Trip to Wash DC (and beyond)
 

I am going to be driving to Florida next Summer to pick up a lot of my baseball cards that are in my parents house. I managed to find a week that I can go to 3 Red Sox games!!!

As a result, I have decided to stop in DC for 5 days / 4 nights. 3 friends of mine (all in the early 30s) have decided to join me for the stay through DC. They will be taking Amtrak back from DC to Hartford.

Saturday (June 21)
Drive from Hartford to between Baltimore and DC (hopefully getting something cheap)
We are planning on stopping at Great Adventure for the drive through Safari. O

Sunday
Finish the drive to DC. Leave my car at the hotel, hopefully late morning.
Go to Arlington Cemetery and the Teddy Roosevelt Memorial.

Monday
Spend all day at the Smithsonian. The 3 I want to visit are:
1) the Air & Space Museum(most important one - I work on Jet Engines),
2) American History Museum
3) The Natural History Museum.

Then do the DC Night Tour starting at 7:30. Has anybody done this one?
http://www.trustedtours.com/store/Mo...Tour-C211.aspx

By doing this tour, you stop at the Iwo Jima Memorial, FDR Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Veteran and Korean War Memorials. Do they give you enough time at each one?

Tuesday
Washington Zoo (may just go in to see the Pandas)
Smithsonian (if anything left)
Red Sox @ Nationals game at 7pm

Wednesday (this seems to be too busy)
White House
Washington Monument - will get pretimed tickets
WW2 Memorial
Jefferson Memorial
Supreme Court- can you tour it?
US Capitol - will arrange private tour

Red Sox @ Nationals 7pm

Thursday
Holocaust Museum. How long does it take to go through?
Duck Tour late afternoon (wanted something relaxing after the museum)

Late Thursday: Leave DC and drive towards Atlanta. Will be going to a Red Sox @ Braves game on Friday night so need to get some miles in on Thursday.

Questions that I have:
1) Does our schedule look realistic? Too much? What changes would you make?
2) Obviously given our timeframe, we need a central location for hotel. Any recommendations. What neighborhoods are recommended for hotels? is there anyplace similar to Fell's Point in Baltimore? Little shops, restaurants, bars.
3) Any recommendations for local bars / restaurants.

Friday
Red Sox at Braves game at 7pm. Will find a hotel in Buckhead for the night

Saturday
Drive from Atlanta to North Port, FL for a week to relax (and get some sleep after the time in DC)

July 5
Leave North Port to drive home. AM hoping to only need 1 night to do it but will be open to do 2.

A lot here. I'll take a whack:

Q1. Yeah, probably too much, this is really jam packed, and you guys will be exahusted. Where's the down time for a beer or two at a pub or for a nice meal? But you've got the right idea: 1 day museums, 1 day monuments, 1 day tours like Capitol and Supreme Court, maybe then leave a day for what's left.

Q2. I'd look into the Penn Quarter/ Chinatown (Hotel Monaco, Courtyard, others). Busy area with plenty of resturants and bars -- walking distance to the Mall. Plus, it's easy to jump on the green line to get to the games.

Added bonus: the Portrait Gallery in the neighborhood, which you may want to check out as baseball fans - some cool athlete portraits on the top floor.

Q3. Where does one begin? In Penn Quarter/Chinatown: Clydes and District Chophouse are busy big places that will certainly fit the bill. The Green Turtle is a sports pub connected to the Verizon Center. Of course, there are nicer restaurants too. All depends on what you like.

That's a start.

Enjoy our great city! But I hope our Nats beat your Red Sox.

First question, do you mean a tour of the White House, or a walk-by?

You've left out the National Archives, which I personally consider a must-see (and I would not spend any time at the Natural History Museum, since you can see those anywhere -- the American History and Air & Space Museums, on the other hand, contain unique exhibits.

Why not switch your Wednesday schedule to Tuesday, that way you'd have all of Wednesday to "make up" for anything you missed.

I knew I had forgotten something (National Archives). I am dropping the Natural History Museum from Monday. Gives us more time for the 2 main ones. And if we have extra time after the 2, maybe go in and look at a certain exhibit if we desire.

Switching Tuesday and Wednesday definitely is the right thing to do. Since we most likely finish with the Smithsonians on Monday, maybe plan on the National Archives on Wednesday after the zoo plus whatever else we miss.

And there is no way the Nats are beating the Sox!!! How is the new stadium? Looks very nice on TV. Its one of the last 7 stadiums I need to go to (besides the 2 new ones in NYC)

I think we are just going to go to the Visitors Center at the White House and walk around the public areas.

Definitely will try to go to the Greene Turtle. Went to the one in Baltimore this year and enjoyed it.

Hey bud, looks like a fun trip... one added plus to your plans is most of what you have planned is free (except for the tours).

i would echo the other poster's recommendation of staying in the chinatown/metro center area... It isn't quite like Fells Point (more downtownish) but there is a good variety of places to eat at different price ranges and it's very close to the national mall/monuments.

in answer to your question about the holocaust museum, it has A LOT of content, so you should definitely put aside at least a couple hours to do it justice.

also a quick warning about the monuments: they are further apart then you might think, so be ready to walk... a lot.

As for nationals park, i went to a bunch of games this year and was a little disappointed (although the food is really good there), but can you really go wrong with sox-nats?

Thanks for the heads up. Based on the maps I had looked at briefly, it looked like they were close together. Hopefully I can avoid spraining my knee 2 days before this trip unlike my trip to Chicago this year.

Any feedback on the Night Tours?

You've got a lot of time on Sunday to do things, so you might want to move some of your activities there. Arlington National Cemetery is open until 6:30 pm in the summer, you could get there around 4pm and still see everything. You might want to consider doing the bus tour there (Tourmobile). The cemetery is hilly and the major sites are not near each other. Also, I assume you are talking about Roosevelt Island when you mention Teddy Roosevelt Memorial. It is open until dusk, so you could go there after Arlington Cemetery. There's not much to see/do there--looking at the huge statue of TR and doing a hike around the island shouldn't take more than an hour. How are you planning to get there--Metro to Rosslyn and walk? That's doable.
Finally, you might want to consider doing a daytime or an evening Segway tour while you are here. You don't go to the monuments (NPS rules) but you do go to the White House, Capitol, Ford's Theatre and other interesting sites in D.C. We did it last summer and it was a blast!

Longhorn, the reason I don't have much planned for Sunday is uncertainty on when we will be getting to DC. I am figuring on driving straight to Arlington Cemetery, parking there and doing the Tourmobile tour to see the sites. Then driving over to Teddy Roosevelt Island. If we get this done earlier than I am expecting, we will certainly look to get some things done afterwards to free up time.


We are looking at 1 of the Segway tours but am not sold on it.

'Saturday (June 21)
Drive from Hartford to between Baltimore and DC (hopefully getting something cheap)
We are planning on stopping at Great Adventure for the drive through Safari. O' ???

Hartford CT? to Maryland?

That is at least a 10 hour brutal drive busy travel around NYC, NJ Turnpike, then 95, all heavily traveled with accident delays likely.

I've driven Boston to DC a couple of times, sometimes via Hartford, it's a 1-day trip; I was wondering why the OP was quitting between Balto and DC when they're almost there! A Saturday in June won't have outrageous traffic, IMHO.

It will be a Saturday and we will be leaving very early on Saturday. We are just hoping to get most of the way there on Saturday and stay someplace extremely cheap. This is definitely open to debate and may not even be reserved until that day. Will also depend on if we decide to go to Six Flags on the way there for a break. I have done Baltimore to Hartford in 6 hours so I realize its really a 1 day trip but I don't want to count on it either.

I was thinking the same thing as Anonymous - why stop? I would just head right to DC unless of course the Sox were playing Baltimore in which case your car would automatically head for Camden Yards.

I think the stop is so they don't have to pay DC hotel prices on their first night in the DC area.

That is exactly why. Once we start looking at hotel prices, if we find good rates, we may decide to drive the whole way.

Don't overlook Priceline, they have some great deals and several reasonable Zones in DC. And don't overlook the hassle factor in relocating on Sunday morning, though I've found that DC-area traffic is minimal then.

Saturday mornings in June say New Jersey beach goers and lots of traffic to me...

Weekly beach rentals run Saturday thru Saturday.

Wow, 6 hrs from Hartford to Baltimore? What roads are you taking around NYC and through NJ? Are you leaving before dawn?

I take 84 to 684 to 287 across the Tappenzee to the Garden State then 95. That was on the way home so it was leaving Baltimore at 5:30 and got home at midnight (1/2 hour break for gas and drinks).

We will be leaving probably 6am, maybe 5:00am.

That's the route that I take, too. I'm usually driving an RV, which limits my options. The Tappan Zee/287 route is a few miles longer than some of the other options, but it's faster and less nerve-wracking.

91 South to 95 South will also do the trick. And the turnpike is much less crowded on summer weekends than the parkway is. Theoretically it's a five-hour drive, but with some traffic (probably around the merge at 8A on the turnpike) figure on six or seven. Like Anonymous, my first instinct was to wonder why you wouldn't just keep going that last 45 minutes from Baltimore to DC!

If you don't stop at Great Adventure, I'd just drive straight to DC. If you do stop at Safari, keep the following in mind:

1) That exit off the turnpike will be a bit more backed up as it connects to route 195 and some shore points that are popular with the NY crowd.

2) Are you driving an old car? Because I don't know anyone who's left Safari without some sort of monkey-inflicted damage!

3) It's another 2.5 hours from Great Adventure to Baltimore. If you really want to stop, I'd consider getting a chain hotel in a Jersey suburb like Hamilton (near 195) or Cherry Hill (exit 4 off the turnpike). Stopping a few minutes short of DC just doesn't seem worth it to me.

I bought a new car last month so that is why I decided to drive to Florida. I was nervous driving my old car within CT. I realize 95 would work as well - I just hate driving on it and I avoid NYC as well. If we got into the safari, I will skip the monkeys. I will always remember the monkeys tearing the quarter panels off the station wagon in front of us the last time I was there.

Cherry Hill is definitely an option. That is where we stopped last year on the way to Baltimore. In fact, we tried to go through the safari but got there 5 minutes after it closed. As of right now, the safari is a high probability but may change once we look at hotels.

I just re-did my planned itinerary as I decided to not drive to Florida next year after all.

Our new plan:
Sunday (6/22)
Amtrak from Hartford to DC (get into DC about 1:30 - if on time)

Check into Hotel and then take the Tourmobile to Arlington Cemetery. Once we leave the cemetery, we will walk around Roosevelt Island. Do whatever else we feel like around the city.

Monday 6/23
Smithsonian
Air and Space Museum
American History
Natural History Museum - maybe
DC Night Tour - Should we do the trolley tour or the coach tour?

Tuesday 6/24
White House
Washington Monument
WW2 Memorial
Jefferson Memorial
Supreme Court
US Capital
Red Sox @ Nationals Game

Wednesday 6/25
Washington Zoo - may not spend much time other than to see the pandas
Make up from Tuesday (whatever we don't make it to)
Red Sox @ Nationals Game

Thursday 6/26
National Archives
Holocaust Museum
Red Sox @ Nationals Game

Friday 6/27
Amtrak home to Hartford - late afternoon so we will be able to do something in the morning. This may turn out to be Arlington Cemetery if we get in later than anticipated

Does my new schedule seem reasonable or still too tight? I have started playing with hotels but am not going to book anything yet (unless they are not pre-paid)

Seems reasonable, as long as you have plenty of energy! It was smart to leave the better part of Wednesday as a "make-up" day -- without that I'd say Tuesday seemed a bit tight. As far as the White House, keep in mind that tours have to be requested a month or more in advance through your member of Congress, so if you want to go inside, you'll need to arrange that in the spring sometime. If you're just doing a walk-by, then that's nothing to worry about.

On Monday, when you say "Smithsonian....Air and Space....American History Museum....maybe Natural History", what do you mean by "smithsonian", which encompasses all of the others (and more). I think just the Air and Space and American History Museum could easily take the better part of the day, especially if you want time to rest before the game.

That was a copy / paste formatting issue from Excel. We are planning on just the Air and Space then the American History Museum. If we still have time and the desire to, we will go into the Natural History.

For the White House, we are just planning on a walk-by at this point but may change our mind. Is there a minimum # of people needed for a tour?

No minimum. You're just reserving your spot, assuming one is available.

tchoiniere, you may want to read my D.C. trip report. It is very long but might give you some ideas.

While in Baltimore last year for baseball, we also meet several Chicagoans- they too were doing the DC and baseball thing- and taking the train between.

This year I'm going to Cincinnati and probably either Seattle or Texas.

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...=JJ5&fid=1

Sorry, that link didn't work- only put you on my page of responses and not on the link of that one post.

It's the one I ttt'd with $22 Value in the title.

We have other vacations since and yet I think that one was the most fun. And it was in cold February weather, but I think we actually did more, not less- because of the lack of crowds.

Thanks. That trip report will definitely help me.

Enjoy Safeco when you go. Haven't been to Texas yet. Definitely one of my favorites. I didn't like Cincinatti's stadium but that was probably due to me trying to compare it to Pittsburgh (was there the night before and loved it). It just felt really boring.

I haven't been to Pittsburgh's but my son and his friend have and just loved that one too.

So far my favorite is Baltimore's. I like the Cell, but there are features of Baltimore's that could have been done at ours and weren't- especially upon the entry route getting into the stadium proper.

There's two or three I have to do again because the old one is gone, like St. Louis.