Help: which area is better for families, Georgetown or Bethesda (downtown)?

[Anonymous]

We are moving back to DC for the first time with tweens. They will go to school in Bethesda, I will commute to Farragut North, spouse works from home. We can’t trial airbnb or have an extended visit before signing a lease. Could anyone who has lived in either or both Downtown Bethesda and Georgetown please weigh in to help us decide? What would be the biggest differences in our day to day? Could we be a one-car family in both locations?

Downtown Bethesda/Chevy Chase (within 10 minute walking radius of the metro) seems just as walkable as Georgetown and more convenient for school and activities. My spouse wants to live in Georgetown because it’s Georgetown (cute/walkable). Our local friends do not have young children and live in Georgetown/Dupont so want us to live in DC proper. I don’t want to hate my daily commute but I also don’t want my tweens to hate a long bus ride to/from Georgetown, or to spend hours driving them around on weekends/for day camp during school breaks. Thanks for your honest feedback.

[Anonymous]

I live in Bethesda and would vote for downtown Bethesda. I think it's a no-brainer if your kids are going to be in school in Bethesda because the daily ride to/from Georgetown would be brutal. For you, the metro ride from Bethesda to Farragut North is very easy (and would also allow you to be a one-car family). Downtown Bethesda is very friendly for teens, and I think more of your kids' classmates are likely to be in Bethesda.

Georgetown is very prestigious, but not as much as it used to be. In fact, I think the best shopping and dining in the DC area is no longer in Georgetown because of all the riff raff that Georgetown attracts.

[Anonymous]

My honest opinion!

I have lived in Georgetown and now live in CC. My kids went to school in NW DC and then up here. I would FAR rather live in Georgetown. No comparison. Georgetown is more than cute and walkable. It's an amazing community, filled with interesting people and culture and restaurants and events, where you walk a block off Wisconsin and find yourself on quiet and gorgeous streets of private historical homes, all lit up, with people gathered in the backyards socializing. You never know who you will meet in Georgetown! You'll find a real sense of community there. Also, your kids in a Bethesda school will definitely have friends who live in Gtown! And their school friends will love to come and visit them there.

Bethesda is suburban and sterile. The "city" of Bethesda is depressing, centered around an Anthropologie store, with restaurants that come and go, with nothing great or original at all. Everything is a chain, and parking is the worst, in horrid old-fashioned tower garages. It's the same to suburban communities in every city fro Rockville to St. Louis.

Georgetown is beautiful and historic. Not sure what PP means about the riff-raff, but please be sure to check crime reports - like BCC HS violence and car thefts and store robberies -before thinking that Georgetown is less safe than Bethesda.

Lastly I would say that CC is prettier and less crass/commercial/ugly than Bethesda, but it all depends on the neighborhood. CC has a rotten reputation of being nasty and racist and a bit backwards - and it is not undeserved, unfortunately, though the young people moving in are awesome and refreshing.

We have a few friends like us who have left Gtown for the burbs, and we all can't wait to move back to the city. Maybe most importantly to you, our kids miss Georgetown too - very much, ten years later.

[Anonymous]

Why are those the only two options? Why not Woodley Park, Cleveland Park or Forest Hills — all of which are metro accessible. AU Park and Friendship Heights as well.

[Anonymous]

Bethesda, you cao go to Georgetown anytime but the commute for the kids will suck.

[Anonymous]

No doubt Bethesda. Best of both worlds

[Anonymous]

Did I miss where your kids are going/will go to school? Georgetown is great but QOL will suffer in a big way if they are commuting an hour each way. I live in Bethesda and hated it after moving out of DC, but now that my kids are older, it’s best for them. I used to talk about moving back to the city but not anymore- I’ve grown to prefer access to RCP over restaurants. Obviously this is all personal but commutes suck for everyone especially kids with homework and sports and other ECs.

[Anonymous]

Georgetown is the better place to live, but it would be a huge mistake for your family. The drive to/from GT and Bethesda will wear you down. It is a miserable several miles of stop and go traffic on Wisconsin anytime in the morning or afternoon. I would prioritize daily sanity over access to cute restaurants and rowhouses, even though I vastly prefer GT to Bethesda.

The only way I'd ever consider this is:
1) if you have bus service to Bethesda so you don't have to drive kids to/from school
2) your or your spouse loves driving and doesn't mind doing the drive
3) you want to bike or walk to work to Farrugut North. It's a 2 mile bike ride that's pretty easy to do.

[Anonymous]

If school is Bethesda, then Bethesda. Otherwise Georgetown of course

[Anonymous]

Live in Bethesda. You aren’t there for the downtown architecture.

[Anonymous]

How are your kids going to get to/from school? If you have to drive them, then Bethesda. Otherwise what about Wesley heights? That’s kind of an in between.

[Anonymous]

For tweens going to school in bethesda it's going to be much better and easier for them to be in bethesda where they'll be closer to school, school activities, and likely most of their friends.

Georgetown is great and yes super cute and quaint, but not exactly what a tween would be interested in imo.

[Anonymous]

Do you envision the kids taking buses or will you do a long round trip each day to take them?

[Anonymous]

We live in Georgetown and love it but if my kids were going to school in Bethesda, I would want to live further north. Georgetown is perfect if your kids go to school somewhere in the Cathedral/Tenleytown area, which has a cluster of private schools.

[Anonymous]

The wfh spouse is right that it would be much more fun for him to live in Georgetown. But the commute to Farragut North and the one to Bethesda would be pretty awful compared to living in Bethesda.

If you really want to have one car, you have to live near a red line stop. The other person has to drive the kids. I don’t see how you could live in Georgetown happily without two cars so they can go in different directions each morning. Which is another problem about Georgetown - where to put the cars.

If you have one car in Georgetown, WFH spouse would probably end up driving two round trips a day to Bethesda for school pick up while the other parent uses the bus or something. That’s really, really a lot of driving. Traffic can be horrible. It would make it hard to enjoy walking to a cute lunch, if they even had time.

Maybe when the kids can drive, you move to Georgetown.