There are plenty of transportation options that you can take advantage of when you visit DC,
I'm going to tell you about six of the best.
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 anything.
And if you're interested in having me personally show you around when you come, head on over to my website TripHacksDC.com
afterwards to see the tours that I offer. In this video
I'm going to give you six of the best transportation options for getting around DC,
none of which involve driving or parking a car. If you live in DC or have visited before
leave a comment on this video and let me know what your favorite transportation option is. Otherwise, let's get started...
There is absolutely no better way to get around Washington DC, in my opinion, than to use your own two feet.
Washington DC is a walking city,
there's no doubt about that. And if you're staying downtown
There actually is probably a lot more within close walking distance than you might realize. The most
important thing that you should pack for your trip to Washington is the most comfortable pair of walking shoes that you own.
Don't worry about looking stylish when you're going around the city, the National Mall, the
museums or anything like that. If you're coming from a place where you're used to just hopping in the car to go
anywhere you might not even consider walking as an option.
That's why I recommend using an app like Citymapper or Google Maps
to plot out your origin and destination and see if walking is a good option.
You'll probably be surprised just how close you are to a lot of stuff. Plus
it's such a cool experience to just walk around the city and see everything right in front of you rather than to travel around in
a tube underground or from the backseat of a cab or an Uber. And
probably the best thing about walking is that it will never cost you a dime. Now, if you're more of a cyclist than a pedestrian
Capital Bikeshare is for you.
Capital Bikeshare was one of the first bike sharing systems in North America when it launched in 2010 and in my opinion
it is still one of the best.
It's really the best for trips that just get you from point A to point B.
The pricing is set up in a way that the longer you keep the bike out the more
it's going to cost you. If you haven't already seen it, make sure to click over and watch my how to use Capital Bikeshare video
afterwards, so you
understand all about how the pricing works. If you want a bike for going on a long distance ride or just a long joy ride
around the city, I recommend a regular rental bike from a place like Bike and Roll instead. And make sure to download the app Spotcycle
so you never run into an empty dock or one that's completely full of bikes. One last thing to say is that you can bike
anywhere you want on the National Mall, but bicycling is actually illegal on sidewalks in downtown DC.
It's not heavily enforced
but please do avoid biking on the sidewalk when you're not on the National Mall. Love it or hate it
everybody knows about DC Metro. For first-time visitors Metro often seems like the best way to get around the city. Sometimes
it is but sometimes it isn't.
Because the metro map is not to scale it often looks like you need to hop on Metro to get from one place to another,
when in fact walking would be quicker, simpler, cheaper, and easier.
So just make sure to check Citymapper before you get on Metro to make sure that it is actually the best option.
And if you're planning to ride Metro make sure to click over and watch my video with ten
do's and dont's so that you can be riding the Metro like a pro by the time you get here. An often forgotten
piece of our public
transportation system is the humble bus. Most tourists at some point during their trip will get on a train and ride Metro,
but far fewer will ride a bus, which is too bad because often it's a better option. In downtown DC
you'll probably notice two types of buses: Metrobus and Circulator. Metrobus has longer routes that tend to be more useful to locals.
Circulator has shorter routes that serve popular tourist destinations like the National Mall, Georgetown, and Dupont Circle. And the cool thing about the Circulator
right now is it costs way less to ride than metro or Metrobus. The process of hiring a ride has changed drastically in DC
over the past few years. When I started as a tour guide
the only way you could really hire a ride was by going out in the street and hailing a cab.
Tourists appreciated the convenience of that, but at the time
it was cash only, it was expensive, and DC cabbies had a reputation of trying to rip people off.
Now with ride hailing apps people are much more confident and comfortable
hiring a ride because they're often doing it a lot back home.
Let me just say that using these apps or using a cab is a fine way to get around,
just don't assume that it's the only way to get around. Those rides might individually be pretty cheap
but if you're relying on an app to get you everywhere those rides can really start to over time.
I'm adding water taxi to this video even though in 2017 service is pretty limited,
because there is a big expansion planned for when the new Wharf development in Southwest opens later this year.
There are actually quite a few neighborhoods located right on the water including Georgetown, the National Mall,
Southwest Waterfront, and the Navy Yard, and that's just in DC.
You can also take a boat south on the Potomac to get to Alexandria. Right now the water taxi is mostly only a tourist attraction.
It's not really used by locals because it is surprisingly expensive.
But it's a fun way to get down to
Alexandria if you want to make a short little day trip there and in the future once the expansion happens it could become a lot
more valuable. So make sure you subscribe to Trip Hacks DC on social media because as updates like this come along
I'll make sure to post them over there. 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 at the bottom of the screen. And if you're coming to DC
and you want to sign up for a private tour with me you can click on the Capitol dome on the left side of my
head, that'll take it over to my website TripHacksDC.com where you can see the tours that I offer. Enjoy your trip!