Hi all, N
new here.
I am planning a trip to the Smithsonian and was wondering the where the best place to fly into, and how to navigate D.C. My understanding is a vehicle is probably not worth renting?
Thankks in advance
Wife and I drove (from the midwest) to DC in 2011, but we parked our car at the hotel for the two days we were there. Six months later, we flew to DC instead, and did just fine without any car at all.
My recommendation:
fly into Reagan National Airport. The DC Metro train has a stop there; from that train, you can get to pretty much anywhere in the subway system. Depending on what hotel you stay at, they may have a shuttle service that will take you from/to the train stop nearest the hotel. I wouldn’t bother renting a car unless you will be spending a lot of time far away from the train system.
Thanks,
hoping to hear more
Agreed. Reagan National. Take the Metro everywhere; it goes everywhere you’ll want to go. Trust me, you do not want to drive in DC, unless you’re a masochist. And fortunately, DC proper is quite small, and all of the most popular sites are concentrated in a relatively small area.
Write the Convention and visitors bureau for info, they will also include a MAP.
On the subway, the SMITHSONIAN exit, properly named, comes out on the MALL, about 2 blocks from the Air and Space Museum, which is a MUST to see. They have a Moon rock you can touch, one of Amelia Earhart’s Planes, the Wright brothers 1903 flyer, the Apollo 11 Command Module, and many other space related objects.
Don’t forget the Museum of Natual History and the American History Museum, part of the Smithsonian system also. One of the Art museum’s there has a Davinci, the only one in the Western Hemisphere.
In the museum of Natural history, they have the Hope diamond and a rock from MARS you can touch.
Been years since I’ve been there, but saw most everything different times.
You MUST tour the Capitol and the underground visitor center.
Agreed. Even if not travelling light enough to make it easy to take Metro at the airport, it’s still a lot more centric for shuttle/cab service. Most of the Smithsonian museums are clustered along the two blocks to each side of the Mall between the Washington Monument and the Capitol, or within a couple of blocks of a Metro station elsewhere. The one big outlier is the Udvar-Hazy annex, where Air&Space keeps the large airplanes and spacecraft, which is all the way out at Dulles Airport in North Virginia.
Driving inside DC can be… adventurous. The place was not really designed for optimum vehicular traffic. And the Interstates leading in, out, and around can get quite miserably clogged.
Thanks everyone!
Any recomendations on where to stay, moderately priced?
Depends on what you consider “moderately priced” to mean. In the city is typically going to run you from $100 - 200 a night. Outside the city in Northern Virginia or Maryland will be considerably cheaper, but the Metro does run quite a ways out into the 'burbs.
Check Motel 6’s site. Try something near Mt. Vernon, then you can visit Washington’s home also, and it is only about 16 miles from DC, or try mid virginia by Baltimore, only about 45 minutes from DC.
Dulles is a long way out - I think a $40 cab ride. For our family - being four of us, it was cheaper to fly into Dulles and take a cab - plus that way we say Udvar Hazy.
For some reason, motels in College Park, MD seem to be reasonably priced, unlike the rest of the area, and the Metro goes right there.
Archives is a closer stop to the Art Museum than the Smithsonian stop. L’enfant is slightly closer to Air and Space than the Smithsonian stop. The Indian museum has the best food but it is a little pricey and the museum itself is nothing special. The old post office has a good view from the tower and it almost as good as the Washington Monument which is still closed for repairs.
While it might not fit everyone’s definition of moderately priced, I think the Tabard Inn is amazing value for what you get. http://www.tabardinn.com/
Something to consider: some of these museums are BIG, so you’ll want to allocated your time accordingly. On my first visit to the American History museum, myself and my brothers would each go off in different directions. And at the end of the day we’d trade notes on cool stuff we each saw, and learned of stuff we missed. I think we visited that museum 3 times !
The Air and Space is a must, but because everything is so big, though the building is huge, you can actually get through it in a reasonable amount of time. The Udvar-Hazy section out by Dulles is very cool as well (Space shuttle).
Something to also keep in mind (the problem with the mall area is that there is SO MUCH you can see): some non-Smithsonian museums (private, so some admission charge):
- the International Spy Museum was very cool (also bigger than it looks - need a good 3 hours or so) is just a couple blocks off the mall
- the Newseum was awesome. Kind of like viewing the country’s history as it has been reported in the various media.
- the Holocaust museum. Pretty sobering, but very powerful and educational.
(I was less impressed with the new Crime and Punishment museum, but there was some interesting stuff).
Yes, the museums are huge, and the Mall is way larger than it looks on paper. I mean, gigantic.
Yeah. Every time relatives would visit us in DC, they’d throw out this huge list of stuff they wanted to see all on one day. We’d have to tell them, “You know, that’s seven miles of walking not counting all the walking inside the museums which is like another mile per museum.” Really, a person should consider one museum in the morning and one in the afternoon. Unless you just want to sprint through it.
We stayed at the Courtyard Arlington-Rosslyn in Arlington, VA. It’s just a 1/4-mile walk to Rosslyn Station, and they have a shuttle service if you’re tired or hauling a lot of luggage. “Moderately priced” is subjective, but it worked for us.
Thanks again!
When I said moderately priced, I was thinking $100-$200 per night. I am looking to fly into Reagan and will most likely do everything possible on foot. Something like Channel inn, or Residence Inn?
Driving in and around DC is bad at rush hour just like everywhere else, otherwise it is no problem. If you’re not going to rent a car Reagan is the best airport to land and the blue line will take you to Capitol Hill and from there you can walk to the mall, and all the museums.
Please be careful crossing streets and please stay on the sidewalk until you get the walk signal, especially during rush hours. Also… stand to the right on the metro escalators. Commuters will be bounding up the escalators on the left and they don’t like GDT’s blocking the bounding (left) escalator lane.
It’s a picturesque city with lots to see, excellent restaurants, and intriguing neighborhoods, i.e. Georgetown, Adams Morgan and Cleveland Park. If you can get rooms the Mandarin Hotel is well situated to allow you to walk to the Smithsonian and metro and the mall. Enjoy!
We recently stayed at the Marriott Gateway Crystal City. They have an airport shuttle and a metro stop access from the lobby, and I think we paid $119 a night with an internet special. You do not need to rent a car unless you want to see something outside the city.
My favorite Smithsonian museums are the Natural History and American History ones. You can spend all day in each and not see everything. You will do a lot of walking. It looks like things are close together, but looks are deceiving. The buildings are huge. HUUUUGE!
The Air and Space museum is a must see, and if you can spare the extra expense ($20 adult), the International Spy Museum is a lot of fun. It’s educational and very interactive.
If you are into food trucks, one street over from the Air and Space museum, there are several different trucks serving awesome food during lunch.