There is a Safeway around the corner from the Hyatt Regency on Old Georgetown Road. Your Safeway card from California will work to get you the sale prices.

shop.safeway.com/superstore/default.asp…

dctravel

Fabulous! Thanks so much!

I suspect you're also familiar with Trader Joe's--1/2 mile south of the Hyatt on Wisconsin Avenue.

Tastee Diner for good, basic, inexpensive breakfast.

Great! I like Trader Joe's. Will check out Tastee Diner. We booked Hyatt Regency Bethesda without doing thorough homework. I don't think they have complimentary breakfast, and there's no refrigertor in the room! Big mistake.

Thank you all for the advice!

Have you asked the Hyatt if they can supply a refrigerator for you? Most hotels at that service tier will provide a dorm-type cube refrigerator for you if you ask--even though it's not standard room equipment.

My guess is that you got this at a decent price point via Priceline/Hotwire and are therefore "locked," but I certainly wouldn't call the Hyatt a "big mistake." It is a nice property situated right on top of a Metro station, you'll be wherever you want to be in 20 minutes with no need for a car, situated in a safe, lively restaurant/shopping/entertainment district if you need to find something near your hotel.

Are other hotels closer to the action for possibly the same price or less than you paid? Absolutely, but the difference is all but erased if you then have to walk five or ten minutes to a Metro station.

Don't beat yourself up on this one, there are people out there who've made far greater mistakes in choosing a room, such as putting themselves an hour+ each way from the action, finding themselves totally stranded without a rental car, and spending more in transit costs to get to DC every day than they saved on the room. That's a "big mistake."

If you can rectify the lack of an "included" continental breakfast with a few dollars worth of grocery store orange juice, bananas, milk and muffins every morning, I'd say you did just fine with your hotel choice.

Thank you, tubman. We picked the Hyatt because of its location. Many hotels we've stayed at provide complimentary breakfast, and it would be a big saving on a week long trip. I was surprised to learn that Hyatt doesn't have it, and even more disappointed to find out that the room doesn't have a refrigerator. I was going to stock it up with milk, juice, and toast. I'll call to see if they can put a small refrigerator in our room. Thanks for all of your help. We are so looking forward to the trip.

Other breakfast places near the Hyatt: the Original Pancake House and La Madeleine. A little further away, at the new Bethesda Lane development, there's a branch of the Belgian bakery/cafe Le Pain Quotidien. There are also quite a few small, independent coffee shops that serve Bethesda office workers, and are open early for breakfast. One such place, favored by my brother who works in Bethesda, is Cafe Gelato on St. Elmo Ave. They serve home-made scones and muffins along with espresso drinks in the morning.

To get around Bethesda, the free trolley known as the Bethesda Circulator can be useful. There's a bus stop in the Metro bus terminal right beneath the Hyatt.

www.bethesda.org/parking/circulatorinfo.htm

Also Booeymonger, a block from the hotel down East-West Highway.

www.booeymonger.com/menu.html#breakfast