DC Day Trips on a Budget: 8 Cheap Escapes
DC itself is one thing, but the real budget question is which day trips are worth leaving the city for and how cheap each one can go. These eight run the full range: a Metro fare under $6.75 buys Old Town Alexandria, a $30 ticket buys Mount Vernon, and only a car reaches Great Falls, Gettysburg, or Shenandoah, no transit option covers any of those three. Prices below are USD. Skip the $60-135 Annapolis rideshare quotes and take the direct bus instead, and go on weekdays where your schedule allows it, fares and lines both run thinner.
Book these before you go:
- A budget DC hotel near a Metro stop : pick one on the Blue or Yellow Line so Alexandria and the airport both start with no transfer
- A Mount Vernon estate tour : bundles the $30 admission with round-trip transport if you’d rather skip driving and parking
- An Old Town Alexandria walking tour : a flat-fee add-on for the cheapest day trip on this list, useful if you’d rather not plan the water taxi schedule yourself
| Day Trip | Distance from DC | Cheapest Transport | Cost (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Old Town Alexandria | ~7 miles | WMATA Metro, Blue/Yellow to King St | Metro fare, up to $6.75 each way |
| Mount Vernon | ~16 miles | Car or tour bus | $30 adult, $16 ages 6-11 admission |
| Annapolis | ~33 miles | Direct bus, about 1h10 | $4-12 each way |
| Baltimore | ~40 miles | MARC train from Union Station | MARC fare, cheaper than Amtrak |
| Great Falls (VA) | ~15 miles | Car or rideshare, no transit | $20 per vehicle, NPS entrance fee |
| Harpers Ferry | ~65 miles | Amtrak Capitol Limited, once daily | Amtrak fare, one train each direction |
| Gettysburg | ~85 miles | Car, no practical transit | Rental or gas, plus battlefield admission |
| Shenandoah (Front Royal) | ~70-90 miles | Car, no transit | Rental or gas, plus NPS entrance fee |
Old Town Alexandria: a Metro Fare Away, the Cheapest Day Trip
Take the Blue or Yellow Line to King St-Old Town, about 20-25 minutes from downtown. Tap in and tap out with a SmarTrip card or a contactless bank card, WMATA charges by distance with a $6.75 weekday max fare and a flat $2.25-2.50 fare on weekends and late nights. From the King St station, the free King Street Trolley covers the walk down to the waterfront at no extra cost. The seasonal Potomac water taxi from The Wharf runs March through December only, roughly $22 one way, a pricier alternative, not a year-round budget option. Once you’re there, the cobblestone streets and the Torpedo Factory Art Center are free to browse, and a casual lunch runs $12-20.
Mount Vernon: the $30 Ticket Worth Paying
Admission runs $30 for adults, $16 for ages 6-11, and free under 6, covering George Washington’s working estate, farm, and tomb about 16 miles south of downtown. This is a paid historic-house museum, not a free National Park Service monument, so don’t confuse it with the separately run Washington Monument on the Mall. Hours are 9am-5pm April through October and 9am-4pm November through March. Reach it by car, tour bus, or, seasonally, a Potomac riverboat cruise from Alexandria or The Wharf. Check for a small online-advance discount before paying at the gate, promo codes for this one circulate and change, so verify what’s live before you book.
Annapolis: Skip the Rideshare, Take the Direct Bus
There’s no direct train to Annapolis, a genuinely easy mistake given how close it looks on a map. A once-daily direct bus is the cheapest car-free option at roughly $4-12 each way and about 1h10, while rideshare runs $60-135 one way. Once there, the US Naval Academy allows pedestrian public access with no vehicle needed, though every visitor 18 and older needs a REAL-ID-compliant photo ID or a passport. Guided tours run $12 for adults, $11 for seniors, and $10 for children, open 9am-5pm March through December with shorter winter hours. Skip the paid tour if money’s tight, the grounds and waterfront are free to walk once you’re inside with valid ID.
Baltimore by MARC: Cheaper Than the Amtrak Option
Baltimore sits about 40 miles out, roughly 35-45 minutes by MARC or Amtrak from Union Station. MARC is the commuter-oriented, cheaper, slower option, Amtrak is faster and pricier, verify the current fare gap before you book either. The Inner Harbor waterfront is free to walk, and the National Aquarium runs $49.95 for adults and $39.95 for youth and seniors on a timed-entry ticket, easily the priciest single admission on this list. The Friday-after-5pm walk-up deal cuts that roughly in half, the best single discount here, and Maryland residents get a separate weekday-before-noon rate. This is a genuinely bigger city than the small-town day trips on this list, budget a full day for it.
Great Falls: $20 a Car, No Transit Reaches It
The Potomac gorge sits about 15 miles upriver, split between a Virginia side, Great Falls Park, run by the National Park Service, and a Maryland side, part of the C&O Canal National Historical Park. The Virginia side charges $20 per vehicle as of the tariff that took effect in January 2026, with under-16s free, and the fee is flat per vehicle, not per person, so a full car actually lowers your cost per rider. No public transit reaches either side directly, a car, a rideshare (Metro to the Silver Line then a taxi runs roughly $21-29), or an organized tour are the only realistic options.
Harpers Ferry: One Amtrak Train a Day, Still Cheap
This historic town at the Potomac and Shenandoah confluence sits about 1h15 out by car, with roughly three states visible from the same overlook. Amtrak’s Capitol Limited runs seven days a week and stops here, departing DC in the mid-afternoon, verify the current timetable since a single daily train each direction takes real planning. MARC’s Brunswick Line also reaches Harpers Ferry, but it’s a weekday-commuter schedule only, morning into DC and evening out, and simply doesn’t run on weekends. Build your day around Amtrak’s one timetable rather than assuming Metro-style frequency, and this stays one of the better car-free options here precisely because a train ticket beats a rental car.
Gettysburg: the Priciest Day Trip on This List
At roughly 85 miles and 1h40 or more by car, Gettysburg has no practical direct transit, the nearest realistic public approach is a long combination of Metro to Shady Grove plus a further bus or drive, or simply a rental car or an organized tour. That’s a real three-plus-hour round trip on top of touring the battlefield itself. Splitting a rental car three or four ways brings the per-person cost down closer to the other trips on this list, and this genuinely suits an overnight or a tour-bus format better than a rushed self-driven day if cost is the deciding factor.
Shenandoah National Park: a Car Trip, One District Only
The nearest entrance, Front Royal, sits roughly 70-90 miles out, 1h15 to 2 hours or more depending on route and DC-area traffic, with effectively no public transit reaching it. Skyline Drive itself runs 105 miles end to end, so a single day from DC means picking the northern district near Front Royal, not attempting the whole park. Pair this trip, or Gettysburg, with a packed lunch and a flat park entrance fee rather than stacking paid extras on top, both are car-only by nature and that’s where the real cost on this list sits.
How Do You Get to These Day Trips Without a Car?
Three of the eight run entirely car-free: Old Town Alexandria by Metro, Annapolis by direct bus at roughly $4-12, and Harpers Ferry by Amtrak’s once-daily Capitol Limited. Baltimore adds MARC or Amtrak from Union Station. Mount Vernon, Great Falls, Gettysburg, and Shenandoah all genuinely need a car, a rideshare, or an organized tour, no realistic public-transit path reaches any of those four.
Which of These Day Trips Is the Cheapest?
Old Town Alexandria, capped at a $6.75 Metro fare each way and less on weekends, with the historic district itself free to walk once you arrive. Annapolis by direct bus, at roughly $4-12 each way, comes in nearly as cheap and beats its own rideshare alternative badly. Mount Vernon’s $30 ticket and Baltimore’s $49.95 aquarium admission are the priciest single paid attractions, though both destinations are free to simply walk around beyond those tickets.
Is the DC Circulator Still an Option for Any of These?
No. The dollar Circulator shuttle stopped running for good at the end of 2024, and it never reached these day trips anyway, it only looped a few in-city routes. For all eight trips here, budget for WMATA Metro, MARC, Amtrak, a direct bus, or your own car, there’s no cheap citywide shuttle standing in for any of these regional legs.
Check current fares and any weekend track work at wmata.com , Mount Vernon hours and promo codes at mountvernon.org , and Great Falls or Shenandoah entrance fees at nps.gov before you go, all three shift year to year. For general city planning, see washington.org . Stretching this into a longer trip, the 3-day plan adds Mount Vernon onto a DC-and-Alexandria base, and the 7-day plan is the one built around Gettysburg or Shenandoah. For where to sleep on this budget, see budget places to stay . Tip 18-20% at sit-down restaurants on every one of these trips, the standard US rate whether paid in cash or by card.