Parking at Shmoocon 2014

As part of the network team at Shmoocon, I did a site visit yesterday.  I’ll spare you all the technical details, but one important thing did come up… Parking.  It’s not going to be pretty.

Typically, the DuPont / Washington Hilton has a lot of parking space, but they are doing some serious construction on site which has a lot of their parking spaces occupied with equipment or giant holes in the floor.

I got trapped inside the garage with a parking ticket that wouldn’t let me out of the garage, and no open spaces except for those marked “Valet Only”.  Which I eventually parked in after being told I could do so.

The hotel said that this should be all better by the time Shmoocon rolls around (next week), but I have a feeling it won’t be.  One option the hotel person mentioned was they might go to an ALL valet parking situation.  Hmmm, expensive! So here are some other options…

There are garages in the area, but many are closed on Sunday around the time you might want to leave.  So you might need to get creative by parking your garage in these external garages through Saturday, then retrieving your car, and doing something else with it.

Also note that not all Metro parking lots take kindly to overnight parkers.  I’ve seen some that tow after your car has been there past a certain hour.  There ARE Metro parking lots that allow overnight parking, so double check before to abandon your car.

By the way, there is one attractive option located just south west of the hotel as long as you don’t mind leaving until 4PM.  If you are still around at that time, why not come down to the NOC and help us pack up and load out!

One Comment:

  1. Does this mean parked cars are safe from falling sheetrock?

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