Go Green in Washington DC’s Fairmont

by Grant Martin on

Feeling a little drained from your time on the hill? Fear not, brave traveler — nothing washes the grime from the road off better than a fresh, green hotel. Washington DC’s Fairmont, winner of Mayor Adrian Fenty’s Environmental Excellence Award, will do just that.

Premium visitors can luxuriate in a Lexus Hybrid Living Suite (pictured above and below), an environment meticulously crafted for the eco-conscious traveler, with green amenities such as organic wine and design inspired by Lexus Hybrid Living. And while it’s true that guests won’t get the company of a luxury sedan inside of their proper room, the hotel has an LS 600h L that’s available for complimentary guest use.

Everyday hoteliers can still benefit from Fairmont’s green initiatives by enjoying the fresh honey harvested on the building’s own roof. In response to the national bee shortage this summer, Fairmont installed a battery of beehives on the outside of the downtown hotel, and as summer plods along, the 100,000 bees are hard at work producing delicious, succulent honey.

Other tweaks to DC Fairmont make the property even eco-friendlier without sacrificing a shred of the brand’s quality. Upgrades include:

  • Low-flow shower heads
  • Low wattage compact fluorescent light bulbs
  • Digital thermostats
  • Natural and healthy choice restaurant menu selections
  • Greenhouse gas offsets from select building compartments
  • Courtyard herb garden for local restaurant flavoring

Rooms at the DC Fairmont start at just over $125, while the suites and Lexus Suite are respectively more expensive.

If packages are your fancy, two new deals that the Fairmont hosts are The Eco Power Package and the Green Washingtonian. With the former package guests get to stay in the Lexus Hybrid suite (with free access to the hotel LS 600h!) nestled in style, while the hotel respectively donates $100 to the National Geographic Society for each stay. The Green Washingtonian hosts organic cocktails for guests

Each package can be booked on Fairmont’s Travel Green promotion page.

NYC best city for singles (if you own a computer)

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Looking for love lust on your next vacation? Your next trip should be to New York, which has knocked Atlanta out of the top spot as the best city in the country for singles. And, why wouldn’t it? You have more than 8 million people chasing their dreams, so the choices are endless. There’s one of everything, so in one night, you could meet every flavor of scumbag available. But, there’s an upside to all this variety, so don’t give up hope yet!

Atlanta fell to the sixth position, with Boston, Chicago, Seattle and Washington, D.C. occupying the second through fifth spots in this annual survey by Forbes.com. San Francisco, Los Angeles, Milwaukee and Philadelphia round out the top 10.

This is New York’s first time in the #1 spot, which evaluates 40 of the largest cities in the United States for “coolness, cost of living alone, culture, job growth, online dting, nightlife, and ratio of singles to the entire population.” Notably absent are: willingness of hot girls in that city to talk to you, cost of buying several drinks for someone genuinely out of your league and adult bookstores nearby to help you when you strike out yet again.

Well … I think New York would win on that one, too.

What pushed New York into the winners circle, apparently, was the number of people with online dating accounts. The city has more people hitting the web to scratch their various itches than any other city in the country.

Watergate to go on the block

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Monument Realty hopes the action on the Watergate Hotel Tuesday will rival what made it famous. The storied property, a monument to our eventual freedom from President Richard Nixon, is set to be auctioned. The real estate developer that bought it five years ago – hoping to restore it – received a foreclosure notice and had to find a buyer. Originally, Monument had its figurative fingers crossed for some relief form lender PB Capital, but it’s pretty clear that the Tooth Fairy wasn’t listening.

Before we rush to lament the forced sale of the most famous hotel in our nation’s capital, keep in mind that it hasn’t been open since Monument bought it in 2004. The company still owes $40 million on the hotel. Nothing’s happening. And, while we can blame today’s economic climate for the failure of this endeavor to launch, the reality is that Monument pissed away several months of prosperity.

Stupidity – rather than economics – is the driver behind this auction.

Layover: Washington DC (Reagan)

by Grant Martin on

[Today we’re launching our Layover series, what will soon become a database of ideas and logistics for your next extended layover. We’ll be covering most of the biggest airports in the country and even a few overseas, giving you a great reason to step out instead of staying in during your visit. Check back often over June and July for updates from your favorite layover city.]

One of the best things about Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport is its proximity to the city of Washington DC. Land at Reagan at 6PM, and you can be at a bar in Dupont Circle by 6:45. At some airports, it takes that long to get out of the terminal.

Given this virtue and the excellent public transportation connecting to it, DCA is fairly easy to escape — even during a short layover. So if the restaurants and entertainment aren’t enough to tickle your fancy at the new Reagan terminals, step out for a bit and breathe the fresh air of Washington DC. Stick around and we’ll show you a few hot spots to hit while you’re waylaid.

Short Layovers (around 2 hours)

Washington DC’s historic metro is the key to any layover from DCA, the comprehensive network of trains serving (almost) all corners of the city. Fares depend on the distance traveled, but for any layover from DCA one can expect to pay less than $3 for a one way trip. Tickets can be purchased at the airport station, which is easily walkable from any part of Reagan.

DCA is located on the Blue and Yellow lines just south of the city, and you can easily connect to the rest of the city from L’enfant Plaza, Gallery Place or Chinatown. On a shorter layover, however, you don’t want to get too far away form the airport, so it’s best to stick with what’s close.

If you’re the shopping type of person, The Fashion Center at Pentagon City is only one stop away to the north. As one of the largest shopping centers in the city, The Fashion Center has your standard mall brands including Gap and The Body Shop. Sure, you won’t get much unique Washington DC culture, but it’s a great way to kill time and pick up some essentials. Depending on train schedules, it takes about 25 minutes to get from terminal to mall entrance.

For your dose of culture, go two stops further on the blue line to Arlington, where you can visit the graves of fallen soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery and pay your respects. Entry is free.

Long Layovers (4 hours or more)

With the flexibility of four or more hours in your layover, you have enough time to do many of the things in the city that you could in a normal day. It’s best to cross reference a list of what you want to see against what is best accessible on the metro. Obviously, you wont be able to wait in line to visit the top of the Washington Monument or take a tour of the White House, but walking around the Lincoln Memorial, visiting the Smithsonian Museums or getting a drink in Dupont Circle can all be done in plenty of time.

Here’s a quick list of top destinations and their metro stops if you’re reading this from the airport:

  • White House: Farragut West, Blue & Orange
  • Smithsonian Museums: Smithsonian, Blue & Orange
  • Lincoln Memorial: Foggy Bottom, Blue & Orange
  • Holocaust Museum: Smithsonian, Blue & Orange
  • National Archives: Archives, Yellow & Green
  • Jefferson Memorial: Smithsonian, Blue & Orange
  • Vietnam Memorial: Foggy Bottom, Blue & Orange
  • Washington Monument: Smithsonian, Blue & Orange

You can find more hotspots and their respective subway stops over at this handy about.com webpage.

Other Tips

One word of caution about Reagan airport is that security screening can often back up. Make sure you look at the TSA situation on your way out — check to see if there is an elite or first class line, whether things seem to be moving smoothly and whether it’s going to take a while to get through. You don’t want to get to the airport on time but miss your flight while waiting for the x-ray.

Plan your next layover with Gadling’s Layover Guides.

$50bn needed to keep train system from going off the rails

by Tom Johansmeyer on

The Federal Transportation Administration believes that $50 billion is needed to repair major metropolitan train systems … and another $5.9 billion a year to maintain them. Railways that need the money, it continues, are in Boston, Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Philadelphia, New Jersey and Washington, D.C. Together, they carry more than 80 percent of the train passengers in the country – amounting to more than 3 billion passenger trips every year.

We rely on these trains every day, but we aren’t keeping them in top shape. More than a third of the trains in these seven locations have equipment near or past their useful lives. The money needed to remedy problems, however, isn’t coming in. Eight percent of the equipment on these lines is in “poor” condition, with another 27 percent “marginal.”

William Millar, president of the American Public Transportation Association, makes the astute observation: “We don’t need another report – we need greater funding.”