Visiting Washington, D.C.

[taffy19 Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close taffy19]

We are visiting our Nation's Capital and are very impressed with the many beautiful monuments and the city so have been too busy sightseeing from early morning to late at night to send a greeting earlier.

I have some good tips that I will post about later but first our visit to New York City still.

[RESORT2ME Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close RESORT2ME]

Good for you. Enjoy!

[glypnirsgirl Member Find all posts View Profile Close glypnirsgirl]

Hi - I am interested in your tips for visiting Washington DC and New York City - did I miss them?

elaine

[taffy19 Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close taffy19]

Hi - I am interested in your tips for visiting Washington DC and New York City - did I miss them?

elaine

I forgot about this promise and will find the names of the companies and links and post them soon. My pictures are still on my cell phone and not on my computer yet or uploaded to my web albums either plus you just reminded me again to send our tickets back that we canceled as that was one of the tips. I have to try to find them.

We had bought Amtrak tickets from Washington DC to New York City. I believe that they were around $100 per person for Senior Citizens. We stayed at the Marriott Renaissance at the Convention Center next to a large parking lot. Every morning and night we saw several big buses standing there that were going to NYC but we already had our Amtrak tickets. One day, we happened to walk by when people were boarding the busses so I went up there to ask how much the bus fare was and it was anywhere from $19 to $25, if I remember right and the trip was about half an hour longer than with the slower train. There is also a faster one. She told me that we could wait to see if there were seats available in case someone didn't show up but had to pay a higher price but we still had a few days left.

Guess what I did? I called Amtrak and asked if I could cancel the tickets. There was a cancellation fee but still a big savings over the price of the bus and the busses were right next to the hotel so would save a taxi ride too. Both busses looked comfortable to us and some of the passengers told me that they preferred them over the train. *Both have free Internet too. *

Don't EVER cancel tickets first because when I tried to reserve tickets online with both bus companies, everything was sold out! It never entered my mind that other people would want to save moneytoo so prefer to take the bus. I was hoping that we could get our Amtrak tickets back but I kept checking the Internet and around 3 AM in the morning I succeeded in getting tickets so keep on trying because people must cancel trips deep in the night. We got the tickets for the lowest price that was advertised on the Internet so it may have been a very old cancellation. The earlier you book, the more the discount but I am almost positive that $25 was the highest price so still very reasonable. *

The bus ride was comfortable and a very pleasant ride so I can highly recommend it as it beats driving yourself. I got so lost the one day I rented a car when we went to visit friends in VA. I didn't understand the GPS because my husband was talking at the same time so made a wrong turn somewhere and nothing corresponded with the map that I had printed out either so didn't know what to do. It took four hours instead of one hour but we made it. The traffic was horrible because it was Friday afternoon.

What I experienced with the toll roads is another story but it may be a good tip too. *I ended up in the wrong lane as I didn't have the exact change so it cost me dearly. *I made another mistake and didn't make it to the free exit lane to the airport so I thought the heck with it and drove through the toll without stopping. *The lights and sound went off so I decided to back track and stopped where security was and asked if I could pay my ticket. They gave me a number to contact and I paid the ticket over the phone that next Monday. *This is a tip for the Californians because we are not used to toll roads and beltways are an experience too. *

I will look up the links later when I am at my computer because I cannot remember the names of some of the tours. It makes a difference for what the weather is like as we found out the hard way too. More later, Elaine.
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[glypnirsgirl Member Find all posts View Profile Close glypnirsgirl]

Those are important hints so far. And timely for me, too.

I will be going to New Jersey next week and I was planning on taking the train to see my bonus daughter in Delaware. Now I will look at bus fare instead!

Thanks for the tip!

elaine

[taffy19 Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close taffy19]

Those are important hints so far. And timely for me, too.

I will be going to New Jersey next week and I was planning on taking the train to see my bonus daughter in Delaware. Now I will look at bus fare instead!

Thanks for the tip!

elaine

Here is the link of the bus we took. I am still trying to remember the name of the other one but did a search and still haven't found it. Some of the passengers told me that they are equally good and go with either one.

Here is some more about Washington DC. We took a night trip to the Monuments but it started raining cats and dogs right after we had left. The Concierge made the reservations for us with this company.

It would have been great if it hadn't rained and was so very cold, windy and wet. They put the plastic like windows down and all we saw was fog on the windows. In other words, we saw nothing. It rained so hard that we didn't leave the bus to go closer to the monuments. They sold ponchos to the people who were braver than we were. I would recommend a bus that has proper glass windows as they seem to be able to defog them, if necessary. You have a choice here too.

We took the Open Top Sightseeing tour with this company.

They also have a night tour to the monuments and we went a second time because you have to see the monuments at night. Also, I would take a complete loop first, if you have time, and then decide what you want to see later and stop on every stop where you want to go sight seeing because a complete loop takes at least half a day without getting off. We were busy with this for several days. There is another tour like this that had both tours included (day and night) in the price but our hotel had booked this one already and we didn't know. There are quite a few of these companies so take your pick.

We also took a tour on a bicycle but I will have to look on my photos to see what the domain name is as it was printed on his back. They didn't have a set price and asked for a donation. They expected at least $20 or more. It was fun but it was also a little scary the way he went through the busy traffic during rush hour of DC but we were too tired to walk anymore. We had spent hours in three of the nineteen Smithonian museums that day. The route was between one of the Smithsonian museums to the White House. It wasn't very far but we enjoyed it anyway.

Try to see as much as you can in Washington DC. It is a beautiful city and when you are back home again and see the news on TV then you smile and say, yes, we have been here.

If we were ever to go back, I would try to go to the Newseum too but we ran out of time. Our first evening tour guide highly recommended this museum. He knew his history very well and was an excellent guide. He really loved his city and you could ask him anything about history too. When it is nice weather, I would highly recommend their tour.

What impressed me were the monuments at night and the beautiful trees of DC. What impressed me most of all was the Arlington Cemetery and the ceremony of the changing of the guards. There were more than a dozen wounded heroes there in wheelchairs and that gave me goose bumps to see them right in front of me. We own our freedom to these brave men. Our Capital is a special place.

PS. The website is www.nationalpedicabs.com. I had a look at their website so you can see the bikes and also how slim the bikers are. It must be hard peddling with two adults behind you. We would do it again if we were in the DC district. I may send a picture to Facebook or Smugmug so can post it here later.

PPS. Here is a picture of the green shirt with the advertising. You see the wind in his shirt because he was very slim too.

[davhu1 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close davhu1]

The two bus companies iconnections refer to is probably megabus and boltbus

MegaBus US - Home
https://www.boltbus.com/

I have taken the boltbus the last 2+ years and will be the megabus next time. I got 2 round trip ticket DC-NY for $18.00 + 50 cent processing fee. Book early. The first few tickets starts a $1. For that price, I take the subway back downtown. Cost me a lot more to just for tolls driving to NY.

boltbus stops downtown (more convenient to lower mahanttan and to brooklyn) and uptown. Megabus stops only uptown but has more buses, 16 per day vs 3 on the boltbus.

Tours
Grey Line https://www.graylinedc.com/tours/inf...asp?p=1&tid=10
DC Ducks http://www.dcducks.com/
Tour Mobile http://www.tourmobile.com/

[taffy19 Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close taffy19]

Thanks for posting the link to the MegaBus. I just couldn't remember the name and I knew that it was such an easy and well defined name for a big bus. We walked by them every day and it drove me crazy that I couldn't remember the name so did several searches but nothing sounded familiar.

You can't beat the fares if you book early. How can they do it and stay in business? They even advertise it on the bus for $1. We must have paid the same as you online. Our bus was completely full and I wonder about Amtrak at the prices they charge? It was a very good experience for us. The bus was comfortable and the driver was excellent and time flew by with the Internet connection and we arrived close to our hotel in Time Square. I want to go back!!!!

.

[davhu1 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close davhu1]

Greyhound used to charge $70 round trip to DC and could not compete with the Chinatown buses that charged $20 one way or $35 round trip, and they were always packed.

Greyhound then started the Boltbus to compete with the Chinatown buses with the $1.00 fare. Not many people knew about it. I took it to NY 2 weeks after they started and there only 4 people on the bus. The $1 fare spread quickly and now the buses are almost always full. It was a marketing thing. Word spread quicker that paying lots of money for ads.

Megabus started later. They have the double decker and targeting Boltbus. Seemed to be doing a good job squeezing Boltbus as it is scheduling more buses.

[taffy19 Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close taffy19]

Don't you love the free market at work. I do.