A
ALX
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I would take a look at the places you think you want to visit and figure out how much you are really going to be travelling on the metro. If you are going to be taking more than 2 trips a day on average (likely in and out of the city plus any side trips) then it may make sense to get the pass as it will be cheaper and likely easier for you in the long run. It also makes it easier for you to hop on and off somewhere on a whim if it interests you without worrying about the cost. While it looks like the majority of the areas you would likely visit are less than $3.50 from Crystal City at rush hour, you will want to bring some small bills or change to cover any fare over $3.50 as most, if not all, of the exit fare machines do not take credit cards. I thought I read they were working on that, but I've not paid close attention since I just use SmartTrip paid for by work. When you do the estimates of your trip planning note that the pass does not have the paper fare card surcharge according to http://www.wmata.com/fares/purchase/passes.cfm, but I don't have first hand confirmation as we did it before the surcharge went into effect.I have been studying the metro site for several days and the fare options were all very confusing. I guess I will take your advice and get SmartTrip cards, as you suggested. We are not old enough to get the senior discount yet, so we will have to pay full price. I don't know about riding cabs all over Washington. It sounds rather expensive. I don't think we will have long trips anyway. The metro should be sufficient for most of our trips.
We want to go to Mount Vernon one day. Can someone give me advice on the best way to get there?
I did go ahead and buy our train tickets today, so we are all set. Now we just have to wait 3 months.
General Metro tips:
1.To buy a metro fare card or pass there are machines at every station and are usually right by the turnstiles to get to the trains. To get a smarttrip, there are special vending machines at some stations. I don't know about Crystal City and I don't remember seeing any at King Street, but I never really looked. Worst case, there is a shop across the street from King Street where you can buy one. There is also a transit shop in the Crystal City underground mall. You can also purchase the smarttrip cards and passes/farecards ahead of time from metro and they mail it to you.
2a. If you use the fare cards, you put them into the farecard slot and it will then pop up on the top of the machine and the gates will retract. Same thing happens when you leave. One thing to be aware of is that if you happen to go through the handicapped gate (it is wider than the rest) the fare card comes right back out the slot and not the top. I've seen tourists get confused by that.
2b. If you use smarttrip, you just hold the card over the white circle with a picture of the card until the gate opens. Same thing when you leave.
3. If you have a smart phone, I find DCRider (iphone) is useful as it shows you a map, has a trip planner, and will show you the arrival board for any station in the system so you can see when the next trains are coming. Though I doubt you will go to one, there is no information on arrival/departure for stations at the end of the line.
4. Train lines are identified by color, but individual trains are labelled by the final stop for that particular train. This can be confusing as not all trains end at the same station even on the same line (The northbound yellow line for example can end at Greenbelt, Fort Totten or Mt. Vernon Square). You will want to know what the end of the line station is for the route you are taking. For example, to get to the Smithsonian stop from Crystal City, you would likely want to take the Blue line to Largo town Center. I would strongly suggest you take a little time to glance at the metro map when you decide where you want to go for the day just to keep that in mind. If you have the smart phone or a computer I would do the trip planner just to see what trains are in the direction you want at that time. In every station there are pillars that show which track goes in which direction and the various stops for that direction at the track level so you will have that as guidance as well.
5. It has been mentioned, but bears repeating. Stand on the right on escalators and in general if you need a moment to figure things out just move off to the side or against a center island. You will get a lot of muttering, dirty looks, or potentially bumped if not. In general people on the metro are fine, but something about blocking access really grates.
6. The doors on the train are not elevator doors. DO NOT try to enter once the doors start to close. Just last night I saw someone jam their stuff in the door and almost lose it. You can potentially break the door and then they will offload the train full of people now mad at you. They play a chime and a recording telling you the doors are closeing before they close. If you aren't sure you and your party can all get on at that time, just wait for the next train. During the day it is usually not more than 10 minutes for a wait, even less if you are in the city proper. You might want to have a plan on what you will do if you get split on a train, e.g. meet at the next stop. It sounds silly, but I have seen tourist couples split up after trying to jam the doors. Even if you both have cell phones, they don't work well in the tunnels except for Verizon. You also shouldn't lean on the doors, but this is less of an issue.
7. There is no eating or drinking on the Metro including the stations. You will likely see people breaking this rule, but it would also be unfortunate for you to get a ticket on your trip. You can carry food on you though (snacks or water bottles in your bag for example).
General DC tourist tips:
You will probably want to travel light if you can. Pretty much every museum or place other than a outdoor monument is going to have metal detectors and security. They only search bags, so if you don't carry a purse or backpack you can normally walk right in and save yourself some time.
I'm sure you have some idea of where you would like to go in DC already, so the only places I mention are ones that are less obvious or common.
1. The Old Post Office pavilion (Federal Triangle) where you can get a great view of the city from the tower. It's free and much less crowded than most places.
2. The National Portrait Gallery (Gallery Place/Chinatown) is a quiet museum that used to be the Patent Office. The courtyard is very nice place to sit for a bit and relax and there is some history to the place aside from the paintings.
3. The National Building Museum is only 2 blocks east of the NPG and is very pretty on the inside. Some of the exhibits are pretty good, but I just like the atrium a lot.
4. The National Museum of the American Indian has a pretty good cafe that is better than most of the other nearby options. The American History musuem also has a number of options, but it wasn't finished when I was there just after the opening so I don't know how good it is. Most of the rest of the food options along the Mall are fast food or cafeteria style.
5. The underground walkway Between the National Gallery of Art and the East wing is a neat light array art piece.
6. You can buy tickets for the Washington Monument ahead of time. It was a dollar, might be different now, but you don't have to get up super early to wait for the free tickets. They don't let you walk down anymore and the one time I went they skipped most of the stones inside if that is important to you.
7. Udvar-Hazy is neat if you like planes or space, but it is a long trek out from the core of the city (2 hours by bus/transit; 45 minutes by car). You likely would not want to combine it with something else during the day in the city.
As for getting to Mount Vernon, there is a bus listed, but it looks like quite a haul from Crystal City (11Y bus, upwards of an hour and you'll have to walk or transfer to get to it), so I would probably just get a cab if it were me as the drive itself shouldn't take more than 20-30 minutes. This leads to the next item, I don't have any first hand experiences with DC cabs as I live in VA, but I do not hear good things about them in general. I hear Red Top cab in Arlington is generally well liked, and VA cabs in general seem to have a better reputation at least among the local blogs I read.
I hope you enjoy your visit.
