Places to Live & Stuff to do in Washington D.C.

Hello everyone, I will be completing a stint up in D.C. and I am looking for any recommendations on places to live in Washington D.C. I was thinking about trying to find something in the NoVA area or in Maryland, but I'm not sure if it is worth it to spend the extra money to live somewhere with good nightlife and/or close to the office. Where is the best area for nightlife? Where do most of the college-age/recent grads live? Will living in somewhere cheaper impact your nightlife experience? I know there is always a lot of stuff on this forum about New York, but it would be nice to get a thread going for Washington D.C.

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Look for a room to rent from a Georgetown/GW/Howard/any other other plethora of schools in the area that will be open for the summer while those students are away. This will definitely be your cheapest and most flexible option. It will not be the Ritz-Carlton but you will pay easily $2.5k+ to live in a short-term studio. Plus, it will give you roommates to find stuff to do with.

As far as nightlife, U Street and Adams Morgan are probably the go-to's for college age or just out of college aged people. Georgetown has a few options and DuPont is a bit more upscale but has some cool spots. The Clarendon/Courthouse area in Arlington has quite a few bars too and is more of a state-school vibe - lots of UVa, Virginia Tech, JMU, William & Mary kids out and about.

If you are working in DC I would highly recommend living in DC, which conveniently is where all the students live as well. If you're going up this summer I'm not sure you'd even want to take the Metro but it's pretty simple to use. Aim for Adams Morgan if you want more of a resident experience, otherwise Georgetown/Glover will have tons of student houses, along with Foggy Bottom and AU Park. I wouldn't bother living in Maryland unless you're working there. Bethesda is absurdly expensive and full of mainly 40+ age people with families, and there's not a lot going on in Silver Spring. PG County isn't worth discussing.

Spit a lot at you there so feel free to pm me if you have any other questions.

 

can’t add much to this but I’d point OP towards Clarendon- think you can get some pretty good bang for buck nice walkable neighborhood vibes and plenty of good looking women. loved going out in Adams Morgan though - two words: dans cafe.

 

I misheard that place as "Dance" instead of "Dan's" when a friend told me about it. I was disappointed but those ketchup bottles were great. Admo gets a bit old, U St definitely has the best mix of bars. That being said, drinking anywhere for the most part is great. Think OP will do best in Clarendon if they stay close enough to the metro, living on the red line isn't all that great imo but for some that want to live in DC longer term it could be a good move.

Quant (ˈkwänt) n: An expert, someone who knows more and more about less and less until they know everything about nothing.
 

Yeah Arlington has some good spots including Clarendon, Ballston, Courthouse.

If Dans is the place where they hand you a pint of liquor and a bucket of ice - yeah that place is legit.

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

GW summer housing is excellent. Great location and full of other summer interns from all over the country. Highly recommend if you’re able to stay there and looking for ideal location, lots of opportunities to meet people with social scene, and everything pretty much covered (I.e. amenities, maintenance, etc.) under GW

 

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