Background
Both my wife and I lived in the DC area (before we knew each other -- she worked in Virginia just out of college and I lived in the heart of DC one summer in college when I interned for the federal government. FYI, I am old. Reagan was president then.) So we were both somewhat familiar with the city, surrounding area, and the various sites to see. We both have fond memories of our time there so DC has always been a place we wanted to show our kids.
This past summer our kids (who are homeschooled) had classes on American history and government, and a trip to DC seemed like the perfect wrap up. So we picked a time, I took vacation days, and we got to planning.
Spending Philosophy
I've noted that I'm a believer in moderate and selective frugality. These principles especially apply while on vacation. Specifically, I'm willing to make some sacrifices to save money as long as they aren't too big from both time and "hassle factor" standpoint. My point of view is that we're on vacation and I don't want to kill the mood because we wanted to save $3.
Case in point: did we want to drive or fly?
Google Maps says that it's 652 miles (11 hours and 18 minutes) from our house to DC. So roundtrip costs at 55.5 cents per mile (the rate my employer reimburses me -- which is supposed to cover all expenses associated with driving my vehicle -- FYI, parking and tolls would NOT be covered in this amount) would cost us $724. But much of this cost is hidden. Really, the only visible costs would be gas, parking, and tolls. So maybe it would cost us $250 or so at most.
On the other hand the best flights (from Lansing, MI, an hour away from our house) would cost $850 for the four of us (direct flight.) Obviously this would require more out-of-pocket costs than driving. But it would also save us over 22 hours of driving -- a HUGE hassle/energy suck. Plus if we drove we would likely need at least one additional hotel room night either in DC or on the road.
So we went with flying.
Case in point #2: what hotel should we stay in?
I do not want to spend my vacation in a bed bug-infested rat trap that's 50 miles away from the action just because it's $50 a night. But I don't need to stay in the $400 a night place next to the White House either. So we picked a Hampton Inn close to a metro stop for an average of $170 a night. More on this later.
Planning the Trip
Now that you know our general approach to spending on vacation, here's what we planned to do:
- Our flight left at 9 am on October 12 which meant we needed to be up and out of the house by 7am and at the airport at 8 am.
- We booked the hotel with no problem. It had a pool for the kids, was close to the metro, and had the standard free breakfast Hampton offers. For those interested, here's where we stayed.
- My wife did some research on the metro and we decided to purchase SmarTrip cards, a plastic version of the paper fare cards. More on these later.
- We took some food with us, but we knew our hotel had a CVS nearby for snacks, plus we knew we could get apples, etc. from breakfast and store them in the room if we needed food.
- We planned to see the "key" attractions, some that were set at fixed times (like the White House tour), and had a rough estimate of what we would see on what day.
Our flight left without a hitch and we were at our hotel (took shuttle from airport) shortly after 11 am. Our room was ready so we settled in, then hit the city to see the sights. Over the next five days we saw the following (FYI, we never took a cab -- all of this was walking and the metro):
- Arlington Cemetery
- Botanic Gardens
- Bureau of Engraving and Printing
- Capitol (got a personal tour from a member of our Congressman's staff including getting on the House floor)
- Ford's Theatre
- Holocaust Museum
- Jefferson Memorial
- Library of Congress
- Lincoln Memorial
- National Air and Space Museum
- National Archives (Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Bill of Rights)
- National Gallery of Art West (older art)
- National Gallery of Art East (modern art)
- National Mall
- National Museum of American History
- National Museum of the American Indian
- National Museum of Natural History
- National Zoo
- Old Post Office
- Peterson House (where they took Lincoln after he was shot)
- Smithsonian Castle
- Supreme Court
- Vietnam War Memorial
- Washington Monument
- White House (got on the grounds into the gardens on Saturday)
- WW II Memorial
The Final Budget
Here's what we spent:
- Flights: $850
- Hotel: $850
- Metro: $104
- Food and misc: $281
- Parking at Airport: $42
- Total cost: $2,127
What would an FMF post be without some tips and thoughts from me? :)
Anyway, here are some random takeaways:
- We went at a great time. Weather was good, there were no crowds, and costs were reasonable. We saved money because we were flexible.
- We saved because of the days we picked. Our hotel was $123 on weekend days (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) but was $228 on weekdays. We had three days at the first price and only two at the second.
- The points I got from the stay (and by using my Hilton credit card) put me over the 80,000-point mark. I now have two free nights set for the pre-cruise trip we're planning in early 2013.
- The SmarTrip cards saved each of us $1 per trip ($4 per trip for the group.) So at 3 or so trips a day, it was a no brainer to get them. Our cost was $10 each for the cards at CVS. This came with $5 of ride credit as well as $3 each that got rebated back, so the true cost was only $2 each.
- CVS was a lifesaver. We used our frequent buyer card there to save on a case of water (something like $3), ice cream (on sale, a treat), and a few supplies. If we hadn't had our card, prices would have been much higher (and actually we didn't need the card at all -- just our phone number that's tied to the card).
- Our meals went as follows: LARGE breakfast in the morning (which was free at the hotel -- the value of this perk alone was $30 or so a day), took a few snacks with us to munch on (we did stop a couple times at McDonald's or Subway when we were really hungry, but just for a snack), then ate an early (and usually very good) dinner around 3-4 pm. This eliminated the costs of lunches. We also had snacks in the room as needed.
- Admission was free everywhere we went. Absolutely no admission costs.
- We got "free" luggage as follows: the airline wanted to charge us $20 per bag each way to check luggage. Carry-ons were free. But we only had two carry-on bags that were the right size. So we bought two more at $40 each and carried them on for free. We avoided the $40 round-trip costs per bag and still have the bags to use as we want!
- Food was a bit higher because we usually ate at a nice place for dinner. After all, we were on vacation! Oh, and we had several treats as well. :)
Overall, it was a very good trip. The kids would have rather gone on a cruise or to Disney, but even they found things to enjoy about seeing history and the government.
Pictures
As you might imagine, I'm leaving out a lot of details. If I didn't, this post would be 25 pages long. So since a picture is worth a thousand words, here are a few pics that fill in some of the holes. Click any of them if you want to see a larger version.
Various bills at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
Turtle "biting" my son's finger at the National Zoo.
Taken from the gardens at the White House.
Beautiful day at the Washington Monument.
Part of the Berlin Wall (can't remember the museum where we saw this).
Picture from top of the Old Post Office (great views up here.)
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