Of that group I would definitely prefer the location of the Holiday Inn at Key Bridge. Rosslyn isn’t really the most happening place, but it’s also the shortest walk to Georgetown, making it more convenient if you want to take the kids out to a restaurant without bothering with a car or Metro. (It’s probably a 10 minute walk over the bridge to the heart of Georgetown.)
The others are sort of in the middle of nowhere. It is definintely not worth an extra $800 to stay at 6th and C SW – there’s really nothing there other than offices and the Smithsonian – restaurants and other amenities aren’t really convenient at all.
Thank you. The kids range in age from 10-16, so we don’t expect to be out all hours of the night, but don’t plan to do much at the hotel besides sleep there either. Our main goals on hotel selection are convenience & safety.
I would appreciate any additional suggestions as well. We’re planning a trip to DC this summer with my girls. We intend a week there then a week at the Jersey shore. The Spy Museum sounds wonderful. Is the Zoo worth it?
It’s a very nice zoo, so if you like zoos, it’s worth a visit. It’s also in the middle of Rock Creek Park, and you can go out into the park for a stroll. It’s basically a little valley and you can walk for miles, out toward Maryland or further in toward the Potomac.
If you’re able, make a side trip up to Baltimore. The National Aquarium is great! Not far from there is the Maryland Science Center; I haven’t been to that one, though. Seems very kid friendly.
I find the zoo a little small, it gets crowded quickly. The best thing about it is that it’s free and you can just walk in and out. Because its free, I just treat it like the greatest park to just sit around and read a book in, but I don’t think it’s worth a special trip just to see it (ymmv).
The thing about DC is that just doing the standard rotation of tourist attractions really does make for a pretty good trip. The museums are pretty darn good, the monuments really are pretty, and there’s a lot of things to choose to do. In my own opinion, the one let-down is the White House tour, which I think totally sucks, but it is also hard to advise people not to go inside the White House if they have the opportunity. Just be sure to plan well ahead and work tickets through your congressman’s office, as they do fill up.
The two pieces of advice I would pass along are to try to find a hotel close to the Metro, and to be very careful about the heat in the summer, especially when you’re walking around unshaded areas like the Mall. It’s very easy to get exhausted and dehydrated.
Well moot at this point but I never thought the wait and trip to the top of the Washington Monument was worth it. The White House tour was underwhelming but the Washington Monument was a straight up waste of time.
I took the subway to the zoo, once. At the subway station, there was a huge line of people waiting for the escalator up to the street so I decided to take the stairs.
Here’s something my 8 year old daughter enjoyed. Many of the Smithsonian museums have tokens in the gift shop for, I think, $1. They are like a coin but with a picture of that particular museum on one side and a related picture on the other. She enjoyed going around and collecting them. But before you do that, go to the Smithsonian Castle and have them mark the locations on a map. Only the larger museums have them and there’s 19 total but only 10 or so around the Mall (and 3 at the zoo).
I was unimpressed with the zoo. I live near a medium sized city and we have a zoo that I always considered average, but it has the same animals as the National Zoo and more kids play areas and activities, it’s twice as good as the National Zoo. If you like zoos, go and mark it off the list of zoos to visit, but if you’ve been to a decent zoo, this is just another decent zoo.
We stayed in Alexandria at the Hotel Monaco. Great restaurants, free trolley (runs 11 am until late) from the Metro, cool art center (Torpedo Factory – great for a rainy day).
We parked the car for the duration of the trip and just hoofed it and used the metro. It was great!
I don’t know if they still do it, but I once took the tour that comes down the stairs. I showed up about five minutes ahead of time and was the only person there who wanted to do it. The ranger convinced a family of four to join us by saying they wouldn’t have to wait an hour for the elevator. So we took the elevator up, had a few minutes to check out the views (the windows are teensy) and on the way down saw the commemorative, carved stones that were donated during the monument’s construction.
I thought it was great. Don’t know if they’ve done it for years, or if they plan to make it available again when the monument reopens.
N-thing the Spy Museum, the Newseum and the Natural History Museum. I visited with a 13-year-old and she absoutely loved Washington DC. It’s a very walkable city once you’re in the centre too. The paid-for museums also have the advantage of staying open later than the Smithsonian ones, extending the amount of fun you can pack into one day.
The Waxwork Museum was surprisingly interesting, even though we only went there because, again, it was open later and I think was included in a tourist card we bought. It’s entirely Presidents so is actually pretty educational and it’s fun seeing how much taller you are than all these historial men. I wouldn’t put it top of the list, but it’s worth a go if you want to do something in the evening.
When we went, we stayed at the Washington Plaza Hotel, but we went in August and I think we might have just got lucky with an amazingly good deal, so it might be too expensive for you. The room was gorgeous, though, and having a pool was lovely in the summer even though we’d planned to spend most of the time visiting museums.
Check the Kennedy Center to see what’s playing while you’re in town. They sometimes have free concerts and events aimed at kids. In the summer, they also sometimes show movies on the Mall. If you check out the Washington Post lifestyle section on line you can find lots of links to stuff to do. The Marines have silent drill team, uh drills, in the evening at the Iwo Jima memorial.
I’m not sure, but the Washington Monument might still be closed from the earthquake.
If you get a chance, the National Cathedral is pretty impressive and has a Darth Vader gargoyle.
I would recommend against the Spy Museum and the Newseum. Unlike the Smithsonian Museums, they cost money. And they aren’t cheap, about $20/ticket for 12 and up and $15 for kids. If you have six people, that’s going to cost a lot of money, and there are tons of other things to do that are free. I personally thought the Spy Museum sucked anyway, but I was 23 when I saw it, not a kid, and in my lifelong DC native world, museums that you have to pay for are automatically downgraded.
If you like that sort of thing, lots of folks visit the National Cathedral. There is street parking nearby, but it’s also about a mile walk from the Cleveland Park metro if you prefer that. There are also buses. Google knows how the buses work. Teenagers might like the Darth Vader gargoyle, but it’s small and high and hard to see.
I’ve lived here two years and I still haven’t seen a lot. Anyone know much about the Arboretum? It’s out of the way for me and I haven’t checked it out yet.
