Tips for moving to NoVa for the schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The commute from Vienna Station to DC is 30 minutes, 45 if you need to go deeper in DC. It's easy and you always get a seat. Driving is a different story, but if you live close to the train station there is no need to ever drive. Its been great - we are DC transplants ourselves.

And another 30 minutes spent on the front and back end. Best case scenario is an hour door to door. Hard pass.

Plus, you are in suburbia hell in Vienna.

LOL at Vienna being suburbia hell.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The commute from Vienna Station to DC is 30 minutes, 45 if you need to go deeper in DC. It's easy and you always get a seat. Driving is a different story, but if you live close to the train station there is no need to ever drive. Its been great - we are DC transplants ourselves.

And another 30 minutes spent on the front and back end. Best case scenario is an hour door to door. Hard pass.

Plus, you are in suburbia hell in Vienna.

If PP lives close the station like she said, then there is no extra 30 minutes on the front and back end. If you're driving into downtown DC from Falls Church or northern McLean, you've got both traffic and parking to worry about. No thanks, metro any day for me.

DP. I don't doubt the commute can be less than an hour depending on the proximity to the Vienna metro, or close to an hour or more in some cases.

But the shortest commute to DC from Vienna puts you in a townhouse with lots of stairs and not much of a yard. Falls Church and McLean have neighborhoods with both single-family houses and townhouses that are a short drive to Metro stations and a shorter drive to DC than from Vienna.

Do those Falls Church/McLean SFHs have fewer stairs? Are they not 3-4 levels?

True that the yard isn't big, but it's zero maintenance and the kids just play in the common areas and the park, which is less than a block away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The commute from Vienna Station to DC is 30 minutes, 45 if you need to go deeper in DC. It's easy and you always get a seat. Driving is a different story, but if you live close to the train station there is no need to ever drive. Its been great - we are DC transplants ourselves.

And another 30 minutes spent on the front and back end. Best case scenario is an hour door to door. Hard pass.

Plus, you are in suburbia hell in Vienna.

LOL at Vienna being suburbia hell.

esp as compared to north arlington, pimmit hills, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The commute from Vienna Station to DC is 30 minutes, 45 if you need to go deeper in DC. It's easy and you always get a seat. Driving is a different story, but if you live close to the train station there is no need to ever drive. Its been great - we are DC transplants ourselves.

And another 30 minutes spent on the front and back end. Best case scenario is an hour door to door. Hard pass.

Plus, you are in suburbia hell in Vienna.

LOL at Vienna being suburbia hell.

It isn't?

1950s garbage construction right up on the edge of 66.

If you like it, that's fine but lets not pretend its anything other than suburban hell.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Robinson HS is good too. Try zip code 22032

Robinson is a pretty rough commute to DC.

[Anonymous]

OP, do you work in DC proper? If so, then wouldn't Montgomery county also be a good option?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The commute from Vienna Station to DC is 30 minutes, 45 if you need to go deeper in DC. It's easy and you always get a seat. Driving is a different story, but if you live close to the train station there is no need to ever drive. Its been great - we are DC transplants ourselves.

And another 30 minutes spent on the front and back end. Best case scenario is an hour door to door. Hard pass.

Plus, you are in suburbia hell in Vienna.

LOL at Vienna being suburbia hell.

It isn't?

1950s garbage construction right up on the edge of 66.

If you like it, that's fine but lets not pretend its anything other than suburban hell.

Sounds like you haven't been there in awhile! Those 1950s homes are all getting torn down and replaced with 1.7M new constructions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, do you work in DC proper? If so, then wouldn't Montgomery county also be a good option?

A good question to ask is whereabouts in DC does OP work. Western half? Near red, yellow, or orange lines?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Robinson HS is good too. Try zip code 22032

Robinson is a pretty rough commute to DC.

It's a pretty easy commute on the VRE from Burke as long as the VRE stop is convenient to the office, so L'Enfant and Union Station basically. If you have to transfer to metro, it's more of a pain.

I wouldn't want to do it every day but lots of people do, or did pre-Covid anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Robinson HS is good too. Try zip code 22032

Robinson is a pretty rough commute to DC.

It's a pretty easy commute on the VRE from Burke as long as the VRE stop is convenient to the office, so L'Enfant and Union Station basically. If you have to transfer to metro, it's more of a pain.

I wouldn't want to do it every day but lots of people do, or did pre-Covid anyway.

I honestly would not recommend someone do a VRE commute. Also, if you're looking in that direction, I would probably say Lake Braddock and West Springfield are slightly better schools and slightly closer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, do you work in DC proper? If so, then wouldn't Montgomery county also be a good option?

A good question to ask is whereabouts in DC does OP work. Western half? Near red, yellow, or orange lines?

This. If red line, I would actually suggest Maryland.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The commute from Vienna Station to DC is 30 minutes, 45 if you need to go deeper in DC. It's easy and you always get a seat. Driving is a different story, but if you live close to the train station there is no need to ever drive. Its been great - we are DC transplants ourselves.

And another 30 minutes spent on the front and back end. Best case scenario is an hour door to door. Hard pass.

Plus, you are in suburbia hell in Vienna.

LOL at Vienna being suburbia hell.

if Vienna is suburbia hell, then what is Ashburn?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The commute from Vienna Station to DC is 30 minutes, 45 if you need to go deeper in DC. It's easy and you always get a seat. Driving is a different story, but if you live close to the train station there is no need to ever drive. Its been great - we are DC transplants ourselves.

You have to add on the time it takes to get to the station, park, walk to the platform, wait for the train, and walk from the station in DC to your office. It adds up. Commuted from Vienna to DC for years and it was almost never 30 minutes and often over an hour. You do not want to do this if you have other options.

This. We live midway between East Falls Church and Ballston (1-2 miles to the Metro) and my husband’s commute is 45 min to Federal Triangle - and he works practically on top of the Metro.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The commute from Vienna Station to DC is 30 minutes, 45 if you need to go deeper in DC. It's easy and you always get a seat. Driving is a different story, but if you live close to the train station there is no need to ever drive. Its been great - we are DC transplants ourselves.

And another 30 minutes spent on the front and back end. Best case scenario is an hour door to door. Hard pass.

Plus, you are in suburbia hell in Vienna.

LOL at Vienna being suburbia hell.

if Vienna is suburbia hell, then what is Ashburn?

Exurb / Faux-rural hell

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, do you work in DC proper? If so, then wouldn't Montgomery county also be a good option?

I work in Georgetown and my husband works near Union Station