariest life experiences in the DC metro system.

[Xno Kappa]

As stated by others already, try to avoid driving at all in DC. This weekend alone for Memorial Day has already been taken completely over by bikers and senior citizens, took me an hour and a half just to get the fuck out of the city to go home. Now imagine the Fourth of July.

[tyven]

its dope how many BGers rep or have once repped DC. go team