Washington D.C. with teenagers... and tight budget.

[sheetz]

I can heartily recommend Free Tours By Foot, which offers free walking tours and a very inexpensive evening bus tour. The walking tours are free but the guides ask for tips. The Lincoln Assassination tour was the best walking tour I did.

http://www.freetoursbyfoot.com/washington-dc-tours/

 

[NinaBella]

Ugh. Trip just got cancelled. Daughter's cheer gym just announced a mandatory clinic starting that Thursday. We have another mandatory event the prior week. These are the only two weeks I am off from classes (work full time and full time student). DH says we can still try to go and come back early. So, get there Monday mid day and leave and make it back home by Thursday at noon? In a car? Yea, not happening. We could get there Sunday night if we didn't stop by my mom's which is the half way mark. That would give us Monday and Tuesday, then drive back Wed. I think that would be too short of a trip and not worth it.

My previous plan was to depart Florida Sunday, drive half way, stay at Grandma's, then drive the rest Monday morning. Same with coming back and my boss was working on getting me Saturday off so I had the full week off work (Sun-Sun) but we planned to leave DC Friday. I am okay with not doing everything, but I don't want to feel rushed either.

So plan B, I started planning a cruise by DH doesn't like the price. It would be Sun-Thur and we would still get DH to her event Thursday. It's not a bad price, he just doesn't like to spend money.
Now on to plan C, which is just staying at a beach resort for two nights. We've been to this particular beach resort 4 previous times.

Ugh. First World Problems.

 

[NinaBella]

I can heartily recommend Free Tours By Foot, which offers free walking tours and a very inexpensive evening bus tour. The walking tours are free but the guides ask for tips. The Lincoln Assassination tour was the best walking tour I did.

http://www.freetoursbyfoot.com/washington-dc-tours/

I have used Stray Boots in New Orleans which is a (self-guided with smart phone app) walking, scavenger hunt tour. I will check it out. Thanks.

 

[Princess Disney Mom]

I'd skip the big bus and just walk. Save money on food by bringing food and snacks. You can have these with you but not opened in museums. Closed water bottles are ok. However when you visit the Capital take almost nothing. No food, no water and not even an empty bottle. They are very strict. Take them to the air and space. Get tickets to the monument online before you go.

 

[crisi]

Ugh. Trip just got cancelled. Daughter's cheer gym just announced a mandatory clinic starting that Thursday. We have another mandatory event the prior week. These are the only two weeks I am off from classes (work full time and full time student). DH says we can still try to go and come back early. So, get there Monday mid day and leave and make it back home by Thursday at noon? In a car? Yea, not happening. We could get there Sunday night if we didn't stop by my mom's which is the half way mark. That would give us Monday and Tuesday, then drive back Wed. I think that would be too short of a trip and not worth it.

My previous plan was to depart Florida Sunday, drive half way, stay at Grandma's, then drive the rest Monday morning. Same with coming back and my boss was working on getting me Saturday off so I had the full week off work (Sun-Sun) but we planned to leave DC Friday. I am okay with not doing everything, but I don't want to feel rushed either.

So plan B, I started planning a cruise by DH doesn't like the price. It would be Sun-Thur and we would still get DH to her event Thursday. It's not a bad price, he just doesn't like to spend money.
Now on to plan C, which is just staying at a beach resort for two nights. We've been to this particular beach resort 4 previous times.

Ugh. First World Problems.

Yep...I haven't managed to take a family vacation in eighteen months because of drama, baseball, school, work....it gets SO busy. First world problems.

 

[buckirj1]

The National Cathedral and the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception are well worth a visit if you or the kids are at all into architecture. The Library of Congress and the National Archives are also wonderful places.

 

[lindsmom]

We went in April - I would NOT recommend the BEP (Bureau Engraving and Printing) tour. We had to be there at 8:15 am, which was tough, and you walked around some skywalk type hallways looking down on a bunch of large printing machines. We did get to see a printer jam, which was funny (just like your regular laser jet printer at home getting jammed, but with huge 3 foot square papers). We would not repeat the experience, or recommend.

I recommend getting tickets for the Washington Monument online - only a few dollars handling charge, and that was a great experience for everyone in our family. We also did Ford's Theater - reserved those through ticket master, I think they were like $5 per person.

Ditto the bus tour at Arlington - it is quite a walk between sites.

 

[sharona]

Ugh. Trip just got cancelled. Daughter's cheer gym just announced a mandatory clinic starting that Thursday. We have another mandatory event the prior week. These are the only two weeks I am off from classes (work full time and full time student). DH says we can still try to go and come back early. So, get there Monday mid day and leave and make it back home by Thursday at noon? In a car? Yea, not happening. We could get there Sunday night if we didn't stop by my mom's which is the half way mark. That would give us Monday and Tuesday, then drive back Wed. I think that would be too short of a trip and not worth it.

My previous plan was to depart Florida Sunday, drive half way, stay at Grandma's, then drive the rest Monday morning. Same with coming back and my boss was working on getting me Saturday off so I had the full week off work (Sun-Sun) but we planned to leave DC Friday. I am okay with not doing everything, but I don't want to feel rushed either.

So plan B, I started planning a cruise by DH doesn't like the price. It would be Sun-Thur and we would still get DH to her event Thursday. It's not a bad price, he just doesn't like to spend money.
Now on to plan C, which is just staying at a beach resort for two nights. We've been to this particular beach resort 4 previous times.

Ugh. First World Problems.

We went a year ago and had only 3 days to spend but it was worth it. We saw and did a lot and it was one of our favorite trips. We arrived on a Monday morning at 7am after taking the overnight train from Boston (9 hours). We went to Air and Space Museum first day and Natural History Museum then Portrait Gallery, next day American History museum then Monuments at Night tour that night, tour of White House next morning followed by the zoo then dinner and flew home that night. It was busy and there's a lot of walking but we really had a blast. The kids (DD was 11 and nephew was 12) loved DC and have asked to go back. What helped is that we paid a bit extra for early check in on our arrival day ($25 extra to check in at 8am at the Washington Hilton) and we had our room reserved for 3 nights even though we only were sleeping there for 2 so we had a place to keep our luggage the last day and somewhere to shower and change before dinner and our 9pm flight. That made a huge difference in our enjoyment and stress level.