Washington DC camping on a budget
This is one of the reasons we love camping! We wanted to stop in Washington during our spring break trip, but didn't make it and wanted to squeeze it in this year. We didn't have this trip budgeted for, but were able to make it work with some careful spending.
Instead of a full amenity campground we decided on National Park that didn't have any hookups for just $16/night, but was only 11 miles from downtown Washington DC. We also used a parking app to find some inexpensive, yet convenient parking, near the Air and Space museum.
The only thing that set us back was our lunch. We couldn't pack lunch into the museum and decided to eat there while waiting for the rain to end. We could have packed lunch and left it in the car, but with limited time we decided to splurge a little.
In the end we spent $202 on our three-day trip to Washington DC and I'm not so sure it would have cost us less to stay home for a weekend. Here's a breakdown of our costs:
Fuel: $ 70
Parking: $ 13
Campground for 3 days: $ 48
Lunch at the museum: $ 48
Pizza for 6: $ 23
On our trip we got to see the Air and Space Museum, Museum of Natural History, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and got a glimpse of the White House and Capital Building. We went from one end of the National Mall to the other and had a lot of tired kids at the end of the day! Checkout the below video to see our trip highlights.
https://youtu.be/NWn3QtMVKF8
Sandie was a bit concerned with the bare bones campground, but it worked out great and our next trip will be to a state park with no hookups at a great price. It turns out the kids love camping anywhere there's access to a playground and this allows us to squeeze in more trips (and memories).
Instead of a full amenity campground we decided on National Park that didn't have any hookups for just $16/night, but was only 11 miles from downtown Washington DC. We also used a parking app to find some inexpensive, yet convenient parking, near the Air and Space museum.
The only thing that set us back was our lunch. We couldn't pack lunch into the museum and decided to eat there while waiting for the rain to end. We could have packed lunch and left it in the car, but with limited time we decided to splurge a little.
In the end we spent $202 on our three-day trip to Washington DC and I'm not so sure it would have cost us less to stay home for a weekend. Here's a breakdown of our costs:
Fuel: $ 70
Parking: $ 13
Campground for 3 days: $ 48
Lunch at the museum: $ 48
Pizza for 6: $ 23
On our trip we got to see the Air and Space Museum, Museum of Natural History, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and got a glimpse of the White House and Capital Building. We went from one end of the National Mall to the other and had a lot of tired kids at the end of the day! Checkout the below video to see our trip highlights.
https://youtu.be/NWn3QtMVKF8
Sandie was a bit concerned with the bare bones campground, but it worked out great and our next trip will be to a state park with no hookups at a great price. It turns out the kids love camping anywhere there's access to a playground and this allows us to squeeze in more trips (and memories).
