[Disclosure: At the time of this writing, I have no direct affiliation with Classé Dance Company aside from being a sometime student of their classes and Linda being a friend of mine and one of my favorite dance instructors. I have not been hired to promote this event at the time of this writing nor have I been hired by or am affiliated with any of the other businesses whose services I describe, and everything I am writing is my objective opinion and advice. Any advice in this blog does not constitute legal or medical advice and is provided as is with no liability to #FrugalCongressLife or the author.]

[UPDATE 8/31/19 – Sensual Bachata DC Fest is reportedly being moved to a new venue.  We will update as soon as announced]

If the legendary Ferocity Dance Company is considered by many to be the Harvard of sensual bachata in the mid-Atlantic region, upstart newcomer Classé Dance Company is poised to quickly become the Yale of sensual bachata in the mid-Atlantic if it has not already.

Classé Dance Company was started by salsa/bachata instructor Linda Saenz in the fall of 2016. The new company quickly gained a good reputation for its fast-paced but comprehensive weekly bachata and salsa classes and outstanding performance teams. Highlights over the next few years include Linda winning best female dance instructor at the DCBX Excellence Awards in 2017 and becoming a Korke & Judith-certified sensual bachata instructor in 2018 after extensive training in Spain with the aforementioned creators of sensual bachata. In addition to teaching regular group classes in both Virginia and Maryland, Linda still directs several bachata performance teams, including the DC chapter of the Korke & Judith World Team Project.

Classé Dance Company celebrates its third anniversary from September 6th to September 8th, 2019. Unlike Classé’s previous two anniversary celebrations, which took place over one day, Classé’s 3rd anniversary has been extended to a full weekend event, officially re-christened Sensual Bachata DC Fest. At Sensual Bachata DC Fest, Classé Dance Company’s third anniversary will be celebrated in style with three nights of socials and workshops from not only Linda Saenz herself, but international bachata couples Kiko and Christina, Marco & Sara, Truji and Gloria, as well as worldwide sensual bachata ambassadors Kike and Nahir and sensual bachata creator Korke.

It all goes down at the Washington Dulles Airport Marriott (45020 Aviation Dr, Dulles, VA 20166) right next to Dulles Airport about an hour northwest of Washington DC. You may recognize the Dulles Marriott as the 2019 location of the Zouk Heat Festival. Zouk Heat has since moved to the BWI Airport Marriott, and I have written a whole new guide for that festival’s new location, but I was happy to pull my old Zouk Heat guide out of the archives and repurpose it for Sensual Bachata DC Fest.

PASS:

For those who didn’t get the $99 early bird pass last year, which I will assume is most of you, a full pass is still relatively inexpensive for an event of this caliber now, going for about $130. Performer’s passes go for $99 and one-night social-only passes are $40 per night.

LODGING:

There currently is a room block available until August 17th at a cost of $109 per night. A four-person room-share will cost the budget-minded about $30-35 per night with taxes included. For those who miss the room block, rooms at the Dulles Marriott can still be had for a relatively low price, especially for members of Marriott’s all-new Bonvoy rewards program, a merger of the old Marriott Rewards program, Starwood Preferred Group, and Ritz-Carlton Rewards. Bonvoy members whose names are on the room folio can also get 500 extra points per night on top of the points already awarded for the stay for refusing room service for up to 3 nights for a maximum of 1500 extra points; inquire about this program at the front desk. Additionally, roll-away beds are available at an extra cost of $25 per room – no one sleeps on the floor at the Dulles Marriott!

If you do the offsite congress grind regularly, take a break from it at this festival and get yourself an affordable room right in the center of the action at the event hotel.

The Dulles Marriot’s array of luxurious amenities include an airport shuttle with an up-to-the-minute tracker, a fitness center, a pool, complimentary standard WiFi or two different tiers of high-speed WiFi for $12.95 and $15.95 per day (obligatory PSA: always use a VPN on hotel WiFi or any other public WiFi to protect your personal data from hackers), breakfast buffets ($15-20 on average), tennis courts, and on-site coin-op laundry room, valet dry cleaning, bottled water, and individual climate control, among others.

Fair warning: the Dulles Marriott’s onsite laundry room consists of exactly one washer and one dryer for the entire hotel that are both in constant use throughout the day and night. I would highly recommend not counting on the onsite laundry being available. If needed, the Sterling Herndon Laundromat is located about 9 minutes away from the Dulles Marriott at 23070 Oakgrove Rd, Sterling, VA 20166, and has a star rating of 4.3 on Google as well as positive reviews.

As per usual, I won’t be discussing any other lodging options unless the Dulles Marriott fully sells out. You’re on your own if it’s offsite options you seek.

TRAVEL:

The entire DC/Baltimore area, including the areas around BWI and Dulles Airport, are all supported by Citymapper by way of their DC/Baltimore package at the time of this writing.

UberPool and Shared Lyft are both supported in the entire DC area including the area around Dulles Airport, but are not supported in the Baltimore area including the area around BWI Airport.

At the time of this writing, Via is supported within the DC city limits, Arlington, and Alexandria, but is not currently supported in the area around Dulles Airport or anywhere in the state of Maryland including the Baltimore area and the BWI area.

DC/BALTIMORE TRAIN AND METRO INFO:

Since the DC Metro system did away with paper farecards a while back, a SmarTrip card will be essential for paying the fares on the Metro system. A SmarTrip card costs $10 for the initial purchase but can be refilled as many times as you want at designated SmarTrip kiosks located at any Metro station, but prepare for this initial expense. Try and keep your SmarTrip card if you plan on visiting DC again in the future.

Information on the MARC trains from the Baltimore area can be found here.

Information on the DC Metro system can be found here.

A map of the DC Metro system can be found here.

DRIVING:

Driving or ride-sharing is the preferred option if possible for this hotel as there is abundant free parking around the hotel. Be advised that the fastest road to Dulles from DC and points east is a toll road, charging anywhere from $2.50 for a 2-axel vehicle up to $8.75 for a 6+-axel vehicle in tolls to go from the DC area to Dulles, but if you have some extra time to spare and set your GPS to avoid toll roads, you can get around the toll road by using parallel local roads instead. Prepare to add an extra 30-65 minutes on average to your trip if you go this route.

FLYING:

This goes without saying, but try to fly into Dulles International Airport (IAD) if you can. The hotel is located right next to Dulles Airport and has a free shuttle going there, and the other two airports are too far away from this particular venue to be practical.

IAD is also at the time of this writing the only airport to not be served directly by a DC Metro station.

Any money you may save by taking Spirit or any other airline to BWI or DCA will be offset at least somewhat by the cost of transporting yourself there, particularly from BWI.

Once you land at IAD, the Dulles Marriott has a free shuttle that will transport you from the airport to the hotel.

FROM DCA:

From DCA, take the DC Metro blue line (make sure you are on a blue line train as the yellow line will add extra time and transfers) toward Largo Town Center to Rosslyn, then transfer to the Silver line toward Wiehle-Reston East and take an UBER to the Dulles Marriott from there.

FROM BWI:

If you must come from BWI, try to get there during the day so you can take the MARC train to Union Station. Once at Union Station, take the Metro red line toward Shady Grove to Metro Center, then transfer to the Silver line toward Wiehle-Reston East and take an UBER to the Dulles Marriott from there.

BUS/TRAIN:

Take any bus or train line to Union Station in DC and follow the above Metro directions for BWI from there.

FOOD:

There are some food options close by and others within a reasonable driving distance.

For your frugal grocery shopping, Walmart Supercenter is located about 15 minutes up route 28, at 45415 Dulles Crossing Plaza. A Giant (1228 Elden Street, Herndon, VA), Harris Teeter (12960 Highland Crossing Dr, Herndon), and Safeway (413 Elden St, Herndon) are all located within a 15 minute drive of the hotel.

Whole Foods is located about 20 minutes east (no tolls but the toll road is faster) at 11660 Plaza America Dr, Reston, VA.

Most of your immediate food options for your daily meal out are located in the airport, and include a Kitchen by Wolfgang Puck, Smashburger, District Chophouse, Wendy’s, Au Bon Pain, Bar Symon, Pei Wei (Chinese), Chef Geoff’s, and two different Subways.

A 15 minute or so drive into the nearby town of Reston, VA yields several other options, including Pollo Peru, a casual Peruvian-style chicken place (1675 Reston Parkway), Hibiscus Thai Cuisine, a Thai eatery (11790 Baron Cameron Avenue), and a Silver Diner (11951 Killingsworth Avenue). Also to be found in Reston is Midtown Kabob (11990 Explorer Street), Jackson’s Mighty Fine Food and Lucky Lounge (11927 Democracy Drive), Big Bowl (11915 Democracy Drive), and sweetgreen (11935 Democracy Drive), among others.

Parking is a little tighter at Reston Town Center, but there are several parking garages located directly nearby that are all free after 5pm on Friday and all weekend. Info here: https://restontowncenter.com/parking/parking-rates/

That’s all for this entry. Hit the comments if you got anything to add and I’ll see you all at the Dulles Marriott in September!