Travel Thursday | DC Trip Tips & Review/Reflection

Ticket cost: $98.90 (also got a $50 rebate) roundtrip ORD --> BWI
Time purchased: 1 month before departure
Travel Dates: Saturday, April 14 8am - Monday, April 16 8am
Airline: Spirit
Parking rental: $12/day * 3 days = $36 - $20 credit = $16 groupon + $5 tax = $21, or get dropped off for free
Hotel: 2 nights and 2 rooms = $567 total for hotel
Transportation:
Amtrak Train: $7/way from BWI to DC
Uber: $266 for 2 days of traveling

My favorite trips and moments are the ones I don't have to do any work. My sisters did the most research on this trip, so I'm really grateful for that. The only thing I really spoke for was just a car rental. At $266/2 days = $133/day. I think we could've spent $133 to rent 2 cars and the other $133 on gas. Even though it would've been close to breaking even, we would've been able to run on our time and put our luggage in a rental car. That's just the only benefit. However, many people do not recommend driving because you'll have to deal with parking. Other than transportation and hotel as the biggest costs, everything was free.

Credits to Pang Khang Photography

SATURDAY: I woke up at 3:30am to pick up my sister and out of Madison by 4am to head to Whitewater to pick up another sister. We arrived at the parking lot rental at 7am, got to the airport at 7:30am, boarded at 7:45 and flew at 8am. You're supposed to arrive 2 hours before departure though, so don't do this. We landed in BWI (Baltimore) by 11am. Got on a shuttle by 11:15am and ran just in time to meet the other group at 11:20-11:30. It was an adventurous morning!

TIP: If you buy flight tickets and choose your seats, you will be charged. But if you buy your tickets in one transaction, you'll most likely get to sit together at no charge. If you book separately, check-in at the same time online, and there's a good chance you'll still get to sit together.

We took the Amtrak train to the Union Station in DC, which was $7/way. Once we got there, we shopped at H&M and ate. Then we took the subway to our hotel, which was $4/way = $32 at this point or $16/uber car. TIP: If we could redo that trip to an uber, I would change it to that! We went up this super steep escalator to get on the street to walk to Holiday Inn. Once we settled in the hotel around 12:30pm, we changed outfits for the Cherry Blossom area. Again, we took the subway there for $4/way. We spent the rest of the day where the cherry blossom and Washington Monument until 8pm. Then we ended the night at a Thai restaurant.

TIP: What we learned from Saturday is that we should wake up early to avoid the crowd. By 5pm-7pm, it was crowded and hard to get nice photos without a crowd behind you.
SUNDAY: We knew we wanted to get to the cherry blossoms early and left our hotel at 8am. Going at 8am was the highlight of the trip because there was barely anyone there. It was about 10am when the crowd starting growing, and by noon it started to rain. We spent the morning at the Jefferson Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, and then the United States Botanic Garden. The rain wasn't going to stop, so we ate lunch and then made our way to catch the 3:55pm Amtrak train back BWI for the night.

We shopped at a mall about 15 minutes from there. We took an uber there and back. Our flights the next morning was at 7am and 6am, which meant to be at the airport by 4am and 5am. TIP: Let your hotel know that you need a shuttle. We all woke up for the 4am shuttle, but the staff must've undercounted, so the 7am group waited for the next shuttle. Everyone got home safely. TIP: Make sure when you land, everyone traveling together knows each other's plans.

Where did we park to fly out of Chicago?
It's about $11/day. I purchased 3 days worth through Groupon because I had a $20 credit, so we really paid $20 to park for 3 days. With my Groupon purchase, I activated my ebates account and got $2.xx back too. Join below to get $10 right away:
Reservation: https://reservations.riverstreetparking.com/reservation/book/
Groupon: https://www.groupon.com/visitor_referral/h/83534ec4-7e58-4332-906a-d95483c51fc7
Ebates: https://www.ebates.com/r/CHOUA0?eeid=28187

Where did we stay?
Holiday Inn and Hampton Inn booked through hotels.com. For a total of $324.64, I got $25.97 back, which is basically my transportation cost after splitting. The closer you are to attractions, the more expensive it is. For that amount, I believe we got 2 rooms per night, so that comes to about $81/room/night.

What was my total cost?
$50 Flight ticket
$30 Uber Split
$15 Amtrak
$95 hotels
$40 Food
==$230, but that's also covering my mom + baby sister's cost too. So I think it's more like $200 total for this trip. It could've been cheaper if I made some effort to look at hotels, but I was just too exhausted, so we/I definitely paid the price for convenience. Well, I got about $30 back from Ebates too, so looks like my final number is $170 give or take.

Thanks for reading this entry. If you're in the Madison area, book Pang Khang Photography. All the good quality photos here were taken by her :D

Credits to Pang Khang Photography