Looking for answers and advice for DC vacation

In My Humble Opinion
1

We are going to Washington, D.C. in a few weeks with another family and IIRC we have some experts in the area. I was hoping to find a few answers and any bits of advice.

To give you the plan there are four adults and 4 kids ages 1 – 7. We are staying 3 days in . . . National Harbor, MD? (Some place a few blocks from the National Children’s Museum.) I know I could spend a week or five in DC, but my family will be going back when the kids are older . . . a couple times. Given the ages we are keeping the “musts” to Air & Space Museum, Natural History Museum, the monument on the Mall, (not going in the Washington or WH) and the Zoo. All things are flexible according to how the kids are of course.

My main question is about the Metro. I’ve done some calculations and don’t think it would be worth getting a day pass unless the cost is “per station” vs “per ride.” The impression I had from the website was that it’s per ride, but everywhere it mentions a fare it says “minimum” which is why I’m not sure. Is the minimum just referring to possible transfers?

Also, if we do end up getting one of their Smartip cards, do we have to get one per person or can we just load all the money on one and pass it to each person as they go through the gate? I figure the Metro gets the same amount of money and there is a smaller chance of us losing a card that way.

I just found out today that Discovery isn’t in the main building! I should have known that, and I hope it doesn’t screw things up too much. How far is it to the Air and Space Annex? I’m assuming it’s still free since it’s part of the Smithsonian Institute?

Finally, we were hoping to have each couple watch the kids one night to let the other go out. Know a good (not too fancy; I’m not packing a suit) Italian restaurant in the area?

Any other tourist tips for DC are appreciated of course. I’ll (attempt to) get Obama’s autograph for you (If I see him) in return.

2

The Air & Space Annex is all the way out at Dulles Int’l, a long way.

You aren’t going to be able to hand a single Smart Card back outside the turnstiles.

It all depends how much you intend to use the Metro if a day pass makes sense.

If you aren’t going to multiple places, just calculate your fare on the boards by the machines, and buy the paper tickets (fare cards).

3

Just a couple of quick answers while I’m waiting on hold: each passenger needs his/her own metro card. The annex is about 45-60 minutes outside of DC (this being DC, traffic can make that much longer); it’s free, but there is IIRC a $12 parking fee; I also believe there is a shuttle bus to/from a Metro station.

I’ll be back later with more. Have fun.

4

Missed the edit window, but depending on the timing of your visit and the interests of the group, a visit to a Nats game can be great fun and they are in tied for first place with some team from Georgia, but that unpleasantness should be cleared up by the time you get here.

5

Since you’re staying at National Harbor, it looks like how you get to the Metro is by their courtesy shuttle to the King Street (Alexandria, VA) Metro stop. It’s really difficult to get in and out of National Harbor by any means other than car, so this shuttle looks like it for you. You’ll probably want to call the number at the link and find out how often the shuttle runs, and when its first and last runs of the day are.

Get SmarTrip cards if you’re using Metro at all. Yes, they’re a ripoff at $5 apiece, but if you don’t get one, they rip you off by adding $1 to the price of each time you get on the Metro. So if you expect to do at least 2 round trips on Metro, the worst you can do is lose $1 per person by getting the damned SmarTrip cards. And you’ll come out ahead if you make more trips than that.

Since King Street is where the courtesy shuttle takes you to, that’s probably the best place to look for dining. I’m not really familiar with the restaurants near the King Street metro, but I’ve driven through that end of Old Town several times recently on my way to other destinations, and it looks like there are plenty of options for dining. It kinda blows my mind, because I remember when that part of Alexandria was basically a slum. Not any more!

6

There is a nice Greek place in Old Town at 1118 King Street called Vaso’s Kitchen. It’s family run and has a really nice atmosphere for a date night. Call for reservations.

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Just got back from DC with 4 kids, so here’s my take on the Metro.

You have a SmartTrip card, with some amount of money loaded on it. You swipe it to enter a station, get on your train, make whatever transfers are required, then swipe again when you leave your destination station, at which point it decrements your balance by the total cost of the trip. Transfers between lines don’t require swiping the card or anything - all that matters is what station you got on, and what station you got off.

The all day pass was $14, and we were close enough to the National Mall, and walked enough, that it made absolutely no sense for us to buy it - we wound up spending around $20 per person for 3 full days in DC. Don’t forget that fares are higher during peak travel periods (basically morning & afternoon rush hour M-F) when calculating your needs.

You absolutely need one card per person over some minimum age (2?). Our method was that I kept all the SmartTrip cards, handed them out to each person as we got to the gates, collected them after we went through the gates, then handed out and collected again when we reached our destination. That way we didn’t have to worry about any of the kids losing cards, even on the train.

Warning - you can buy and then reload the cards at machines at the stations. However, you can only use a single credit card 5 times per day for buying credit on cards. Since we had 6 cards, I had to use multiple credit cards when we bought & reloaded them.

They were only $2 per card when we bought them a few weeks ago - $10 for a card with $8 credit on it.

We spent an evening in Old Town. It was very nice. Lots of nice restaurants, and not horribly expensive.

8

As others have said, you can’t use one SmarTrip card. Don’t try it. When you swipe it, it registers you as being “in” the system and if you try to swipe in again without first swiping out elsewhere, it will just give you a message to go see the station manager.

Also, with the ages of your kids, I’m assuming you will have strollers. Be aware that a good number of the elevators in the Metro system are usually broken at any given time and you may be hauling it up and down an escalator. I’ve lived here almost my whole life and can’t recall the elevator at Woodley Park/Zoo ever working even once, for example.

Be careful with the weather: it is really, really hot and humid and disgusting in DC in July/August. And we get frequent thunderstorms.

The Annex is out at the Udvar-Hazy Center near Dulles Airport. At least a 30-minute drive depending on traffic, and there is no realistic public transit out that way–technically there are bus lines but it would take you hours.

9

When going to the zoo, get off the metro at Cleveland Park. Use Woodley Park when you leave the zoo. That way you don’t have to walk up hill.

I like the restaurants better at Cleveland Park.

Next time, don’t stay at National Harbor. Unless you’ve got something going on near there.

There is a food court under L’Enfant Plaza if you need to feed the kids for cheap(er) while you’re on the mall.

10

There’s a Hard Times Cafe at King & West, walking distance from Metro. For restaurants further down King, there’s a free shuttle to the waterfront. I recommend Eammon’s (an American version of an Irish pub) at King & Columbus and King Street Blues (BBQ ribs & burgers) on St. Asaph a half-block north of King.

A couple blocks south of Metro is the United States Patent & Trademark Office campus and its small museum. It’s free and something out of the ordinary to do before getting on Metro.

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A recent thread on visiting DC: Travel to Washington DC with Kids - In My Humble Opinion - Straight Dope Message Board

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This is correct but my opinion is that if walking up that hill is going to be an issue, don’t go to the zoo. The entire place is on a moderate slope.

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There are also water taxis between National Harbor & Old Town and National Harbor & Georgetown but they run $10 - $14/person one-way; children are about half that.

14

I like Teaism for lunch when I’m visiting the National Mall. It’s a short walk away, depending on what part of the mall you’re at, it has good food and fast service, and is very reasonably priced given the area and the quality. It’s way better than the cafeteria food other than the cafeteria at the National Museum of the American Indian, which is good and very cool but pretty expensive.

15

Seconding above opinion on the cafeteria at the Museum of the American Indian - great food that is not your usual cafeteria chow, but pricier than most cafeteria fare. Worth it IMHO, but I’m not feeding 4 adults and 4 toddlers. http://nmai.si.edu/visit/washington/mitsitam-cafe/

I also like visiting the US Botanical Garden, right next to the American Indian Museum http://www.usbg.gov/

National Harbor is lovely, but the restaurants are very pricey - comparable to downtown DC prices. I used to work in Oxon Hill, MD. If you have a car I can recommend a great neighborhood pizza joint and bar http://pizza-italiamd.net/index.html (with kids eat in the dining area not the bar), and a fantastic bakery Desserts by Gerard      301.839.2185 , both in Oxon Hill. They are too far to walk from National Harbor, but you can drive or cab or whatever.

I see there’s also a Metrobus that connects National Harbor with 2 different Metro stations. Here’s a PDF link of the map and schedule: http://www.wmata.com/bus/timetables/md/nh1.pdf?n

For kids National Harbor has a Peeps store so you can sugar the tykes up: http://nationalharbor.com/stores/peeps-company/

and has a great sculpture called “The Awakening” http://nationalharbor.com/things-to-do-in-dc/the-awakening-sculpture/ It’s supposed ot be very climbable. Never been there myself.

If you take the shuttle to Kings Street Metro station, the downtown Air & Space Museum is a short walk from the L’Enfant Plaza metro station. L’Enfant is on the Yellow line, and King Street serves both Yellow and Blue lines, be sure to grab the right color train!

Old Town Alexandria is a long walk from the King Street metro station, but the King Street Trolley takes you there for free! http://www.visitalexandriava.com/planning-tools/maps-transportation/free-trolley/

Here’s a list of shops for kids in Old Town Kids Stores in Alexandria, VA | Alexandria Shopping
I love the Why Not toy store - great stuff there.

Another thing to do with kids that’s close to National Harbor is the Oxon Cove Park & Farm Oxon Cove Park & Oxon Hill Farm (U.S. National Park Service) and Oxon Cove Park and Oxon Hill Farm - Wikipedia The kids had a great time there on field trips - they get to see chickens and sheep and cows!

There are many monuments and museums along the national mall, but the walks can get long, especially for little kids. Pick your targets and plan ahead. As with anyhting with kids, have a Plan B, and Plan C, etc.

If your kids like trains, you can metro to Union Station. It may still be under renovations, but there are lots of places ot view trains. There is also a food court in the basement. If your kids like planes you can metro to National Airport and just walk the concourse. There are some shops and some chain restaurants in the concourse.

Have fun!

16

The National Building Museum has a giant maze insside this summer, I haven’t been yet, but it looks like a blast and the building itself is really cool: The BIG Maze at the National Building Museum, Summer 2014 | National Building Museum

When you come out of the Metro at the Smithsonian, there might be a guy trying to sell you a map. These maps are free at a kiosk about 30 feet away. These panhandlers take the free maps and try to sell them to tourists.

17

Thanks for all the input. I must have missed the other thread becuase I did searches with the words “vacation” and “trip” with “DC.” Missed “travel.” :rolleyes:

Good to have a definite answer on the Metro cards. I got an app for my phone an have already mapped a few routes. From what you guys have been saying it sounds like I was about right. We handled NYC just fine, but that was without kids.

Thanks for the hint about going an extra stop for the zoo. Every little bit helps, especially when pushing a stoller uphill.

chizzuk, hot, humid, and thunderstorms? Sounds like Ohio. We don’t like it; that’s why we send east. :smiley:

Typo Knig, why does that sculpture, with the title “The Awakening” make me think of Cthulhu? :eek:

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BTW, given the ages of your kids, I’d recommend not going to the International Spy Museum. It was great for our 10-15 year old kids, but would go right over the head of your kids.

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Just don’t go to the Yellow King theater. Actually, Awakening is the sculpture on the beach in the second pic on the National Harbor website: http://nationalharbor.com

If you can, plan your trips to miss rush hour on the Metro, it could be a pain with kids and strollers.

20

Mild note, the National Building museum is a pay-museum (something like $15A/$10Y) and it’s Chinatown-adjacent, a couple blocks off the mall. Worth a trip though. National Portrait Gallery is also in Chinatown and that’s free (and a very good art gallery).

There’s also a massive food court in the basement of Union Station. There’s also a free, kid-friendly, often-ignored Postal Museum to the left (if you’re looking at Union Station from the outside).

Other attractions worth a gander on the Mall:

  • Library of Congress (very ornate inside).
  • Botanical Gardens
  • Cool underground walking sidewalk connecting the 2 wings of the art galleries. With the age of your kids, you’d probably skip the galleries themselves but the walkway is neat and would make an impression on the very young: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zwMmdZKinjc/T7PG8unr3OI/AAAAAAAAANQ/cFnUKTtsDKI/s1600/sidewalk.JPG
  • Giant climbable statue of Einstein that’s just across the street from the Mall that little kids would also love more than looking at exhibits.

Honestly, if I had four kids under 7 in tow, I’d avoid the on-mall air and space museum and the American History museum in favor of more time in the Natural History museum.

The A&S has dinky little planes and is UNBEARABLY CROWDED. Nightmarishly crowded. In fact, most of the museum is just open space so they can cram as many people inside the building as possible. It’s just terrible. I’m assuming you’ll have a car? The annex is the way to go. Plus in the 'burbs you can quickly and easily yelp a place to eat that’ll be much cheaper than whatever you can find in Old Town or Nat Harbor. Pho, Falafel, dim sum, etc. Just fantastic ethnic cuisine.

The history museum has a few nice exhibits like trains and steamboats but it also has a lot of “boring” exhibits for a 5 year old. I mean, I appreciate the hall of 1st lady dresses as much if not more than the next guy but I don’t think they’d get a kick out of that at such a young age. Save it for the return trip when the kids are in middle school.