DC Westin Embassy Row Dupont Circle

[Shea77]

This hotel had a great location right off Dupont Circle. To get a bite to eat or grab the Metro was a 3 minute walk.

The front desk staff was lovely and let us check in 3 hours early. Our room was smoking, King Size bed, with unfortunately, a view of the other side of the building and some dumpsters. The windows opened a few inches, which I love in a hotel.

Please note that there are no rooms with 2 double beds in this hotel, only King or 2 Twin Bed rooms are offered. We had a third person and they brought a very comfy, thick rollaway bed. The Heavenly Bed mattress and duvet set with matching pillows made me feel like I was sleeping on big poofy clouds - so comfy!

The bathroom had a dual shower head which was awesome. Plenty of counter space and nice soaps/shampoos. No fan though so the bathroom got stuffy.

The main bar in the lobby had the nicest bartenders in the world. It was decorated very nice and modern, not tacky like many hotel bars.

I mentioned the location earlier - I really like Dupont Circle and it's shops and eateries. You can wake up and walk to a coffeeshop within minutes. There is a CVS that I visited about 3 times (it is open 24 hours). It is a clean area with many diverse people. We took the Metro to the Zoo, Museums, etc. - it was so easy.

Overall, happy with the Westin Embassy Row! Great price of $100./night through HOTWIRE helped too (Went April 23-25, 2005).

[moshulu]

Here is follow-up on the Westin:

It is much smaller and more elegant than the Hilton. It was the Jockey Club and very popular with the JFK crowd back in the 60s. The bathroom was marble and well appointed; and the heavenly bed was excellent. The location is superb and better than the Hilton, as it is 2 short blocks to the Metro. The most surprising aspect was the full size gym quality stationery bike in the room with exercise books, and other small exercise tools set up in the corner of the room. We've never seen this anywhere else.

The negatives we found were: the room assigned to us was in the center section and the windows provided views of the brick walls of the other interior rooms. The room was on the smallish side, but there was an electronic safe in the closet. The room was probably half the size and expanded so the floor boards were uneven and when the guests above us walked it created amazing noise as the walls, and floors shifted. We slept very poorly as a result of the noise.

[HilltopBoy]

The Westin Embassy Row deserves its 4* rating. The rooms are well-appointed and maintained. The level of staff service is quite high. This is a long-time hotel that probably dates from the 20s or so. It is said that Al Gore grew up in the building. The rooms are not as large as they would be in a modern building, but ours was charming, clean and comfortable and it had a nice, large bathroom with a shower (no tub). I would be happy to return here.

Meals in the restaurants are expensive, though they are well-prepared. For breakfast, Starbucks is one block south on 21st St and Kramerbooks/Afterwords is a few blocks away on Conn. Ave. Both are much better values than the hotel. For dinner, there are innumerable good restaurants in walking distance. There is a small supermarket on P St between 21st and 22nd. Buy your snacks there and save a bundle compared to the mini-bar.

The Dupont Circle metro is 2 blocks away. A taxi from Reagan/National Airport costs about $20.

A previous post complains about the view and the noise. Our view was terrible, too ... just the backs of buildings. However, you're in the middle of Washington, DC and it's hard to picture how you get a great view (especially using Priceline) in that setting. We didn't expect a view, so we weren't disappointed. The noise didn't bother us, but we visited around Christmas, which is a very quiet time in DC.