If you are planning on attending the inauguration from out of town, start your planning now.  In fact, start planning two weeks ago, because most, if not all of the 95,000 area hotel rooms are already booked.  And expect to look hard for alternatives.  An estimated million and a half people are currently expected to attend what may be one of the largest events, and the largest inauguration, on the Mall National in Washington DC’s history.

The last inauguration, in 2005, drew 300,000 for President Bush’s second inauguration. President Lyndon Johnson’s inauguration drew the largest inauguration crowd, around 1 million people watched the ceremony at the Capital. 

After checking over 450 area hotels, none were accepting online reservations.  Some hotels were already sold out, others had multi-day (4 or 5 nights) stays required, while others required calls directly to the hotel.  A travel representative mentioned area hotels, normally in the under $200 range, had increased hotel room prices to double or more for the inauguration. 

I also checked for available hotel rooms in the Baltimore area and found nothing available.  But I did find a few rooms available in Richmond, Virginia, about 100 miles from Washington, DC. some rooms were still under $125 and even a Days Inn offered a room for just $60.  But I suspect these rates will soon jump as well.

Here’s ten ways to try to find an alternative place to stay for the inauguration:

1. Call around to hotels not generally frequented by tourists, such as conference centers in in the suburbs.
2. Check out temporary housing on home, condo and time share vacation rentals sites, but beware, prices for inauguration week have skyrocketed.
3. Look for ads in the Washington Post and Examiner.com housing section (print and online) for short term rentals for inauguration week.
4. Check Craigslist (temporary housing section) in Washington, DC and the surrounding suburbs for people renting homes or rooms during inauguration week.  I found several hundred ads, ranging from someone’s basement bedroom in the suburbs, to a beautifully furnished 3-bedroom high-rise condo just blocks from the National Mall for $12,000 for the week. Make sure to look for convenient Metro access and parking.
5. Check DC Message Boards for rooms available for the inauguration.
6. Rent a motor home for a few days. If none are available in DC, look in the surrounding areas and drive it to DC for the inauguration.
7. Search out that long lost school friend who lives in Washington, DC on Classmates.com
8. Get on the phone and search out some of the smaller suburban motels, that may not have websites.
9. Find friends who are going to the inauguration and try to crash with them, on the sofa, a roll-away, or on the floor.
10. Make an offer to stay in The DC Traveler’s guest room…all bids will be entertained. Plus, an Inauguration Continental Breakfast is included!!

You can still request inauguration tickets, but it’s probably too late to make the cut. Visit your Congressional Representative’s website at http://www.house.gov/.

Image – Wikipedia – public domain
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Post from: The DC Traveler

But you might just be approached by a scam artist offering you anything from tickets to “designer” products. 

So when visiting Washington, DC, you know you are getting ripped off if…

1. Anyone offers you discounted tickets to the National Zoo (it’s free).
2. You get approached to buy a Smithsonian Museum Pass, good at all of the Smithsonian museums, (entrance to all of the Smithsonian museums are also free).
3. The “designer” purse that normally retails for $300 at the mall, you happen to find on sale from a tabletop vendor at a festival or from a street vendor in Georgetown.  Yes, it’s a knock-off and worth about 10% of the retail price. But if you really want a $600 Louis Vuitton bag, but can’t justify the price, spending $45 on a knock-off might make you feel better.
4. A cab driver mentions that from downtown to National Airport, he’ll be taking the Beltway…because it’s the fastest route this time of day (talk about the long and expen$ive route). Best to ask at your hotel for the approximate fair before grabbing a cab.
5. You are paying full price for speciality tours.  Sure, it’s common to pay full price when the tour is in high demand. But often, you can negotiate a discount (sometimes a big one), but only if you ask.  I was talking to one speciality tour operator last week about prices and he made it clear that “he would work with me” on a tour, within just a couple minutes, he ended up offering me a 70% discount.
6. Someone offers to sell you White House tour tickets (also free, but limited).
7. You see a Georgetown street vendor selling Rolexs, Gucci and Tag-Heuer watches or designer sunglasses by Oakley or D&G for under $25. Yes, they are fake.  And if you must, always try to bargain them down. Start your offer at nothing higher than 50% of the initial price.*
8. Tickets to events (plays, The Kennedy Center, theaters) are so inexpensive that it seems too good to be true. Don’t fall for a seller on the street that simply used a good scanner and color printer to part you from your vacation cash. Buy from the theater’s box office or let your hotel’s Concierge arrange for tickets.
9. Someone offers you Metro fare cards at a discount. They might be fakes or expired, so go ahead and pay full price for a real Metro card a the station.  The Metro is not that expensive.
10. Vendors, dealers or shops offer “real and authentic” Revolutionary War era, Civil War era,  George Washington slept here artifacts, or other "historical” treasures.  Best to buy from reputable dealers only, ones with a return policy.

* About ten years ago, I did buy a $15 fake “Tag” watch from a Georgetown street vendor. It kept perfect time for over four years. So yes, you might get lucky with a cheap, but well functioning watch.  But my buddy who was visiting DC also bought a diamond “Rolex” (or was it a “Rollex”?). The logo on the face fell off during his flight home and the watch stopped a week later. So buyer beware!

Images – Rolex, purses, Metro SmarTrip card,

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Post from: The DC Traveler

It’s a perfect intro for first-time drivers to the Washington, DC area.

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  For those who plan to visit our area…

1. All directions start with "The Beltway"…which has no beginning and no end, just one continuous loop that locals believe is somehow clarified by an "inner" and "outer loop" designation, which makes no sense to ANYONE outside the area.
2. The morning rush hour is from 5:00 to 11:00 a.m. The evening rush hour is from 1:00 to 8:00 p.m.  During the summer, Friday’s rush hour starts Thursday morning as residents head to the beach. Construction, lane closures and emergency preparedness drills occur during all other hours.
3. If you actually stop at a yellow light, you will be either rear-ended or shot at.  If you not to stop for a red light, smile for the $100 red light photo ticket you will receive courtesy of the District’s DMV.
4. Rain causes an immediate 95 point drop of IQ in drivers. Snow causes a 145 point drop… plus a rush to the grocery store for massive amounts of toilet paper, bread and milk.
5. If someone actually has their turn signal on, they are by definition, a tourist.
6. If your map of suburban Maryland is more than a few weeks old, throw it out and buy a new one. It’s obsolete.  If it’s a suburban Northern Virginia map and it’s one day old, it’s already at least two weeks out of code.
7. Many roads in Virginia change their names as you cross intersections.  Every 3 miles, the name “Lee’” must be used, as in Lee Highway, Robert E. Lee Memorial Road, General Lee Street, etc. 
8. There is nothing more normal to local drivers than seven lanes of Beltway traffic cruising bumper-to-bumper at 85 mph. Anything less is considered down right sissy.
9. The far left lane on all area roads are the official cell phone "chat" and “texting” lanes, where drivers are required to drive 15 mph slower than all other traffic.
10. A single driver using the car pool lanes (known as HOV or High Occupancy Vehicle lanes) is not wrong…. unless you get caught.

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Post from: The DC Traveler