We want to plan a trip to Wash. for vangogh exhibit. Please advise about sameday passes to Natl. Gallery of Art and about hotels convenient to metro. what is best time to visit?

Louis:

There are three ways to get passes for Van Gogh. 1) Go to the information desk in the National Gallery's East Wing and inquire about ticket availability for the time you'll be in Washington. I mention this because the initial flurry of tickets accounted for only about two-thirds of those available. 2) Ticket Master in any city can do the same, only you'll pay the service charge. 3) The 10 a.m. - 11 a.m. time slot (11-12 on Sundays) is reserved for walk-ups. Show up, say, an hour early, and you'll be relatively certain to get in for that first hour.

There's one other way... just show up. Before the government shutdown, there were no lines for the Vermeer exhibition, even though that was also by timed ticket. I know because I went three times and just walked in. Van Gogh may be different; then again, it may turn out to draw lines around the block.

I just checked yesterday and all the advance tickets (via TicketMaster) are sold out. It appears that the only tickets left are the same-day passes, which means you go to the museum and get in line. If anyone has other (more encouraging) information, please reply. Sometimes hotels have package deals wherein you get tickets with the hotel reservation. Anyone have any info?

This past Sunday's Washington Post carried an ad by several area hotels for "Van Gogh packages." Unfortunately, the fine print in the ads revealed that tickets were not included! I'll still stick with my earlier advice that showing up for the walk-up slots will get you into the exhibit.

Advance passes through Ticketmaster are completely gone. However, advance passes through the National Gallery are not. If you are able (and I know this isn't always and option), go directly to the National Gallery in advance (Neal's suggestion #1). I know someone who recently did this and got tickets for November; the museum had tickets for all days and times. Incidentally, you can only get up to 6 tickets in this manner.

An update on Van Gogh: Good news: there are 2,000 tickets a day available on a first-come, first serve basis, including 500 for the museum's first hour (10 a.m. weekdays and Saturday, 11 a.m. Sunday). Better news: Everybody who waited in line on Sunday eventually got it. Bad news: the first person to line up did so at 1 a.m.