On our recent trip to Washington DC, we flew into Dulles Airport and flew home from National Airport. That’s because we were attending the Freddie Awards near Dulles and spent the rest of our trip sightseeing in the nation’s capital, which is much closer to National.
After spending our first night at the Dulles Airport Crowne Plaza, we needed to get to Washington DC. Fortunately, the DC Metro service recently expanded to service the airport. We figured, why not use the new Silver Line service? Besides getting a chance to review a more recent transportation option, it was much cheaper than getting an Uber or Lyft.
The first thing we needed to do was to purchase a SmarTrip card from a station vending machine. A card costs $2 in addition to whatever fare you want to add. The fare you need to pay for a ride on the DC Metro depends on several factors.
Fares for Metro vary based on the service, ride length, day, and time you ride.
Each station has a guide showing the fare to travel from your departure station to anywhere on the network. There’s a price for peak and non-peak travel.
For our first trip from Innovation Center (the closest station to our hotel) and Metro Center (the nearest stop to the Grand Hyatt), the non-peak fare was $3.85. I purchased two cards and while I transferred my card to my iPhone, Sharon kept her physical card.
For those not familiar with the DC Metro system, I’d describe it as a dual-tap system. Your first tap gives you access to the trains but you don’t pay your fare until you exit. That’s because the fare is dependent on your destination. If you don’t have enough value on your card, you can’t leave. There are kiosks where you can add money at your destination station. I had to add 25 cents to each of our cards when I miscalculated the fare for the trip back to our hotel. (And caught the appropriate amount of grief for not loading enough money on our cards at the start of the trip.) (Note from Sharon: And deservedly so)
Back to our trip from Dulles. The Metro was empty when we boarded. It didn’t get much more crowded until we got closer to Washington DC.
The trip took around 1 hour. Considering the cost of a ride-share, it was a bargain. We also took a Blue Line train on the Metro from our hotel to Washington National Airport.
I stayed at the Grand Hyatt because it was located near the Metro Center station which has connections to both Dulles and Washington National Airports. Washington DC is a small town and it’s easy to get around without a car. Most trips are within walking distance; if not, you’re only a short ride on the Metro. If all else fails, you can always call a Lyft or Uber.
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2 comments
Worth noting that you don’t need to purchase the $2 physical card to start on your iPhone. You can create and load it directly using Apple Pay.
I have an upcoming trip in June that brings me back to the US via Dulles and my domestic flight leaves out of National as well… but I also found out the Metro is doing work that will shut down part of the silver line between McLean and Ballston so they have a shuttle from Dulles to McLean and Rosslyn, where I can pick up the Blue line from the latter to National.
I gave myself 4 hours for this trip, expecting to use the rail the whole way, but would this be enough time with the replacement shuttle bus?