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Washington DC trip and budget

June 14th, 2024 at 07:28 pm

I never posted an update in awhile but we've been busy so I guess I'll post in the next few days.  Well we went to Washington DC over memorial day weekend.  We had been planning Zion and Bryce Canyon but unfortunately the narrows wasn't open due to flooding so we pushed that trip back to next memorial day.  Fingers crossed it works out.

So we flew into Regan Airport on wednesday night  May 22nd using points (30k points each one way).  We took an uber to the Residence Inn that we booked with points just south of the mall.  We planned on staying until May 28th Tuesday and flying out of Dulles at $370/per person one way.  Total airfare was $1480 for four people and 120k miles.  We used 200k points for 5 nights at the residence inn, which included free breakfast.  We used the marriot buy 4 nights get 5th night free with points.  Then monday night Memorial day 5/27 we switched hotels using a lyft to a Fairfield inn next to Dulles airport.  Dulles is about 45 minutes outside the city and we didn't want get up extra early to ride so moving hotels was easier and cheaper.  It was $90 for the night at the fairfield inn and also included breakfast.  We parked at the airport so our parking was $161 for the 6 days.  We boarded our dog for $459 (this is obviously YMMV).  So overall our trip wasn't terribly expensive.
 
After arriving late wednesday we got up by 9 am thursday and snuck in breakfast at the hotel.  We started by taking the old town trolley tour $233.80 from the Air and Space musuem.  We rode it to union station where we were supposed to switch but decided since we started so late 11 am for the bus tour, we decided to uber Bureau of Engraving and Printing and did a 45 minute tour from 1-2 pm.  It was really cool and the gift shop was the best we saw so far.  Then we made it at 215 to our 2 pm ticketed entry to the washington Monument.  then we walked to the bus stop and hopped on the trolley to finish our tour.  We stayed on the troop another 2 hours from 315-5 pm before we hit dinner at Jaleo which was a very expensive meal of $209 for the four of us.  Pretty good spanish tapas place by Jose Andreas.  We had been considering going to Bazaar which he has in Las Vegas.  Then a quick uber to the hotel by 7 pm and off to bed.
 
Friday we got up again around 9 pm and ate at the hotel and split up.  We walked to the botanical gardens by 10 am.  Tim and Malia went to the botanical gardens and Reina and I headed to the Library of Congress.  The library was cool but we didnt' have a tour booked.  We met up at the Capitol aroudn 12 pm for lunch at the super renovated and nice cafeteria before our 2 pm tour.  We finished early so we hopped into the 1 pm tour.  It was very different from 30 years ago.  Since we finished our tour by 3 pm we walked to the Nartional Art Gallery and walked through mostly the west gallery and saw the blue rooster, jackson pollack, da vinci, Picasso.  We headed back after the gallery to the hotel and rested and went to dinner at hell's kitchen at the wharf. 
 
Saturday we got up a bit later and then headed to the Monuments.  We ubered to the thomas jefferson monument then walked to the lincoln Monument.  We then scootered to the natural history musuem maybe around 1 pm.  Scooters cost way more than an uber for 4.  But the kids wanted to try biking/scootering on the reflecting pooll.  We then walked up to walgreens and past the old post office, which closed at 430 and we were there at 435 pm and then had dinner at 5 pm at Nando's Peri Peri Chicken.  That places has the best chicken.  Then ubered home by 645 pm.  And again off to bed early again
 
Sunday we got a late start and skipped breaskfast at the hotel since it was closer to lunch.  So we headed out to the old post office waldorf astoria and did that free tour.  It's a national park museum.  We hit that around 1030 by uber and then walked to the white house visitor center.  We spent around 1 hour from 12-1 pm at the visitor center and my youngest was still reading the things each president did. I wish we could have done a white house tour but last minute planning made it impossible.  Then we decided to cooter so we did to Luke's lobster's for lunch.  Not cheap but great lobster and crab rolls. 
 
At 1 pm we walked to the archives and did that from 130-2 pm.  Unfortunately only I liked it, everyone else found it boring.  we then ubered to the union station to see what our tour bus had talked about.  Nothing much to see but DH stopped at uniqlo and had to pick up shorts.  Then we ubered back to the wharf and had ice cream at a japanese taiyaki placed called fat fish.  We scooted back to our hotel and then went walking out to get korean chickenfor dinner. 

On our last full day in DC we split up and DH and the kids went back to the natural history museum in the morning and I saw the american history musuem.  We had lunch back at the wharf.  Then finished up with our ticket time to the Air and Space musuem.  We checked out of the hotel at 11 and left our luggage there. So we decided being tired we headed to dulles around 4 pm, check into the fairfield, and then out to dinner in a lyft. 

What did we spend?  Well on ubers and lyfts about $176 including the trip to dulles.  Then on food and the trolley tour $1148.  So all in?  
 
Airlines $1498
Hotel $90.10
Dog $459
Parking $161.88
Trolley Tour $233.80
Food $914.45 (we saved a lot eating mostly 2x a day and only paying for dinner since breakfast was included in the hotels)
ubers $176

Total trip for family of four $3533.23.  But this is artifically low since I used miles for flights one way and the hotel in DC. but it also did include dog boarding which not everyone has.  And our trip was cross country so I think our tickets would have been more than others so it's possible to do that part cheaper.  Also I easily could have made my family walk so our ubers could have been $50 for transit passes but I figured our time was worth something.  
 
Library of Congress
 
 
 
Capital Dessert
 
 
MLK statue
 
the mall
 
 
view from washington monument
 
 
 
Overall a realy cool trip. I think the kids probably should have been a bit older 14 and 11 to realy appreciate DC but maybe they'll go back like i did. I first went at 14 in 8th grade with my school. I then went to back a few times when we lived on the east coast but we didn't do musuems really.  We did the zoo, the spy musuem, and the nasa museum.
 
And that's the wrap up.  Next up we bought another new car.

5 Responses to “Washington DC trip and budget”

  1. Dido Says:
    1718562767

    Sounds like a great trip; I'm glad you had a good time!

  2. patientsaver Says:
    1718628967

    I enjoyed the photos very much. I've been to DC a few times but feel I've barely scratched the surface; there is so much to see. I remember doing the Smithsonian museums, of course, as well as the US Mint, the Vietnam war memorial, the National Building Museum, the Holocaust Museum and probably a few other things but definitely worth several return trips.

  3. LivingAlmostLarge Says:
    1718843743

    There is a lot to see and do. Well planned? No pulled together in about 5 days sure. This was one of the most last minute things i"ve ever done.

  4. VS_ozgirl Says:
    1718961233

    Loved the pictures and the blog post, and that dessert is so cool!

  5. Edliant Says:
    1724409860

    Sounds like a fun trip despite the change in plans! We had a similar situation with our travels last year. We flew into a city using points and stayed at a hotel with a great deal on points too. It was nice to save some cash on the basics. We also switched hotels closer to the airport for our last night, which made things easier.

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