Washington D.C. Travel Forum

I see that Dulles is about 25 miles from downtown Washington DC.
Is it a decent airport to fly into or would it be better to fly in Reagan.
I have found a low fare to Dulles on Labor Day weekend.

It depends on where you want to go and how tight you are on time. To drive into downtown DC from Dulles takes about 45 minutes in no traffic--if you arrive on a weekday morning, you can probably add another half-hour at least. There is not good public transportation from Dulles, whereas from National (Reagan), you can get off the plane and walk right onto the Washington Metro system to get downtown. From Dulles, you have to take a cab (quite expensive), the Washington Flyer bus (scheduled service to the West Falls Chuch metro, inconvenient and slow), or the Super Shuttle (slow). (See http://www.washfly.com/) None of the options are quick, and the taxi in particular is very expensive.

In other words, if your airfare is cheap enough to offset the cost and added time it takes to get into town from Dulles, go for it. Otherwise I would stick to National.

Nothing wrong with Dulles except the distance from downtown. However there is a bus with pretty good service. It is the Metrobus 5A which runs between Dulles and L’Enfant Plaza just south of the Mall at the Smithsonian end. Buses run hourly from around 6:00 a.m. until 10:30 or 11:30 p.m. The cost is $3 each way (as opposed to $50-$60 for a taxi) and the trip takes about an hour. At Dulles you can find it by exiting the baggage claim area just in front of the Traveler’s Aid desk, going to the sidewalk outside and turning left. A little way down you will see a sign at the curb or overhead indicating the Metrobus 5A route. Downtown the bus stop is just outside the L’Enfant Plaza metro stop at the Department of Transportation Building. The bus also makes stops at Rosslyn Station and Tysons West Park Transit Station.

Just an alternative if the fare is so good to Dulles.

Dulles has more flights, so you'll probably find a better fare out of it. Otherwise, Reagan is really very convenient. You may also want to consider Baltimore-Washington (BWI), which is really about the same distance as Dulles is from DC and has better transit connections.

Ditto to what Julie said. There really isn't any good public trans from Dulles. However, I think it's a nicer airport and seemingly more competent security folks so less aggravation. I live right next to Dulles and can drive to the Smithsonian in DC in 30 minutes with no traffic. As she said, during the week during rush hour, that can take more than an hour to get into DC; traffic here can be "fun".

I agree with Bocmaxima. BWI Baltimore is the better option if trying to save on the airfare. People I arrange for refuse to go to Dulles to get downtown. They will fly into DCA for the access or BWI with transit.

Dulles is one of the country's most inconvenient airports (unless you happen to live in the Northern Virginia suburbs; those people all love it).

Unless the Dulles ticket is a LOT cheaper, I'd stick with National. From National the Metro it only costs a dollar and change, and takes 10 minutes, to get to the center of town.

From Dulles you either have to take a taxi ($50+ and almost an hour), a shuttle ($30+ and an hour), or the bus ($3 and 90 or more minutes including typical waiting time).

P.S. People who are from DC don't call National airport "Reagan".

I tend to find that Reagan has a LOT more flights than Dulles (especially for me who flies there from Chicago). Also, everytime I fly out of Dulles there seems to be some delays. I hate being stuck in Dulles because there is only bad fast food (burnt pizza) in the terminal. Reagan is so much nicer and I they have multiple security lines which are fairly easy to get through.