Hi,
I am planning for DC sightseeing (with wife and 3yr kid) for 1.5days.Will reach/stay in Arlington (Holiday Inn) on Aug 18th by night and need to start back to home on Aug 20th by noon.
Looking for advice/tips to explore DC.
Gone through info on web and thank you for this. Still not cristal clear, how to plan the visit, what "must see", how to travel into downtown and back from hotel. Is there any metro station near to my hotel. If possible, suggest a good plan. Thanks in advance. Our interest is to do a city-seeing, family outing to a big nice city. Not much of shopping/art.

It isn't clear which Arlington Holiday Inn you'll be staying in, but you can easily take the Metro downtown from any of them. The people at the hotel should be able to give you directions.

When our son was 3, we used to take him downtown once in a while. Unfortunately, 3 yo's aren't very good sightseers. We would visit a few monuments or museums (which he cared about not at all) and then let him run around chasing pigeons on the grass at the mall. No sense in trying to see too much since it would take longer than 1.5 days to see everything in DC anyway. I suggest starting your tour from the Smithsonian Metro station. Try to bring an umbrella stroller for your daughter, unless you enjoy carrying her in the summer heat.

Have fun.

Thanks for the advice.We will be staying at "NATIONAL AIRPORT/CRYSTAL CITY - Holiday Inn -2650 JEFFERSON DAVIS HWY ARLINGTON, VA".
I do have some more querries, and would like to have suggestions/advice.
Is the metro station walkable from this place.(I do have rental car, whether budget parking available at station?)
Where should I get down in downtown? For white-house, capitol and pentagon, do have to take taxi or is there any economic public transport?
What @ arranged tours? are they OK? any link?
Thanks in advance,

007,

The closest Metro station to your hotel is Crystal City - it's about 8 blocks from your hotel. Certainly walkable, but you might just want to take a very quick taxi ride instead. THERE IS NO CHEAP PARKING CLOSE TO THE METRO STATION! Parking is between $16-$24 a day. A taxi from your hotel to the Crystal City Metro station is less than $5.

Here's a map. Your hotel is 3 blocks off the bottom of the map (at 26th & Jeff Davis Hwy).

http://www.stationmasters.com/System.../crystalc.html (click on individual stations for an area map)

Metro stops at tourist sites FYI:

http://www.stationmasters.com/System...ystem_map.html

White House - get off at Farragut West station (17th Street exit)

Capitol - get off at Capito South station

Pentagon - get off at Pentagon station

National Mall/ Smithsonian - get off at Smithsonian station.

For eating - get off at Gallery Place station

I would suggest an Old Town Trolley Tour for one day. It will allow you to see a lot of sights easily. You are able to get on and off at different sights through out Washington. They have 3 different routes that meet up so that you may change to different routes including one that includes Arlington National Cemetary, which may be a good place for you to start. I believe there website is: www.oldtowntrolley.com then click on Washington DC.

Thanks a lot. Thats the exact info, I was looking for.So, based on this, I will drop the idea of taking the car to parking (too expensive), rather I will take a taxi and go to the station.
Is it safe (with family), to return at night, and travel by taxi?
Is there any all day / all weekend pass available?

've stayed at this Holiday Inn before and I'm almost certain they offer complimentary shuttle service to the metro station so a taxi may be unnecessary. There will be a charge to park your car at the hotel, probably in the range of $10-$12 a day. That's relatively cheap by DC standards.

Yes it's safe to travel back and forth from the metro in the evening. Crystal City is a magnet for tourists on the weekends as Priceline offers up some big time bargains. I was there a week or so ago with my daughter to see the Legg Mason tennis tournament. We returned to CC around 11:30pm after the night session. There were quite a number of people out & about, most of them tourists.

(It is an urban area so it probably bears mentioning that while it's safe, I wouldn't wander around aimlessly late at night just for the heck of it).

Hope you enjoy your trip!

obxgirl, good to know that, you stayed in same hotel. Any feedback on it?
Yes, they have charged $12 for parking. If they offer shuttle,it will be good.

Alternatively, can I drive-in into DC downtown and park somewhere in the central location to all the attractions and walk around? Is it feasible? Any suggestions/advice?

007,

The main tourist attractions in DC are spread out enough that you won't be able to walk between all of them.

Parking in DC will cost you $15-$20 for the day. You will ending up taking some form of transit (such as Metro or the DC Circulator)to get between them anyway once you've parked your car. You are much better off just taking the Metro from Crystal City.

007,

FYI:

http://www.dccirculator.com/

The hotel is fine. It's not the newest property on the block by any stretch but it's updated to reflect HI's current standards.

I agree with bardo that public transport is the right answer for you all on Friday and Saturday. You might consider driving into town Sunday morning. it's a short hop from Crystal City to the Capitol mall where you can usually find street parking near the Smithsonian/National Gallery before the museums open at 10 am. Parking is allocated in 2 hour increments which is about all the time you will have to visit if you're looking to leave by noon.

Does anyone know if the carousel in front of the Arts & Industries is still operating? That's got 3 YO written all over it.

Thanks all for useful advice. I appreciate. One of my friend suggested to combine "Luray Cavern" for few hours.
I am thinking it on Saturday early morning. Finish it by noon and travel to national mall and do the outdoor activities.Weather prediction is of rain on sunday.So I need to plan accordingly.Any comments pls ??

For a 2 day trip to DC, skip Luray Caverns. It's at least a 90 minute drive each way, and there's plenty to see/do in DC to keep you busy (even if it rains).

It's a 3-hour drive each way to Luray Caverns from DC. The tour of the caverns lasts about 20-25 minutes.

Thanks for the inputs. I may have to rethink over the plan. I do like to plan to minute details (may be too much planning) before I start any travel.

Sounds like you've already decided against Luray Caverns but just thought I'd add that it's not the optimal touring experience for a 3 year old who's likely to be alternately bored and then terrified by the experience. Ask me how I know that.

If you had a lot of time and the fall colors were out, Luray might make sense. But for a atwo-day trip, it's a lot of road time wasted when there are so many other better things to do.

I appreciate all your sincere inputs. Thank you.Feel that, need to revise the plan. Also 60% chance of rain on Sunday, this may cool-off a bit, I guess.

We had a great weekend in DC. Many thanks to Fodorites advice/suggestions. We stayed in Holiday INn, crystal
city , were pleased with the hotel/room (negatives: no microwave/regrigerator, even in common area, no free breakfast). It was a nice/clean room and had a good view from window.Pool was also good.
Dc was hot but bearable. We started our day at 8AM. Hotel do have a free shuttle to Metro station, from there we went to national mall, roamed around, enjoyed the beatiful/rich museums. Food court in National air/space museum is OK.By end of day, we were near Capitol and were very tired, particularly, my kid.So took a taxi to white house ($13). from there, walked back to Vietnam memo, spend good amount of time and relaxed. (still we were exhausted by EOD)
Also, while coming back, we had a short 2 hrs stop gap at Luray caverns (entry fee $19 per head) Beatiful, must see caves.
Needless to say, we enjoyed our weekend trip there. Thanks again to all of you.

Thank you for the update, 007.

So often we read dozens of questions from people planning a trip but no followup afterwards. I might visit Luray on a future DC area trip.