I was there for a conference. The room was nice and specious. The hotel is huge, but there's different restaurants and shops inside the hotel. There's also a lot restaurants and shops outside the hotel all within walking distance. Transportation to the hotel and anywhere outside the town was expensive. We used public transportation to get to DC, bus and then a transfer to the metro, very easy but time consuming about and hour to get there.

My husband and I, as well as our 12 year old son stayed here for 5 nights in January 2013. We chose the Gaylord because our older son was at the same hotel for a convention of high school students and we wanted to be close to him. Our room was very comfortable and quiet. This hotel is HUGE, which is a benefit when you have close to 2,000 high school students also staying there! We scarcely noticed them. The overall decor is impressive and elegant. Again, this is a LARGE facility with a great deal of walking involved. The hotel restaurants are fine- nothing special but certainly above average. We did enjoy the substantial breakfast buffet every morning. In order to take public transportation into Washington D.C. we had to take a cab ($20 each way) to the station in Alexandria. The hotel shuttle was $20 per person so the cab was a better deal. My only complaint is that a hotel of this size could have offered a more reasonable shuttle service for it's guests. All in all a good experience.

Stayed in Dec. Entire hotel beautifully decorated for holidays. Stayed in a room with balcony overlooking huge indoor atrium. Room very spacious and very well sound proofed . Housekeeping provides 2 bottles of water each day. They had several restaurants. Ate at the breakfast and lunch buffets. Both were good. There is a quick service open for breakfast and lunch. There is a large gym, large indoor pool and hot tub.for he holidays they had light shoes with indoor snow, caroling etc. For a fee there was gingerbread decorating, photos with santa and a small train ride. There was also an Indoor dreamworks ice experience we didn't attend but heard was very nice. There are a number of restaurants and shops all within walking distance..

First I must say that I have never actually stayed at this hotel.

But as a resident of the nearby MD suburbs I've visited the hotel many times since it's opened for conferences and holiday events. As described by everyone and as is standard for the chain, the hotel itself is impressive and quite lovely. It is breathtaking during the holiday season. We attended a conference there and were impressed with the conference facilities including the helpfulness of the staff nearby. Valet parking is very expensive but the valet staff was superb.

Quite a few restaurants in the area and several other hotels to consider for your stay. Since we have small kids, the new National Children's Museum which just opened this past December is a big attraction for us and we will likely continue to visit the area.