Washington DC

Teacher's Pet wrote:
Our daughter spent about 7 years in the DC area starting in 1994, 1st at American University then another 3 years as our son-in-law worked in Arlington VA. We visited the city many times during her stay. We stayed at Little Bennett Regional Park out on I270 every time but one, when we braved the traffic across the top of DC on the Beltway to Cherry Hill RV Park, never went back, awful navigating traffic in the motorhome and way to noisy for us. We have driven to the mall several times and taken the metro after boarding at the Shady Grove Station many more times when wishing to visit The Capitol . We drove into American University 9 times out of 10 which was about 6 miles inside The Beltway on Massachusetts Ave.

X2 on Cherry Hill being a fit to navigate in & being noisy when you get there.

blknomad wrote:
I have a grandson and a friend coming to US in Dec. and the only ask to see the capitol especially the Smithsonian. Would you just toad in or find a tour bus?? Or some other option?

We stayed here... Little Bennett...., deep in the woods and 13.6 miles down the road is the Shady Grove parking lot for the train into DC.
Nice campground with electric and a dump station, but your fresh water tank needs to be filled at convenient locations, throughout the campground.

naturist wrote:
Metro subway is the only way to go. Parking anyplace within a several miles of the National Mall is impossible. You can literally drive around all day looking for a parking spot and never find one.

Most folks who go to DC more than once google the DC Metro map, and pick a station on the edge of the system along their intended route, then ride the rails. from there. Sometimes the second station in has better parking available. Metro goes within a block or so of every place you could possibly want to go.

Whatever you do, do NOT ever attempt to drive a large vehicle/camper/bus into that area. You will NEVER get back out again.

I routinely took 45' tour buses to D.C. and never had a problem. I did get a parking ticket on Flag Day for having 15' not in the parking space. I thought 2/3 was a good enough attempt.

Definitely plan on using Metro and/or the DC Circulator bus..

It is a good idea to get tickets in advance for The Capitol.

The Smithsonian has 19 museums, galleries and a zoo.
They may want to narrow down the parts they most want to see.

The best advise is to stay at Cherry Hill and you can drive to the metro or a bus comes into the park to pick you up. They also offer tours to DC and the lady that does that presentation also will teach you how to use the metro line to get where ever you want to go. We were there 7 days this summer and went all the way out to Arlington on the Metro. You just can't beat the convince.
Bill

Here's the link to the Metro Home Page. Depending upon where you park outside of D.C., you can either use just the train or a bus and train. As was mentioned, Cherry Hill Park is an excellent RV Park with very helpful staff to answer your questions. The bus to the rail station stops at Cherry Hill Park. The Metro can seem very confusing to newbies, but once you figure out where you are and where you want to go, it's not too bad.

I would also recommend a trip to the National Zoo in D.C.. The Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial and other memorials are nice too.

We drove into D.C. from Cherry Hill Park on a weekend and were able to find parking, but it took a bit of searching. The traffic wasn't too bad. But during the week, use the Metro.

Have a great trip!

~Rick

If you are RVing into the area Cherry Hill is my recommendation too. The Smithsonian is I believe 11 different museums. They require a lot of time to see. We have been there but not enough time. We plan on 11 days with the DGKs maybe next summer.

Darn Eagle Scout program and DGD's social life. Just kidding.

Our daughter spent about 7 years in the DC area starting in 1994, 1st at American University then another 3 years as our son-in-law worked in Arlington VA. We visited the city many times during her stay. We stayed at Little Bennett Regional Park out on I270 every time but one, when we braved the traffic across the top of DC on the Beltway to Cherry Hill RV Park, never went back, awful navigating traffic in the motorhome and way to noisy for us. We have driven to the mall several times and taken the metro after boarding at the Shady Grove Station many more times when wishing to visit The Capitol . We drove into American University 9 times out of 10 which was about 6 miles inside The Beltway on Massachusetts Ave.

Metro subway is the only way to go. Parking anyplace within a several miles of the National Mall is impossible. You can literally drive around all day looking for a parking spot and never find one.

Most folks who go to DC more than once google the DC Metro map, and pick a station on the edge of the system along their intended route, then ride the rails. from there. Sometimes the second station in has better parking available. Metro goes within a block or so of every place you could possibly want to go.

Whatever you do, do NOT ever attempt to drive a large vehicle/camper/bus into that area. You will NEVER get back out again.

The Smithsonians are comprised of multiple Museums in different buildings. We stayed in Cherry Hill RVP and rode in on the Subway to Union Station. From there we took the Duck Tour with our young GD, one day. Then on another weekend when DS and DIL flew in, we bought the 2-day Trolley Tour to see more from the street side.

Then we would get on and off at whatever Museum or Monument and walk a ways before seeing another Museum.

Cherry Hill is great because they have all the Subway maps, City Maps and people who can guide you ahead of time.