2008 Festival Accommodations and Travel
Sharing Space and Transportation
SpaceShare – Split Your Car, Split Your Room, Go Green – Thanks to the generous partnership of SpaceShare, you can find a hotel roommate, share space in your car, find a ride, or offer a room in your home. Just go to www.spaceshare.com/splitthisrock/ to sign up.
Hotels
We do not have an “official” Split This Rock hotel but we do recommend these hotels close to festival events:
Embassy Suites Convention Center
Here are some resources for booking accommodations:
LOFTSTEL/ Loft + hostel - http://www.loftstel.com/dc/index.html
MidCity Business Association – www.midcitylive.com - Click on Directory/Where to Stay for hotels, inns, and B&Bs in the U Street Neighborhood. Dupont Circle is also nearby.
Union Hotels - www.hotelworkersrising.org/HotelGuide/ - Search on "District of Columbia" in the state field to find hotels that employ members of UNITE HERE, the hotel workers’ union.
Youth Hostel - www.hiwashingtondc.org - The DC hostel is metro accessible and has a good reputation for safety and cleanliness.
Our friends who are organizing direct action on March 19, 5 Years Too Many, have compiled this list of affordable hotels and hostels:
http://www.5yearstoomany.org/article.php?id=42
Travel
Getting to DC
Air
Discount on AirTran - As a SpaceShare event, attendees of the Split This Rock Poetry Festival are eligible for a 10% meeting discount when flying Air Tran Airways. Visit www.airtran.com to find flights from your area into the DC area. These flights must arrive within three days of the beginning of the festival and depart within three days of its end. You will receive a 10% discount off of your flight only if you call in and make your reservation; call 1-866-68EVENT, and mention that you are part of the conference discount for "SpaceShare07." For more details, call Air Tran Airways or download details about the flight program. If you have any difficulties, please contact SpaceShare.
Washington, DC is served by three airports:
Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport
(703) 417-8000
http://www.metwashairports.com/National/
Located south of the city along the Potomac River, National is accessible on Metrorail's Yellow and Blue lines. Taxi fare to downtown is approximately $12-$15. Shared ride van service is also offered by SuperShuttle.
Baltimore/Washington International Airport
1 (800) I FLY-BWI
www.bwiairport.com
Just 30 miles from Washington, DC, on commuter and Amtrak rail lines.
Washington Dulles International Airport
(703) 572-2700
www.metwashairports.com/Dulles
Located 26 miles west of Washington, DC, this is the hardest of the three airports to navigate. Washington Flyer provides bus service to West Falls Church Metro station with departures every 45 minutes.
All the airports are served by the van service, Super Shuttle (www.supershuttle.com), though for travel from National Airport into the city, the Metro is easy and a cab is just as affordable as the van – and faster.
Sign up for SpaceShare at www.spaceshare.com/splitthisrock/ and find a buddy to fly with or share a cab with from the airport.
Rail
Amtrak serves Washington’s gorgeous Union Station, on the Metro Red Line.
1-800-USA-RAIL
www.amtrak.com
Bus
Greyhound
1-800-231-2222
www.greyhound.com.
The bus station is located at 1005 1st Street, NE, at the corner of L Street, several blocks from Union Station and the Metro Red Line.
Chinatown Bus
(202) 370-7958
www.chinatown-bus.com
Discounted bus service between DC, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. Arrives in Chinatown, on the Metro Green and Red Lines.
Car
Consider leaving your car at home. All festival sites will be Metro accessible, and parking can be difficult, especially around George Washington University, the venue for the readings.
If you do drive, you’ll want a good map. And a buddy – check out SpaceShare at www.spaceshare.com/splitthisrock/ to offer space in your car.
A few rules for driving in DC: Numbered streets run north-south, in four quadrants of the city. All the festival activities will take place in Northwest, notated as NW. In Northwest, the numbers increase as you head west. Letter streets are in alphabetical order, running east-west. W is the last letter street, just a block north of Busboys and Poets. Next begin east-west street names that contain two syllables, beginning with A and heading up alphabetically, then three syllables. State-named avenues run diagonally.
Getting Around in DC
All festival sites are within easy walking distance of the Metro - www.wmata.com. Maps and Metro maps will be included in your registration materials. Metro rides cost $1.65 each. We recommend that you buy a ticket with several trips on it, to save time. Machines in each station take cash and credit cards. If you’ll be sticking around longer than the festival for sight-seeing or lobbying, consider buying a 7-day pass for $22. These must be bought online at: http://www.wmata.com/riding/passes.cfm.
View or download a metro map here: http://www.wmata.com/riding/visitors/pocket_guides/english.pdf.
Busboys and Poets and the workshop and panel locations are all within easy walking distance of one another in the U Street neighborhood, served by the U Street/Cardozo stop on the Metro Green Line.
Readings will be held at the Marvin Center at George Washington University, at the Foggy Bottom/GWU stop on the Blue and Orange Lines.
Change from the Green to the Blue and Orange at L’Enfant Plaza.