National Air & Space Museums

Silvaire

Silvaire

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Silvaire
Planning a trip to DC in a couple of weeks. I'll be going to IAD (Dulles) and renting a car. Looking for tips on where to stay and best way to get to the general Mall area for the typical tourism stuff. Is there any place to park a car for the day that's close and reasonable? I don't mind walking or taking public transport.
 
I parked maybe two blocks away using a parking meter. Traffic is insane around there. Circled like three times before a spot opened up. Didn't see any parking garages.

Udvar-Hazy is easy. Right off the airport and has a huge parking lot. Better museum than downtown in my opinion as well.
 
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Velocity173 said:
I parked maybe two blocks away using a parking meter. Traffic is insane around there. Circled like three times before a spot opened up. Didn't see any parking garages.



Udvar-Hazy is easy. Right off the airport and has a huge parking lot. Better museum than downtown in my opinion as well.
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I agree on Udvar-Hazy. Excellent museum with easy access, even with kids, strollers, and pregnant wife.
 
Find a hotel close to the Metro and use the Metro to go to/from the Mall. Unless you are going at 0600 Sunday morning, I would not drive downtown.
 
Frankly, I'd stay somewhere near a Metro line or if you're a dedicated hiker at one of the hotels in Rosslyn or Crystal City. You can hoof it to most of the attractions from there.

As pointed out, parking downtown even when you find it WILL BE COSTLY.

Definitely go to Udvar-Hazy. At either museum site, very excellent tours are conducted by the docents which usually have extensive (either airline/military/or both) experience before they started training and then went through a 20 session, 3 hour a week course on the museum subjects plus regular continuing education. They have to take periodic checkrides to continue to tour. All this for a volunteer position.

I'm not just saying this because my wife is responsible for the docents at both sites (among other things). I'm obliged because she is my wife to point out that it is the "National Air and Space Museum." SINGULAR. One museum, two sites.
 
I usually stay at the Fairmont in DC. The first time I made the mistake and drove. 60/night parking and absolutely crap traffic - avoid taking your car anywhere near DC.

Both A&S museums are definitely worth a visit, but I agree Udvar-Hazy is more impressive especially with the space shuttle on display.
 
Silvaire said:
Planning a trip to DC in a couple of weeks. I'll be going to IAD (Dulles) and renting a car. Looking for tips on where to stay and best way to get to the general Mall area for the typical tourism stuff. Is there any place to park a car for the day that's close and reasonable? I don't mind walking or taking public transport.
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Amen on the Udvar-Hazy. It's right at Dulles, so you can drive there after your arrival or just before you drop the car on departure.

Re where to stay, if you are spending your own money and not company money I'd suggest going as far out on one of the Metro lines as possible. The farther out you go, the better value the hotels are. It is quick to get into DC even from the end of the lines and then you won't be saddled with a car when you get there. Us USA taxpayers are subsidizing it something like $10/ride, so be sure to get our money's worth for us.

If lodging money is not a big concern, the Shoreham was a favorite of mine for marble columns and old world elegance. For utility, the Ambassador Suites in Crystal City was another favorite. Crystal Undeground is very convenient for restaurants, grocery store, etc. and the Metro is right there as well.

For a fairly peaceful evening, Old Town Alexandria is just a bit south. Lots of restaurants including (if it's still there) a fun Afghan restaurant across from city hall.
 
Have always had luck getting a meter around the capital. Love the hazy,because they have on site parking,there is a hotel at Dulles,and I think they provide a van to the Hazy.
 
There's a Mariott on the Dulles Property but just about every other hotel in the area (to include a Hyatt, a couple of different Hamton Inns, some Holiday Inns, a Courtyard by Marriott ,etc.... will shuttle you to either the airport terminals or Hazy).
 
Thanks for the tips. Looks like if I stay out by Dulles and maybe use the Wiehle-Reston Metro station there is parking there and it should be easy to get to where I need to go. It will be on a weekend. Udvar-Hazy no problem.
 
Tyson's Center is a huge mall a couple Metro stops up from Wiehle. You can park there free and it's convienient to everything. They just opened a Hyatt attached to the mall (pricey) but really simpe.
 
We typically park at Pentagon City and ride in. I have driven and parked on Constitution during the weekend, get there really early.

Udvar-Hazy is more incredible than you're going to know. Every airplane in the place has an amazing story. You're going to miss almost every one of them. It's ok. There's a reason to come back.

Can't help much on where to stay. Everyplace is expensive. There's a hilton near Tyson's corner that might be halfway reasonable. In terms of location I like the DuPont Circle area for walking and taking the metro, but it sucks to drive in. In a pinch, it is walkable to/from the mall.

If you want reasonable hotel prices, you're pretty much talking about staying 50+ miles outside of town.
 
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:dunno:
Maybe i'm the odd one, i hate taking the metro in. Between all the single tracking, track closures, waiting around for the metro, on the weekends. i might as well drive all the way in particularly when i have at least one other person. It's about break even for parking, saves money when there are more.

There are plenty of reasonably priced garages, just use one of the parking apps on your phone to find them.

Last time I went in i parked at l'enfant plaza parking garage (right off the highway, no downtown driving) and did a clockwise loop on the map. Around the tidal basin with the jefferson, fdr, mlk, korean war, lincoln, WW2, white house, washington, smithsonian castle, make to l'enfant.

http://www.aceparking.com/lenfant/ $11 for evenings and weekends.
 
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If you do end up in the reston area, reston town Centre has a good selection of evening restaurants to finish the night, walk a few blocks.

Also you could spend a day and go picnic out in loudoun county wineries, eat at a farm restaurant, stop at a distillery, etc that is the country side there.
 
Silvaire said:
Thanks for the tips. Looks like if I stay out by Dulles and maybe use the Wiehle-Reston Metro station there is parking there and it should be easy to get to where I need to go. It will be on a weekend. Udvar-Hazy no problem.
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There is parking at the Wiehle metro. The entrance to the garage is one block south of Sunset Hills Rd on Wiehle Ave.

By the way the street is pronounce "Wheelie"
Learned that when I moved to the area 25+ years ago.
 
Silvaire said:
Thanks for the tips. Looks like if I stay out by Dulles and maybe use the Wiehle-Reston Metro station there is parking there and it should be easy to get to where I need to go. It will be on a weekend. Udvar-Hazy no problem.
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jbarrass said:
Tyson's Center is a huge mall a couple Metro stops up from Wiehle. You can park there free and it's convienient to everything. They just opened a Hyatt attached to the mall (pricey) but really simpe.
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On weekends, most of the Metro-owned parking facilities are free. Tyson's mall frowns on using their parking facility for Metro.

If you're going to drive in to Tyson's go a little further to East Falls Church metro station. It's a Metro lot, so parking is free on weekends, and the station is served by both the Orange and Silver lines, meaning the trains come more frequently.

Reston-Whiele station is a Metro garage and parking should be free on weekends.
 
Actually, Whiele has 2 lots. One is metro and free on weekends and one is private and is not.
 
ethosunum said:
:dunno:
Maybe i'm the odd one, i hate taking the metro in. Between all the single tracking, track closures, waiting around for the metro, on the weekends. i might as well drive all the way in particularly when i have at least one other person. It's about break even for parking, saves money when there are more.

There are plenty of reasonably priced garages, just use one of the parking apps on your phone to find them.

Last time I went in i parked at l'enfant plaza parking garage (right off the highway, no downtown driving) and did a clockwise loop on the map. Around the tidal basin with the jefferson, fdr, mlk, korean war, lincoln, WW2, white house, washington, smithsonian castle, make to l'enfant.

http://www.aceparking.com/lenfant/ $11 for evenings and weekends.
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I agree.

Metro is a pain in the butt on the weekends. Metered parking is free on Sundays. Just work your way back behind the FAA buildings a few blocks and you'll find plenty of open spots.

Even during the week, there are several garages around the l'efant plaza area for $20/day. Still cheaper than metro, and imo, more convenient than riding a smelly packed metro car.

I may be partial, but Old Town Alexandria is a good "base" with plenty of hotels, restaurants, walking and history. Alexandria has been around a lot longer than DC has some interesting history. And it doesn't look like suburban spraw or an artificial "town center". And if you do choose to take the metro, King St. Metro station is only 17 minutes to L'Enfant plaza, the best exit for smithsonian museums.

Full disclosure: I ride metro five days a week.
 
Well I made it to DC, saw both museums and walked a whole lot of miles to see just about everything between the Washington Monument and Arlington Cemetery. I ended up not using Muni, since I had to have a car anyway I just got a room at Comfort Suites in Fairfax not far from the airport and got up Sunday morning around 5 am. I had some breakfast and got downtown around 6. There was parking all over so I just picked a spot at the west end of Independence near the Washington Monument and did the whole mall walk in the cool morning air with no one around but a steady stream of joggers passing me by. There were still a few remaining clouds from the storm that passed through Saturday night but I didn't get rained on.

As for the museums I think most pilots would favor Udvar Hazy because it's basically like a big hangar full of airplanes. The restoration hangar is really cool too and the Space Shuttle Discovery, well it's just an awesome thing to see. The downtown museum is much smaller than what I had expected. It's much more structured like a museum with developed exhibits and artifacts. There are many more interactive displays for kids though and for pilots there are a few things that can't be missed such as the Ryan NYP, Bell X1, Apollo 11 command module, X-15 and the Wright flyer.

So really, it's one museum and you have to go to both locations to get the whole experience. Washington is pretty cool too although, being from California, I had a tough time with the humidity. If anyone is thinking of doing it though the early Sunday morning gig worked out well.
 
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