More DC questions......

[lukenick1]

Love you guys here on the DIS always so helpful
So.....planning on taking a trip during April vacation (Sun-Thur) to DC. Wrote to our congress for tickets to tour the White House. I hear there is no place there to leave our belongings? Our hotel is 25mins by metro, so leaving our stuff there would be a major inconvenience. Any suggestions?

Also....can anyone recommend an itinerary? We will have 4 full days to site see. Travelling 9 of us....5 adults and 4 kids ages 9,10,12,13, 2boys/2girls. Is an early start necessary (would like to avoid peak metro hours)? Not sure what hours are for things. I know we definitely want to see Smithsonians, and the major tourist stuff like Lincoln Mem, Washington Mon, Arlington Cem (changing of the guards)etc.
Thank you

 

[eliza61]

So I've never done the White house tours but I can't imagine they have locker/storage facilities so plan on holding onto any thing you bring. What other stuff are you bringing. Washington is a walking town so I would advise against bringing coolers, folding chairs, stuff like that. A back pack maybe useful but remember, big backpacks get heaving as the day wears on. LOL.

My kids loved the spy museums and the crime and punishment museums. Excellent museums, but they have a charge to them unlike the smithsonians. My kids were also partial to the air and space museums.

We love Arlington National cementary and visit every chance we have. It is accessible by metro. The changing of the guard, which is awesome happens I think once every hour at the tomb of the unkown.the tomb itself is guarded 24/7 so it's a very neat place to visit at any time.

 

[eliza61]

we just visited the new Martin Luther king Jr memorial. Fabulous. It's right across from the Jefferson Memorial and not far from the Washington Memorial

 

[lukenick1]

How about the best deal for tickets for a hop on hop off bus tour???

 

[chrissy92972]

We are a family of 6 and we went for a week in June 2011. We were not able to get White House Tickets, but we did get timed tickets for the archives and the Washington Monument. We also scheduled one day with a guided tour. I think it was called dc tours or something like that. It was a motorcoach where they drove us around in comfort, took us to all of the monuments all the while giving us information and then we would walk around each thing for a certain amount of time then return to the bus, it was a 6 hour tour and worth every penny.

We stayed in Falls Church Virginia and took the metro daily, some days earlier and some days a little later.

We also took one day and drive to Dulles to the Air and Space Museum to see the Space Shuttle.

We spent one day at the zoo, one day on a tour of arlington, one day on the guided tour, one day walking around seeing the Smithsonians.

Hope this helps!

Chrissy

 

[ThumpersWorld]

We went on the White House tour in August and yes, it's true about not being able to bring any belongs. Women can't even bring a purse. We were able to bring our phones (which had to be turned off) and our wallets. They are extremely strict about this. In fact there was a lady in line with us with a purse and they turned her away. Unfortunately, as far as I know there are no lockers. Our hotel was about 6 blocks away so it wasn't an issue. As soon as we existed through the back door we were able to turn our phones on and take a picture right outside the back door. I recommend asking someone to take your family picture because I love having our picture.

 

[PlutoPony]

Wrote to our congress for tickets to tour the White House. I hear there is no place there to leave our belongings? Our hotel is 25mins by metro, so leaving our stuff there would be a major inconvenience. Any suggestions?

Go to the TripAdvisor DC forum and do a search for this - there are quite a number of threads on this as it's asked often (like monthly). The best scenario is to leave all but essentials at your hotel and go back to get them after the tour. That's one big plus to staying fairly close in. Other options often mentioned are to check for lockers at Union Station or the Smithsonians. I haven't checked lately to see if lockers are still available at the Smithsonians, and not everyone is comfortable leaving things there from a security standpoint. I would recommend reading the more recent TA threads and get the current thinking. Keep in mind, if you have an early tour the Smithsonian may not be open yet taking that option off the table. And it's a haul from Union Station to White House via walking, consider Metro for that (but it does add cost).

That said, I will be very surprised if you're able to get a White House tour for spring break / Cherry Blossom time this late. There are sooooo many people in town that week, many of whom have planned this trip for quite a while. Plus they seem to let a lot of groups in during that time. So your concern may well be a moot one.

The TA forums for DC are excellent, a lot more people post there who live right in town and have a ton of experience to share with tourists.

 

[PlutoPony]

Also, your hotel question is posed regularly at TA and in fact there's a thread with your exact scenario (Sun-Thurs in April) open now with a few ideas that haven't been mentioned here.

 

[PlutoPony]

Oik, here's the link to locker options at the Smithsonian http://www.si.edu/Visit/Security.

 

[Swimalie]

It's true, no belongings in the White House and no place to leave them. We went in Dec with a friend of mine who works there. We were warned ahead of time and it worked out well. Just a side note, in Dec only you can take a camera in and take pictures. That was a real treat!

 

[disney1990]

Lockers at Smithsonian are only for while touring the Smithsoniam, but I don't see how they would know that you weren't just visiting one of the other buildings. The closest smithsonian building is a good 4 or 5 city blocks from the White House.

 

[wishesuponastar]

OP, depending on what time you get approved for the White House Tour, your congressman's office may be able to hold your belongings for you. It didn't work out for us because we had a 7:30 am tour and the congressman's office wasn't open then. So what we did was go to the WH Tour with no belongings and after the tour we found a place for breakfast....Jack's has a breakfast buffet that was reasonable but they have limited seating. Then after breakfast we headed over to the National Archives. After that we headed back to our hotel to change into more comfortable clothes and loaded up our backpacks for the day and went on the metro again. We bought an unlimited metro card each day, I forget how much it was but it was worth it.

 

[NotUrsula]

When in major cities for business, I regularly take advantage of the bell services desks of large convention hotels near my final meeting of the trip to store my bags; even if it isn't my hotel. (Very often my own hotel is in the opposite direction from the airport, so I don't want to double-back to get bags on my way there.)

What you can usually do is to take your bag (consolidate multiples into one, and make sure it can be closed securely) to bell services at a nearby large hotel and put it in secure storage for a couple of hours, and tip accordingly. You normally do not need to be a guest of the hotel to do this.

Probably the closest large hotel to the WH is the Capitol Hilton at 18th and L street; it is two blocks north of Lafayette Square Park.

 

[spicycrab]

Hello!


Metro will be pretty crowded if you leave before 9 a.m., also leaving around 5 will also be pretty busy so you may want to avoid those hours. As for an itinerary, you were smart to consider metro. The city is yours

As for an itinerary-my two cents;

One day; do The National Mall (all the monuments, smithsonian, Capitol). The bureau of engraving is close by here as well as the holocaust museum. Tickets to the BEP are free but I think they go pretty quickly so you would want to stand in line first thing. Also on the Mall are the Sculpture Gardens. There is a huge water fountain. A big attraction is taking paddle boats around the tidal basin. I think you can buy these tickets online ahead of time.

A second day: Metro to the National zoo. Also in this area is The National Cathedral...it's close, but I don't know if its metro accessible. If not, it would be a less than5minute cab ride from the zoo. But it's pretty amazing.

A third day: White House tour and tour of the National archives - very cool. These are clustered relatively close together. You could combine these activities with the national mall if you are up for a long day.

A fourth day: Based on the age ranges of the kids you have, I think they would really enjoy the newer museums (Spy, Crime and Punishment). The Newseum is Great and I would highly recommend this one for the adults in the group. Keep in mind these museums are not free like the Smithsonian. Consider subscribing to DC groupon or living social. Sometimes they run specials for these. Since you are spending money on these tix I would think you want some quality time in these museums. In this part of town you will be close to Chinatown, a fun place for lunch or dinner

Honorable mention of things to do:
- 911 Memorial at the Pentagon (metro accessible and the Memorial is open 24 hours)
- Union Station
- Old town Alexandria (lots of shopping and restaurants)

 

[Eureka]

Remember if you want to go to the Holocaust Museum or the National Archives, they are free but you still need to reserve timed entry tickets ahead of time. We have lived here for 15 years and I still have not gone to the Archives! Also, the Library of Congress is a beautiful building to visit. I used to be a librarian, so this was one of my first stops when we moved here. There is so much to see! I love how my kids are growing up experiencing history -- they have had the most amazing field trips. Their favorites, especially when they were younger, are Air and Space and Natural History. The American Indian Museum is also very interesting and the cafeteria has some really off the beaten path items. Also, don't forget Mount Vernon in Alexandria. The grounds are beautiful and by April, you can usually count on warm weather.

 

[danygirl]

dc local here -

Note - the spy museum and crime and punishment (think csi) museum charge admission, but you can often find something on travelzoo or groupon for them. The Newseum was a horrible downer with kids, I would avoid it (very costly, too). When the kids go with school they do a cool program, but when you go by yourself it is the bad news museum. Really awful. Spy museum is much more fun. The Holocaust museum has a route you can take through with kids, and some of the most awful stuff is behind walls so you can shield your children from some of it if you wish.

Best food is from the food trucks, look for them near the metro near the white house.

I would just plan on bringing only phones and wallets to the white house. They mean it. They will not allow anything else.



My kids could only do a few hours of museums at a time, then they got bored. The natural history museum is awesome - dinos, hope diamond, lots of very cool stuff. The Air and Space is fun, the art galleries are good, pretty much anything smithsonian is free and will be interesting for a few hours.

It is very crowded by the cherry blossoms, but they are amazing and not to be missed.


Our weather is highly unpredictable this time of year, we can get 80 degree days or snow, so keep an eye on the forecast.
Silver Spring, MD is close in, has a metro stop, hotels and lots of cool places to eat right by the hotels.

 

[disney1990]

Hello!


Metro will be pretty crowded if you leave before 9 a.m., also leaving around 5 will also be pretty busy so you may want to avoid those hours. As for an itinerary, you were smart to consider metro. The city is yours

As for an itinerary-my two cents;

One day; do The National Mall (all the monuments, smithsonian, Capitol). The bureau of engraving is close by here as well as the holocaust museum. Tickets to the BEP are free but I think they go pretty quickly so you would want to stand in line first thing. Also on the Mall are the Sculpture Gardens. There is a huge water fountain. A big attraction is taking paddle boats around the tidal basin. I think you can buy these tickets online ahead of time.

A second day: Metro to the National zoo. Also in this area is The National Cathedral...it's close, but I don't know if its metro accessible. If not, it would be a less than5minute cab ride from the zoo. But it's pretty amazing.

A third day: White House tour and tour of the National archives - very cool. These are clustered relatively close together. You could combine these activities with the national mall if you are up for a long day.

A fourth day: Based on the age ranges of the kids you have, I think they would really enjoy the newer museums (Spy, Crime and Punishment). The Newseum is Great and I would highly recommend this one for the adults in the group. Keep in mind these museums are not free like the Smithsonian. Consider subscribing to DC groupon or living social. Sometimes they run specials for these. Since you are spending money on these tix I would think you want some quality time in these museums. In this part of town you will be close to Chinatown, a fun place for lunch or dinner

Honorable mention of things to do:
- 911 Memorial at the Pentagon (metro accessible and the Memorial is open 24 hours)
- Union Station
- Old town Alexandria (lots of shopping and restaurants)

I only disagree with doing the memorials and the Smithsonian on the same day. If you walk straight through the memorials, there is the Washington Monument, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the World War II Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, the Martin Luther King Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial - a lot of walking and worthy of a day. The Smithsonian (Including the Air and Museum) are huge buildings and can take as much a day each. Although I am sure OP doesn't have that kind of time. But, I would devote a day to the Memorials and a day to various Smithsonian buildings. OP, research the different Smithsonian buildings before, so you know which one or ones you want to see - they are all free. We have lived in the DC area our entire lives, and we still spend a day in the Spring just visiting the Memorials. When we go to the Smithsonian, we usually only go to 1 or 2 buildings in a day.

 

[eliza61]

Not sure if they still do this but one year we went to arlington and the Iwo Jima memorial they had the marine silent drill team there every night.

http://www.leatherneck.com/forums/s...-the-Marine-Corps-Silent-Drill-Team-in-action

My sons and husband loved them

 

[lukenick1]

Wow....great responses!!!

Another question.....what is allowed inside the Smithsonians? Cameras? backpacks?

 

[disney1990]

Wow....great responses!!!

Another question.....what is allowed inside the Smithsonians? Cameras? backpacks?

You can take all of that into the Smithsonian, but it will be inspected as you enter.