Day West of the Potomac
 

Planning a trip to DC. 2 20-somethings the first week of October. Staying on the National Mall near Fords Theater. We are looking to take the metro only once during our week stay and that would probably mean the day we intend to do the Pentagon to see the outside memorial and Arlington Cemetery. Was wondering if anyone had suggestions on maneuvering about this area. Is it walkable from one to the other? Is it best to take the Metro to Pentagon Metro and then get back on and take it to Arlington Cemetery Metro just for ease of entering the cemetery? Additionally, I thought there was some sort of Air and Space Museum on the west side, does anyone know what I may be thinking of? I thought it was located at Ronald Reagan Airport but I cannot seem to find anything on it. Thanks for any and all help, I am sure you will be seeing more posts from me as my trip is quickly approaching!!

Yes, the Air and Space Museum is near Dulles airport. It's called Udvar-Hazy. I think there was a recent thread about it.

I don't understand the loking to take Metro only once during our stay plan, though.

We decided to stay in a central location. The idea was to spend a little more on the hotel per night to save on the cost of taking taxis and the metro.

The main Air and Space Museum is on the National Mall in DC. The Udvar-Hazy Annex is at Dulles Airport.

I have never tried to walk from the Pentagon to Arlington Cemetery, so can't think right now how you'd do it. I would get back on the Metro, but perhaps someone else has a better idea.

For the Air and Space Museum (on the mall, you do NOT want to go to Udvar-Hazy without a car, plus it sounds like you plan to stay in central DC), just look for "air and space museum, washington, dc" in googlemaps.

If you also googlemaps the Pentagon to Arlington National Cemetery, it appears walking it IS possible -- 2.4 miles and 49 minutes according to googlemaps.

It isn't really practical to walk from the Pentagon to Arlington Cemetery's visitor entrance. The roads are mostly heavily trafficked and it's not really a pedestrian's path. You could probably hop the brick wall into the cemetery somewhere along the way but in addition to looking like a bit of a security oddity you'd just be at the edge of a honking big cemetery. Not at all close to the things most visitors want to see.

If you wanted to walk somewhere to avoid spending money on transportation, walk from your hotel planning a route across Memorial Bridge to Arlington Cemetery. Lots of DC visitors cross that bridge.

Take the metro.

You actually can walk it and there are sidewalks but if you do it during the week you could very easily be run over by a bunch of Pentagon RUNNERS...so the EASIER way as has been said is take the Metro from Pentagon to the cemetery stop.

If you are walkers then walk BACK across Memorial Bridge to see the Lincoln and from there you can also walk to both the Roosevelt and VietNam memorials.

Even BETTER: spend your money on a TourMobile ticket which goes to ALL these places and you can hop on and off as you wish.

Udvar-Hazy without a car it not that hard - Metro to West Falls Church, take the Washington Flyer to Dulles and then there is a shuttle over to the museum.
It seems counter to your philosophy in DC, but it's certainly possible.

The public transportation to Udvar Hazy was not bad. I took the Metro to the Rosslyn station and the bus from there to Dulles and then shuttle to the museum. All together, it took 90 minutes each way and around $9 each way. Well worth it to see a great air museum.

Can you be specific about where they should walk from the Pentagon to Arlington? That would be valuable info for many people.

>>Even BETTER: spend your money on a TourMobile ticket which goes to ALL these places and you can hop on and off as you wish.<<

Great suggestion. Seems unlikely though that two people who don't want to or can't spring for a metro ride which would purchase a more expensive HOHO ticket. But who knows, perhaps they'll reconsider.

We have already decided we do not want to do a HOHO tour and to spring for just the 1 day metro to Arlington/Pentagon.

>>Can you be specific about where they should walk from the Pentagon to Arlington? That would be valuable info for many people.<<

This was the actual intent of my post. To either obtain walking directions or to get insight on the metro idea for these two stops. Thanks to all who responded. I believe the Udvar Hazy is what I was thinking of. We will have to consider our timeframe before making the hour trek out of town I suppose.

Use the pedestrian option with Googlemaps.

Really, though, Metro makes the most sense (metro to Pentagon, then Metro again to the Cemetery, and walk back to DC across Memorial Bridge as Dukey suggested.) If you balk at fares for two off-peak rides, you are in for a shock when you see restaurant prices downtown.