What to see/do in DC?--adding trip reports, page 11 to start

[golfgal]

Would it be a good idea to get a SmarTrip card and just use that for everyone for the various metro rides? There will be 7 of us in our party, can we swipe it 7 times to get on the metro or should we get metrorail unlimited passes for everyone? I don't know how many buses we will take-staying in Alexandria, will we use the bus in DC itself or just the rail? We will be there for 7 days .

Also, is planning 2 museums/day enough, too much, just right? If we went to say the Am History museum in the morning and the Air/Space in the afternoon will that be enough time, too much time under normal viewing conditions?

 

[clutter]

Every rider on Metro needs a card. I think you all should be able to get by with just a paper card, not the SmartTrip.

Rule #1 on Metro: On escalators, it's stand to the left, walk on the right. You risk getting chewed out/plowed down by commuters otherwise!

Since your son is a history buff, I'd recommend a trip to Mt Vernon and the Archives.

Mt Vernon and the Zoo should be done early. My favorite place in DC is the zoo at 8am. It's empty, and the day is just getting started. Kind of magical.

 

[golfgal]

Ok, here is the rough draft of our trip, please critique. I am open to any and all suggestions. Is this realistic? I tried to segment things as much as possible, keeping things close together. It is mostly in order of priority by day, meaning if we miss the last thing on the list, oh well (for the days with more activities). The crew is DH, Me, DS16 (really HIS trip-LOVES history), DS14, DD14 and grandma and grandpa, we will not have a car, planning on taking metro everywhere. I would love suggestions for places to eat near where we will be. I hear the food court at the Am Indian Museum is a must--other ideas? Did I miss anything important?

Saturday
Arrive around noon--staying in Old Town Alexandria
Arlington National Cemetery-2 hours enough?
Pentagon?-can you tour this???
White House Visitor Center
Monuments at Night-7:30 PM

Sunday
National Zoo
National Archives
Newseum
National Cathedral

Monday
American History Museum
Air/Space Museum
Bureau of Engraving and Printing
Old Town Alexandria for dinner and evening

Tuesday
Holocaust Museum
American Indian Museum
Natural History Museum
WWII Memorial

Wednesday
Mount Vernon
Georgetown (added at Grandma's request)

Thursday
Spy Museum
Ford's Theater
Capital

Friday
leave for airport around noon, probably wander Old Town in the morning

***I just noticed that the Spy Museum has a Spy at Night program--it sounds fun, is it worth it? Should we just have the kids do that or would the adults enjoy that as well. Do you do the regular spy museum and then the Spy at Night or is just the Spy at Night enough***

 

[Shelton123]

I would love some suggestions for places to eat that are kid friendly as well as budget friendly.

Also, if anyone will be in DC on Aug 8th I have tickets for the Washington Monument for 7:30 pm and Ford's Theater at 3:00 on August 8th. We changed our dates and can't use these. PM and I will send them for free.

Then Queen Makeda is great for you. The food is a great way to introduce them to new foods, but it's not terribly spicy or weird. Oh, and it's pretty cheap. We are pretty good friends with the people there, and they are really nice.

Oh, and for the OP, it's a little out of your way, but DC isn't terribly huge or hard to navigate, and the food is definitely worth going a bit out of your way for.

 

[mominwestlake]

Hi Golfgal.

I looked over your schedule.

My thought would be to do the zoo and the national cathedral right after each other since they are in the same general area.

Did you get tickets for Ford's Theater and Peterson House online? I heard if you wait until the morning to get the free tickets they are often out.

Did you check on prices for the Residence Inn Capitol? We got a 1 bedroom suite/2 Q beds for $118 a night (includes free breakfast and even some free dinners) with a AAA card. It is in a decent location and will save us a lot of metro rides since we can walk to the museums. I think you will be doing a lot of traveling on the metro to get where you want to go and that makes it harder to go back and forth between locations.

That said, I have heard Old Town Alexandria is very quaint and it is a place I'd like to visit sometime.

Do you have a tour arranged through your congressperson for the Bureau of Printing and Engraving? If not, someone from you party will have to go very early to line up for tickets- again another good reason to stay in town.

Just my 2 cents. I hope you have a great time!

Ok, here is the rough draft of our trip, please critique. Saturday
Arrive around noon--staying in Old Town Alexandria
Arlington National Cemetery-2 hours enough?
Pentagon?-can you tour this???
White House Visitor Center
Monuments at Night-7:30 PM

Sunday
National Zoo
National Archives
Newseum
National Cathedral

Monday
American History Museum
Air/Space Museum
Bureau of Engraving and Printing
Old Town Alexandria for dinner and evening

Tuesday
Holocaust Museum
American Indian Museum
Natural History Museum
WWII Memorial

Wednesday
Mount Vernon

Thursday
Spy Museum
Ford's Theater
Capital

Friday
leave for airport around noon, probably wander Old Town in the morning

***I just noticed that the Spy Museum has a Spy at Night program--it sounds fun, is it worth it? Should we just have the kids do that or would the adults enjoy that as well. Do you do the regular spy museum and then the Spy at Night or is just the Spy at Night enough***

 

[mjkacmom]

This is a GREAT idea!!

I will be printing this thread out before we leave just to have everything along so we don't miss anything we really want to see.

Is it better to take the tourmobile or the trolley around?

The kids heard from some friend that Medieval Times is a fun place to eat but I can't find it in the tour book-is it still around and is it worth going? This is from a bunch of 8th grader so I don't know how reliable the information is .

The tourmobile was HORRIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!! Take the trolley, even though it costs more.

 

[Christine]

I *thought* that the Spy at Night thing was just for adults (on the commercials broadcast locally they advertise adult-themed spy mysteries and cocktails). It doesn't specifically say "no children" but I got that general impression.

Touring the Pentagon--no I don't think you can go inside but you can visit the 9/11 memorial outside of the Pentagon.

 

[golfgal]

I *thought* that the Spy at Night thing was just for adults (on the commercials broadcast locally they advertise adult-themed spy mysteries and cocktails). It doesn't specifically say "no children" but I got that general impression.

Touring the Pentagon--no I don't think you can go inside but you can visit the 9/11 memorial outside of the Pentagon.

I wondered about that since they talk about coctails on the website too.

Hi Golfgal.

I looked over your schedule.

My thought would be to do the zoo and the national cathedral right after each other since they are in the same general area.

Did you get tickets for Ford's Theater and Peterson House online? I heard if you wait until the morning to get the free tickets they are often out.

Did you check on prices for the Residence Inn Capitol? We got a 1 bedroom suite/2 Q beds for $118 a night (includes free breakfast and even some free dinners) with a AAA card. It is in a decent location and will save us a lot of metro rides since we can walk to the museums. I think you will be doing a lot of traveling on the metro to get where you want to go and that makes it harder to go back and forth between locations.

That said, I have heard Old Town Alexandria is very quaint and it is a place I'd like to visit sometime.

Do you have a tour arranged through your congressperson for the Bureau of Printing and Engraving? If not, someone from you party will have to go very early to line up for tickets- again another good reason to stay in town.

Just my 2 cents. I hope you have a great time!

We have hotels reservations at the Westin in Old Town already (Priceline for $100/night). I looked into the Residence Inn and for our dates it was about $250/night-you or someone else suggested this place before with a promo code. We have not gotten tickets for anything yet since I just worked up this schedule this morning . I will look into getting tickets online for things that we can.

 

[dogluva]

If you don't get tickets to the White House, make a stop at the White House visitors center. You don't need tickets and it is pretty cool.

The FDR memorial is one of my favorites.

Ford's Theater is still closed, but the Petersen House (across the street and where Lincoln died) is open.

Arlington is a must see.

Not closed anymore. I was there two days ago.

 

[dogluva]

what about a drive down Embassy Row? I enjoyed that. Also, the JFK center at night. I loved the view from the balcony. There are seven memorials, I recommend seeing all of them.

 

[MomNeedsVacay]

what dates are you going to be here?? I live here in Alexandria and could tell you some of the local "going-ons" for your timeframe. I think a full day at Mt. Vernon is a little much...unless you rope it into a bike trip from Old Town to mt. VErnon.

 

[golfgal]

what dates are you going to be here?? I live here in Alexandria and could tell you some of the local "going-ons" for your timeframe. I think a full day at Mt. Vernon is a little much...unless you rope it into a bike trip from Old Town to mt. VErnon.

We will be there June 27-July 3rd. I wasn't sure how much time to plan at Mt. Vernon. Since it won't take a full day that gives us some room to go back and see something or add something then .

 

[clutter]

I agree to do the zoo and the cathedral together. I'd also switch Bureau of Engraving and Printing with American Indian, location wise it makes sense.

You're going to leave right before the most spectacular fireworks display!!!! That's the best benefit for putting up with the crowds that week.

Other than that, you've got a good plan and a busy schedule. Have a great trip!

 

[golfgal]

I agree to do the zoo and the cathedral together. I'd also switch Bureau of Engraving and Printing with American Indian, location wise it makes sense.

You're going to leave right before the most spectacular fireworks display!!!! That's the best benefit for putting up with the crowds that week.

Other than that, you've got a good plan and a busy schedule. Have a great trip!

I know but those are the dates that worked for Grandma and Grandpa-plus we have a family 4th party that the kids love to go to each year.

 

[Green Tea]

We will be there June 27-July 3rd. I wasn't sure how much time to plan at Mt. Vernon. Since it won't take a full day that gives us some room to go back and see something or add something then .

Maybe do the Old Town dinner and afternoon look around the same day as Mount Vernon. You'll be out of the city anyway. Cathedral and zoo are in same area. You might want to put them together.

Do you have Georgetown on there? That is a great walk around and shop, have dinner sort of area.

All of the Smithsonian museums are just sort of together so you can pick and choose where to go. If the family gets bored with one, walk across the mall or next block down for something totally different.

The underground concourse between the east and west buildings of the National Gallery would be a good place for lunch when up at that end of the mall. Not far from American Indian, or Newseum either. (remember Newseum is private, not Smithsonian but I think they have a AAA discount on ticket?? Well worth whatever they charging for tickets though!)

 

[Wishing on a star]

Since there are some great experts here...

We saw DC years ago by taking a day-tour from our time-share exchange from Historic Williamsburg. Of course we didn't have a lot of time on this kind of tour, so we couldn't do any of the extensive tours. But, we did see a lot. We saw the Capitol, Ford's Theater, some time on the Mall.

We are thinking of repeating this trip with our son next year. Hoping that he will be at a good age to appreciate it.

In this situation, with a week at Williamsburg, and given that no way would we be driving into DC Is this kind of day tour our only real option? Is there another way to get into DC and maybe spend one night?

It would be cool to be able to do maybe a White House tour and one other.

 

[Christine]

Since there are some great experts here...

We saw DC years ago by taking a day-tour from our time-share exchange from Historic Williamsburg. Of course we didn't have a lot of time on this kind of tour, so we couldn't do any of the extensive tours. But, we did see a lot. We saw the Capitol, Ford's Theater, some time on the Mall.

We are thinking of repeating this trip with our son next year. Hoping that he will be at a good age to appreciate it.

In this situation, with a week at Williamsburg, and given that no way would we be driving into DC Is this kind of day tour our only real option? Is there another way to get into DC and maybe spend one night?

It would be cool to be able to do maybe a White House tour and one other.

If you don't want to drive directly into DC and you are coming from Williamsburg, your best bet would be to drive up to Springfield, VA (which is approximately 15 miles outside of DC) and get a room there. They have a Metro station there (most hotels will shuttle you over there, I'm sure) and you could Metro into the city and tour and come back with relative ease. I would probably recommend touring on the weekend as Springfield (as most suburban Metro stations) are huge commuter sites and, getting out in the morning, is going to be very congested. I find that on weekends, Metro is a breeze to use and pretty pleasant.

 

[golfgal]

If you don't want to drive directly into DC and you are coming from Williamsburg, your best bet would be to drive up to Springfield, VA (which is approximately 15 miles outside of DC) and get a room there. They have a Metro station there (most hotels will shuttle you over there, I'm sure) and you could Metro into the city and tour and come back with relative ease. I would probably recommend touring on the weekend as Springfield (as most suburban Metro stations) are huge commuter sites and, getting out in the morning, is going to be very congested. I find that on weekends, Metro is a breeze to use and pretty pleasant.

I have also noticed that many of the suburban hotels do not charge for parking at the hotel so that would save quite a bit of money if you did that too.

 

[Green Tea]

The Metro stops in NOVA are no problems on weekends! But also if you avoid the morning rush hour it wouldn't be too bad on weekdays. Even if you need to travel during prime times, you are still going on get on the train; it just might be more difficult to maneuver with smaller children. If you need to PARK at a station for the whole day during a weekday, I think that might be hard! Hotel shuttle to the entrance or walking to the station would be fine.

 

[golfgal]

We added Georgetown to our itinerary. Grandma wants to go there and visit a tea shop.