I'm going to a political convention June 4-7th, what are some good hotels to stay at? The convention is near Mt. Vernon Square. What airport should I fly into? I am thinking DCA but not sure. I've been to DC twice but I can't remember what hotel I stayed at.

THANKS!!!

First, welcome to FT!

The airport question is easy so I'll start with that, DCA is by far the closest airport. It has a metro stop on site and there is a metro stop where you are going, MT Vernon/Convention Center. As a general rule DCA is more expensive then BWI/IAD, others will probably disagree but i think is is easy to fly in and out of them too it just requires more time since you have to take a bus to meet up with the metro or have a longer cab ride.

As far as hotels what is your budget? What is important to you? Most big conventions and the Convention Center have free shuttle buses to take you to area hotels. So would you like to stay in a busy area close to a lot of bars or would you rather walk off of a quite street?

I don't want to spend more than $200 a night really, I found the Fairfax at Embassy Row for $99 a night and I'm thinking about staying there. I want to stay at a nice hotel but it doesn't have to be the Four Seasons or anything. I'm just 18 so I'm not too picky.

In that case, you probably don't care about nightlife, unless you have a good fake.

If you don't care where you stay you should probably just priceline. Check out the travel bidding section of FT, or betterbidding for advise.

How big is your convention? I must admit i tried to figure it out what convention you are going to by looking at the convention center calander and came up dry. If it is a smaller event, most if not all of the convetion participants may be staying at the same hotel. You may want to contact a convention organizer to find out. The 'special' rate they'll offer probabaly isn't that grate but you'll be with everyone else which is good for networking and just having a good time.

Alternativly, if it is a big event and you are part of sort of delegation or working group you may want to stay with them.

I just found out that it will be at the Renaissance Marriott, $189 a night.

You can't get much closer then that. If you decided to stay with your party, you should check with your organizers to see if they can room with with another convention goer. If you split the room two ways it will be cheaper then staying at the Fairfax by yourself.

I just booked a room at the DC Renaissance thanks for your help!

Alright another question.

My flight leaves DCA at 7:40 PM obviously I would want to head to the airport around 4:30 or so. That leaves me with a problem. What do I do with my luggage from checkout time at noon until 4:30? I don't really want to be walking around DC pulling my suitcase for 4+ hours.

You check it with the hotel concierge? Unless you really don't want to go back to the hotel for some reason.

Also, I'm unsure why you want to leave at 4:30 to catch a 7:40 flight. 5:30 or even 6 seems like more than enough time--it should take about 15 minutes to cab to DCA or 30 minutes to metro, assuming you're not planning on leaving the central DC area.

Whoops. Sorry it takes me about 1.5 hours to get to IAH and I must of added that amount of time to when I need to head to the DCA airport. But, thanks I've never left that late before and I was unsure of what I needed to do.