Help Us Tweak Our Vacation: Adding Philly and DC

In My Humble Opinion
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Geez, we have never had vacation plans morph so much. We decided to spend the entire month of April in the US next year. Originally, we thought we’d spend the entire time lazing around in Hawaii. Hawaii is our special place. It’s where we met, where we were grad students together, where we courted. It was a magical 2-1/2 years, and to paraphrase Humphrey Bogart: “We’ll always have Hawaii.”

But then we thought: “Well, ya know, we’ve always talked about visiting New York City but never moved on it.” Except for the Newark, New Jersey airport flying to and from Europe, I’ve never been east of the Mississippi River at all. The wife has visited Boston, during a summer residency at the U of Michigan one year, but never New York. So we decided: “We’ll do a week or 10 days in NYC and spend the rest of the month in Hawaii.” That spawned this thread asking for NYC advice back in January.

Now, I grew up in West Texas, and it was a given that you had to drive several hours to get to anyplace that could even remotely be considered desirable, so it took me a little while to realize not only is Philadelphia just 90 minutes from NYC by train, but Washington DC is only three hours away. So now we’re thinking: “We should really see Philly and Washington while we’re on the East Coast.” So that’s cutting Hawaii down to maybe two weeks or less.

So we started checking out airfares even though it’s still early days. China Airlines, which we’ve flown a lot, can fly us from Bangkok-NYC and then back home from Honolulu for only US$1100 each plus taxes. Not bad. We’d have to make other arrangements to Hawaii, as China does not fly domestically in the US. United Airlines can fly us Bangkok-NYC-Honolulu-Bangkok for $2100 each, taxes and charges included. I think we can do a little cheaper getting from NYC to Hawaii though. Again, it’s still early days.

But now we’re considering cutting Hawaii out altogether, mabe spending only three weeks or so in the US. The East Coast is on the other side of the world, and who knows when we’ll ever be in that neighborhood again. Hawaii is practically right next door, and we last visited there six years ago anyway. If we just do a straight Bangkok-NYC round trip on China Airlines, which is the same $1100 fare – seems they consider NYC and Honolulu equal for fare purposes – we can hop over to Hawaii some other time and maybe this time have a leisurely look around the NYC-Washington corridor.

So what’s a good amount of time to spend in Philadelphia and Washington soaking up the history? We don’t want to be rushed, and we’re open to renting a car and taking some day trips out, like maybe the Gettysburg Battlefield (where one of my great- or great-great-grandfathers fought on the Yankee side) or Appomattox Court House. But inside Philly and DC themselves, what’s a good length of time? And a good area of each city to stay? We hope Philly and DC wil be cheaper than New York, and we don’t care about fancy. In fact, we’ve always been satisfied with Motel 6, and I see Washington has two of those.

Any advice appreciated, and thanks in advance.

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I would advise that you could spend a week or more in D.C. without getting bored. The Smithsonian is the world’s best collection of museums. The National Gallery of Art alone could keep you occupied for several days if you life that sort of thing. If you arrive at the right time in April you could also check out the cherry blossom festival.

The best places to stay are either Georgetown or the Dupont Circle area, northwest of the Mall. There are a lot of small and cozy hotels in that part of town. I’d be careful about picking the very cheapest hotels, because they’re likely in the bad parts of town, namely the northeast and southeast. Those neighborhoods simply aren’t safe to walk around at night, but Georgetown and Dupont Circle are.

The other thing to be wary of is the traffic, which tends to be hideous at all times of the year and all times of day.

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Great info. Thanks!

DC has a subway system, yes? How about Philly?

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April is a really nice time of year to be in DC. The cherry blossoms and azaleas should be blooming and the weather should be tolerable for being out and about.

Maybe you could rent a car in Philly and drive to Gettysburg, then on to DC? As long as you have a car, you might consider Monticello as a day trip from DC (2.5 hr drive). Mt. Vernon is a lot closer to DC and also very interesting, but I really like Monticello. Annapolis, MD is also a nice day trip from DC.

In DC, I’d recommend the Smithsonian, of course, and all the monuments on the Mall. The Spy Museum and the Newseum are both fairly popular non-Smithsonian museums. Georgetown, Dupont Circle, and old town Alexandria, VA are all nice neighborhoods for walking around, poking into shops, and going out to eat. The farmer’s market at Eastern Market is always fun on a Saturday morning, even if you are just looking around. The Washington Nationals are pretty mediocre, but the stadium is lovely and the cheap seats are only ten bucks.

I think you could pretty easily amuse yourselves in DC for a week.

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The Metro is DC is easy to navigate and will be convenient for most tourist destinations. You would really only need a car to leave the city. I don’t know about public transit in Philadelphia.

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Excellent suggestions, but we’d probably skip the ball game.

Ah, I know – White House tours. Is it true you generally need to be a group of 10? And if it’s just the two of us, is it easy to join a larger group?

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Personally I’d skip the White House. It’s really not that interesting IMO.

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you can easily add yourself to a whitehouse tour, but most veterans of DC sightseeing would probably tell you that the WH tour and going to the top of the washington monument are 2 of the most overrated touristy experiences DC has to offer: huge lines carving out massive chunks of your day with very little payoff.

for Philly i can only offer the Mutter Musuem and various historical tours. Baltimore is halfway(ish) between DC and Philly and has the world’s greatest aquarium. Ft. mchenry is hit or miss depending on how much of a history buff you are, and the inner harbor itself is nice, but not must-see.

i’ve got DC bias but there is tons to do in DC and all for free. from the zoo to the smithsonian to the various historical gov sites (library of congress, ford’s theater, etc.) and 75% of it FREE, why wouldn’t you spend a couple days in the district?

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I will also endorse the Mutter Museum if you’re into that sort of thing (medical curiosities).

I also enjoyed visiting the Eastern State Penitentiary when I was in Philly once. It looks like a castle that’s in the middle of the city. Very strange and creepy.

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I guess we’ll figure on a few days in Philly and a week or so in DC. We’d sort of like to see the inside of the White House, but if it’s that much trouble, then we’ll be satisfied with just staring at it from outside. Maybe President Obama will invite us in. :smiley:

We mainly like museums and historical points of interest. And eating. Shopping not so much, but we do enjoy browsing around. I’m afraid we’re not sports people at all.

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Are you up for a Dopefest?

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Well, that would not be out of the question. I’ve always wondered which Doper is President Obama.

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phila does have public transport. should you come in on train you have 3 stations to choose from.

market east is the closest to the historical sites. the train arrives at 11th and market and there are about 4-5 hotels nearby with in a block or 2. walking around is very easy to get to liberty bell, independence hall, and the constitution center. also the reading terminal is a good place for eating.

the next station is suburban. the hotels are a bit further out. you arrive at 17th and jfk (1 block north of market) this is the station for the museums, natural history, franklin institute, rodin, mutter, and art museum. i’m not sure if the barnes will be open during your visit.

the last station is 30th street. this arrives at 30th and market and i believe the closest hotel is 6 blocks away around university of penn. this is good for the museum of archeology and anthopology. other than that you could use the river park to get to the art museum and then use the “el” to get back the the hotel.

let me know should you need more philly info.

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Thanks. What would be a good number of days to schedule for Philly?

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I would go a bit further. As in Manhattan, you do not want to use a car in DC. The Metro will get you to all the popular tourist and shopping destinations. There are tons of cabs too.

There is also Tourmobile, which circulates all day among these stops (for some reason the map is oriented with east on top). You can get a day pass. Norw the map shows boxed M’s which are Metro stops. You can actually walk the entirety of that map east of the Potomac. From The Lincoln Memorial by the Potomac end to Union Station at the top is about 2 and a half miles.

Wisconsin and Connecticut Avenues are the places to shop. You can go along Massachusetts avenue to see “embassy row”, but there are lots of embassies all around the northwest quadrant.

I lived in Adams Morgan neighborhood, which is the place to go for all kinds of ethnic restaurants.

The National Portrait Gallery is a few blocks north of the Natural History Museum. In fact there’s a bunch of museums scattered mostly to the north within a few blocks of the Mall. The Holocaust Museum is just off the SW corner of the Mall.

If you get really energetic, there is a bike path that goes all the way from the Mall to Mount Vernon (about 20 miles), right along the west bank of the Potomac. I’m sure you can find something with an engine in it too if you aren’t so energetic.

You can rent a sailboat at the Belle Haven Marina (just south of Alexandria, another good shopping and eating choice). Alexandria also has lots of artists’ galleries – you should check out the Torpedo Factory if you like that stuff (yes, it used to be the US Navy torpedo factory).

I could go on and on…

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Thanks again. We’d only use a car to go farther afield, such as to Monticello and such. (I’d love to bicycle out to Mount Vernon, but the wife has never learned to ride a bike. :()

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about 3ish days. one day for history, one day for musuems, and one day if you want to go further a field to valley forge or other sites nearby.

bicycle built for 2?

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Do they still have bicycles built for two? We’ve joked about that, but I think she really would get on one of those. I actually used to ride one with a blind friend back in Texas.

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Certainly. In today’s language they are called tandems. I’m not sure of the wisdom of going for a ride on one with someone who doesn’t know how to ride, but you will find out quickly whether or not it works.

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It worked okay in Texas. My friend had never been on one either, but he was able to sit behind and work the pedals okay. Hopefully it wouldn’t be much different for the wife. (Although I guess the fact that she can see might panic her.)