Arlington Cemetery Visit - questions on hotels

Susan,

I’m sorry for your loss.

You might want to see what is available on hotwire. Look for hotels in Arlington (might be listed as Crystal City or Reagan National) or possibly Alexandria with a high percentage of recommendations. They won’t show you the name of the hotel, but my experience with booking hotels on hotwire has always been the well known chains (Marriott, Hilton, Holiday Inn). If you first look at the website betterbidding.com, you can find hotels that have been available in the past and can likely narrow down what the hotel might be.

What time is the service? If it is not around rush hour, you could also look at staying further out.

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I'm sorry about your Mother as well.

Is someone from your group driving in? Pentagon City and Arlington Cemetery are right off the metro line so there's no need for a car (or paying for parking).

I assume you want to stay either from Dec 11-12 or Dec 10-11? Given the outrageous hotel prices (I just looked on booking.com and couldn't believe it), I advise to take a chance with www.hotwire.com. Put in "Arlington, Virginia" and your dates into the search field. Then search by 4-star hotels with high ratings. You should be able to find a nice business hotel in Old Town Alexandria for roughly $100 with taxes/fees included (I'm not kidding, I just did the search). The catches are that you have to pre-pay, the cost is non-refundable, and you won't know the exact hotel ahead of time, but you'll know the location and the class of hotel (4 star hotels are always predictable business hotels, so very little risk). Old Town is off the metro so you won't need a car. I've used hotwire.com lots of times so I can vouch for it. I've saved substantial amounts in very expensive cities that way. Just keep in mind that "non-refundable" really means "non-refundable" but it seems like you have 0% chance of needing to change dates. Good luck.

There's a Metro station at Arlington Cemetery. It's on the Blue Line. It may be quite a walk from the burial site, though.

Although you can take the metro to Arlington Cemetery, you will probably need a car or a ride in a car with one of the other attendees to get to the gravesite.

My Dad's funeral was at Arlington recently and metro would not have worked. We had to meet at the Admin bldg, drive to the starting point, and then from there either walk or drive behind the caisson to get to the gravesite for the service.

My wife and I just got back from DC and stayed at the Americana Hotel and couldn’t be happier with the choice. The rooms were very good. The outside of the hotel looked dated, but the rooms were recently remodeled. It was only 800 yards from the metro at Crystal City and parking was free. I would stay there again. The room rates couldn't be beat and the location was great.

Although something could always pop up a bit later on Priceline or the like, the Americana probably has a considerably lower rack rate than the other spots in Crystal City. It's worth checking out if you want to get something set up soon. (I've never stayed there myself.)

I am sorry for your loss as well. Another possibility for hotels might be Rosslyn which is the other side of Arlington Cemetery from Pentagon City.

I stayed at the Americana by myself several years ago. At the time I was a little skeptical when checking in, but American Airlines flight crews were staying there, so I assumed it must be O.K. - and it was. It looks like they've done some refurbishing since I was there. It was a location site for the movie, "State of Play." Location is excellent and you are a block or two from metro and pricey hotels. Last trip we stayed in Alexandria, but metro stops were a hefty walk from most of the hotels, so we had to take the hotel shuttle to the airport and get the metro there. That can be a hassle with December weather.

We did metro to Arlington cemetery and wandered on foot (and spouse is 70+), but weather and a dedicated time will impact your trip. Not sure if Uber or Lyft are options for you.

So sorry to hear the reasons for your trip - hope it all goes the way you want.

The Holiday Inn Roslyn would work.

I second the recommendation for the Holiday Inn Rosslyn/Key Bridge- it's walking distance to Metro and just a couple stops from the cemetery. Check ichotels.com (the chain that holiday inn is part of) - their own site tends to have the best rates.

Condolences on your losses.

Thank you for all the well wishes and thank you for all the tips, above!

I had totally forgotten about HotWire as it's not advertised much, over here..... I did find a place on Booking. In my checking I've also discovered that some of the hotels let you book parking in advance to say a few dollars. One place in Pentagon City charges $19 to park in advance, and it's $25 if you just drive in and park.... (yikes!)

I'm going to be driving, for sure, and for those that don't know I'll add this: if you have a family member that's buried in Arlington Cemetery - like my father already is, for example - you get a private pass to DRIVE onto the cemetery. We don't have to stop at the Visitors Center, we can drive right to the graveside. It is very handy for when elderly or physically challenged visitors visit with us. We can't drive up to, say, JFK's flame and park there -- but in the main parts of the graveyard we can park right at my dad's row, and friends' graves row, and walk to the stone.

Just in case some don't know this (a friend has two infant siblings buried there and she didn't know.....).

Susan
ExPat in Waterville, Ireland
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There is the Sheraton Pentagon City 900 S Orme St, Arlington, VA 22204 that is literally next to the cemetery and joint base Henderson Hall/ Myers. If you are retired military you can access the cemetery from the base without having to go down by the visitor center. There are also hotels in Rosslyn, Hyatt Centric Arlington, Holiday Inn Rosslyn at the Key bridge, and Residence Inn by Marriott. Those are as close to the cemetery as those in Pentagon/Crystal City.

Stayed at Holiday Inn Roslyn last year. It was convenient walking to metro or into Georgetown. Room was fine, rate reasonable and free parking.

update

Thanks to all the comments! We have decided to stay at Sheraton Pentagon City and I'm sitting in the room right now, 11th floor, looking over the cemetery with fabulous views of the Air Force memorial! The parking garage is easy to manipulate; the staff welcoming; and though a few items are a bit "dear" as we say in Ireland (a cappecunino is six dollars plus tax!) it's easy of location can't be beat.

Thanks again for all the feedback!

Oh, and if someone else reads this for tips - get gas before you come here! Everything in Arlington seems to be around 2.75 -2.90/gallon while it's 2.33 everywhere I've gotten it in the past week..... it's probably because we're near National Airport but WOW! That's crazy!

Susan
Expat living in Waterville, Ireland