I am bring my family to D.C. for a day trip. I am coming in from NY. Can any one suggest a safe parking area? I noticed that there is alot of parking areas around the Convention Center area (Mt. Vernon Square), is any of that public parking. If so, can I easily walk to the Monuments from there? How about inexpensive restaurants? Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
julie travelcaster
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I'd say that there are two big choices. One is to stop in Maryland and park at the metro station. There are parking lots at the Shady Grove, Rockville, Twinbrook, Grosvenor, Glenmont, Wheaton, Forest Glen, Silver Spring, Greenbelt, College Park, Prince George's Plaza, and West Hyattsville, and in DC at Takoma and Ft. Totten. If you're coming on a weekend, when metro parking is free, that might be your best bet.
If you don't want to do that, I highly recommend parking at Union Station. It's close to the Mall and the Capitol, it's fairly easy to get to, and they seem to always have parking.
Parking in DC is terrible, but Union Station should be OK. Union Station is much closer to the Monuments than Union Station - but there is also a bus, the Circulator,that will drive you to the mall from Mt. Vernon Square for $1 a person.
Anonymous
I haven't had a bad eating experience in D.C. ...ever. Parking... is awful. There are monuments and museums everywhere and most are free or very cheap. It doesn't matter where you drive, you're bound to run into some sort of monument or tourist attraction. There's no way that you're going to see everything though.
jdkt18
True parking is not friendly in DC but I never have a problem finding a spot on Constitution Ave on the weekends or around the Tidal basin (well not during cherry blossom though)