We went to DC in early April with our kids, 8 and 10, and had an AMAZING time. I have been there many times before so I'm pretty familiar with the city.
We stayed at the Hampton Inn in Arlington Virginia, Crystal City. It is only 2 blocks from a metro station with a Blue and Yellow line. We could get everywhere quickly and easily. Price was good ($115-185 depending on the night) and they have a GREAT hot breakfast in the morning. They also had a pool, which was nice for the kids at night. It is only a few blocks from several family friendly restaurants (Buffalo Wild Wings, Chilis, and several local places). We parked the car and took the metro everywhere. We spent about $35 for each person on metro cards, which beat paying for parking all week!
Our itinerary was:
Arrival day: Arlington National Cemetery. Arrived around 2pm and spent about three hours here.
Day 1: Capitol tour, Supreme Court, Library of Congress, Botanical Garden (this is really close to the Capitol and was a nice, quick walk through. Worth seeing), National Archives.
Day 2: National Zoo, White House & White House Visitor Center (outside only, our tour request was denied). There is a great place to eat right across the street from the side of the White House called Old Ebbit Grill. Tasty! There's also a fun gift shop by the White House with fun souvenirs. If you spend $10 they let you take pictures in their "Oval Office." Lots of fun!
Day 3: Holocaust Museum & monuments. We only did the 1st floor of the museum because we couldn't get tickets. We did all of the monuments in one day. It was a lot of walking but the kiddos kept up ok. It took the whole day to do the monuments on foot, but it was a great day!
Day 4: Smithsonian. We went to American History, Natural History, Air and Space and the National Gallery of Art. Depending on your interest level, you could easily expand this to two days. There are a lot of food trucks in the area- a great way to have an interesting and different lunch/dinner!
Day 5: planned on going to Mount Vernon but it was raining really hard so we went home early.
You can pre-arrange many things online: Capitol tour, Holocaust Center, National Archives, and Washington Monument. It can be hard to get tickets in the spring due to all of the school groups that visit. The nice thing about DC is that most attractions are free. Our entire trip (gas from metro Detroit, food, souvenirs, metro cards, hotel) was about $1300.
Have an amazing time.
We stayed at the Hampton Inn in Arlington Virginia, Crystal City. It is only 2 blocks from a metro station with a Blue and Yellow line. We could get everywhere quickly and easily. Price was good ($115-185 depending on the night) and they have a GREAT hot breakfast in the morning. They also had a pool, which was nice for the kids at night. It is only a few blocks from several family friendly restaurants (Buffalo Wild Wings, Chilis, and several local places). We parked the car and took the metro everywhere. We spent about $35 for each person on metro cards, which beat paying for parking all week!
Our itinerary was:
Arrival day: Arlington National Cemetery. Arrived around 2pm and spent about three hours here.
Day 1: Capitol tour, Supreme Court, Library of Congress, Botanical Garden (this is really close to the Capitol and was a nice, quick walk through. Worth seeing), National Archives.
Day 2: National Zoo, White House & White House Visitor Center (outside only, our tour request was denied). There is a great place to eat right across the street from the side of the White House called Old Ebbit Grill. Tasty! There's also a fun gift shop by the White House with fun souvenirs. If you spend $10 they let you take pictures in their "Oval Office." Lots of fun!
Day 3: Holocaust Museum & monuments. We only did the 1st floor of the museum because we couldn't get tickets. We did all of the monuments in one day. It was a lot of walking but the kiddos kept up ok. It took the whole day to do the monuments on foot, but it was a great day!
Day 4: Smithsonian. We went to American History, Natural History, Air and Space and the National Gallery of Art. Depending on your interest level, you could easily expand this to two days. There are a lot of food trucks in the area- a great way to have an interesting and different lunch/dinner!
Day 5: planned on going to Mount Vernon but it was raining really hard so we went home early.
You can pre-arrange many things online: Capitol tour, Holocaust Center, National Archives, and Washington Monument. It can be hard to get tickets in the spring due to all of the school groups that visit. The nice thing about DC is that most attractions are free. Our entire trip (gas from metro Detroit, food, souvenirs, metro cards, hotel) was about $1300.
Have an amazing time.
