You could hit downtown DC, but it's going to be tighter than you think. Traffic out of DC toward Dulles on I-66 is a bear in the late afternoon, so with a 6 pm departure, you need to be out of downtown and on your way by 3:30 or so. Assuming you get out of the airport by noon and it takes 35 minutes or so to head in, you'd have about 3 hours to sightsee before needing to head back, which is not really a lot of time unless you simply want to say you've been there. Doable, but the Air and Space Museum annex is far easier and worth a trip by itself.

I can HIGHLY recommend this! Great wine tasting flights and excellent appetizer food (and no I don't have any connection to the company!). Try the Amisfield Pinot Noir ^

KiwiPanda

If you want to see what Abu Grahb or Gutanimo are like - go visit Terminal "G". :D

Grab a Hemisphere's to get a map of the airport. Foodwise: TGI Friday's is at the end of the "D" terminal. The rest is pretty much fast food. There is supposed to be a Gordon Bierch coming soon - not sure if its open yet or not. There's nothing of value at the main terminal. You can go to the "A"/"B" terminals - but it's pretty much the same as "C"/"D".

Thanks all for the suggestions.

I wish. Only non-stops that day are at 0900ish and the 1800.


Smithsonian sounds like a good idea. If I check the bags through, I presume I can still leave the airport?


Also, are there any lounges for *G other than the RCC's? I am short on drinks chits! ;)


Mark

No, SK and LH use the NW lounge in B terminal, which is only accesible for those passengers. (Yes, NW offers free drink in its lounges as they are not from the mormon/ prohibitionist/ cheapskate branch of US aviation). I think ANA has its own lounge but it probably closes at 11 am when its only flight departs.

If you go downtown then I would return from downtown after 4 pm when I-66 goes HOV. Before that it is a bumper-to-bumper with people trying to leave DC before the entire road goes HOV. At 5-5:30 pm you are past the intl early evening peak and security is actually quite dead. Renting a car is not a crazy option if you have fast track rental (Avis Preferred etc.) and a lot cheaper than 2X cab fare. (You are allowed to use I-66 during HOV hours if you are going to IAD; they catch offenders only when they exit.) It's actually a pleasant little excursion if the weather is nice. If it's crappy then I would go to the museum.

You will arrive at midfield customs when there are no other UA/LH intl flights so it will be dead at that time of day. I would use midfield customs even if you have no checked luggage and intend to leave the airport. My record from touchdown to curbside is a remarkable 15 min when using midfield customs.

I suggest you start drinking heavily.

I live right by Dulles, so here are my thoughts. One, don't bother with going downtown. You'll burn up half of your day doing that. Since you have to go back through security in the main terminal after clearing customs, you have two choices. If you want to just stick at the airport, have lunch and do some reading or work or whatever, go on back through security and go to the club at C17. It's the best of the three standard RCCs - if you came in on 1st class you should be able to use the International 1st class lounge but lets assume not. Grab some lunch at Fridays or something and just hang at the lounge.

My preferred option would be that instead of going through security and spending all day at the RCC, leave the terminal and take the Marriott shuttle bus to the on-airport Marriott. If you can get a day room and you should have around four hours to hang out - assuming you clear customs by 12:15 at the latest and a few minutes each way on the shuttle bus. Even if you don't want a day room, I would prefer to lounge in one of the hotels for a few hours instead of the airport all day.

The Smithsonian Annex is a good idea, and three hours or so should do the trick. If you have a strong desire to do some shopping, the Dulles Town Center mall in Sterling is the closest to the airport.

I went to the Smithsonian on a day trip to IAD back in the days of Independence Air, taking advantage of a $40 round trip. Cab ride is maybe 7 minutes, cost me $10+tip. Touring the museum took me about 4 hours, very fascinating, especially the space section. I'd highly recommend this over spending half the layover going to and from downtown.

Ditto on downtown - it's way too far and will take up too much time. For a $12 cab ride each way, you could go to the movie theater that is a couple miles away.

Here is the address:
Phoenix Theatres Worldgate 9
13025 Worldgate Drive
Herndon, VA 20170

You could kill a couple hours there and even take a nap during the movie. There are a few restaurants around that area that you could eat at and then go back to the airport to catch your flight.

Given the title of the original poster's thread, and since that topic is not necessarily United-specific, I am going to move this to the newly created Washington D.C. forum for wider input and for the sake of future searching.

cblaisd
Moderator, United

I heard on NPR last night that the heating is out of commission in the main terminal at IAD and will be down for a week while they try to fix it (?). So get the hell out of there and spend some time at Udvar-Hazy! That place is awesome!

peace,
~Ben~

We had almost six hours in Dulles last week. We had dinner at TGI Fridays, explored the Bprders and then just chilled the rest of the time in the D8 RCC. I will be back in two weeks (just for my normal 2 hours) and plan to try the wine bar....

General tip for visiting the National Air and Space Museum Annex at Dulles- do not carry pepper spray.

I regularly go to the Smithsonian museums downtown (almost weekly) and by placing the pepper spray inside a pocket or cosmetic case get in with no problem. At the annex in Dulles the security guard found it and nearly had a coronary. He loudly lectured me that it was a "terrorist weapon". I calmly apologized and asked where I could deposit it, explaining that as a single petite female I use it for safety in the District.

The security agent would not allow me to leave the pepper spray with him so I had to trek all the way back to the car at the other end of the parking lot holding up my travel companions. I certainly was tempted to tell the agent how many times I've gotten in with the spray before.

This is one of the easiest questions in the history of Flyertalk!

You've got a layover literally 5 minutes away from one of the best and nicest aviation museums in the entire world, complete with a massive control-tower style observation deck in between active runways!

You HAVE to check it out. It's a great place, admission is free (so your only expense is the short cab ride) and its fun.

16 hours layover next Saturday at IAD
 

Hi!

I'll be arriving next Friday 6:43 am (UA846) (EZE-IAD)
My connection flight departs 10:44 pm (UA990) (IAD-ACC-LOS)
Never been into IAD and I think that I'll have time enough for one or two quick visits. (Yes, I know that DC is a long ride from the airport.)
What do you suggest to do?
What about trasportation?
When I should head back to the airport?
Inbound and outbound flights are on different PNRs.
I don't know how the luggage is handled, if having both flights on a single PNR would make a difference.
Any place for leaving the luggage?
I'm One Pass Platinum Elite (MP Premier Executive) and have a President Club card,
I really would appreciate your ideas.