Best Budget Hotels in Washington DC

The closest hotel to the White House with an unobstructed North Lawn view from the Off the Record bar — Washington's most storied political watering hole. Open since 1928 in a Florentine Renaissance building where Henry Adams once hosted the city's intellectual elite, the Hay-Adams remains DC's most atmospheric power address.

• Lafayette Square
• Luxury
• Views

The most quietly excellent luxury hotel in the American capital, where Thomas Jefferson's influence permeates every detail — from original documents in the reading room to Quill restaurant's colonial-inspired tasting menus. The 99 rooms are among DC's largest and most elegantly furnished, with an attentiveness that White House neighbors would expect.

• Downtown
• Luxury
• Historic

DC's most politically engaged hotel — a progressive boutique property on K Street with a radio studio, cinema, co-working space, and a wellness floor with reflexology rooms and a spa. The Michelin-recognized Wing restaurant and a commitment to social justice causes make it a home base for activists, journalists, and creatives.

• Downtown
• Boutique
• Solo

Carved into a massive decommissioned church in Adams Morgan, The Line DC is the neighborhood's spiritual and social center — with a jaw-dropping original nave housing a restaurant from local legend Erik Bruner-Yang, a 220-room hotel occupying the surrounding blocks, and an energy that captures Adams Morgan's multicultural character perfectly.

• Adams Morgan
• Boutique
• Food Scene

Two blocks from the White House and serving the republic since 1818, The Willard is where Abraham Lincoln stayed before his inauguration and where the word 'lobbyist' is said to have originated in its lobby. The Beaux-Arts grandeur of the Round Robin Bar and the soaring atrium have made it the unofficial parlor room of American democracy.

• Downtown
• Historic
• Luxury