Getting to Washington, D.C.
First thing I have to say about Washington, D.C. is that if you are planning to visit, don’t drive there. Seriously. It is outrageously expensive to park a car at the hotels in the District. Our hotel charges $40 a day to park in the private lot and street parking can be scarce. Plus, it is a very walkable city. It took me just a day to get my bearings. And if walking becomes too tiresome, taxis are plentiful.
Once I realized just how much money we would have spent to park our car at various hotels, I was happy that we had aborted our original road trip plan. The hotel in Boston where we had reservations did not even have a parking lot. We would have had to park our car in a public lot a couple of blocks away, and still pay $25 a day. Add that to the $40 a day at the hotel in D.C. and that would be enough money to pay for another airline ticket.
Our flight to D.C. was relatively uneventful, save for the bit of turbulence we encountered upon descent into Dulles. Washington Dulles International Airport actually is situated in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is an enormous airport but easily navigable. There is no direct Metro line from Dulles into the District. Visitors can take a chartered bus to a Metro stop and then ride the train the rest of the way into the city. That is the economical way to do it. We, however, opted for a taxi. There are regular, independently run taxis waiting outside the terminal, but there is a company, Washington Flyer, that is contracted by the airport authority to shuttle visitors strictly between the airports and the District. We went with the Washington Flyer for the 45-minute ride to our hotel; the fare was just over $50 (sounds steep but keep in mind the $40-a-day fee to park at the hotel). We arrived at our hotel, The Liaison Capitol Hill by Affinia, which was awesome and there will be more on that later.
Posted by Francesca
Tags: Dulles International Airport, Our travels & travel news, Washington D.C., Washington Flyer
