One warning about the taxis in DC: they don't have meters. The fares are arranged by zone. Most trips are one zone only, but going to Capitol Hill, you might cross into a second zone. There's also a surcharge for each additional person in the cab. But still, bardo's plan really is the best way to go. I've seen many a tourist worn out by trying to use the metro and feet to take in all those sights.

Parking at the metro? My boyfriend gave me a smarttrip card last night. He warned me about the parking at the metro lot as well. But thought I could use the smarttrip card for parking at the lot at the metro. He lives and works in Baltimore and travels to D.C. at least once a month (he's much better at all this than me) He thought I could use the card (possibly has $10 left on it) I'd just need to add some to it for my fare on the metro and then I could use it to pay for the parking too. Does anyone have any insight into this?

Your boyfriend is correct - you can use thus the Smartrip card for both YOUR Metro fare and to pay for parking at the New Carrollton Metro parking lot.

Add five dollars to the Smartip car to bring it up to about $15. You will need to buy regular Metro passes for the two teenage girls - It's $3.35 one-way from New Carrollton to Smithsonian so I would put $7.70 on each of the girls' passes.

It would be very helpful to have three $5 bills and six $1 bills with you when you arrive at New Carrollton. The station attendant can help you figure out how to add fare to a Smartip card and how to buy individual Metro passes.

Thanks bardo, you've been very helpful. Looks like we'll be going on Tuesday instead of Wed as we're suppose to go to TN for the weekend and my bf told me yesterday he wants to head out Wed night to put put some miles behind us and give us more time in TN.

Thank you again for all your help.

Yes the Smartrip card will work to park in the Metro lot, but just FYI New Carrollton now takes credit card payments as well (along with several other stations in what is currently a "pilot" program).

Consider paying the $1.50 each to reserve your tickets for the Washington Monument online in advance. But if you don't get tickets to go up I wouldn't worry about it; plenty else to see.

Thank you everyone, we made it. Yes, we weren't there long, this really was a short day out. We rode the metro in and walked to the Washington Monumment then to the World War II Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Wall Memorial and then onto Pennsylvania Ave to walk in front of the White House. We ended up eating in the foodcourt at the Ronald Reagan building. Then it was back to the metro to head home. We walked, walked, walked, lol. I was worried about the impending rain they were calling for and the traffic getting back home. I know we could have/should have maybe spent more time, but I told the girls we live so close and now that I see how easy it is they can start looking into what they'd like to see next. Thanks again to everyone for their help.

Glad you had a nice time. Come back soon!!

Does anyone know about smartcards versus paper tickets? I read that you can't use paper tickets anymore except for the weekly passes. Is that true? We will be there a week. I was going to get the seven day pass. Is there any reason to get the smartcard instead? We will only use the bus once I think to get to Mt. Vernon. Thanks

"I read that you can't use paper tickets anymore except for the weekly passes. Is that true?"

No. They got rid of paper bus transfers so you would need a Smarttrip card to get a free bus to bus transfer or a discount on bus to rail or rail to bus. There are still paper farecards for the metrorail.

FYI for anyone who reads this for information. Taxis in DC do have meters and the city has done away with the zone system.

Thanks for your help about the tickets. In response to someone else's suggestion about taxis for your way back to the hotel, I agree. Even though my family hikes, when I was there with my 12 year old we got worn out. It was 92 degrees and we had walked all around the Smithsonians and then walked all the way to the Lincoln Memorial. At that point, walking back to the Metro at the Smithsonian seemed so daunting. We paid $12.00 for a taxi and it was well worth it at the end of a long day. One other thing I wanted to mention is we have a family of five and considered staying somewhere far out and cheaper like Rockville. Metro tickets there are $4.50 each way during peak hours. For five of us that would be an extra $45.00 a day unless we got a week pass. We could use that to spend more on a hotel withing walking distance. A week pass you can use during peak times is $39.00 each. So if you have a larger family, consider that before getting a "cheaper" hotel farther away.