If you're visiting Washington DC and feel like you don't know anything about our Metro system, don't worry I'm going to help you figure it out.
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 and you're looking for the best tips, tricks, and hacks for exploring the city,
make sure to subscribe to this channel and hit the bell notification icon so that you don't miss any new videos; and if you're interested
in signing up for a Trip Hacks DC tour, head on over to www.triphacksdc.com
afterwards to see the tours that I offer. If you don't live in a city with extensive public transportation, Metro can seem a little
intimidating. This video is geared towards the absolute Metro beginner,
so if you don't feel like that's you, I recommend skipping to my Do's and Don'ts for riding Metro video,
which I will leave a link to in the video description.
I will also leave a link to my
Metro video series playlist with lots of other content about Metro.
If you have any other questions after you watch this video,
leave a comment and let me know and I'll try to help you out. With all of that said,
let's get started... The first and most important question is: what even is Metro? What most people call Metro is
actually our MetroRail system. MetroRail is the third busiest system in the country, after New York City and Chicago.
The sections downtown where most visitors are likely to ride is an underground subway; but outside of downtown
there are also some above-ground sections as well. So now you know what it is,
the next question is: how do you know where to get on and where to get off?
Typically when a business gives you Metro directions to their location
they will tell you to ride to a certain station and then give walking directions from there.
For example, if you want to visit the White House,
the Metro directions would say to ride the Orange, Blue or silver lines to the
McPherson Square station and then walk two blocks to the south. For navigating the Metro the system map is your best friend.
I will leave a link to a Metro map jpg down in the video description.
You should immediately go and download that jpg to your phone.
That way you will have access to the map whether you're online or not. For beginners
I also recommend using the app called CityMapper. When you plug in your destination
it will find where you are and then give you step-by-step,
turn-by-turn directions to get there.
So for Metro
it will tell you how to walk to the closest Metro station, which lines to ride,
whether to transfer, if necessary, and then how to walk from the destination station to your final destination.
OK, so you've managed to find your way to your first Metro station, the next big question is how on earth
do you pay? The answer is with one of these, a SmarTrip card. In 2018
SmarTrip is the only way that you can pay. The most important thing you need to know about SmarTrip
is that everyone in your group needs their own one of these. No, there is no sharing allowed.
The reason is because how much you will pay
depends primarily on how far you travel, and the way that the system knows how far you've traveled
is that you will tap your card when you enter and tap it again when you exit. You can buy a
SmarTrip card at any Metro station.
What you want to do is look for one of the blue and orange fare machines. Go up to the machine and select either
"purchase single card" if you're traveling by yourself or "purchase multiple cards"
if you're in a group.
The physical cards cost $2.00 and then you add value to the cards beyond that. For a typical visitor
I suggest pushing the "purchase value" button and then adding the default $8.00 value to start. If you do need additional help
figuring out how much your rides are going to cost or how much you should add to your card to start,
I have a video on that exact topic. So make sure to check out the video description
afterwards to watch that. Okay, so now you've found your way to a Metro station, bought a SmarTrip, loaded it with value,
now what? You're going to walk up to the fare gate, find the target on the right side,
tap your SmarTrip card against it, and the turnstiles will open and you can go on through. On Metro
it's important to remember that you tap, NOT swipe.
This is a rookie mistake that I see all of the time. People walk up to the turnstiles and start waving their card over the
target like this and they get frustrated when it doesn't work.
All you need to do is physically touch that card right on the target, and when you get to your destination station,
you'll do the exact same thing, tapping out on the turnstile the same way. And
congratulations, you've just completed your first trip on the Metro. And again for even more Metro tips and hacks
make sure to check out my Metro series playlist down in the video description. And that's it!
Thank you for watching this video.
If you found it helpful, you can subscribe to this channel by clicking on the Trip Hacks DC logo
which is popping up right now
and if you're interested in signing up for a Trip Hacks DC tour,
you can click on the Capitol on the left side of my head that'll send you right over to www.triphacksdc.com
where you can see all of the tours that I offer. Enjoy your trip!