Washington DC

[EustaciaVye]

Planning to go to Washington DC next summer with my family. Kids will range from 5 to 11. Any suggestions for places to stay? Happy to have two locations - one central to explore the city, and another further out to relax and enjoy the break.
Many thanks.

I would stick to one location if you are solely visiting D.C. also because the traffic there can be horrendous if you visit in from the suburbs. D.C has a decent Metro underground train system to get around.

Embassy Suites are generally good for families and they have breakfast as part of the room rate. There's a couple of these in D.C and we've stayed at the one on 22nd St NW.

Thanks. Will definitely stay central for city touring. just fancied somewhere more resort-like too so it didn't feel just like a city break.

Avenue Suites Georgetown, perfect location, we had 2 dbl beds in bedroom and sofa bed in sitting room, little kitchen.

Walk to Foggy Bottom tube. Great restaurants and shops in Georgetown.

You can walk to White house from there. Great reviews on tripadv.

We have just returned from Washington DC. We stayed at the Embassy Suites. Everything walking distance. Georgetown 10 minutes walk, White House 20minutes, zoo 30 minutes, but there are two metro stations 5 minutes away. Great hotel with pool, fitness room, breakfast and evening drinks (5.30-7.30pm) and snacks included in price.

We did a 2 centre holiday with 6 days in Washington and 5 days in New York. We did NYC first, flying into JFK and then using mega bus to travel between NYC and Washington. This was the bargain of our holiday...$3 each for the 4 hr journey by luxury coach. Glad we did Washington 2nd, it was so relaxing after NYC. Kids loved kayaking down Potomac river, visiting zoo and all the sights. Do get in touch with British embassy in Washington as they can get you tickets to tour White House, they advised us how to tour pentagon and Capitol too. The Smithsonian museums are brilliant and free. We found the holocaust museum excellent too. We paid a dollar to reserve tickets for the Washington monument online, this saved queuing at 8.30 am for free tickets...well worth the lie-in if you ask me!

Our best find was a company called 'free tours by foot'. They do tours of Washington: the Mall, Arlington cemetery etc. for free, you just pay a tip at the end. The guides are local and brilliant. We took 3 tours with them after deciding not to do the drive past open top bus tour. Google them they have fab reviews.
Enjoy your trip!

Hi breward

The Embassy Suites, was it the one on 22nd Street NW?. I ask only as I've stayed there on my last visit to DC and the description seems familiar.

Was wondering about the White House tours now for foreign visitors because the last time I checked with the UK Embassy in Washington they were not able to help.

This is from their website:-
"The White House website states that foreign nationals interested in touring the White House should contact their Embassy to arrange a tour. However, the Embassy has been advised by the US Department of State that, at present, access for foreign nationals to White House tours as part of an Embassy-sponsored public tour group is on hold. We are therefore unable to process any applications at this time".

Yes, we stayed at the Embassy Suites 22nd street.

I only mentioned The White House tour to give the OP the heads-up on the opportunity as she us not going til next summer. Lots of US citizens, who stayed in our hotel, visited during our trip. Hopefully they will open it to foreign citizens next year. I toured it 20 odd years ago and it was fantastic.

We visited the Senate and House of Representatives during our trip. Ironically it was a 1 minute process whilst in the Capitol... Just show your Uk passport and you are given a ticket. The US citizens had to get in touch with their congressman to get a ticket to either house!

Glad you liked the Embassy Suites Breward.

Its a shame about the White House tours but this measure I think will remain in place for non American citizens for some considerable time to come. That measure was also in place on my last visit a year ago and on a previous visit a couple of years before that.

I think the Capitol tour is indeed certainly worth doing as is the Duck Tour.

That's really good information. Thank you.

I can also highly recommend the international spy museum for kids . Really interactive and lots of fun .

In terms of out of city, not really a resort, but we recently combined DC with delaware Atlantic coast which was great. Rented a holiday house in a place called broadkill beach, was beautiful, although about a 3 hour drive from DC. Chesapeake bay shore is closer but more expensive, and I think busier - very popular with weekending washingtonians.

This thread is timely, thanks! Haven't booked anything at all but we are looking at doing an east coast USA holiday next summer most probably NYC & Washington though dh has a colleague who as just been with his family and it cost them £14k which is scary!

£14K!!

We flew to Washington and then the train to NY, it was really easy, free wifi, nice wide seats, took about 3 hours.

The museums in Washington are fantastic.

14k Ouch! We did our trip for about 4k for the 4 of us in early august. It took lots of research and shopping around mind you.

Flying into JFK saves a fortune, rather than flying to Washington or Boston.

Interesting. We could do a few days in New York.

I love city breaks but I do want a few days of shoving the kids in a pool while I read a book. Am I wanting too much?

Looking on trip advisor, there are plenty of Washington hotels with outside pools and sun loungers- which look more like a resort hotel than City break hotels.

These hotels are only £100+ a night for a family, so you could do 8-10 nights if you wanted down-time. NYC hotels do not have pools and cost £200+ a night. That is why we spent more nights in Washington. DC also has loads of free world-class museums which take time to visit, so we did not touch any museums (apart from 9/11) in NYC. 5 days of the hustle and bustle of NYC was great but plenty for us. Washington is very laid back and quiet compared to New York.

During our 6 days in DC we did 2 things a day to fit all we wanted to see and do into our trip. The children swam everyday for at least an hour, usually in the morning/evening: Am swim, late breakfast, pm Capitol tour, evening Baseball game,.... Or: am Arlington Cemetery, pm Washington zoo, evening swimming pool and pizza.

Our flights to JFK were just over £500 each. Our friends flew into DC and spent £1300 each. Our saving paid for the whole of the rest of the holiday.

We flew into Washington and then drove from Washington to NYC. We had 4 days in ashington but could really have done with at least double as there is so much to see and do there. We went last year, so dd was 11y. She loves it - says it is now her favourite city. We definitly intend to return.

Sounds perfect Breward.

14K - ouch!. Did they all fly business class return?.

If flying into NYC I would choose Newark over JFK.

Would certainly recommend a visit to the International Spy Museum and there's a ShakeShack next door IIRC but go early and try to avoid the weekend.