We stayed at a great little place in DC and it was in fact, the only place I found that was remotely affordable. 

I found 25 Quincy Place through the rental service www.Rentalo.com.  This place won’t be for everyone; it’s about 1/2 mile from the nearest metro station, which means quite a bit of walking if you aren’t used to it.  The nearest grocery story is a metro stop away–but another 1/2 mile walk from that metro to the store, so to get groceries, you have to be prepared for about 2 miles of walking total.  It’s doable if you’re in shape and don’t mind carrying the groceries.  Of course it would be even easier if you’re willing to pay for a cab to get yourself situated.   You can rent a car, of course, but I believe that only certain sized cars can be accommodated and there may be an extra charge for it; check the rental page for details/updates.  Not only that, parking a car in a lot of DC locations appeared to be next to impossible.

We loved this rental for several reasons; one of which was price. For four of us to stay in a hotel would have been $200 to 300 a night and we would have had to cancel the trip altogether.  We stayed at the Quincy place for around $150 a night for all four of us (not including tax and check the rules for minimum stay requirements.)   There are two bedrooms in the place so we had our privacy.  The master has its own bath; the other room has one three steps down the hall, and there’s a powder room on the first floor.  The neighborhood appears to be in the middle of renovation, but it was not noisy either during the day or at night.   The people renting the place were wonderful–they answered my questions and went above and beyond in a couple of cases. 

You’ll do a lot of walking in DC if you decide to use the metro to get around.  Again, it’s very doable if you don’t mind walking and are in shape for it.  Carry a water bottle–and an umbrella!

Eats

I spent a significant amount of time reading through the Washington Post recommended eating sections online.  Don’t bother; it was completely outdated and wrong for most of the restaurants we tried, especially where prices were concerned.  In our search for good restaurants, about all we did was add a lot of extra walking.   We should have eaten at Union Station more. Union Station was accessible, had lots of food choices and had some of the most reasonably priced food we saw.  I don’t usually recommend food courts, but honestly the price/quality was better than at least two of the sit-down restaurants that came highly recommended.  We got breakfast goodies from two of the bakeries at Union St, and there’s a place there that serves a full breakfast (dad recommends the french-toast). In addition, I highly recommend Great Wraps for sandwich type goods and Burrito Brothers for their wonderful selection of very large and reasonably priced burritos!

Other than Union Staion, I recommend a stop somewhere in Chinatown.  We ate at Full Kee (509 H St. NW, Washington, DC) and the food was great.  The prices were around $10 to 12 dollars per entree, but we generally ordered three for the four of us and had the perfect amount of food.  Full Kee served hot tea with the meal, a tradition that I love.  Since no one else in my family drinks hot tea, I got the whole pot!

There were lots of other places in the Chinatown area; many of them looked very good and prices in this area seemed to have a wide-range to cover all budgets.

That about sums up the DC trip.  All in all we had a decent time, but I don’t think I’ll need to go back anytime soon. I felt we saw everything we needed to and it’s always good to be back home!