TDY Gouge - Maryland

Andrews AFB, MD - ATTENTION CREWS: Avoid delays by referring to the PREFERRED ROUTING posted in baseops when filing your flight plans out of Andrews - or you can expect delays with your clearance! Andrews Base Ops... Make sure you use the proffered routings out of Andrews. Once again TACC does not use it. The Lazy Slugs at Andrews have not updated the Route book for 3 years. I have asked them to do it several times but they blew me off. These routes are updated every 56 days. Proffered route book date should coincide with your pubs dates. Get a rental car for easy access to DC - Third Edition and Champions are on 'M street' at Wisconsin Ave Georgetown Station is a block away as well, in Georgetown. Comfort Inn on Malcom Rd. is a hole, lousy service and no food nearby. Bullet-proof glass at the check-in counter is reason enough not to stay here. Days Inn Camp Springs/Andrews AFB has anthrax. There is no place to eat within ~ 2 miles. The TVs have about half the channels they advertise and the rooms are dark and dusty. If you are going to be more than just the min ground time, I would stay in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia - preferably on King Street near the bars, etc... (Andrews Transpo will refuse to drive you so just take a cab.) Double Tree, Largo Maryland -FAX (301) 773-0700 has free hot cookies on check-in! Very Very nice rooms.. kinda off the beaten path but a bakery/deli located in the hotel with a small cocktail bar. Very nice staff and good service

~After having taken time to call Andrews Lodging to ensure we were all set up for our RON, we showed up got Non-A's for the hotel and upon arrival at HOLIDAY INN CAMP SPRINGS (just out the gate), were told there were NO reservations made for us. They did have rooms however they were all smoking rooms. We declined, called lodging (loads of excuses and little action). We called the folks at the Waldorf Holiday Inn and they were very happy to have us, both types of rooms available, right beside a Bennigans and Lone Star as well. Not only that, but they gave us the rooms for the same price with no discussion or complaints. Nothing really above and beyond but the place was good, folks were helpful and food was close by - none of that was true of the Camp Springs place - AVOID IT! ~Hampton Inn Alexandria, VA (T.703-329-1400/ F.703-329-1424) was good. Offers free shuttle to and from King street for eats and drinks. About 15 - 20 min back to base. Good over all location if there for a couple of days.

~I wanted to take the chance to update your TDY gouge on Colony South 301-856-4500 (Oct2004). It seems that more crews have been moved out there recently and I had a totally different experience from what was described on your page. The hotel itself is very pleasant with a nice little gym and free internet access in the rooms (you have to ask). In addition, there is a complimentary (hot) breakfast (get there before 10am). The bar has improved a lot, and offers plenty of military discounts. I had a nice experience in the bar and ate dinner there several times. The drinks are relatively cheap and nowadays there are plenty of crews there, so you might run into some friends. Places to eat out: take 5 south about 10 miles to Waldorf to find any restaurant you can imagine. The Old Town area in Alexandria (across the Potomac river) is terrific (as described in the gouge). Sightseeing: if you get a day off and want to see DC, ask for directions to the nearest Metro station. You'll most likely have to pay for parking, but you can combine the cost of parking with your train fare so the whole process is relatively painless. ~Colony South update - we didn't get to the hotel until around 1AM. We were the only people checking in and with 2 desk clerks it took 45 min to get 7 people checked in. The bar in the hotel closed as we got there (some Marines and a KC-10 crew almost got into it, so they may have closed early) and the room was average. Would not give us a late check out without charging us for it. Front desk were rude and not very helpful with directions or basically anything we asked of them. We had heard that this was a "great hotel" and chose to stay there as we were less than 24 hrs on the ground. Not again if I can help it ~UPDATE (10/26/06): I am doing a staff weinie job here for 45 days with the ANG, and was originally put up in the Colony South. I checked in, and went to my small room with two double beds and no refrigerator. I called the front desk and was told a 'fridge would be an extra $5 a day. I went to the bar and met a buddy, who told me he had a nice kitchenette room. I went to the front desk to request that since I was here for so long. I was told "You are here too long for a nicer room." Which made no sense. I told them that i was going to go to get a different hotel if the situation was not rectified. I was told "fine, do that." And I did. Now I am at the Homestead suites in Alexandria, which is alright.

The staff seems to be getting ruder, and taking the military business for granted. Its ok when I have RON'ed there one night, but for multiple nights its not the place to go.

~Radisson Hotel Largo - (301) 773-0700. We staged out of Andrews for a week for AE. When I called Andrews Lodging, the places that had good reviews on Baseops weren't an option; the places that were options all had bad reviews except the Radisson Largo ( http://www.radisson.com/largomd ). So I took my chances. All in all, nice place. $99/night through Andrews Lodging.

Pros:

• Close to a retail area called "The Blvd" with restaurants, a theater, shops, etc. We walked there once, but it's really more driving distance. *Neat, clean rooms. "Sleep Number" king size beds.
• No problems with the front desk or other employees.
• Two computers with internet access and a printer available in the lobby. Usually occupied, though. *Right on I-95 only 8 exits north of base - no traffic issues going to or from the hotel. *There is a hotel bar, but it's largely overpriced. *Microwave and fridge (no freezer) in the rooms. *Pool and fitness center. We never used it, but I did look around. The fitness center is cardio only - no weights. *Big flat screen plasma TVs. *There's a hotel shuttle every hour. Not sure about the particulars - we never used it.
  
  
  • No breakfast. There is a $12 breakfast buffet. It's good, but nowhere near worth $12 IMHO. We weaseled one free morning, but that was just from an unsuspecting employee. The manager wouldn't give an inch. The restaurant staff was not very friendly. *Ethnically singular. We got strange looks nearly everywhere we went. *No internet access in the rooms unless you pay for it.

  Other notes:

  [*]The Outback restaurant near the hotel is awful. Don't even bother going. The filet mignon, sirloin, and ribeye were all the same thing. *Kaz Sushi Bistro (http://kazsushibistro.com/) in downtown DC is a great place. Our nav said it's not as good as Tokyo, but close enough.[*]The Capitol City Brewery (http://www.capcitybrew.com/) had great service and good food. Sit at the bar. The bartenders have great personalities and were johnny-on-the-spot with the drinks. *There's an IHOP on the way to base off Pennsylvania Ave. 50% on Thursdays for military. Service was always slow or non-existent, but the food is reliable. *Pizzeria Uno, in The Blvd, has good pizza, good desserts, awful service. Don't go if you are in a hurry. Don't sit in the bar.

  Don't expect separate checks ANYWHERE you go.

  Andrews Command Post is manned by friggin' idiots. They forgot to tell us about an entire day's worth of missions until the morning of. I don't know what more we could have done, but you need to stay on them every day. And make sure they're checking THE COMPUTER, not just what they printed out three days earlier. We think that's what happened to us - they were going off frags they printed Monday and TACC had dropped something new in the meantime. WX and Base Ops were par - nothing outstanding good or bad.

  There is an Enterprise rent a car in the pax terminal just down from Base Ops. You have to go through "security" to get there, so leave your knives and stuff somewhere else when you go pick up the cars. They close kinda early. If you'll arrive after hours, I think they can leave the keys in the pax terminal DV lounge if you arrange for that. We got a Ford Expedition for the week. No complaints. You can drive your rental to your plane, and then park it next to the hangars while you're gone for the day. The off limits areas are very obvious and marked in red.

  The TA trucks were kinda slow. If you need water, get on them early so they aren't holding up your departure.

  TACC will never file the correct or preferred routing for departing ADW, so expect your clearance to be nothing like what your flight plan says. Navs - don't program SCNS until you've called Clearance Delivery and expect multiple reroutes once airborne. An east coast navaid/fix database would be a huge help if you can make one at home station to take with you. If you're filing for yourself, like somebody else said, there's a long poster of preferred routings in the flight planning room. We seemed to get the Manne Four and Irons Four arrivals mostly on the way in and the Tyson One departure on the way out (it's text only, published with the Trouble Ts).

  The flight kitchen is a good deal - $3.05 for a decent box lunch. It's located south of Base Ops. Cokes are $0.40 each if bought separately.

  If you can get non-A's from lodging, the Embassy Suites in Old Town Alexandria (across the bridge in Virginia) does have the government rate or even their 'best' rate (which was about $30 lower than the government rate). Cooked to order breakfast and managers reception in the evening (snacks, $1 beers and $2 drinks). Right across the street from the Metro. Easy walking distance to all the bars and restaurants on King Street (they even have a shuttle which runs till 2200). Check out more details on Washington DC TDY.

  BWI, MD - Do not stay at the Sheraton BWI at the airport. They say they are military friendly , but refused to reverse the charges on 5 rooms although they were cancelled. Unfortunately, we had to cancel them once we got to the hotel because the crew was airborne coming back from the desert and was unable to call before 4 pm. Some of the crew managed to catch a flight home to CA. but we still had some crew stay at their hotel, and we had guys rotating in and out of that hotel during rotations. The GM finally said he would eat half the charges after much persistence months after the stay and numerous phone calls.

  BWI, MD - Embassy Suites BWI is a good, standard Embassy Suites. Free Drinks in the evening, good free breakfast. Showed there after a late-night rotator before driving home. Good deal all around. Take advantage of that one hotel room night when coming back from the AOR. No need to drive after 16+ hours of flying...and no need to sleep in the terminal. Westin (also have heard good things) is right next door.

  Any Kimpton Property in Old Town Alexandria is great. Morrison House/Monaco, or Lorien. Walking distance to more bars and restaurants than you can handle. If you book at the Gov't rate...usually more expensive than cheapest, you get free breakfast. Join the Kimpton club and get free internet. We stayed at the Monaco and it was perfect.