Going to Washington DC.....HELP!!!

[irishsharon]

So we are going to take a trip to Washington DC. When I planned my trip to Williamsburg I got the best advice from everyone on this board, so I am asking everyone for help again. It will be myself, hubby and our 13 & 9 year old boys. We are going Aug. 31- Sept. 5. Don't know where to stay, what to do and were to eat. Any help and advice would be great! The only thing I have done is request tickets for the White House tour.

 

[Princess Disney Mom]

Go online and get tickets for the Washington monument. You will only pay a couple dollars in a service fee.

Check our staying at the National Harbor. It is on the water and has a lot of entertainment. Otherwise serif you can stay downtown with walking distance to the museums. If not stay in silver spring or another city on the metro line.

Take the kids to the spy museum. My other favorite is the air and space museum.

You are going at a hot humid time of year. Plan for it. Get to the museums at 10:00 to beat the tourists.

Limit what you carry. A closed water bottle is ok in the museums except not in the capital. Not even empty bottles are allowed in the capital.

Do not pull out iPhone or iPads in the metro especially if seated near a door.

I was born in DC and lived in the suburbs all my life and it is my favorite city. Enjoy!!!!!

 

[melk]

It's been a few years since we visited but we stayed at a hotel in Pentagon City. It had free parking, free hot breakfast and was close to a Metro stop. If I remember the name I will post it.

One night we did a bus tour of the monuments, that was really nice as you get a different perspective at night.

Also, if you have a car a side trip to Mount Vernon is really good.

Sorry I can't contribute more specifics but I will be following this thread as I would like to plan another trip there.

 

[echamp404]

I'm a bit new to this board, but saw your post and wanted to chip in. I live in Richmond so we go to DC fairly often.

Where to stay?
Cost is obviously a big factor in a large city like DC, and being in the heart of the district typically means $250+/night for a nicer hotel. We've had some good success using Priceline or Hotwire to get 4-star hotels in great locations for a much more reasonable price, like in the $100-150/night range. Takes some research to get in area you want, but I think you can't beat actually staying within a short walk or Metro ride to reach all the sights.

What to do?
When it comes to activities that don't involve eating (we do a lot of that in DC ), the only expense we really have in DC is Metro costs. There are more things to do and see in the main DC area that don't cost any admittance than you'll have time to cover. The boys would probably really enjoy the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, and depending on their thoughts on museums all the Smithsonians are great. American History is one of my absolute favorites (you get to see the actual Star Spangled Banner!).

Just walking around the National Mall and surrounding area can take up a whole day taking in the sights of the monuments, memorials and historical buildings. Make sure to go see the Korean War Memorial at night, it's awesome! And our favorites building to see the inside of is the Library of Congress — the decorations on the ceiling are quite magnificent.

Other museum-type activities that are good are visiting the National Archives, Holocaust Museum and Bureau of Printing and Engraving to name just a few. There are some tricks to planning ahead for these which you can research some online (or if you care to know more I'm happy to elaborate).

There's a ton more beyond this, but these are some of our favorite go-tos...

Where to eat?
This, too, has endless possibilities, but I'll just share some of our favorites:

Dinner and/or full-service
Founding Farmers - upscale/Southern-ish comfort food
Matchbox - really good artisan-type pizzas
Cava Mezze - Mediterranean / tapas

Casual
Cava Grill - same owners as Cava Mezze, but quicker and casual. Think Chipotle but with Mediterranean food
Good Stuff Eatery - great burgers, fries and shakes, founded by a Top Chef contestant (Spike)
District Taco - great fresh variety of tacos

I've got some good coffee shops as well which I can go in to you if you'd like. Hope this helps!

 

[Eureka]

If you want to visit the National Archives, I would also suggest paying for timed tickets ($1.50 each). Cuts down on lines, although most of the schools here (in MD and DC at least) will already be back in session, so fewer locals around.

Wanted to add that as much as I love National Harbor (and I do; I've made reservations for my Mother's Day brunch there), they are doing a lot of construction. So, not sure how noisy it will be. I know one of the roads to get down there is closed temporarily. Just FYI.

 

[echamp404]

Check our staying at the National Harbor. It is on the water and has a lot of entertainment.

They've got the huge ferris wheel there now, too! It's somewhat pricey from what I hear, but sounds like a cool experience to do once.

 

[TempleOT]

We just went to celebrate my 40th birthday. Definitely go see the Library of Congress--its so beautiful, I had no idea and loved it. We went there after our capitol tour (reserve in advance), as theres an underground tunnel that connects them. We stayed at the Hotel Palomar, which was near a metro station and in a good location I feel. Have fun!

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

I'm planning a DC trip too, but we're going in just 6 weeks. I've found a lot of helpful information on the TripAdvisor forum for DC:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowForum-g28970-i40-Washington_DC_District_of_Columbia.html

They have "top questions" on the right side of the page with good tips about where to stay and what to see. I highly recommend checking it out.

We'll be there 6 days and my plans are to do the main monuments, both the Air & Space museums (the one on the mall and the annex at Dulles), the American History Museum, Natural History Museum, visit Arlington, Spy Museum, Ford's Theatre, the Archives, and I'm still waiting to hear from our Senator about the Bureau of Engraving & Printing and the White House (they said the White House tours are only confirmed 2 weeks out). I think we'll also go to Mount Vernon for part of a day. We'll be busy but it is likely to be the only time we'll take our sons there and we want to see and do as much as possible.

I started a thread on this board a few weeks ago about tours and there was some helpful information given in response, so you might want to check my history and see if you can find it.

 

[moniqueand2]

I recommend the following sites in DC:

Portrait Gallery
National Museum of the American Indian (consider eating lunch there)
National Archives

Many federal attractions will close at 5:00 pm, the Spy Museum is open later than that so consider doing that one later in the day.

I also love the National Mall at night. And I do like the Washington Monument.

Plus, I like the food court at Union Station and restaurants in Chinatown.

 

[mjkacmom]

Definitely get timed tickets to the Holocaust Museum, and I liked the zoo (pandas).

 

[CalDisneyMomof2]

Mt. Vernon is my favorite stop. Be prepared for a lot of walking. What are your boys into? Check out the list of museums and pick one or two. You won't be able to visit them all; plan for at least 3-4 hours per museum. My favorites are Natural History and US History. All of the Smithsonians are free.

National Harbor must have grown tremendously since I stayed there with my husband in 2009. I didn't feel like there was too much to do then and it seemed a little far from the National Mall. I went 3 years later and stayed at the Key Bridge Marriott in Arlington and it was very reasonable(included breakfast) and only a very short drive to the mall (10 minutes or so).

I also enjoyed Ford Theatre (small fee) and the Capitol Building. Just amazing!

DC is one of my favorite places to visit. I can't wait until my boys are a little older. They are just 6 and half and 4 and a half. I think we'll wait at least another 3 years.

Also, regarding the memorials. I love them all- they just touch you in a way you can't imagine. I love visiting Lincoln at night.

 

[Gigi22]

Strongly suggest you visit Arlington. It is easy to get to on public transportation, and the experience is very moving. You can also tour Robert E. Lee's house while there.

 

[loop]

I live just outside DC and love helping people plan vacations (obviously, I'm on the DIS!). Can you give us some more information about what kinds of things your family usually likes to do or see on vacation? Any special interests (art, photography, outdoors, sports, food, etc.), are you comfortable using public transportation/tons of walking or do you need to drive, etc. Also, budget would be helpful in recommending a place to stay, since the most convenient locations are downtown but obviously that's going to be much more expensive.

A few places I recommend to everyone:

-go up the Washington Monument (you can get timed tickets here)--in addition to the great view, the construction of the monument is really interesting to learn about (when you go in the elevator, try to get your kids to stand near the door)
-do the monuments walk, preferably at night (the area is very safe, just be careful crossing the street). I do this as a really long walk (Google maps estimates it around 3.8 miles) starting and ending at the Foggy Bottom metro stop and hitting the Vietnam, Lincoln, Korean, MLK, FDR, Jefferson, Washington, and WWII memorials in that order. There isn't a lot of parking along the way and you cannot see these sites from the road, so if that's too much walking all at once I would look into one of the many night tour buses that will help cut down some of the walking in between sites.
-if you want the nation's capital experience, I would do the U.S. Capitol tour over the White House one. You can easily get timed tickets here, but you'll have a MUCH better experience if you contact your Senator or Representative and arrange for a smaller, more personalized tour through their office. I honestly would skip the White House tour and just look at the building from the outside unless you're really dead set on going--the tour requires a lot of standing in line (waiting for your time to start, waiting to go through security, filing behind a horde of people walking along a designated route) and you only get to see a few of the unused ceremonial rooms. I've done both the White House and the Capital tours and the Capital is a much better experience overall.
-based on your kids' ages alone, I would definitely say splurge on the Spy Museum. Yes, it's one of the few museums you have to pay for and yes it's expensive, but it is a blast, especially for that age range.

 

[3boymthr]

My kids ages 12 & 15 just went with their Boy Scout Troop. They did Air & Space, Udvar Hazey (near Dulles Airport), archives, they went paddle boating near the Jefferson Memorial, the mall and Arlington National Cemetery. They watched the changing of the guard at the cemetery and really enjoyed the ceremony. Another favorite for them was renting bicycles to do their tour of the mall. The kids really enjoyed that. Less walking but they got to stop and see all the monuments. The bicycle rental agency provided helmets. The National Park Service offers a guided bike tour for free but they elected to go it alone.

 

[hsmamato2]

We just got back from a long weekend.... we stayed at a Holiday inn Rosslyn in arlington- free parking, clean rooms, walk to metro station was easy- (no free breakfast) I liked it a lot. We spent 2 1/2 days touring,and didn't see everything we wanted....it is BIG. We walked an average of 13 miles a day,right now the mall lawn is under construction,so not very pretty,and the reflecting pool by washington monument was drained..... but overall a great place to visit- we liked the engraving/money tour- very cool. Holocaust museum,we just went through the lobby area, it's pretty serious in there.We walked a bit outside the mall area to find some local chipotle and Baja fresh for lunches,it was worth it to save some $$$- just grabbed dinner near our hotel, either Ruby Tuesday or Panera..starbucks in the morning.

 

[Elwood09]

Been there twice with my son (when he was 7 and 8). Order the hard Metro cards for buses and trains. Makes getting around very easy. There are many, many free things to do! We enjoyed the zoo, Air and Space and the American History Museum. Just being able to see the buildings and monuments is a real treat! Check out the Postal Museum right by Union Station...very kid friendly. And Union Station is neat to check out as well. You can go back over and over and not see it all...

 

[irishsharon]

WOW Thanks everyone!!!! You guys are the best

 

[irishsharon]

Go online and get tickets for the Washington monument. You will only pay a couple dollars in a service fee.

Check our staying at the National Harbor. It is on the water and has a lot of entertainment. Otherwise serif you can stay downtown with walking distance to the museums. If not stay in silver spring or another city on the metro line.

Take the kids to the spy museum. My other favorite is the air and space museum.

You are going at a hot humid time of year. Plan for it. Get to the museums at 10:00 to beat the tourists.

Limit what you carry. A closed water bottle is ok in the museums except not in the capital. Not even empty bottles are allowed in the capital.

Do not pull out iPhone or iPads in the metro especially if seated near a door.

I was born in DC and lived in the suburbs all my life and it is my favorite city. Enjoy!!!!!

Should we plan on using the metro? We will have a car.

 

[G719]

Great hotel- residence inn arlington ballston area. Close enough to the metro and lots of shops and restaurants in the area.
I would say yes use the metro. We did not drive into the city because family and friends in d.c. said traffic can be awful.

 

[irishsharon]

I'm a bit new to this board, but saw your post and wanted to chip in. I live in Richmond so we go to DC fairly often.

Where to stay?
Cost is obviously a big factor in a large city like DC, and being in the heart of the district typically means $250+/night for a nicer hotel. We've had some good success using Priceline or Hotwire to get 4-star hotels in great locations for a much more reasonable price, like in the $100-150/night range. Takes some research to get in area you want, but I think you can't beat actually staying within a short walk or Metro ride to reach all the sights.

What to do?
When it comes to activities that don't involve eating (we do a lot of that in DC ), the only expense we really have in DC is Metro costs. There are more things to do and see in the main DC area that don't cost any admittance than you'll have time to cover. The boys would probably really enjoy the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, and depending on their thoughts on museums all the Smithsonians are great. American History is one of my absolute favorites (you get to see the actual Star Spangled Banner!).

Just walking around the National Mall and surrounding area can take up a whole day taking in the sights of the monuments, memorials and historical buildings. Make sure to go see the Korean War Memorial at night, it's awesome! And our favorites building to see the inside of is the Library of Congress — the decorations on the ceiling are quite magnificent.

Other museum-type activities that are good are visiting the National Archives, Holocaust Museum and Bureau of Printing and Engraving to name just a few. There are some tricks to planning ahead for these which you can research some online (or if you care to know more I'm happy to elaborate).

There's a ton more beyond this, but these are some of our favorite go-tos...

Where to eat?
This, too, has endless possibilities, but I'll just share some of our favorites:

Dinner and/or full-service
Founding Farmers - upscale/Southern-ish comfort food
Matchbox - really good artisan-type pizzas
Cava Mezze - Mediterranean / tapas

Casual
Cava Grill - same owners as Cava Mezze, but quicker and casual. Think Chipotle but with Mediterranean food
Good Stuff Eatery - great burgers, fries and shakes, founded by a Top Chef contestant (Spike)
District Taco - great fresh variety of tacos

I've got some good coffee shops as well which I can go in to you if you'd like. Hope this helps!

Our budget for the room is $175 or less a night, would like to stay in the $150 range. I know this puts us out of the center of things so need advise on what is a good area for a family.