My mad dash out of Norfolk ahead of Andrea this week which resulted in a layover at Reagan and that got me thinking that its time to start preliminary planning for next year's vacation to DC. We're thinking a week, driving which can be done in a day (we drove home-Williamsburg in a day 6 or 7 years ago, towing a camper which we won't be doing this time.) We want to see all the usual mall-area sights, the zoo, Arlington, and who knows what else at this point.
I was looking at hotels in DC proper vs close suburbs like Arlington and Alexandria and I'm wondering whether stay in DC and using little ground transport vs staying out and needing to travel into DC would be better? I prefer to stay at Hilton properties for loyalty points reasons. No way I'll accumulate enough points to pay for this but might as well get the points from this to pay for misc weekend trips or whatever.
Doing some preliminary looking, this could easily be as expensive as our Disney Cruise a couple years ago. Any suggestions?