Wyndham Vacation Resorts at National Harbor

We live just across the river in Virginia and have stayed at Wyndham National Harbor three times. The first, about two weeks after it opened in February 2010, was disastrous. The unit was dirty (food in the sofa, something smeared on the front of the refrigerator, dust and dirt on the floors, skid marks in the hot tub, and on and on). Staff was simply not ready for business and reacted with surliness. Staff seemed to have the attitude that they were owed a job and that work was optional. Construction quality is shabby and there was construction debris in quite a few locations.

We went back six months later. The physical appearance of the resort and the unit was much better but still not up to the standards of the five star resort National Harbor purports to be. Much of the staff had turned over since our first visit but there was still evidence that you were there to accommodate the staff, not the other way around.

Our third visit, around 4th of July 2011, was much more pleasant with only one encounter with one staff member.

Avoid at all costs the "update" or "survey" or whatever they are calling it now. You'll only feel dirty if you go.

National Harbor itself has much to offer, but nothing is cheap. Families with children will find it difficult to stay keep to any kind of budget unless many meals are eaten in. Bring groceries or be prepared to leave National Harbor. There are no family restaurants in National Harbor, either in style or price. There is some specialty/boutique shopping -- again very expensive. The CVS in the Wyndham building is finally open. The star of the show is Gaylord's Hotel and Convention Center. Disney is supposed to be building up the hill from Wyndham. If it is a family resort, they'd better open some family-priced restaurants.

There's a DC Metro bus stop just up the street. It takes you to the Branch Ave. Metro station, giving you access to most of the attractions in the District. Better yet, plan way ahead and get a reservation at Wyndham Old Town Alexandria. Greater variety of shopping, better choice of restaurants, Metro rail access across the street.

Bottom line: we owned 1.3 million Presidential Reserve points at Wyndham National Harbor. After a year, we paid a fair amount for a few more points and swapped to Bonnet Creek. Bonnet Creek is a far more endearing and enduring resort.

New section of DC. On the waterfront with lots of cool shops and restaurants. Very new Wyndham property.

Perfect location and the stay was excellent. The shopping was great and many activities for your entertainment.

We had a delightful 11-day visit from May 26th - thru June 6th 2010. The previous review is spot-on so I'll try not to repeat. Our first four night were in a 4BR Presidential (unit 1111) on the top floor facing National Harbor Blvd. This overlooks what will eventually be a National Children's Museum (kitty corner) planned for a 2012 opening and a small park directly adjacent to the property. None of the units will give you a direct harbor view as the resort is surrounded by residential condos, other retail, hospitality and parking garages. The 4BR did have a side view of the harbor and it was very pleasant sitting on the balcony. The balconies are not very deep but we still found them lovely at night. Our 7-night stay was in a 3BR Pres (607) which faced the street.

We found a Safeway, Giant grocery and petro in Oxon Hill, MD which is only about 3.5 miles from NH. We also used PeaPod.com for grocery delivery earlier in the week. The prices were the same as walking in the store with the exception of the nominal delivery fee. Well worth it for us on the front end of the visit since we arrived very late the first night and didn't feel like scouting grocery for breakfast. There's just something about being able to breakfast in your jammies when on vacation that speaks to us!

We primarily used a car for transportation but also used the Metro quite a bit. We had no difficulty parking at the Branch Avenue Metro station, regardless of the time of day (once arriving at about 2:00pm). Transportation is really their biggest challenge (which is why I didn't rate it higher) but, after numerous chats with maintenance and resort staff, we discovered that there is a CVS Pharmacy planned to open sometime in the next 6 months and grocery closer by within the year. One of the maintenance engineers also mentioned that he had heard discussion about the Metro getting closer to NH but didn't anticipate that would happen until after Disney at least broke ground. We didn't mind the $11/day parking as that is pretty normal for an urban area. That got paid for by Member Services when we did a 45 minute "feedback" meeting (which we held them to that limit).

As already mentioned, the kitchens are well stocked with most of what is needed. We always use the coffee-maker for hot water when a teapot is not supplies (after cleaning it of course). We actually managed to serve dinner for 20 people in the 4BR unit one night with few issues.

There is no fee to used the internet at this resort. There are three computers in the internet room and one in the game-room. You can print your boarding passes or information for no fee. There is free Wayport WiFi everywhere (with GREAT connectivity!) The resort staff is terrific! All of them helpful and very friendly. Overall, it's a beautiful location and we anticipate it will soon become as difficult to book reservations as Old Town is now. We very much enjoyed our visit at NH and, as Wyndham owners, are pleased to have this is part of our internal booking options.