Travel and Hotel

BOSTON

8 hours

• Amtrak Share Fares offers 60% off tickets when booking in groups of 8

• Fares for Night Owl and Early Bird trains departing between 7p.m. and 7a.m. are discounted as well.

• NCSC LIII Director of Delegate Affairs Jackson Roberts on a Night Owl from Boston to DC: “It’s not horrible”

• Tickets prices (one way, coach):

• From NY-Penn: $10-25

• From Boston: $43-76

• The train takes 12 hours to travel from Boston to DC with a 4 hour stop in Philadelphia, meaning you arrive at your destination right at 7 am!

• Amtrak offers a group travel request form with discounts for groups bigger than 15

•  Pre-boarding for any group larger than 10 people can be requested by contacting Amtrak.

American

DCA Terminal 2

For international flights, NCSC recommends budgeting an extra one to two hours of time between the end of your flight and intended arrival time to travel through customs. This does not include travel time from the airport to the Washington Hilton.

• Nearly all international flights fly to Dulles. National only offers select international flights from the certain airports in the Caribbean and Canada (Montréal–Trudeau, Ottawa, and Toronto–Pearson).

• If taking a series of flights, please ensure that you anticipate going through customs during your first layover in the United States. Some useful reminders for going through customs:

• The customs officer will ask you at least three questions, three of which are almost guaranteed to be:

• What is the purpose of your visit? 

• The National Collegiate Security Conference, a Model UN Conference located in Washington, DC

• How long do you plan to visit?

• Your answer depends on your delegation’s plans, but NCSC LIII is October 30th–November 2nd.

• Where will you be staying?

• The Washington Hilton in Washington, DC

• Make sure all members of your delegation know the answer to these questions before going through customs.

• Make sure you have up-to-date personal documents and information. This includes both a passport and your visa.

Alcoholic beverages must be transported by a traveller over the age of 21 and in checked luggage. NCSC does not condone the act of transporting alcoholic beverages into the United States.

• Navigation apps like Waze, Google Maps, and Apple Maps are your best navigation guides to making it to D.C.

• The District is largely toll-free.

• Stay on alert while driving in DC (and in general). In some parts of the DMV, there are quick exits, confusing signage, and many merges and intersections. Especially tricky areas are by the Watergate complex/Kennedy Center, on Highway 695 in the SW Quadrant, and around Rosslyn and the Pentagon in Virginia. Please do not get your delegation in an accident.

• Once you reach the Washington Hilton, there is very little reason to drive. Most amenities, restaurants, and attractions are more accessible by Metro, walking, or Uber.

• Parking is scarce outside the Washington Hilton and even more so in downtown DC.

The District’s Street System

In downtown DC, all streets are named and organized after a simple system:

• D.C.'s streets are a grid with diagonal intersections.

• North-south streets are numbered by their distance from the Capitol: 15th Street, 16th Street, 17th Street, and so on.

• East-west streets are lettered in alphabetical order (skipping J) by their distance from the Capitol: M Street, N Street, O Street, and so on.

• Diagonals and some important streets are avenues named after states: Pennsylvania Avenue, Connecticut Avenue, Constitution Avenue (not a state name, but one of the best streets. <—I’ll take that out too if you want —Avelyn), and so on.

• Know you quadrants! DC is divided into four quadrants (NW, NE, SW, and SE) centered on the Capitol, and streets are named by their distance from the Capitol with regard to quadrants. This means, for example, there is a 4th Street NW, a 4th Street NE, a 4th Street SW, and a 4th Street SE. This rule still applies even if the street name is found only in one quadrant.

• The Washington Hilton and most other locations in DC delegations will be travelling to are in the Northwest (NW) quadrant.

• Be aware of one way streets. Most major streets are two ways, but other roads depend on neighborhood and direction. In downtown, most grid streets (letters and numbers) are one-way.