What is the best way to get from Washington Dulles airport to Annapolis?

Question

Is there a train that I can catch, or a good bus service? I have never been to either place. I would rather not drive as I am really uncomfortable driving in new places, and it will be rush hour.

Answer 1

Wow, this will probably be an absolute ordeal.

(Since I know that driving it is an ordeal, I would assume that taking public transportation would be worse.)

The good news, is I guess, that it probably won't cost that much. The bad news is that it will probably take forever. And if your flight gets in late, it might not be feasible at all.

But here goes. In theory, (never done it myself). You will take a bus from Dulles to a DC Metro station, then take the DC Metro from the west suburbs to the east suburbs of DC, then take a bus from DC to Annapolis.

Step 1:

Take Metrobus 5A from Dulles airport to Rosslyn Metro Station.

Step 2:

Take DC metro from Rosslyn to New Carrolton. This will be the easiest part, since the DC Metro is a good system, and you don't even have to change trains (Stay on orange line).

Step 3.

Now you're in Maryland. Take MTA bus 921 from New Carrolton Metro to Annapolis.

Good luck.

Edit: When I looked at this again (and changed some wrong info about which metro stops the 5A bus went to) it is not all that bad. The latest you could get on the 5A is 5:25 PM. That will have you in Annapolis at 8:00. It will take around 2.5 hours and cost around $10.

Answer 2

Your best best is to fly into BWI and take the Annapolis Transit C-60 bus to Annapolis. The bus costs $4 and operates on an hourly basis between 7:30 AM and 5:30 PM. You could also take the #17 bus from BWI to Patapsco and transfer to the #14 bus which goes to Annapolis but that tends to be awkward for most people. If you fly into Dulles or National, the MTA Commuter bus at New Carrollton only operates eastbound during the PM rush hours. If you wind up at New Carrollton between those times, you may have to wait hours to catch the bus. You could convince a local taxi to take you to the Marina in Annapolis for a $40 flat rate - at least that is what I would do. Otherwise, rent a car.

Answer 3

There are ways to do this, assuming you have no time constraints. You will essentially have to travel from Dulles to DC, and then DC to Annapolis. First determine how you want to get from Dulles to DC.

http://www.mwaa.com/dulles/parking_transportation_3/ground_transportation

The cheapest way would be to take the metro (city) bus.

http://www.wmata.com/tripplanner_d/tripplanner.cfm

in the trip planner write, travel from : dulles airport travel to: lenfant plaza and put the date and time

it will tell you what time the 5A bus leaves dulles. it takes about an hour to get to lenfant plaza.

then determine how you will get to annapolis. I've found two options, depending on what time of day it is. between 3pm and 6pm (evening rush) you can take a commuter bus from lenfant plaza to annapolis.

http://www.mtamaryland.com/services/commuterbus/schedulesSystemMaps/922_sched.cfm

this will likely drop you at a park and ride so you may have to take a taxi or local bus to your destination.

greyhound has a morning option

http://www.greyhound.com/scripts/en/TicketCenter/Step3.asp

but it takes 2 and a half hours because it first goes to baltimore and it costs about $18. and you will need to get to the bus station from lenfant plaza, which is no huge thing, but still an extra travel step.

also, apparently you can take the marc train to bwi and then a bus to annapolis.

http://www.visit-annapolis.org/index.asp?action=visitors_gettinghere_traveling

One other option is flexcar.com
you could pick up the flexcar at new carrollton metro station, and from there you are only about a 30 minute drive to annapolis-a straight shot down route 50 east.

Good luck!

Answer 4

I agree with the poster above. You will want to rent a car even though you do not like driving in rush hour in a strange city. You can get there by public transportation--- I am not sure of the exact route but you would need to take a shuttle bus to the Metro, the Metro into DC, transfer to a different Metro train, then on to a commuter bus. That'll take a long, long time and probably end up being far more complicated than taking a rental car.

Answer 5

This is actually quite a long way....There is no bus or train service from Dulles directly to Annapolis.....there is a bus station in DC, so you would have to get to DC from Dulles first and this would either be by taxi to the Vienna Metro, and then to the Union Station Metro, and then by taxi again to the bus station...or you would take a taxi directly into DC to the bus station (about $50)....from DC to Annapolis is about an hour by car/bus.....I would truly recommend driving, as although it is a long drive it is all highways and almost impossible to get lost......Rt. 66 east to 495 E toward Baltimore...stay on 495 E to Rt. 50 E staight to Annapolis.....good luck