What to see: 

Washington is the capital of the United States of America and it is a wonderful place to visit. It is full of museums, beautiful parks, statues, monuments, and more. The best part is that most of the museums are free and you could easily spend a week visiting them all. You can tour part of the Whitehouse and see the Capitol Building. There are local markets, botanical gardens right in the city, local restaurants, and more. Even if you don’t usually care for museums, there is something for everyone to enjoy here. Check out what we did on our map and pictures for suggestions.

What to do:

Visit the Smithsonian Museums. They are unique and interesting. Walk around the National Mall… not a shopping mall but actually an outdoor lawn which is where you go to see many of the museums and monuments including the Lincoln Memorial,Washington Monument, the U.S. Capitol, and the White House. You can rent bikes and segways, join walking tours, and more. Explore some American history and learn something new. 

Who to bring:

This is a great city to visit and can be enjoyed by all ages. We recommend a family trip for this location. However, it would be easier with older children who won’t tire easily of walking.

How to get around:

Walk everywhere. We put a lot of miles on our feet for the two days we spent exploring DC. We did not visit local restaurants or nightlife. We stayed only in the National Monument area. Traffic seemed congested and walking was the fastest and easiest way to explore. It may be nice to have a car or to use Uber/Lyft for going out to eat or go out for the night. 

What we did: 

We liked DC so much that we spent more time there than originally planned. We wanted to visit more museums and take our time in each one. We parked at a secret little FREE parking spot which was about a 30 minute walk from the National Mall, East Potomac Park. There is just so much to see on foot. Check out our map for everywhere we visited but some highlights were the massive Lincoln Memorial, the beautiful US Botanic Garden, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, and just walking along the National Mall. We would recommend skipping the Bureau of Engraving and Printing simply because it was a pretty short visit and not actually very interesting unfortunately.