Washington DC

[lrsellars]

Anyone know any good forums/information about Washington DC? Especially hotels? I think we are going to try to stay at Embassy Suites (since there are 5 of us) but I don't know much about the downtown area to figure out which is best. Don't want to have to ride the metro unless necessary as our youngest will have to be in a stroller due to her health issues.

[missymouse]

Is your only reason for not wanting to ride the metro the stroller or are you concerned about germs, etc.? The metro is very easy to navigate with a standard stroller. There are elevators and the trains do not have any stairs so you can just push the stroller straight on. I have taken strollers on the Metro many times. Secondly what are you planning to see in DC and how long will you be staying? I don't know of any really good forums but I do live about an hour NW of DC so we do go to DC and know some information. I can't really help you with hotels in the District though.

[lrsellars]

I didn't know about the elevators - thanks!! The germs aren't an issue and I'm familiar with riding subways (spend my summers in NYC) but getting around with a stroller in the NYC subways with all the stairs is a bit much. Plus she will be 5 and we have a 6 & 7 year old that I'll have to keep up with. Sounds like we could stay a bit outside the city center and ride in. We're only going to be there 3 days (in June) and doing all the "tourist" things. Capital, the Mall, Museums, etc. I'd love to do something that only the locals know about. I thought that maybe staying close to where we would be sightseeing would be nice just in case our youngest wasn't having a good day and we couldn't go all day - I could just go back to the hotel by myself. Thanks for the information!!!

[askomsky]

I didn't know about the elevators - thanks!! The germs aren't an issue and I'm familiar with riding subways (spend my summers in NYC) but getting around with a stroller in the NYC subways with all the stairs is a bit much. Plus she will be 5 and we have a 6 & 7 year old that I'll have to keep up with. Sounds like we could stay a bit outside the city center and ride in. We're only going to be there 3 days (in June) and doing all the "tourist" things. Capital, the Mall, Museums, etc. I'd love to do something that only the locals know about. I thought that maybe staying close to where we would be sightseeing would be nice just in case our youngest wasn't having a good day and we couldn't go all day - I could just go back to the hotel by myself. Thanks for the information!!!


Only been there twice myself but having traveled with a 12 month old the first time (Shelly did it also) and all three last Feb, the metro was very easy to navigate and get off and on, much better then the subway or L in Phila.
We stayed in MD at a nice Hampton Inn, it was about 15 mins to the Metro location nice area to park and not have to worry about and then took it in right to the mall musuem etc. It was easy enough to get to see all the things we wanted to.

[missymouse]

I don't know of anything special that only the locals know about. I would strongly recommend that if you want to see the monuments, museums, etc. in 3 days that one day you take tourmobile or one of those type things (Little Red Trolley, DC Ducks, etc) since everything is very spread out and it will save you a ton of walking and you will get to see more in a shorter amount of time. I have always used tourmobile when people come to visit us, but I think they are all similar. We went to the National Children's Museum the first time we visited but it is in the process of moving into a new building and won't reopen now until 2013. The National American History Museum just re-opened after renovations for the last several years, that is a must see. Your son would probably also love the Air and Space Museum. In three days you will just scratch the surface of what to see so you may want to research and prioritize. If it was me the museums that make up the Smithsonian that I would skip are the Natural History and American Indian museum. Must sees when we have visitors are the WWII memorial, vietnam/Korean memorials, Lincoln Memorial. All the memorials are neat to see after seeing them on TV but the ones I mentioned seem to have the biggest impact. The Holocaust museum is awesome, but may not be great for small kids. They do have Remember the Children- Daniels Story for Kids and you don't need passes to visit. The main museum is sort of intense but the last time I was there I thought they had changed it a little. The first time I ran in just to use the restroom the one elevator was outfitted like a gas chamber and sort of creeeped me out. I don't know if they got rid of that or if it is just the one elevator.

[disneyforever]

Two other great places to visit are The Spy Museum and the museum under Ford's Theatre (where President Lincoln was shot)

DH and I were in DC about 4 years ago. We were there mid-July for one week and we maybe saw a third of the museums, ect. There is sooooo much to see. I bought The Unofficial Guide to DC guide book. It was great. It gave me good information and let me formulate plans for each day.

The metro is very easy to use. The best way to really get around is on foot. Be prepared to do a LOT of walking.

We bit the bullet and paid the high prices and stayed right in DC. We are very glad we did. The first 3 nights we stayed at the Holiday Inn on the hill. We were approx 1 1/2 blocks from the capitol. The last 4 nights we stayed at the Courtyard by Marriott - that address was 900 F Street - right next door to the Spy Museum.

One last thing. Since you are on a limited amount of days, I too recommend you take one of the tours. I did the DC Duck tour. The vehicles go on land and also in the water. Your kids might like that. It was lots of fun.

If you have any questions, feel free to PM me and I can try to answer them

[missymouse]

Just be aware that the Spy Museum is not part of the Smithsonian complex so there is an admission charge. I am not sure about Ford Theater. I have heard great things about the Spy Museum but haven't been as DH doesn't want to pay the admission since the other museums are free.

[speechteachri]

We stayed in DC for a couple of nights in August to see some of the sights. We stayed at Hampton Inn in Crystal City Md. Very close to the Metro stop and lots of restaurants. Also at Hampton Inn breakfast is included, so that saved us some money. We had a view of the Pentagon from our room.

We LOVED D.C. and want to go back, but DD is 11 and she loves history, so she had a blast. Wish the American Hist. Museum had been re-opened when we went. That will be next time. We had talked about going to D.C. for a long time, but honestly, I don't think dd would have appreciated it a couple of years ago.

One place that we LOVED was the National Zoo. Your kids would probably love that, but it is quite a long walk from the Metro stop to the zoo and back again, and the zoo is huge. If you are doing all your travelling around by Metro keep this in mind. D.C. in general can involve lots of walking unless you go take a tour mobile of some sort. Even the museums are a lot of walking, so make sure you all wear comfy shoes.

[lrsellars]

Thanks sooooooo much for all the information. It's been many years since I've been to DC and a lot has changed. And since I was the kid then and not the adult, I didn't care about all the logistics. LOL!!! I think we'll stay at the Embassy Suites since it is close to downtown. It's about $300 ($33 for self parking) per night but that will include breakfast which will help with the costs. I hate that we're not going to be there longer but we're going to NYC too so we will just have to hit the major attractions and take a second trip later. The kids want to ride the train up but we're going to have to drive. Our youngest has uncontrollable seizures and I'd hate to be on a plane or train and have something happen. Just seems like we'd have more options in the van but I don't like driving 900+ miles one way. I'll check out all the locations that you all have listed. I can't thank you enough for sharing.