Washington DC safe spots

Capitol Skyline is 69 dollars a night and right bt Capitol Hill. Caveat, parking is 30 per night but you might be able to get free parking with with your reservation.

I stayed there and would recommend.

>>1208132
I was in DC for New Years and was slumming it north of The Mall. There is a weird warehouse area north of the Capitol building where Massachusetts Ave dumps you South-Easterly. There is a multi-story Walmart(?!) and it's sort of close to Union Station with trains and buses. I do recall seeing gym equipment in a 2nd floor window and some hotel stuff over there but it stopped when we hit the satellite law school (Georgetown?) buildings. It sounds like what >>1208134 is talking about.

There are some shitty hotels due north of the Washington Monument which are contrasted by a very new Holiday Inn and a Whole Foods. These are in your price range but I didn't notice parking.
I picked up some friends in NYC and we took the bus but imagine that guaranteed parking is going to be expensive since there are almost no parking garages in walking distance to the tourist stuff. Whatever you save in free parking you'll pay in taxi/ride-hailing fees.

Never made it to moneyed areas but the Georgetown area predates DC and it's near an elite university so I'm thinking narrow streets, brownstones, no parking and overpriced sushi.

I went to a wedding in DC a few years ago and crashed on a sofa in Crystal City, VA. The commuter stops outside of DC are cheaper but you are committing to 12 hours with only a park bench or coffee shop for a rest and full engagement in nightlife would be doubtful.

>>1208138
Is parking really that much of an issue? So am I better off trying to find a place as close to the Mall as possible so I dont have to drive from place to place?

>>1208274
>Is parking really that much of an issue?

Yes. I was roadtripping a couple of years ago and stopped in DC for a few days to visit a friend at Georgetown. I have never seen parking issues or traffic like DC's anywhere else in the US.

The first night I got there I had to park almost half a mile away from the apartment, and I only got that space because I looped through the neighborhood twice and was lucky enough for someone to pull out on my second time around.

I made the mistake of trying to drive and park on the first day there. After a few hours of that nonsense I went back to the apartment, circled the neighborhood once (even though it was the middle of the day) and then got lucky when someone pulled out of a space a hundred yards from my friend's apartment.

For the rest of my stay there I just used the buses and the Metro when I wanted to go somewhere. I did a lot of walking too.

>>1208132

Stayed at a real 1960s motel, near the Pentagon and Crystal City a couple of years ago:

http://www.americanahotel.com/

Basic, but very clean. Also, no parking charge (at least when I was there in 2014).

>>1208132
A car is very good to have in DC...there's a ton you want to do that you can drive and explore by car, and whizzing past those memorials at night is so pretty.
>Arlington?
Maybe.
If you can get a deal on a hotel of high occupancy, because hey, there are rooms to let go at a nice price, then do it but pay attention to parking fee. But, Arlington has a really high per capita income and high cost of living. Anything on a metro can be higher, so having a car might be a good prospect actually. Suburbia in close to metro areas have decals needed for your car for curb parking, little annual fee they pay.
So a hotel parking lot isn't a bad idea. I used to put some guests at a little motel right on Lee Hwy that was pretty basic Inns of Arlington, but had its own lot. If you can find a B&B in Alexandria or Arlington between Ballston and Clarendon area you'll enjoy walking around at night, and might be able to park in a driveway on the property. There's a lot of hampton inn-ish places near Tyson's Corner as well and plenty of great food for the evenings. There is a great need for hotels for all the business travelers along that Tech Corridor, check around. There's no reason to stay in DC, honestly, and your bar tab is taxed an extra 10%.
I daresay you might get some seriously good airbnb or couchsurfing in this city. There's plenty of people leaving their properties for a long long time. I'm seeing a lot of prices under $100. I think about $135 is typical when they are giving them away.

>>1208475
>>1208474
>>1208470

Thanks for the heads up. How many days do you think I need to be there? I've been there before but when I was 12 for a school trip. So I can skip some places and settle for exterior shots

OP I found Spothero & Parkme useful to find a spot when I was in DC last time, especially seeing as the asshole hotel wanted $50/night.

If you're touring around the mall I'd highly recommend Capital Segway, do a 3hr tour, it was about $65 but very good, they covered a lot of ground but it didn't feel rushed.

>>1208274
oh god, you could probably spend more in parking than a hotel right in downtown. Stay somewhere in maryland or virginia and metro in if you're bringing your car.

I personally think taking a car anywhere into DC is untenable from the driving environment I observed but I'm from a rural area.

Just use the fucking metro to get into town. DC has the best public transit in the country, you might as well use it. There's no reason specifically to stay _in_ DC.

>>1209642
The DC metro falls apart if there is a two inch snowstorm. New York subways will run until it hits 10 or if the MTA parks the trains. The RTS buses ran better on snow than the Orions and the New Flyer artics.

>>1209228
Are the segway tours lame and filled with old people?

OP here. As of now I'm plannning to stay in DC two full days, plus evening of the first day (arrival) and morning of the last day (departure)

is this enough time? too much time? will i need two full days just to deal with lines?

>>1209223

Not him, but I'd say two or three days is probably enough. There's a lot of cool stuff to see in DC, but it is, at the end of the day, just another mid-sized city. If a traveler can spend a week in Istanbul before moving on then they can probably get past Washington in at most half as much time.

>>1210810
Thanks m8

>>1209718
That's because snow storms are much rarer in DC than in New York... who cares, it's probably not going to affect anything.

OP here, I ended up reducing my stay to 1 full day and 1 half day and picked a hotel near 15th and L St. with no parking offered but closer to the areas I want to see.

Now my question is, am I better off getting in my car and driving somewhere far/free and then taking the metro back to the Mall? I'm not planning on using my car for the full day at all but I dont see any all day parking rates.

Check out Parking Panda for rates - a little cheaper if you book ahead. Also consider parking at a metro stop, and leaving your car there. If you're leaving on a Sat or Sunday - no charge.

Check out WMATA's website: "Multi-day parking (also known as overnight or long-term parking) is available at four stations: Greenbelt, Huntington, Franconia-Springfield, and Wiehle-Reston East. Each of these stations has between 15 and 17 spaces allocated for multi-day use of up to 10 days. Availability is on a first-come, first-served basis. There is no charge for multi-day parking beyond the regular fee."

Otherwise, I don't even know what metro stop to recommend to you to park near, where there won't be resident restricted parking. Parking near metro and in DC is at a SUPER PREMIUM, so everything is resident-restricted (you'll see things like "zone 1 parking only".

>>1211741

Well fuck. Maybe DC is bad for driving to by car after all. I have until march 19th to cancel my hotel for free so I will have to figure out by then if DC is still doable.

>>1211743
Good news I just booked a 2 day garage stay with spothero a block from my apartment. I wont be using my car the whole time I'm there but thats okay

>>1210555
I went during Easter weekend last year and completely did the city in two days along with a trip to Georgetown for a postgrad program interview. Do the mall/monuments/Georgetown (neighborhood) the first day and the museums the next.

>>1213303
Adding on, I was also staying at the Four Seasons in Georgetown so there wasn't really a commute to anything from my hotel that was longer than 5 minutes; this will probably vary for you if you aren't staying close to the capital.