more advice on hotels area, please Mrs Maryland and others

Mrs Maryland

We%26#39;re glad of your input, along with the others.

Perhaps you can advise a little further.

We have 12 days in the States rom march 31st to 11th April, into New York and out of Dulles.

It is our plan to spend a few days in NY where my husband and I have been before and are taking our son and daughter, 19 and 27 for the first time.

What would be your suggestions for the remaining 6 or 7 days?

We enjoy seeing new things and being part of the ambience of a new city. I believe military bands play regularly and we would greatly like to hear something ike that [son studies trumpet at university and mum and daughter are are both music teachers].

Is it worth going out of the main DC area to experience more local life, although we didn%26#39;t plan to have a car to stay stress-free.

We live in Scotland and are surrounded by beautiful hills etc so don%26#39;t need that type of thing.

Location of hotel is the most important thing so we have easy access to as much as possible using foot/metro.

Are we just as easy, and possibly less expensive to stay out Dupont or Omni Shoreham and come in by metro, which we could us for a wider area such a Arlington and Pentagon.

We are not interested in nightlife as such[bars/clubs] but would enjoy a bit of %26#39;bizz%26#39;to walk around in and find somewhere to eat.

Thank you in anticipation of a lot of advice!

more advice on hotels area, please Mrs Maryland and others

With your dates of arrival, the Cherry Blossom Parade will be going on. So lots of extra tourist will be here and the mall area will be busy and crowded.

Dupont hotels may or may not be cheaper you can check. Embassy Suites www.embassysuites.com is on 22nd street and is very nice and clean. Nice area as well. Not walking distance to the ';mall'; area where the museums and monuments are but metro or a quick cab ride would suffice. A car would only be needed if you wanted to go somewhere not metro accessible.

-DC is great for the local attractions but with its easy access to Northern VA (Arlington/Pentagon, Alexandria, etc.) and MD you can always take metro if you see something you want to do there. You should pretty much be good for just DC for 4 days.

I think you might also like the immediate downtown area of DC where you could walk almost everywhere and/or take metro for a quick trip.

I don%26#39;t know your price range but here are a few hotels that are in the immediate downtown area or surrounding areas that would be nice.

-The Omni is nice if you would like to stay there. The metro is right there giving you access to just about everything you would want to do and see. Would be a good selection.

-Sofitel (www.sofitel.com)

-Hotel Washington (www.hotelwashington.com) this one is very ';American'; in decor and atmosphere. Right across from the white house and walking distance to some of the museums and other attractions. Little bit further for nicer restaurants and the area is pretty quiet after 6pm M-F.

-Marriott Metro Center (www.marriott.com) very centrally located. Shopping, dining, entertainment, museums, monuments all there.

Sites to See:

-Museums/Monuments www.smithsonian.org for all of the attractions listed with the Smithsonian. This is the ideal thing to do.

-Old Town Trolley/Tourmobile/Duck Tours for bus tours around the city. www.tourmobile.com www.oldtowntrolley.com and www.dcducks.com. The locations to get these tours are metro accessible (Union Station or downtown mall area.) I think the Duck tours is very interesting. Check out the websites for specific destinations along the way. Very helpful and informative.

-Spy Museum: www.spymuseum.com Exactly that. $15.00 p/adult however but it is pretty decent. Metro Accessible (Gallery Place Chinatown)

-Georgetown this area is full of shopping (more upscale) dining and pretty nice just to walk the streets and feel a part of the local life. It is not metro accessible but there are plenty of buses that go directly into the area or a quick cab ride from your hotel.

Dining: All depends on your taste buds. Also where you are staying. But some nice restaurants would be: Lots of ethnic restaurants (French, Irish, Ethiopian, Middle Eastern, Italian, German, etc. etc.etc.) Once you choose your hotel, let everyone know and we could give you some options for dining.

Hope this helps.

more advice on hotels area, please Mrs Maryland and others

I think it%26#39;s wonderful that you%26#39;re able to allot more time for this vacation than many tourists!. Both Philadelphia and Baltimore would be great places to visit en route from NYC to DC. Here are the web sites of the official tourism bureaus for each of those two:

http://www.gophila.com

http://www.baltimore.org

Closer to the time of your arrival, check the Getting Here page of the Go Philadelphia website.

gophila.com/Go/TravelTools/gettinghere.aspx

Towards the bottom of the page in the Train section is an Amtrak discount code that will save you 50% off 2 of your 4 train tickets -- and which is not publicized on Amtrak%26#39;s own web site. The current promotional code experies in December, but I predict the same kind of offer will be in place for your April travel.

And here%26#39;s a web site devoted to Baltimore%26#39;s Inner Harbor, which is especially appealing to visitors (e.g., the National Aquarium is great for all ages)

http://www.baltimore.to/baltimore.html

This thread offers some off-the-beaten track recommendations for DC and some for Baltimore too:

tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g28970-i40-k323225鈥?/a>

tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g28970-i40-k688053鈥?/a>

There are FREE concerts/performances at 6 PM every day in the Millenium Stage auditorium at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in DC, and the National Cathedral [Episcopalian] -- in addition to being a fascinating place to visit -- also has notable musical offerings; the Music tab at the top of iits home page is (no surprise) where you%26#39;ll find more info on those:

kennedy-center.org/programs/鈥chedule.html

http://www.cathedral.org

Lastly, I think your family would find Cultural Tourism%26#39;s web page to be of special interest. Its Calendar of Events often contains listings not readily found elsewhere, but many of them don%26#39;t appear there until fairly close in time to the scheduled dates, so it%26#39;s something I recommend you check out more than once:

http://www.culturaltourismdc.org

reptiles