Washington DC

ruswms · 02-11-2015, 01:00 PM

I am thinking of making the trip to tour our nation's capital in late May. I have heard that Cherry Hill RV park is the closest park in the area. It appears to have all the needs including Metro buses to transport you into Washington DC. Have any of you stayed in the park and if so how would you rate your stay? Is May a good time to visit? Thanks for your help.

klpoppe · 02-11-2015, 04:01 PM

I go to DC every 2nd full week of May. I can tell you that is a busy time with school trips so most of the attractions, museums and monuments are usually packed with school kids. As far as weather it is perfect. Once you get into DC you can either walk, use the metro subway or buses/cabs to get around town. Hopefully later in May won't be so busy with the kids since it is closer to the end of the school year. I think you'll enjoy it. There is so much to see. Enjoy!

spoon059 · 02-11-2015, 06:18 PM

I live about 15 minutes away from Cherry Hill. I've never stayed there, but it looks nice. Well landscaped and decent size rooms. They are super close to the College Park metro on the green line.

May is a good time to visit, but you need to know that weather in and around DC is finicky at best. It could be roasting hot or chilly and rainy. Trust me though, I would rather the rain then the roasting hot. You are likely to get more wet when its roasting out... DC is a filled in swamp and it feels it in the summer!

Metro trains are the absolute best way to get around the city. Its not like the subway in NYC, stops can be far apart. There are stops near most tourist locations though, so you should be okay.

If you come in April, likely to be cooler and rainy. June is when EVERYONE comes to DC and it can start being unbearably hot. May and October are my favorite times.

CDavid · 02-11-2015, 06:23 PM

We stayed there this past Thanksgiving. It was very nice and clean. Would go back in a heartbeat. The Metro into the city was a piece of cake.

MommieMara · 02-11-2015, 07:43 PM

Checking this out. We have reservations there for the second week of June. Tripadvisor reviews were good

ruswms · 02-12-2015, 09:01 AM

Thanks for your help on this. I have only one problem with the trip. My wife and I always travel with minature daschund Mia. When we take trips into town, I would have leave her inside the trailer in her box for Im thinking 6 to 8 hours. That's a long time to pin her up. What do you do with your pets when your out during the day?

Flapper · 02-12-2015, 12:44 PM

I was planning to do this trip in April, but had to change it to be a fly-in. From the research, it appears that Cherry Hill offers a dog walking service! Give them a call to confirm, but it was something we were originally counting on before our plans had to change.

oldmanAZ · 02-12-2015, 01:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ruswms

Thanks for your help on this. I have only one problem with the trip. My wife and I always travel with minature daschund Mia. When we take trips into town, I would have leave her inside the trailer in her box for Im thinking 6 to 8 hours. That's a long time to pin her up. What do you do with your pets when your out during the day?

It can vary from dog to dog of course, but neither of our two dogs has a problem with 6 hours. I know our Schnauzer can wait, and does wait, up to 12 hours (to our surprise!). But, we don't trust out of her kennel for that long... yet.

Our Poodle has been with us about 12 years and has regularly gone 6 hours and an occasional 8 with the run of the house. He has never had an 'accident' in the house the last 10 years.

licamp · 02-12-2015, 05:15 PM

Did Cherry Hill 2 years ago for Easter break. Very nice campground and clean. We didn't spend any time at the campsite, you are to busy seeing DC. The train to DC is the way to go. One tip that can save you some money is you can go into the DEPT buildings and eat in the cafeteria. Food is pretty good and price isn't bad either.

Bookemdanno · 02-12-2015, 06:35 PM

I have read nothing but great things about Cherry Hill and have looked at their website, but can anyone post any pics of the sites that they stayed at? Please??

Dan

CDavid · 02-13-2015, 08:07 AM

Here is site #05 from November 2014.

robo59097 · 02-13-2015, 11:54 AM

We took a trip to DC last July and stayed at the Capitol KOA which was a very nice campground. They actually run a shuttle from the campground to the Capitol for a reasonable price. I joined the KOA rewards program for a year and saved appox. $70 over the cast of the membership. It is another option for you.

http://koa.com/campgrounds/washington-dc/

Type-A · 04-27-2015, 03:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by robo59097

We took a trip to DC last July and stayed at the Capitol KOA which was a very nice campground. They actually run a shuttle from the campground to the Capitol for a reasonable price. I joined the KOA rewards program for a year and saved appox. $70 over the cast of the membership. It is another option for you.

Washington DC / Capitol KOA | Camping in Maryland | KOA Campgrounds

We stayed at the Capitol KOA too. Pulled from WI and stayed at KOA's both ways. Shuttle service was nice, sure beat trying to drive in. I can't comment about the dog though because we kenneled ours before we left on our trip.

Country_Mouse · 04-27-2015, 04:11 PM

I subscribed to this thread because we are going to D.C. in September! Unfortunately not camping though as we will have to fly. Will stay in D.C. for almost a week then head to PA to see Pope, then to NY to visit family then fly back to West Coast. Going to rely on public transportation the whole way. Wish we had more time to drive cross country with trailer though. Spoon, what is weather like that time of year? Okay if I ask you questions from time to time as we plan?

5swigerts · 04-27-2015, 04:24 PM

We took the family to DC in August 2013. Stayed at Pohick Bay. About a 10 minute drive to the end of the metro. Also has a waterpark if you're interested. We LOVED it. (Didn't have the TT at the time. We rented one of their 2 room cabins). Affordable and was a VERY QUIET park!!
https://www.nvrpa.org/park/pohick_bay/content/camping

We took the train everywhere. Rechargable cards can be purchased at the stops or online ahead of time.

One of the BEST family trips we have ever taken!!!

Mjmaddox · 04-28-2015, 07:53 PM

Stayed a week in Pohick Bay touring the DC sites in April 2011. Perfect setup for us. Quiet, Private sites, not just a parking lot. Much cheaper than Cherry Hill where you pay for a lot of amenities which we knew we wouldn't be using since we were spending time in town. Drove each day to the Metro stop, no issues but we did leave early each day. We would definitely stay here again.

Griswald One · 07-14-2015, 02:41 PM

We have travelled to DC twice once in 2011 we stayed at the Capitol KOA and in 2014 we stayed at Cherry Hill.

While we enjoyed the KOA, it does not hold a candle next to Cherry Hill. The shuttle bus from the KOA is an expensive option, it is on thier schedule and takes about an hour... significantly longer then the 30 minutes they advertised when we took it. Cherry Hill actually has it's own transit stop. The bus picks you up on site and takes you to an excellent subway system. We were impressed with the quality of the transit and always felt safe and had no trouble navigating it. If remember correctly the ride in to DC would take about 45 minutes.

Being able to do things on your own schedule makes a huge difference when travelling with pets. We had an 8 month old Golden Retriever when we did the Cherry Hill trip so we work hard to keep our time away down to 6-8 hours. At that time in her life she was still crated. So we had a fabric "pop-up" crate that we picked up at Camping World... On our first day trip she figured out how to open the zippers and we found her sound asleep on our bed. She has been out of the crate ever since.

If you get a chance, drive out to the Air and Space Museum at Dulles. Of all the Smithsonian locations, that one was by far my favorite. The kids loved seeing the planes from Transformers and I was in awe standing beneath the wings of both the Enola Gay and Discovery.

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