Holiday Washington DC in Nov 2025: Day 1 – Early Evening in Washington DC

By Nige on November 9, 2025 at 8:02 pm
Type: Post
Story: Holiday Washington DC in Nov 2025 Category: Travel
Tags: Hilton | Holidays | IAD | USA | Washington

After leaving the aircraft, we walked about 50 yards down the corridor of the satellite terminal building into the Mobile Lounge. Were the second passengers onboard and we secured ourselves on one side close to the entrance, ready for a fast exit.

We got into a conversation with a couple of passengers: one was being transported in an airport wheelchair due to not being able to get around too easily.

He was a local and talked a lot about how old the People Transporters were and how the airport could easily have allowed the trains that connect the main terminal to the satellite terminal buildings to work both ways.

The other was a UK business person who travels a lot between the UK, US and Canada, yet he hadn’t committed to Global Entry. He reported that immigration took two hours the last time he came through. Seemed a bit crazy. Perhaps he thought it was took much hassle to apply.

As it happens, when we arrived at immigration, Global Entry was fairly speedy. There was a short queue but everything was via facial recognition and we were through in 5 mins.

We then followed directions to the Metro, which took us about 5 mins to reach and waited about 7 or 8 mins for the next Silver Line train to Largo. It was almost empty, so seats were easily acquired.

About 16 stops and 50 mins later we got off at McPherson Square and could see our hotel across the street.

The Hilton Garden Inn Downtown had messed us around a little in respect to room assignments, but we finally got into our one bed suite (room 1101) and we were still surprisingly alive and kicking.

We settled in, had showers and headed out to The Cheesecake Factory (TCF) for a bite to eat. That was only 5 mins across the street, so another ideally located hotel!

There was no wait at TCF – straight into a booth. We immediately ordered two pina coladas, which were very cold.

For starters, we shared the chicken tacitas, which were fabulously tasty.

For main course, we shared the Sante Fe salad, which was unbelievably small! We were a little bit stunned. It was still very tasty, but we had to question our waitress about it later on. She thought it must have been a mistake.

We ordered a lemon raspberry cheesecake for take out, and the restaurant gave it to us free of charge due to the issues with the salad. Obviously that was enjoyed in our hotel room.

Holiday Washington DC in Nov 2025