Visiting Washington DC

[turkishrebel]

Hello everybody, just enquiring if anyone has been to Washington DC and if they have any advice/tips? flying into Dulles and not sure whats the best form of transport from there to our hotel?
any other tips for site seeing/eating/shopping would be greatly appreciated
thanks
Steve

[shysarah]

I'm interested in this also as DH & I go in October...

[mouli1]

Dulles is a weird old fashioned airport imho .for us it wasnt that good an experience.
Queuing for security wasnt good on return on arrival signage was bad. We couldn't get on to the wifi so couldn't order an uber .ordinary cab is $100 or so (2017 when we went )
We took the bus to the metro station in the end .took about an hour I think .
Dulles is about 30 miles out of DC I think .

[tapley]

I don’t know when you are visiting but we fly into Dulles 3 weeks today so can update on return if that helps. We are actually staying in Alexandria and using the Metro to travel into Washington. However as we are travelling around after Washington I decided to collect the rental car from the airport as travel from Dulles to Our hotel was not that convenient.

[mouli1]

Watch out for the road system around the airport .we picked up our car in DC but returned it to the airport(on fumes ! That's another story and nearly lead to divorce ! )
There are toll lanes and non toll lanes all on the same carriage way

[sunjue100]

Hi
We were there last October and flew into and out of Dulles airport we booked a private transfer each way ( we travelled back from Baltimore). Loved DC used the hop on hop off bus but to be honest you can walk to a lot of places. We were there for 4 nights then travelled by train to Baltimore to pick up a cruise. The train service was excellent .

[BarrettFamily]

We booked a private transfer for the airport and used the metro or the bus for everything else.

[Lizzim]

We went in 2017 and I did a trip report (link in signature). Getting a cab from the airport is easy, but there are public transport options available - think they involve a bus and metro.

Getting around the city is easy, the metro works like our underground and they have oyster style cards now which you load with credit. Walking is also easy as they have a simple block layout which makes navigation simple.

Soooo many free attractions to see! We would highly recommend the Capitol Building tour which you can book in advance and is also free.

[georgemac]

We were there in Sept last year (not Dulles) although I did drive out to the Air and Space museum at Dulles and found the drive easy.

We stayed out at Tysons Corner (Hyatt) - mainly as we had a car and parking and hotels in the centre very expensive - we loved the hotel connected to the Metro and a very nice mall. Metro - we bought our passes and topped them up on the machines at the station - very easy. Online advice suggested buying from a store, but the one we went to had none left. Metro was very easy to use.

I did White House Tour - interesting, but just really a tour of reception rooms in the East Wing - you have to apply via a senator, would I rush back, no, but it was great coming out of the white house down the path and out of the gate.

The Capitol Building tour for me was probably the highlight of Washington, and I went to the House of Representatives viewing gallery after the tour, although they were not sitting (Friday).

We visited the 9/11 memorial at the Pentagon, and I never knew you could also do a Pentagon tour - I might do this in Sept this year.
We also visited Arlington which is only a stop away from the Pentagon if I recall correctly.

We also loved the Washington Monument, Lincoln and other memorials and the Smithsonian Mall area. My wife is not really into museums, again I visited air and space but there are so much more that can be done.

IT's a lovely city with great buildings to view, and easy walking or on Metro. We are going back to finish our road trip this year.

[mouli1]

The zoo is good .go early morning to see the pandas