Seeking Washington, DC sightseeiing suggestioins

In My Humble Opinion
1

The good news: my husband and I won a trip to Washington, DC. The bad news: the trip is a very brief one. We will arrive on Saturday and leave on Monday. So we will have only one full day (Sunday) to see the sights.

My husband has never visited DC, and my own memories of it are rather foggy (the last time I was there, JFK was in the White House). We have booked a Segway tour Sunday morning, but that’s our only firm commitment. Both of us want to see the National Air and Space Museum, but we are open to suggestions.

To those of you who are familiar with the Capital: what would you do if you had only one day there (plus a few hours on the days before and after)? We will be staying at the Grand Hyatt Washington, at 1000 H Street NW. We’d like to keep cabfare and other expenses to a minimum, since we are persons of few means.

2

With only one full day and with a husband who has never been here, this couldn’t be easier: the Mall and everything immediately surrounding it easily contains dozens more museums, monuments and sites than you could possibly properly visit in a week, let alone a day.

3

The Grand Hyatt is within easy walking distance of several Metro stations. Metro Center is right around the corner. It’s also only a short walk (10-15 minutes) from the Mall itself.

4

Yep, that’s a fact. Last time I was in Washington, DC (in 1962) I spent four days in the various Smithsonian buildings, and I still wanted more. I assume that the Segway tour will give us a brief cruise around the Mall. Any suggestions for a couple of places in which to spend five or six hours would be most welcome.

5

Someplace with really good air conditioning would be my suggestion.

6

With the exception of a couple neighborhoods, cabs aren’t really needed in DC, since the Metro serves most places you will want to go. If you’re flying into National Airport, it’s easy to take the Metro into the city. If you land at Dulles, well, it’s a pain in the ass to get to DC from there. The choice is basically a $70 cab ride, or about an hour and a half trek involving a bus and the Metro $15 each (or thereabouts).

For Saturday, you might want to head up to Dupont Circle for dinner. It’s on the Metro red line, and there’s a good number of fun restaurants in the area. If you’re a little more adventurous, take a cab to 18th Street (Adams Morgan) and look for one of the Ethiopian restaurants, since DC has a good number of them. Either neighborhood offers quite a few places for an after-dinner drink, though Adams Morgan tends more to the college-age crowd in the summer.

Sunday, your tour will probably take a few hours, and I’d just recommend following up on the interesting sites that you see. Almost all the big museums are located on the Mall, which means quite a bit of walking, and probably some sweating in typical DC summer weather.

For dinner, you are right next to Chinatown, so there are are some slightly seedy, but decent Chinese restaurants around. You’re right near Matchbox, a great place that’s always crowded but worth the wait – might not be so bad for Sunday dinner.

Depending how much time you have Monday morning, you might be able to squeeze in a tour of the Capitol. The visitor center there is quite nice, too – though it is closed on Sunday.

7

I would say:

Visit the Lincoln Memorial (that won’t eat up too much time and it’s very impressive).

Don’t bother going up the Washington Monument.

As far as museums, I think it depends on your interests:

There are several fantastic art museums if you like art; which one to go to probably depends on what kind of art you’re most interested in. (Asian art = Sackler Gallery & Freer Gallery; modern art = Hirschhorn; Western art = National Gallery of Art).

If you’re interested in pure science, go to the Museum of Natural History. If you’re interested in technology, history, pop culture, etc., go to the Museum of American History. Both of those are favorites of mine.

Then there are other “special taste” museums like the Newseum and the International Spy Museum.

8

The Air and Space Museum is my personal favorite, but keep in mind that you won’t have time to do much more than glance at stuff as you walk by at any museum you visit.

9

Things on the Mall you can easily see:

Library of Congress. This is a very quick stop - the inside is beautiful, and the rotunda is a must-see.

US Botanical Garden. If you like botanical gardens.

Air & Space. The place is huge, and I could spend all day in there. The lobby has the highlights. Check out a map, and head to the top 2 or 3 sections your husband needs to see.

National Gallery of Art. I once had 25 minutes to burn while cutting through this on my way to meeting a friend. Deciding to linger, I asked the nearest docent “if you had 20 minutes, what would be the top ‘must-sees’ in this museum?” After she rolled her eyes completely around, she managed to find a pamphlet that had a list of their prized treasures. DaVinci, Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Picasso, Gauguin, etc. - you can get your culture on very quickly here.

National Archives. See the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution! (If they’re open on Sunday.) (Also, there are lines - so you may want to judge that on your own when you get there.)

National Museum of US History. There are some really amazing exhibits in here, and you could spend a gigantic amount of time going through it. If you’re a sentimental type who really likes the idea of seeing Old Glory (as in, the actual Old Glory), it’s worth the effort.

Monuments. I’m not sure if you were following along with your DC map, but I went from east to west with my suggestions. At this point, all that’s left are monuments - all of which are great to visit. I’ve never done the Washington Monument (lines), but if you head south, you can swing by the Jefferson Memorial (and the tital basin), the FDR Memorial, Lincoln Memorial and the Vietnam War Memorial (and all the “new” war monuments they’ve put up - the Korean one is my favorite). Warning: if you’re at the Jefferson Memorial and thinking of heading to the FDR and Lincoln, if you go straight there you’re going to experience the FDR Memorial backwards. Watching the nation sink into the depression after WWII is jarring, but I guess it’s nice to see Roosevelt regain the use of his legs.

I do like finishing on the Lincoln Memorial. It’s a powerful place.

10

Skip the White House. Long wait, little to see.

11

Go shopping at the Burke Center Plaza, and have a meal at Pino’s while you are there.

12

These aren’t Smithsonian museums and hence, are not free. The Spy Museum is kind of expensive ($18), but if you’re really into that sort of thing, it is very interesting. It would be like a 2-3 hour visit at most - it isn’t that large.

If weather permits, the National Zoo is also free and interesting. It is near a Metro stop (called, I believe, “Woodly Park - Zoo”). They have a primate language lab that the orangutans attend on a voluntary basis. When they feel like visiting, they hand-over-hand on a set of overhead cables through the grounds to the lab. At the moment they have lion cubs; the pandas are also famous residents. Oddly, I can spend a good long while watching the prairie dog colony.

Personally I really dig on the National Archives. I’ve heard the Library of Congress’s free guided tour is quite interesting (takes about an hour).

13

Don’t know if anyone has mentioned the Holocaust Museum. It’s free, just requires you get a ticket in advance. Very powerful.

14

I haven’t been to DC since this past Sunday… :slight_smile:

If you have little time and little budget, the monuments can’t be beaten. But you can see them in the evening, when other things are closed.

The Smithsonian sites are free, and there is probably one that has things you are interested in.

The Newseum does cost money to get into, but it’s one of my favorite places in DC. I’ve mentioned it in several threads about DC. The first time I visited the area, it was with a friend who does layout for the front page of my local paper in South Florida. I am SO glad we went…the collection of front pages from historical events…the room full of pulitzer prize winning photographs…it’s pretty amazing. If I did one thing that cost money, I’d be going there.

I think a good question, though…is what are you interested in? Science? Nature? History? Pop Culture? Art? Food?

-D/a

15

Assuming reasonable weather, I recommend visiting a cluster of 5 monuments in the Lincoln-Jefferson Memorial area.

  1. The Lincoln Memorial, obviously. I’ve been there dozens of times. It’s not lost its power yet.
  2. The Vietnam Memorial: if you come down the steps from the Lincoln Memorial and angle to the left of the Reflecting Pool, there you are.
  3. The Korean War Memorial: if you come down the steps from the Lincoln Memorial and angle to the right of the Reflecting Pool, there you are. IMHO, this is one of the three or four most powerful of Washington’s monuments and memorials, and easily the most overlooked. So often, war is just a long, hard slog, and there’s nothing glamorous about it. That’s what this monument is about.
  4. The FDR Memorial, which others have mentioned. It’s one of my favorites. Very powerful, very well done.
  5. The Jefferson Memorial.

One to skip: the WWII Memorial is an unfortunate waste of space. Its attempts at finding a theme undercut each other (e.g. a meaningless and confusing juxtaposition of the U.S. states and territories with the European and Pacific theaters of war), and the whole thing just screams “generic monument.” The WWII vets deserved better than this.

16

National Geographic often has fantastic exhibits.

17

Tell us a little about your interests. There is so much specialty stuff here - it’s hard to plan a ninja trip without more info.

One quick note: When you go to the Lincoln Memorial, go down and to the left of the stairs. There’s a door through which you can reach a viewing window and see the foundations and a bit about the construction etc. Really interesting - and one of the few clean restrooms on the mall. . . :wink: Also, if you sit on the back of it and look over the river the sunset over Arlington manor is lovely.

18

Many thanks for the suggestions, folks. I’m going to print out this thread and take it with me when we go. I sure do wish we had more time to spend there, but since I won the trip in a sweepstakes, I didn’t have any say in the matter. A freebie vacation is a wonderful thing, even if it’s a short one!

19

If you have some curiosity about President Lincoln and the U.S. civil war, I’d recommend Ford’s Theater as well as the boarding house opposite the theater to which Lincoln was taken after Booth’s fatal shot. I’m a D. C. native and I regret that I never visited these sites. Ford’s theater maintains President Lincoln’s box in the decor of the period, and in which he was assassinated.

20

1/ National Air and Space Museum
2/ National Gallery
2/ Folger museum

All sensational, I could spend a day in both the first two again. The Folger is small but has amazing exhibits, like the majority of the surviving Shakespeare First Folios, and Henry VIII’s schoolbooks.