If you are staying at National Harbour then you are far away from everything, except for National Harbour. There are things to do there and plenty of places to eat and drink but it is isolated. You can’t walk from there to anywhere else. Seriously, National Harbour is a nice place to visit but it is all by itself.
If there are shuttles to the metro they will take about 15-20 minutes to get to King st. If a shuttle goes to the Eisenhower metro (or Hoffman center), that is a little closer and there are some decent restaurants there (Delia’s is a favorite of mine). The Metro ride from King street to, say, the Mall will take like 40 minutes or more. Plan your day and plan on walking.
I think there is a water taxis from Nation Harbour to somewhere downtown but I don’t know where. They also have one that goes to old town Alexandria (much closer) and they might even have one that goes up to Mount Vernon.
According to a dining site I trust the best Italian places near the King Street Metro are A La Lucia, Landini Brothers, Trattoria da Franco, and Il Porto.
In fairness to RTFirefly, they used to be $10, $5 for the card with $5 fare. I don’t know when exactly it changed (possibly a while ago; I bought my SmarTrip card like 8 years ago), but I thought it was still 5 and 5 myself until I looked it up a few weeks ago regarding a Metro question and discovered it was now 2 and 8.
Be wary of using the handicap turnstile on the Metro as while it is OK for non-handicapped people to use one it is somewhat confusing compared to the other turnstiles. The handicap one spits your ticket right back at you and at first I thought it didn’t work, so I put it in again and got charged twice. The regular ones takes your ticket and spits it out to another place on top near the gate, the handicap one is made to give from the same slot you put it into initially and spits it back out the same so the person sitting in a wheelchair (or blind person) doesn’t have to reach up looking for it.
I bought a card less 2 years ago and it was $10 with $5 worth of fare then, so I was surprised to see the $10/$8 thing too. And remember, if you want to park at a metro, you have to have a smartcard to get out (except for some special times which I won’t try to understand.)
Let me echo the Landini Brothers in Alexandria recommendation. It isn’t close to the metro though.
If anyone in your group is obsessed with dinosaurs be aware that exhibit hall at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum is closed for renovations for the next few years.
Hmmm . . . I’m liking the sound of this. Partially being selfish, I really want to see the shuttle. A few years ago we were going to be in Kennedy to see one of launches after they announced the end of the shuttle program but the launch got moved. I have this fear that they are going to move the shuttles or get rid of them or something and I don’t want to miss my chance again. Plus the two oldest kids are boys who are into planes and spaceships too so they should like it.
We just got back from visiting DC - there is some good advice in this thread!
This confused me, though. The National Mall is about 2 miles long. The Capitol building is a one end, the Lincoln Memorial at the other with the Washington Monument and WWII Monument near the middle. From the Metro station nearest the Smithsonian Castle, it would be about a half mile walk to the Capitol in one direction, or a half mile to the Washington Monument the other direction. You could get off the train, go to the Natural History museum (about 1/4 mile walk), explore it, then visit the Washington/WWI Monuments, then back to the Metro - but that’s a LOT of walking with kids. The White House is a long walk from any of the above.
From the Metro station we used it was about a half mile walk to the zoo. Exploring the zoo is another 1-2 miles, depending on how you meander through, then back to the Metro. Another pretty good hike for young kids.
My family, with grown kids, averaged 10-12 miles of walking per day in DC.
If this is the weekend of 6 August, the Arlington County Fair will be going on at that time; they have free shuttles from two Metro stations (Pentagon City on Blue & Yellow, Ballston on Orange & Silver).
Most of my advice can be found in the other threads already linked. So I’ll just add that in Old Town Alexandria, don’t miss Bilbo Baggins restaurant . And be sure to let the kids wander around the “Why Not?” shop, which has been consistently wonderful since I was a kid in the 70’s.
When your group needs a break from walking on the mall, the Sculpture Garden is a great place to sit and have lunch and enjoy the huge fountain. It’s nice to sit on the wide rim and stick your feet in and just relax for awhile, and there are wonderful sculptures that the small kids would find neat.
BTW, public restrooms are very hard to find and access in the Metro system. If you have an emergency you can ask a station attendant. Given how long it can take to find a station attendant, and that some Metro stations do not have restrooms at all, your best plan is having all the younguns “go” before you leave.
Sorry Doctor Jackson, there was a typo there. I ment that we plan on seeing most of the monuments on the mall (like the Lincon, Washington, and WW II Memorials) and skipping the other ones (like the Jefferson Memorial).
BTW, the Washington Monument is kind of a let down from the inside. I admit, I haven’t been up it since I was in grade school, but the windows are tiny and it’s crowded. Normally, I send people to the Old Post Office for better views of the city, but I believe that’s closed right now. If you are crunched for time, missing going up the Washington Monument wouldn’t be the worst thing.
Got it! That means a roughly 3 mile walk from the Metro station to the Lincoln Memorial and back, hitting the other two monuments on the way. Add about an additional mile to get close to the Capital. Factor in a museum or 2 and you have a pretty good day of walking for young’uns. One plan would be:
Day 1 - Zoo and surrounding area, evening in old town Alexandria
Day 2 - Mall and a museum, evening around National Harbor (Go in the Gaylord Hotel, it’s impressive!)
Day 3 - More museum(s) and surrounding area (maybe walk to the WH)
Factoring in travel from National Harbor to and between the destinations, along with slow walking speed of young ones, those will be pretty full days.
Yeah, the clock tower in the Old Post Office closed for renovations right around the time the Washington Mounment reopened after fixing the earthquake damage.
That’s kind of what we were thinking; go one direction on the mall one day and the opposite the next. The zoo a different day, but we have a really awesome zoo at home. It looks like the only thing they have that ours doesn’t is pandas.
If you just want to see the pandas you might make just a morning out of the Zoo. The pandas are relatively close to the main entrance on Connecticut Ave - where you enter from the Metro.