I know at least a couple of you are in the area. What's a good place to stay there?

Depends, you wanting to stay in the city itself or are you outside the beltway?

And how big is your pocketbook?

In the city, preferably. Price isn't an issue, within reason.

I think last time I was there we stayed in Dupont Circle, which was decent, though I can't remember much of the local geography otherwise.

Some nice places at Fell HArbor in Baltimore which isnt far. I typically stay there when I am in that area.

Plus it has my favorite named hotel ever....The Admiral Fell Inn.

Nice places to stay are all over the place. The Mayflower, the Hay Adams, and the Hinkley Hilton are all "super nice" and probably above what you were thinking.
The city is pretty small, so anywhere you stay should have decent proximity to most of the things to do. Parking and traffic, much like NYC, is awful and riding the metro or having a personal driver are the best ways to get around, so look for a hotel that is in walking distance to a metro. Here are my neighborhood picks from best to worst:

I'll assume you'd be flying into National Airport which is in Arlington, Virginia and is a 10 minute drive / metro ride to the National Mall area, as well as being where the Arlington National Cemetery, Air Force Memorial, Pentagon, etc. are located. This has the advantage of not being in DC so prices are a little better, being geographically closer to most places in DC than if you were to stay in Dupont Circle or Chinatown or Georgetown, and you can have your guns there :) Look for things in walking distance to the Rosslyn, Crystal City, or Pentagon City metro stops. Rosslyn is on the Orange line which shares its line with Smithsonian. My hotel of choice to put my parents up when they come to stay is the Key Bridge Marriott, a block from the metro and right by the Key Bridge into Georgetown. http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/waskb-key-bridge-marriott/

Your next best bet would be the Chinatown area, but there is a plus or minus of about 5 blocks before it starts to get dicey. This is the area around the Verizon Center, Convention Center and Ford's Theater (Metro Center and Gallery Place). These can actually be cheaper than Virginia hotels on weekends, but are insanely expensive during the week where they capture the business / lobbyist / convention crowds. Capitol Hill can be decent too if you find any hotels in this area that aren't booked up already, but can have the same plus or minus issues. I'd stay closer to the Union Station side of the Capitol compared to South Capitol metro stops.

Dupont Circle is decent as it has a metro stop at both ends of the circle and tons of things to do. This is where most of the gay bars are, which I'm sure you'll enjoy. However to get "downtown" from here by car can take upwards of a half hour and traffic on the circle is nightmarish dawn to dusk. Further out on the Red Line is Cleveland Park (where the Zoo is, and Adam's Morgan which is some of the better nightlife the city has to offer) and Bethesda which is just inside the beltway if you are coming from BWI or Dulles instead. Bethesda doesn't have the same issues with traffic or parking or any of that and their metro station has a large parking garage. Have I emphasized that you don't want to drive downtown if you don't have to (unless you're getting a car service).

Georgetown is nice if you never want to see anything outside of Georgetown or have a personal driver. Aside from getting a hotel in Anacostia (where all the shootings happen), this is probably the worst place to go but seems to draw the crowds and I can't understand why. There is no metro access and traffic / parking is horrible almost every hour of the day. Its also not really near anything of interest other than the shops or Blues Alley. Hell, even if you wanted to see or do things in Georgetown stay in Rosslyn and just walk across the bridge.

Here's a map of the metro to give you an idea. Foggy Bottom (along the Orange / Blue) is kinda the Georgetown stop and its a 10 minute walk north to Georgetown. The large block of green at the middle is the National Mall and its flanked on all sides by government buildings and the Smithsonian, that entire area closes down at 5 pm so there's no restaurants or nightlife of any kind and its best to stay away from there.

http://wmata.com/metrorail/images/01.gif

Haha, the map apparently is like 6 different images. Go here instead: http://wmata.com/metrorail/systemmap.cfm

Thanks for all that info. I'll probably reference that closer to when we're there.

Do you know anything about The Donovan House (http://www.kayak.com/washington-hotels.donovan-house---a-thompson-hotel.189750.ksp), as far as places to stay? It looks decent online, but don't they all.

Never heard of it, but if its a 4 star hotel it can't be shit.

1100 block of 14th street puts it ~5 blocks from the White House and ~9 blocks from the National Mall. That would fall under the safe outskirts of "Chinatown Area" as its closest metro stop would be Metro Center - which is the main hub, which is fairly convenient. Its also in walking distance to Camelot!

When are you going to be in DC?

And my dad always likes to stay either at the Holliday Inn in Georgetown, or the Embassy Suites in Friendship Heights. I personally prefer the latter - it is nicer and they have free happy hour. They also have a shopping center in the lower levels of the hotel with cool little shops and a Cheesecake factory.

My sister waits tables at that Cheesecake Factory O.o

Never heard of it, but if its a 4 star hotel it can't be shit.

1100 block of 14th street puts it ~5 blocks from the White House and ~9 blocks from the National Mall. That would fall under the safe outskirts of "Chinatown Area" as its closest metro stop would be Metro Center - which is the main hub, which is fairly convenient. Its also in walking distance to Camelot!

Cool. Gonna give it a try.

I went to grade school with the son of the owner of the Cheesecake Factory. :) ...of the whole chain, that is.. (:0

I've never stayed in DC b/c I don't know where to stay and so I just drive down and back when we visit. Thanks for the info maybe someday we'll put it to use! :)

Are you doing the tourist thing? Write your congressman in advance and they can get you tickets to a Capitol tour or the White House. Its really hard to impossible to get them day of or even week of otherwise I hear.

Never heard of it, but if its a 4 star hotel it can't be shit.4 stars just covers services offered, not quality. I used to work in one of the crappiest 4 Star joints around.

My sister waits tables at that Cheesecake Factory O.o

Can we get some pics of said sister?

Are you doing the tourist thing? Write your congressman in advance and they can get you tickets to a Capitol tour or the White House. Its really hard to impossible to get them day of or even week of otherwise I hear.

Do you know how far in advance you'd have to write to your state's congressman to get in on the tours? I'd image pretty well in advance. Regardless, thanks for the info :)

Can we get some pics of said sister?

I'll bring my camera.

Can we get some pics of said sister?

Do you know how far in advance you'd have to write to your state's congressman to get in on the tours? I'd image pretty well in advance. Regardless, thanks for the info :)

Facebook friend me, and I'm not entirely sure to be honest - I've been able to get them day of by going into the office and asking but to be safe a few months in advance would probably be ideal.

For what it's worth, the hotel was excellent. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone staying there.

You probably picked a great weekend. I was in Philly most of it, but from what I heard the city was very empty and traffic free.

The tourist areas were pretty crowded (Washington Monument tickets were sold out by 10am Sunday, wtf), but the rest of town was at a nice medium empty.

We want to come back to take our time seeing some of the museums sometime. Are those less crowded during the week or when it's colder? The lines were so ridiculous that we didn't even bother this time. It would've been miserable.

From late March (Cherry Blossom Festival) until Labor Day most days, weekend or not, they are jammed. Oct - Feb you can go weekend or not and it won't be too bad. They close at 5 "off season" though, with the exception of the I-Max theaters. However, when Congress is in session the hotel prices are higher during the week, weekends are often cheapest.

My sister waits tables at that Cheesecake Factory O.o

My wife and I will never go to a Cheesecake Factory again. The last time we went to one, they treated our child like shit (well not really, they completely ignored her. Didn't take her order, didn't ask her if she wanted anything to drink, nothing). I sent an email to corporate, and they never even bothered to respond.

Fuck them.