Three days gives you many options.

If you can be on your feet for 1 to 1.5 hours, I highly recommend starting off with the D.C. by foot tour. You will see all the major monuments and memorials. You get a lot of good information from the guide. When I was there, I also saw a lot of Segway tours which looked like a lot of fun, if you prefer not to walk.

Pick one or two of the Smithsonion museums based on your interests. You can easily see more than one in a day, if you like. The American History museum, for example, has a lot of pop culture items, like the first ladies' dresses and the original star-spangled banner.

You don't have enough time to reserve a tour of the Capitol, Whitehouse, or the Bureau of Engraving. So, you might try visiting something like the National Archives where you can view the Declaration of Independence. You can also visit the National Post Office and take in the view from the observation tower.

Check out DC's restaurants ahead of time on OpenTable.com or TripAdvisor. Part of what we enjoyed was trying different ethnic foods that we can't find at home.

The metro and buses are very easy to use and there are stops convenient to Georgetown. We only took a taxi to get back and forth to the airport. We did rent a car to visit Udvar Hazy Museum and Arlington National Cemetery. If you love anything that flys, I highly recommend Udvar Hazy and the experience of the changing of the guards at the National Cemetery is very inspiring (can also be reached by metro).

A HoHo bus is very expesnive and doesn;t work as transportaitn - since they don;t come often enough. I would use feet with eithr metro or taxi depending on where you are oging.

As for the White House - do you have your tickets? You have to get them far in advance from your Congressperson or senator. There is no getting in on the spot. And you can take nothing in with you - not even a purse. (Just what you ca nput in a pocket - like a wallet.

Here are some tour prices for Washington. You can get to the cemetery by Metro as well as the other places you wish to visit as well. Could also walk to the FDR, Korea, VietNam memorials and so forth.

http://www.trolleytours.com/washington-dc/rates-and-reservations.asp

I live in the D.C. area and am very familiar with sightseeing here as I do it myself and I organize it for the many friends and family that come to visit.

1. If nobody in your party has any problem with walking, then getting around D.C. by foot and Metro (and possibly taxi) is the best way to go. You can easily walk from the Washington Monument (which is closed for repairs) to the Lincoln Memorial and see the WWII Memorial, the Korean War Memorial and the Vietnam Memorial. Then continue to the Tidal Basin to see the Jefferson Memorial, the FDR Memorial and the MLK Jr. Memorial. This trip should take about 2 hours. It can easily be done on your own, either during the day or after dark when the memorials are all lit up and look especially nice. If you prefer to pay for an organized tour, you can take a day or evening bus and/or walking tour of the monuments and memorials.

2. The majority of the Smithsonian museums are located along the National Mall. I would choose two or three museums, based on your interests, and visit them. Before your visit, check out the museums online to see what galleries you want to visit so you don't waste time wandering around parts of museums that don't interest you. www.si.edu

3. While it is true that it is too late to arrange for a tour of the White House, it certainly is not too late to arrange for a tour of the Capitol. These can be done online at http://www.visitthecapitol.gov/visit/book_a_tour/
If, for some reason, you don't see an available time during your visit, it is sometimes possible to get on a tour on a walk-up basis. (But reservations are highly recommended.) This tour is something I highly recommend you add to your itinerary.

4. The best way to get to Arlington National Cemetery is by Metro. There is a Metro stop there (appropriately called "Arlington National Cemetery") You can walk the cemetery on your own or take a hop on/hop off bus that stops at 3 places: the Kennedy Gravesites, Arlington House and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. More info on this bus can be found at: http://www.anctours.com/index.php

5. Getting to Georgetown is not particularly easy since there is not a Metro stop in Georgetown. If you take Metro, your best bet would be to go to the Rosslyn Station and walk across Key Bridge. Or you can take a taxi or you can take a bus. Information about the Metro system (both subway and bus) can be found at www.wmata.com

If you're up for biking, there are numerous to rent, get a bike and tour the mall. We spent 4 hrs one day and saw a whole lot!

I'll second SiteC_er's bike recommendation. My husband rented one for a few hours from Capital Bikeshare www.capitalbikeshare.com and really enjoyed it.

We took an evening monuments tour with DC by Foot http://www.freetoursbyfoot.com/dc/ and thought it was excellent.

I have more details in my trip report, if you're interested in reading it. http://www.fodors.com/community/united-states/the-pickles-visit-our-tax-dollars-at-work-in-washington-dc.cfm

Lee Ann

If you really want to see the White House go on line fill out the application and try. I brought a huge group and although we applied in time, there were so many empty slots, they offered an earlier entry for us, and I had 40 people with me. Call your congressperson. If it's slow they will process it fast.

A walk to Georgetown is possible ,but long. Taxis are plentiful but just know very expensive, they charge extra every time they change zones which will happen from Georgetown to anywhere else.

D.C. cabs now use meters. The zone system has not been used for four years.

Since you can't visit the Washington Monument, you can take a short tour through the U.S. Forest Service Information Center which is south-east of the monument. It is the only brick building among all the marble buildings. Look for Smokey Bear outside the door.
Don't do what I did. I picked up some Forest Service refrigerator magnets and stuck them in my pocket with my METRO card. The rest of the day I had to see the attendant when I wanted to get on a METRO train or get out of the station at the end of the day.
I've never ridden in a DC taxi. My most recent trip into DC started and ended at the Greenbelt MD station where I had free parking for the day.

You can as has been stated take the Metro to Rosslyn and walk across the bridge into Georgetown. The only difficulty is that it will put you at the end of Georgetown a lot of people probably don't care that much about but it is probably closer than walking from the Foggy Bottom Metro stop.

IMO taxis aren't that expensive for short hops and when you are TIRED they are well worth the money.

Thank you for all your replys. I think we will leave the HOHO bus and use our legs, bus, metro and taxi as needed.
With regards to the White House, our intention was just to view it not go in it. We are from the UK so realise it will not be possible to visit inside. Looking forward to all the sights we will see in DC and we have also got tickets for the Redskins game whilst we are there which we are excited about.
Thank you

You can get a good view of the White House from the north end of the Ellipse next to the Zero Milestone.
The view is of the south lawn with no buildings in the way.
This is an easy walk north of the Washington Monument.

BTW, where in the area are you spending the night?

If I understand correctly from another post, there is a typo in the OP that says they are stopping in Georgetown that should read that they are staying in Georgetown.

Agree about abandoning the HOHO. DC is a very walkable city with a number of excellent options for public transport. If I'm correct about you all staying in Georgetown, check out the Circulator bus which is an abbreviated bus system running to or near many of the major touristed spots. It runs through G'town.

"stopping" means "staying" in British English, FYI.

There is also a regular bus that runs from Georgetown as well. It was very easy to get to the Mall from there.

I did not think the DC metro was as intuitive as other cities in regards to fares. There are paper tickets that you can load cash on, or there are plastic cards you can load cash on.

1. With the paper tickets, you pay an additional fee of $1/trip, every time you use them, and they could not be used on the buses too. The paper tickets were NOT the way to go. 2. The plastic cards have an initial charge to buy the card ($5, I think) but could be used on both Metro and buses, and did not have the per/trip fee.


I just finished my trip report and it may be of interest. Start on Sept. 11 entry "DAY 9, Wednesday—Georgetown, the Tombs and the Mounds of Dirt."
As I understand it, the reflecting pools are back in operation and your weather should be much nicer, but maybe a few thoughts for you there.

http://www.fodors.com/community/united-states/epic-east-coast-vacation-for-family-of-5.cfm

The fares on the Metro are based on both time of day and distance traveled. It is better to get the plastic farecard and the reason paper tickets have that extra charge is to convince people not to use them.

the reflecting pool is both back in operation and full of algae.

If you are still considering the Hop on Hop off, you can get half price tickets on this site and perhaps on some of your other interests. There is a small SC. www.goldstar.com/washington-dc/events

>>"stopping" means "staying" in British English, FYI.<<

Never heard that before. Thanks. Have heard the reverse - stay used as synonym for stop/cease. And my mother is English. Haha, thought I'd heard them all.

If you're visiting for three days, I think the plastic SmarTrip cards area good $5 investment for one of the reasons mentioned here already and that is the paper ones are notorious for demagnetizing when in the vicinity of your cell phone. Not every Metro attendant will let you through on a dead paper card.

There are organized bus/trolley tours of the monuments at night. That might be a good option for you all especially now that the evenings are pleasant and cooler.