If you're driving in to Washington DCm I'm going to tell you about the best places to park your car.
HELLO! Welcome to Trip Hacks DC. My name is Rob.
I'm a tour guide here in the nation's capital. If you're coming to Washington DC
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And if you're interested in taking a Trip Hacks DC tour, head on over to TripHacksDC.com
afterwards, to see the tours that I offer. If you've driven to DC before and have a personal favorite place to leave your car,
leave a comment on this video and let me know where it is. Before we get started
let's talk about hotel parking. Every hotel in DC will offer parking,
but many people consider that the rates that they charge to be completely
outrageous and exorbitant. It is not uncommon to see rates that are $40-$50
or more per night, and a lot of hotels are valet only. Parking at your hotel will certainly be the most convenient option,
but I understand that a lot of people are willing to look elsewhere
to save a little money. So with that said, let's get started... 1. The garage at Union Station. This is my go-to
recommendation for out-of-town visitors. Union Station is located about a half mile north of the Capitol, so if you're staying downtown
this is pretty convenient to a lot of hotels. Parking here costs
$24 per day. It's not cheap,
but it's still a discount over what you'd pay at your hotel. The nice thing about Union Station
is that the garage is open
24/7 and the rate is the same all the time,
so you don't have to worry about whether the garage is gonna be open when you're ready to come or go, or what the rate
might be. 2. the Ronald Reagan Building and International
Trade Center. For general tourism the garage at the Reagan Building is one of the best located in the entire city.
It's about a block and a half from the White House and across the street from the Smithsonian's American History Museum.
This is a great option if you're coming in on the weekend, because weekend rates here are only
$15 on Saturday and Sunday, however during the week that price jumps to
$35 per day. One thing to note about this garage
is that it is in a federal government
building, so when you pull in a security guard will ask you to pop the trunk
and he'll take a look around. Some people don't like this,
but others really do because it makes it feel like their car is in a really safe spot.
3. CityCenterDC. This garage is very centrally located downtown so if you're staying at a hotel downtown
this could be a very convenient option. overnight parking is
$24, same as Union Station, with a few discounts for nights and weekends as well.
I'll leave a link in the description to this and all of the garages
I'm mentioning in this video so that you can see their rates, and how they work. 4. The Wharf.
This is a brand new development in Southwest Washington
about a half mile south of the National Mall. The garage here costs $26 per day
and it's located just off of Maine Avenue.
There's also a real time garage tracker on the Wharf website
so you can check to make sure that there's a spot available before you arrive. 5. SpotHero.
This is an app, and a website, that lets you find and pay for parking in advance.
It's pretty easy to use, just enter your location, like the address of your hotel,
when you plan to arrive and leave, and click search. The results will come up on a map with each pin showing you the total
price to park during your stay. After you check out you'll get a confirmation email. At some garages
there's a QR code that you'll scan on a reader when you arrive. At other garages
you'll show your confirmation email to the person working in the booth
and they'll get you set up. The most important thing to know when you use SpotHero is that
most garages in downtown DC are closed overnight and on the weekends.
So it's imperative that you check the hours to make sure that the garage is going to be open when you plan to arrive and
when you need to leave. Garages will usually let you leave your car overnight or on the weekend when they're closed,
you just can't leave until they reopen on Monday morning.
6. Economy parking at the airport. The long-term economy lot at Reagan National Airport is
$17 per day. It works
just like parking at any airport and here you can actually reserve your spot in advance online. The
disadvantage to using this option is that you'll have to take a shuttle to get from the parking lot to the airport terminal,
then use the Metro to get into DC. So if you're staying downtown
it's not really the most convenient option. 7. End of the line zmetro stations. Four of our Metro stations currently offer
overnight parking where you can leave your car for up to ten days. Those stations are: Greenbelt, Huntington,
Franconia and Wiehle. These are the stations at the end of the green, yellow, blue, and silver lines respectively.
Parking at each of these stations is about $5 per day and free on the weekends.
So it's definitely the cheapest of all of the options,
but they're also all really far from downtown, so in addition to the
inconvenience you'll need to factor in the price in Metro fare that it'll take to get your family to and from the car. Other Metro
stations with parking lots
officially do NOT allow
overnight parking, so if you do park in one of them you may come back to find a ticket on your windshield. Now lots of
people have told me over the years that they've done this without any trouble, but if you do choose to do it
it's definitely an "at your own risk" situation. And lastly I want to advise
against parking on the street. Most street parking downtown is either metered or time restricted in some way.
So you need to know when you need to pay how much and when you need to move your car,
and if you get it wrong you will be ticketed and
possibly towed. And let's be honest, trying to find your towed car is not the way you want to spend your vacation.
But if you're thinking... well, I'll just find a residential neighborhood, park there and then Uber to my hotel,
I would advise strongly against that as well. Most neighborhoods in DC
have permit parking, which means that you have to actually live in the neighborhood to get a permit,
but even if you do find a street that's not zoned for permits
it's still not a good idea to leave your car unattended
for long periods on the street.
Temporary no parking signs can pop up for all kinds of reasons, and lastly while Washington DC is a very safe city for visitors generally,
car break-ins are still a problem and again,
this is just one of the last things you want to deal with on your vacation. So stick to a garage,
it's worth it to keep your car safe. And that's it!
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