Wash. DC trolley question

[crisi]

We used Toumobile once. ....

I love Ford's Theatre. And agree about the old post office. We found ourselves in Natural History over and over again, which surprised me (I like American best, and I thought my husband would drive more time at Air and Space, but my daughter took the lead, and for her it was Natural History). I'd skip the Capitol, although the Library of Congress is a STUNNING building (and usually has interesting exhibits, including a Gutenberg Bible). Udvar Hazy is way out by Dulles, but is a great place to visit.

Get tickets in advance for the Holocaust museum online. $1 per ticket will get you an entry time. If you don't, you are at the mercy of "when the next tickets are available day of" - sometimes that is "not at all."

I did a moonlight tour in high school and did like that better....more limited time. I wouldn't walk the monuments, while it is "walkable" it is a really LONG walk. We walked from Jefferson to Roosevelt and the kids were dragging (and they are Disney vets).

I'm sorry to hear the Tourmobile went out of business. We chose it because it did Arlington, and I wanted my kids to see that...the changing of the guards in particular. And the Lee house, because we didn't get out to Mount Vernon, so the Lee house was the only chance they had to see that sort of thing. And because its had such a long history. The fact that our much indebted government was getting a small portion of the take helped too.

 

[wishesuponastar]

OP here - I'm taking notes on everything posted, thank you all so much!

 

[North of Mouse]

I love Ford's Theatre. And agree about the old post office. We found ourselves in Natural History over and over again, which surprised me (I like American best, and I thought my husband would drive more time at Air and Space, but my daughter took the lead, and for her it was Natural History). I'd skip the Capitol, although the Library of Congress is a STUNNING building (and usually has interesting exhibits, including a Gutenberg Bible). Udvar Hazy is way out by Dulles, but is a great place to visit.

Get tickets in advance for the Holocaust museum online. $1 per ticket will get you an entry time. If you don't, you are at the mercy of "when the next tickets are available day of" - sometimes that is "not at all."

I did a moonlight tour in high school and did like that better....more limited time. I wouldn't walk the monuments, while it is "walkable" it is a really LONG walk. We walked from Jefferson to Roosevelt and the kids were dragging (and they are Disney vets).

I'm sorry to hear the Tourmobile went out of business. We chose it because it did Arlington, and I wanted my kids to see that...the changing of the guards in particular. And the Lee house, because we didn't get out to Mount Vernon, so the Lee house was the only chance they had to see that sort of thing. And because its had such a long history. The fact that our much indebted government was getting a small portion of the take helped too.

You can still do Arlington, just go to metro center and catch a different color train. We always did that when we lived N. of DC and is much better because you can take your own time, The metro stop is right there. We did not like the tourmobile and never took it, always hated when they would pass by us with their speakers blaring. You can also take the metro to the zoo, it's great! We did drive, or ride our bikes (from a staging park) to Mt. Vernon though which is very interesting. There's a bike trail along the road.

 

[crisi]

You can still do Arlington, just go to metro center and catch a different color train. We always did that when we lived N. of DC and is much better because you can take your own time, The metro stop is right there. We did not like the tourmobile and never took it, always hated when they would pass by us with their speakers blaring. You can also take the metro to the zoo, it's great! We did drive, or ride our bikes (from a staging park) to Mt. Vernon though which is very interesting. There's a bike trail along the road.

But walking through Arlington is a lot of walking. The Tourmobile stopped at the "critical stops" and saved us a ton of time at our feet.

 

[North of Mouse]

But walking through Arlington is a lot of walking. The Tourmobile stopped at the "critical stops" and saved us a ton of time at our feet.

You are so right there, but it was the walk that we enjoyed so much. There happened to be a graveside service come in while we were there with the caissons (such a grand look with the horses). We were in shock, but respectfully stood where we were until all was finished. As many times as we had been there, that had never happened.

 

[1Princess1Prince2006]

I have visited and lived in the DC/NOVA area for over 10 years. Take a some type of tour bus if you want to go from memorial to memorial, especially if you have kids!

I now live in OH, but I took my two kids last summer and I am sooooo glad we did a tour bus. We were visiting family and took the Metro in to Union Station. They had 3-4 bus companies that we could chose from and we went with the one that gave us the best deal. (I don't remember the name, but I do remember that it was a double decker style bus).

Stops were all over the city, not just in the mall area. I think the longest wait we had was around the Jefferson Memorial. We had at least a 20 minute wait there. We had a longish wait at the Lincoln Memorial as well, but they had a concession stand right there that we were able to get cool drinks from and have a snack, which helped perk up my kids.

I've done the whole walking of the mall area to see the monuments and museums when I was single and first married. It was fun then and I didn't mind all of that walking. Even when my DD was younger and we lived there, I didn't mind all of the walking because she was in the stroller. I am so glad we spent the $40 to take the bus around this time though. I could see us doing it again in the future, but the next time we go we'll be able to pin point certain things we want to do and just use the Metro stops.

 

[cornflake]

Never done a tour bus. Even when I was a kid we'd go walk around by the mall and if we wanted to go across to Jefferson and such and it was late (as, imo, monuments are best at night), just grab a cab and go by, hop out, look, back in and then loop over to Georgetown and then go walk around and get dinner and shop and whatever.

There's not anything really at the Jefferson imo; pretty view from across.

 

[crisi]

There's not anything really at the Jefferson imo; pretty view from across.

Really? Jefferson has some of the most amazing quotes on the wall. And of course, the Roosevelt monument is huge, there isn't an "outside" to look at.

 

[BubMunkeyBles]

The Monuments by Moonlight will take you to FDR at least. I like doing the tours the museums and majority of the monuments can be walked. I spent a few days in DC and preferred the tours just because I was alone, but with a group its probably not necessary. A lot depends on how mobile you guys are. I really prefer Oldtown Trolley.

 

[clori]

We only did a tourmobile tour inside Arlington Cemetary but took the metro to get there. For us the tour was nice in that I was touring with parents in their 80s and a manual wheelchair (both parents can walk but distances can be hard). We enjoyed the short info on the tour and we always walked over as the tourmobile was coming and left within a few minutes. The only other trolley tour we did was thru Royal Trolleys - we did a monuments at night tour but since we had the same trolley/driver for every stop we knew when we had to return so no waiting unless you came back early. The trolley even took us back to our hotel in Alexandria at the end. Everything else we did we used the metro.

We loved Ford's Theater. My dd6 thru my parents all liked the audio tour and the play about the day Lincoln was shot. We didn't go to the Washington Monument but loved the Clock Tower at the Old Post Office Pavillion. I thought my youngest may have been bored at the National Archives but she loved it. I have to say that we didn't find the capitol tour to be that interesting. My youngest actually fell asleep while sitting in grandpa's lap on the wheelchair. We enjoyed everything we saw at the Smithsonian. On this trip we didn't go to the holocaust museum but plan to go again in a few years.

 

[mickey-mania]

We spent time in DC in December and used the Old Town Trolley the whole time, it was a wonderful way to get around. We also did the Moonlight Tour which we loved. Currently there is no tour mobile that goes through Arlington, apparently the company who had the contract lost it and now other companies are bidding for it. Not sure when it will be back in service. We walked all of Arlington and it was brutal at times but worth every bit.