Wahingtoin DC Bound--Overwhelmed!
 

I could use some help. My husband, twelve year old son and I are planning a trip to Washington D.C. at the end of this month. There seems like so much to do, I don't know how to begin planning our days. We will be there from June 25th through the 29th. We are staying at the Westin Alexandria and are planning to use the Metro to travel into the city. I have already missed out on tickets to the Washington Monument--sold out. Can anyone tell me the places we do not want to miss? We were thinking of doing the Old Town Trolley hop on hop off tour. Does anyone know anything about this? Is there a place where I can easily access information on which venues require tickets? While we trave frequently to see family, this is the first big family trip we will take and we want to do it right.

I would appreciate any advice. Thanks!

Anne

Here is my trip report from last year. It may help you.
http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...-sox-games.cfm

Personally I would do the monuments as part of a night tour. Then do Arlington Cemetery during the day plus museums. I try to limit myself to 1 or at the max 2 museums per day. Id highly recommend the Air & Space Museum, Holocaust Museum, and Museum of AMerican History. We really enjoyed all of them, for differing reasons. Our favorite was the Portrait Gallery. We didnt make it to the National Archives that trip but are going to do it in August when we are there.

For a change of pace, I really liked the National Zoo. Would recommend a full day there. Keep looking for Wash Monument tickets and try different times as we got them the week before last year - but never made it there. If you decide on a night tour for the Monuments, do it early in your trip then if you want more time at 1 particular one, go back to that one. Also, do the Capitol tour. Get tickets for that now. You can also pre-reserve tickets for the National Archive and Holocaust Museums. The rest are free and don't need tickets.

If you are baseball fans, look into a Nationals game. I really liked Nationals Park.

You could go to the top of the Old Post Office Pavilion since you can't get a ticket to the top of the Washington Monument. Or I think you can go early to pick up day tickets

...Or I think you can go early to pick up day tickets to the Washington Monument

You can pick up day tickets but the lines were very long when we saw them last year. Probably need to line up around 8 or so.

Here's a list of attractions that require tickets.
Some do not require tickets in the "off season". Some require tickets only for certain parts of the attraction. Some offer advance tickets online. Some reserve "same day" tickets which are distributed early in the morning. Some don't require tickets for admission, but offer special entry for ticket-holders. Some offer special tours for people who get tickets through Congressional offices. It's all a bit of a mish-mosh, so you need to go to each website for admission details. (This list does not include "pay for admission" attractions such as the International Spy Museum.)

White House
U.S. Capitol
National Archives
Holocaust Museum
Washington Monument
Bureau of Printing and Engraving
Ford's Theatre

As for the hop on/hop off buses, I don't recommend them during the busy season unless you intend just to stay on the bus for the entire loop so that you can get an overview of the city and hear the narration. They are not good for "hopping on and off" during the busy season because you often have to wait a long time for another bus to come by that has enough seats for everyone in your group. You can waste a lot of time just waiting for the bus.
If you go to Arlington National Cemetery, you can take the Tourmobile HOHO bus around to various sites within the cemetery. I think the narration is good here and the bus will take you by gravesites that you might have trouble finding on your own. Also, getting on and off does not seem to be as much as a problem here. The cemetery is hilly, so the bus is good for people with mobility problems.
I hear good things about the Monuments by Moonlight tours, but they can be pricey for a family. We always take our visitors on our own moonlight tours, which is easily and safely done. There are tons of visitors around the monuments at night and there are also plenty of park rangers to answer any questions you might have about what you are seeing.

I love our zoo, but since you are planning such a short visit, I would focus on what is unique to Washington. Seems to me that a 12-year-old boy would like the Air & Space Museum.

Here are links to my 2009 DC Trip report (with photos). We were there for eight days.

http://web.me.com/tomfielding1/Tom_%...e/DC_2009.html

http://web.me.com/tomfielding1/Tom_%...DC_Part_2.html

((H))

Arts, I recommended the zoo as a break from museums. I do agree that the Air & Space is a must though.

These are the thing we did with our daughter when she was about your son's age(the things she liked)

Mt.Vernon - wish we could have spent more time. We went with a tour but would go on our own next time so we could spend more time.

Monuments and Arlington - Fascinated with the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown. I love Arlington House; she was bored with it.

National Archives - who would have thought! DD was so into it. Plus, back at the hotel, we watched National Treasure on pay-per-view.

American History Museum - DD liked it OK

Natural History - a must for us, especially the Gems & Jewels, Giant Squid and Mammals exhibit.

Capitol Building - great, but not as good as pre-9/11

Air & Space - She wasn't too excited about it. More of a guys thing. I loved it since I remember all the Apollo and Gemini missions and got to see John Glenn's space capsule.

Ford's Theater - DD also found this all facinating.

I think alot depends on your son's interests. We have never visited the zoo since we have visited the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park and just run out of time!!

Took my 12 year old nephew with DD to DC a few years ago--this impressed him: 3-D Imax movies at the Natural History Museum; Air and Space museum; lunch at American Indian Museum; climbing stairs at Lincoln Memorial, seeing view, reading Lincoln's words, seeing guards; taking MARC train out to Harper's Ferry for the day, doing civil war museums and demos (he was really into Civil War era); Spy museum.

If you are bikers, there are biking tours of DC spots. We did this in Paris and it was a great way to get an overview.

There is also a DC bus that does a loop around the Mall for $1.00--might be called the "rotator" or something like that. Cheaper than the hop-on-hop-off, and less of a wait. Really helps out on hot/humid days.

If the Smithsonian folklife festival is happening during your stay on the Mall, don't miss it. Its one of our local treasures and FREE.
http://www.festival.si.edu/

"There is also a DC bus that does a loop around the Mall for $1.00--might be called the "rotator" or something like that. Cheaper..."

The Circulator

Thank you for all of the fabulous suggestions! Just what I needed.

Check your senator or congressperson's website to see if they offer tickets to some of the sites. We were able to get US Capitol tour tickets through our senator and the tour was excellent. Also, the metro is really good (and nice and cool due to the air conditioning.) We found we used it all the time on our trip.

The Smithsonian museums are free!

Here's my trip report, from about a month ago.

http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...week-in-dc.cfm

I would also add the Newseum to your list of must-sees.

SO much to see in DC, but if you think several days of monuments and museums might get overwhelming, you might consider a day trip to Mount Vernon. I took my 80 year old dad there last year on our DC trip and it was a real highlight for us. You can get there by car (memory is it's about a half-hour drive from DC?) or there are boat tours that bring you there, where you can see DC from the water. I remember several fodorites recommending the boat trip when I was researching DC.

We loved the mint tour-very interesting.

Look at Smithsonian sites online to streamline what you wish to see. You could easily spend your entire trip visiting those museums.

Indian museum nice also.

oops, forgot spy museum. Do they do online tickets??

The National Museum of Natural History is amazing for both kids and adults. Regarding the zoo, I went to the see it a couple of years ago, and found it very depressing and not at all what you'd expect to find in the capital city of the US.
As a Washingtonian, let me say that the memorials and monuments are gorgeous at night. Try to take a night tour to see them that way.
Besides the trolley tour, we now have double-decker buses for tours of the city. I think this option might be more fun because you get to see the city from a greater height.