Looking for help or suggestions on RV Parks or Private Property to stay at in the Washington DC Area. My wife and I will be there in 2018 (end of August, all of September, and part of October) about 2 months to see the town, and surrounding areas, Virginia, Marylin, Delaware... Looking for a place to stay that has good access to DC, and or public transportation to DC. Prefer 50 amp electric, water and sewer required. No other amenities required but prefer a nicer place to stay. Any suggestions or recommendations on places to stay are appreciated. Additionally if you know of must see Parks, Museums, Factory tours, Restaurants, or other places of interest that are not generally found on the usual websites / tourist brochures then let me know. Like to see the different and off beat attractions. Thanks Johnny Missoula MT. / Mesa, AZ
Check out Cherry Hill Park. Metro bus has a stop at the campground and will bring you to the subway, doesn't get any better! Subway system is easy to use and easy to get help if you were to need it. Some folks have mentioned they can save a few minutes by driving direct to the subway but I think most folks use the bus at the campground and not deal with the traffic. I personally enjoyed the air & space museums in DC. Now there is two museums, one in DC for the smaller planes and one that houses the BIG birds by DC airport. If you decide to see the Air and space by the airport I would recommend driving to that one as the metro ride will take hrs. When we were there a few yrs ago as they had a travel class at 4pm at the campground community room, we found that very informative and would recommend it if they still offer it. Hope this helps Mike opps forgot to mention, we found the cafeteria food at the national museums surprisingly good, especially for lunch. We didn't like the restaurant at the campground.
I second mdcamping's suggestions. We really liked staying at Cherry Hill. We attended the orientation/travel class and found it to be very valuable. We were one of the ones that drove to the subway station and the traffic was not bad, but we did not go at rush hour. When we first got there we took the trolley tour because it is narrated and gave us an idea of things we wanted to go back to and explore in depth. Another tour we really liked was the Monuments by Moonlight which took us to many of the well known monuments lighted at night. It was amazing seeing them this way A little bit away from the city is Great Falls National Park where the park personnel were dressed in period costumes. We took a boat ride on the C&O canal and the boat was pulled by mules. The ride included going through one of the old locks. There is so much to see and do in the DC area you will need Aug. through Oct. to get around to everything.
I agree, traffic and distance to where you want to go can make a big difference on travel time when choosing public transportation vs driving. We had decided to go with the public transportation on our day trip to the air & space museum outside of DC and it turned out to be a big mistake in travel time...should have driven on that trip. The other day trips to the national mall area we took the bus/metro and it wasn't to bad for travel time. Mike
Speaking of day trips, just west of DC is First/second Battle of Bull Run well worth a day trip if your a Civil War Buff! Mike
Love Cherry Hill Park! A couple of suggestions on things to do, if you go to Arlington National Cemetery take the tram it's a lot of walking up and down hills. Check out Ft. Myer it is home of the Old Guard, the give tours of the stables. They house the caissons used in Presidential funerals. These soldiers also guard the Tome of the Unknown Soldiers. Interesting tour, not in the guide books.
Speaking of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier--Do not miss seeing that. It is very moving. We stayed to watch the changing of the guard 4 times. Wish we had known about the Ft Meyer tour. We would have enjoyed that. Also Gettysburg is another Civil War site that can be seen on a day trip.
Thanks for starting this thread JohnnyXXXXX. DC is on our bucket list but now, with all of the info coming forward, I expect we will be here a lot longer than the couple of days originally planned. Darrell
As a native Washingtonian, I can assure you'll need a least a week to get anywhere close to feeling you've seen the city. The things mentioned so far in this thread, by design, omitted all the major museums as well as the White House, Capitol, Washington Monument, etc, because the OP asked for things "other than the major tourist attractions." But even if you're not a museum person, it's difficult to imagine most families not spending time at the two Air and Space museums each of which is worth at least half a day. As for "off the beaten track" attractions, I don't recall anyone yet mentioning the Bureau of Engraving and Printing which is the only place in the country where paper money is printed. Nor has anyone mentioned Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington. The more I think about it, the longer the list becomes. No one can afford to spend enough time there to see it all, nor could your brain absorb all the information and the sights. But I do urge everyone considering a visit to plan enough time to feel somewhat satiated when you have finished your stay. Joel (AKA docj)
Next OCT we plan to be at assateague state park MD so we may sneak back up to DC afterwords. We have done 3 trips to the DC area and we haven't even scratched the surface on things to do.(1 trip though was cut back because of an injury) so our do list for the area is still long. Always looking for more ideas for the area! Mike
Wish we had known about the tram! We walked from the Metro to the Tomb of the Unknowns. Over a mile each way! We want to go back too, but want to be smart about it. When we went decades ago, the walking was no problem! Last trip, we wasted a whole day recovering.
You get it at the Visitor's Center, don't know how much it is, we walked too. Husband wished we had gotten the tram. Also the Hop on-Hop off buss are great. They have stops all over town.
Does Cherry Hill have monthly or even weekly rates? Two months there at the daily rate is going to cost a fortune, but FHU RV parks are scarce around D.C. Unless money is no object, maybe find a different place to use to explore the areas outside D.C., and Cherry Hill when doing actual D.C.? I've spent so much time there that I started hitting the lesser known sites. One good one is the National Museum of Health and Medicine. I went back when it was at Walter Reed, but they have new digs now. It's free, and will take a couple of hours. http://www.medicalmuseum.mil/ Here's a good story about it: https://www.washingtonpost.com/loca.../gIQAwT10dU_story.html?utm_term=.e77601c54d75
