Hilton Arlington
950 North Stafford Street, Arlington, Virginia, 22203
http://www3.hilton.com/en/hotels/virginia/hilton-arlington-DCAVAHF/index.html
Points: Variable, I've seen a low of 21,000 to a high of 50,000 for standard rooms.
Costs: Typical rates look like $100 - $220/night for standard rooms.
Transportation:
- Self Parking, $20/night
- WMATA, Ballston MU metro station
I'll jump into the Washington DC mix. This is where we stayed to visit the capital earlier this year, even though it's across the river. I picked this hotel because it was a little cheaper than staying right in DC but it's on top of a Metro station, giving quick access to public transit into it. You can walk from the lobby right into the Ballston metro station, take the Orange or Silver lines towards New Carrollton or Largo Town Center, respectively, and about 20 minutes later get off at the Smithsonian stop right at National Mall near all the monuments. For me that's a reasonable trade off for the price. This trip we paid cash to use an AmEx offer and this was our first stay at a Hilton property in a few years so no points available even if we wanted and no status for any perks
This Hilton has a self-parking garage for a charge, but I've seen a few room rates that include parking and gives a little discount on it that way. We used a AAA rate that did that, but YMMV as packages can change. Like right now it seems a dollar or two cheaper to pick the AAA rate and pay OOP for parking over the AAA Park & Stay rate that we used, unless I'm missing something
The parking garage is the driveway entrance without the painted arrow. The arrow driveway takes you into the lobby entrance, and you can only drive out the same as you came in there. (borrowed the Google streets view to illustrate. my floating yellow arrow is the parking garage)
The location is very walkable, our original plan had been to park the car and walk or metro everywhere. And except for getting a flat tire that needed to be repaired, that pretty much worked. The hotel gave us a map of the immediate area for grocery, restaurants, and I think some activities. We walked about a block to their suggestion of Rus Uz one night, a Russian/Uzbek restaurant that we really enjoyed. (don't know what we were thinking, but didn't do the Vodka flight, tried a Russian and a Uzbek beer instead. still good.) Then there's also IHOP across the street, so something for everyone nearby. Seemed like a good mix of chains and local places in the immediate vicinity.
The room has a microwave, coffee maker and mini fridge stored in a cabinet. Made it very easy to keep our road drinks and snacks together, as well as leftovers which saved us some meals to keep it a budget trip. The lounge chair not having arms was a little weird to sit in, but it worked. I don't recall anything in particular about the bed so it seems acceptable; probably not overly comfy and luxurious but didn't bother my sleep enough to remember it either. This is another hotel where the website is WYSIWYG (what you see, is what you get), at least in our case. I cribbed some photos from the site that look just as I remember for the room.
Since this was a budget trip we did not eat at the onsite restaurant or try the hotel breakfast. But we did walk through the lounge part with a bar and it seemed very nice with a local menu. Our package didn't include breakfast and since we're not die hard breakfast people we just raided our snacks in the morning (I think this trip it was Nutrigrain bars, so it's not like it was a bag of Cheetos, Mom
). Our splurge this trip was the dinner at Rus Uz. We also did a linner (late lunch, early dinner combo) at the National Museum of the American Indian(
http://nmai.si.edu/visit/washington/mitsitam-cafe/) which is like a cafeteria with several stations making dishes from different regions of Native Americans. I had the Indian Taco from the Great Plains station, which used bison meat; hubby tried the Stewed Plantains with Chicken from the South America station. It was a cafeteria so not gourmet dining but it was good and filling. (after having the Indian taco and Bison ribs in Denver, couldn't really compete
) And considering for the same price we'd be getting a hot dog or burger from the stands on the Mall, we were happy with the choice.
If you had interest in some of the sites on this side of the river, like Arlington National Cemetery and all the Memorials, Mt Vernon, Alexandria - it seems like a reasonable launch spot to all that while still being accessible to the sites within DC. If you were flying into Regan (DCA) you could take the metro straight from the airport for cheap. I'd definitely consider staying again.