Today you are going to work on planning a trip to Washington. For this activity you will have to work on planning the details of getting yourself to a location, finding a place to stay at that location, and finding things to do while you're at this location. Consider all of the following items and write a plan or report out costs.
Basic Parameters:
You have 5 days to complete your trip. Your total cost must stay under $2,500. If you legitimately have friends or relatives in the D.C. metro you may take advantage of that, but no making up relatives or friends. Assume that you are 18 years old. Assume that you are leaving April 30th.
Travel:
You will have to get to the Washington D.C. metro area somehow, and that somehow is up to you. You can drive, fly, take the train, ride a horse, or walk. Just remember, you're leaving from New Hampton, Iowa and only have 5 days worth of time to be on this trip. You will need to decide how much it will cost to get to Washington. You will also need to decide when you need to leave and how long it will take to get there. Remember, if you fly, ride the bus, or take a train...none of these stop in New Hampton, so you will need to factor in drive time to the airport or depot and security lines. If you drive, you must find the route that you will travel to get to Washington and you will have to estimate any tolls if you take toll roads.
Lodging
When you travel you need somewhere to stay. You will need to find a place to stay while you are in the metro area. A few hints. 1. If you have a CLOSE family friend or family in the area you can stay with them...likely for free. 2. Staying in downtown will save time in regards to travel between sites and tours, but it is usually expensive. 3. Staying in the suburbs, or away from downtown will save money, but will cost you time in travel.
Decide what your best option is by balancing your wants. Is being close more important, or is lower cost more important? Remember your budget.
Sights and activities
You will need to decide 4 things (you can do more if you have time) that you want to see while you're in the D.C. metro area. For this part you will need to decide what you want to see and how much it is going to cost. You will also need to create a rough itinerary (schedule) of the things that you are doing. This includes how to get to these places and any costs that it will take.
Advice
Remember all of the different travel modes and options that you have. They each have ways to estimate, or get exact prices for what it will cost.
Driving- Gas costs money. There are cost estimators on the interwebz. Google it and figure out home much it will cost to get from NH to DC and back.
Flying, Train, Bus- They all have online booking. Check it out without actually booking anything.
Hotel/Accommodations- They have websites. Same as other stuff, don't actually book anything, but you can certainly look.
Don't forget about public transit in Washington D.C. They have a great metro train system. Check out the map on wall and see if the train runs reasonably close. Then find out how much a fare to ride from your location to the sight would cost.
Taxis are expensive, but you can estimate costs online. Google D.C. taxi estimator