The conference has made no specific arrangements with hotels other than the
Hyatt, which is the conference hotel. Unfortunately, we could not find any
dormitory facilities in the Washington area. The schools are used heavily
for summer programs for both college and high school students. I have the
following advice concerning finding hotels in the Washington area:
- Washington is broken into quadrants - NW,NE,SE,SW. Generally
speaking, the NW part of town is where you want to stay - either in the
downtown area, which is where the conference hotel is located, in Foggy
Bottom (which is near George Washington University), Dupont Circle, Woodley
Park or Georgetown. Georgetown is lovely, but has no Metro stop, so
getting back and forth to the conference hotel will require either some
walking or a combination of bus and metro. Avoid hotels in NE or SE
altogether. There are some good hotels/locations in SW such as the
Holiday Inn.
- I checked a site called all-hotels and got 10 hotels at prices of
100-120 per night that were in good locations and in town. I am sure
other sites would come up with other good alternatives.
- If you move a bit further out, but stay along the Metro lines, you might
find slightly cheaper hotels. Crystal City Virginia, which is not
terribly attractive (a true concrete jungle) but is safe and conveniently
located, has lots of hotels. Rosslyn in Virginia is also on the Metro
line and might have some less expensive hotels.
- Be a little careful if you try to get a hotel through priceline.com.
I use the site all the time (although clearly not in DC), but you can end up
in a neighborhood you will NOT be happy in if you are not careful when you
specify your request. Their coverage area maps are mostly wonderful
neighborhoods, but if you go for really cheap rates you'll end up on the
fringes of the good areas, and may not be comfortable. The Dupont Circle and
Georgetown areas in priceline are uniformly good. Convention
Center/Capital Hill is a mix. You will notice there are large parts of town
that priceline does not include in their coverage maps. You want to
avoid these areas also. There is a site called biddingfortravel that you
might consult into which people post winning bids for hotels in major cities,
including Washington.
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