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Things to do in DC [Solved]
bowen
How you doin'?Registered User regular
How you doin'?Registered User regular
Hey all, I'm heading down to DC this weekend, and I was wondering if anyone could recommend some good sightseeing things for me to be doing. I like museums and historical stuff like that.
We'll be down there for a period of a day and a half, not a whole lot of time, but enough to see some pretty neat places I'd think.
We'll be down there for a period of a day and a half, not a whole lot of time, but enough to see some pretty neat places I'd think.
not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
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I highly recommend the Air and Space, the Botanical Gardens, the National Gallery and The Natural History Museum.
The Museum of American History is always SUPER crowded, and the American Indian Museum (while hands down having the BEST food for cheap) is kind of lackluster in my opinion.
A couple of less obvious suggestions for when you're down on the Mall:
That's a loooooooooooooong drive.
The Museum of African Art is one of my favorites on the mall. It's never crowded and has lots of great pieces.
Also the Hirshhorn is on the mall and is a collection of modern art. Cool building, too.
Yes, you have to go to Ben's Chili bowl for a chili-cheese half-smoke and a basket of chili fries. Cheap and delicious, and a part of black history in the district for 50 years, but always crowded around meal times.
http://www.benschilibowl.com/ordereze/default.aspx
The Spy museum is supposed to be cool but it's $20 a person.
http://www.spymuseum.org/index.php
Also couple other suggestions if you take metro.
Stand on the right on escalators. Make sure you get a metro card with enough fare and day passes don't work until 9 or 10 am. And for the love of all that is holy, don't hang out near the metro car doors.
Us commuters appreciate the consideration ^_^
For walking the mall, wear comfy shoes and bring your own drinks, it involves LOTS of walking its a very big space and the prices for the few and far between places are kinda high. Also sunblock. There isn't much shade down there, and even on a cold but sunny day you can get burned.
Thirded on the spy museum. They have an extra 'interactive' tour you can take, where you do actual spy missions, which is actually pretty fun, and you get some booze thrown into it.
Also, the Natrional Gallery of Art is awesome. Magnificent really, if art is your thing.
I'm planning on driving from Rockville to DC and going to the zoo then hitting up the Smithsonian with either the natural history or American history.
I'd like to see some landmarks or do something else on Sunday if at all possible. Maybe a different part of the Smithsonian (air and space museum?)
Is the zoo within walking distance of the American/natural history museum?
The zoo is only three miles from the national mall but it's going to be in the 90s this weekend. Personally, I wouldn't go for it.
Also, walking, the national zoo is in the middle of a really hilly area and it's a longass walk to get there from the mall.
Is the national mall where the rest of the smithsonian stuff located?
The National Zoo is in the Cleveland Park neighborhood in northwest DC, it's way too far to walk from the Zoo to the Mall, btw.
The monuments are always good times, btw, and you can spend a few hours walking from the Washington to the Jefferson Memorial to the FDR Memorial (my personal favorite) and on to Korean War, Vietnam, and Lincoln Memorials. All are within 2-3 miles or so, and it's a pleasant walk.
Everyone seems to be raving about the Spy Museum. I personally thought it sucked, and was ridiculously overpriced, but maybe I'm just a Communist sympathizer. And if you happen to find yourself in that neighborhood (Gallery Place-Chinatown), I recommend eating at either Gordon Biersch (next to the Spy Museum) or Matchbox Pizza, further up at 7th and H.
Additionally for food, I agree that you should hit up Ben's Chili Bowl. You might also want to try Ray's Hell Burger in Arlington, the place that Obama and Biden visited a few months back.
As someone who works in DC and sees multiple people get towed away every single day - if you drive, be very diligent about where you park, how much you put on the meter, etc., as the parking enforcement down here is without mercy.
While the Metro staff is definitely not the most helpful in the world, it's pretty hard to get truly lost - there's color-coded maps and signs posted everywhere, and there's nowhere that you can't get off and hop back on a train going the opposite direction. Note from the map that there are 8 stations at various access points to the Mall also
Driving into DC sucks
Parking is free on weekends, just watch the signs and don't park in front of a hydrant or driveway.
Metro is quite easy.
As somebody who used to live in the burbs and commute to DC every day - you do not want to drive and/or try to park downtown. The Metro is really easy to use (much easier IMO than NYC), and you can buy an all-day tourist pass for ten bucks or so and ride as much as you want to.
I have no problem with walking and using it, I just really hate the feeling of being shitting my pants lost and in not having the ability to cover long distances in a matter of minutes to try and correct it.
Let's say I wanted to get up at 10 and then head on to the metro (I don't know where to even get passes), and then head to the zoo, then to the smithsonian, then to return at like 6/7:00 at night. Then on Sunday let's say I get up and check out of the hotel, and then drive into DC? I've got a GPS so that's not an issue in terms of the lostness.
Like the NYC/Boston transit systems, it has a trip planner - so you can type in your origin address and your destination, choose a time and boom: route
Also, if either of you has a smartphone, Google Maps does a pretty good job of giving walking and public transportation directions these days.
There's a station in Rockville, although without an exact address i'm not sure if that's actually the closest, I try to avoid going to Maryland as much as possible. Look under "Rider Tools" on that site, then "Service Nearby". You would probably drive to the station, leave your car parked there, then hop on a train.
The trip planner is right on WMATA's home page.
Completely understandable, but you are never really going to be in that situation inside the station - just make sure you know where you are before you actually exit the faregates, and you'll be fine
The stations all have farecard machines, so getting passes is fairly easy. Do keep in mind that the ones that take credit cards are (I think) pretty much universally only on the "outside" part of the station, so if you need to get a new card or add value before you exit the station, ideally make sure you have cash.
Thanks all, you've been a great help.
You'd either get on the redline at Rockville Station, Twinbrook, or White Flynt, depending where on the pike you are. To get to the zoo you get off at the Woodley park zoo station. If you want to go to the national mall from there, you take the redline further into DC, get off at metro center, transfer to the blue line and get off at the Smithsonian station. Smithsonian station comes out smack in the middle of the mall.
You can use Debit/Credit/cash to buy fare cards /rechargeable smart card which you actually use at the gates. And there is parking at the stations that you can also use the cards to pay for, though I think it might be free on weekends. I usually put $15 on my card to start when I go in just so I'm sure not going to run out, and I usually have money left over after paying for parking ($5). The people at the station and the website can give you more concrete information on fares though.
Plus, getting a $250 a night hotel for $75 a night is like icing on the cake.
I love you Captain Kirk.
Just hop on the red line at your closest access point, catch the first train heading in the direction of Glenmont (the actual termination point of the train might not be Glenmont, but if you figure out which side you need you'll be good). From there, ride to Metro Center and switch to the Orange/Blue line. Catch either color in the direction of Largo Town Center/New Carollton, go two stops and get off at the Smithsonian stop. Voila, you're on the National Mall by all the museums. Feel free to get lost from there.
Edit: Oh, yeah, the zoo is on your way.
Also, all day tickets, are they called anything special? So I can say "hey guy at the terminal or mister vending machine, I'd like an all day pass, or an all weekend pass please"
If you are with someone else, unlike alot of cities (NYC at least) you cannot just buy one metro card w/ 50 bucks on it or whatever and share (i.e. you swipe in, hand card to your friend, he swipes in), you have to both have your own card.
If it was my first time to DC I would probably skip the zoo, its nice but its not much different than other zoos in other cities, unless you really really want to see Pandas. All the museum suggestions people have been giving are great.
If you are interested in foreign affairs, diplomacy etc, this weekend is the "rest of the world" embassy open house (i.e. not Europe). What this means is that around 2 dozen embassies around the city will have their embassies open from 10 AM to 4 PM and you can go inside and do various things. That can mean anything from 1 room w/ a slide show of pictures of the country to a festival like atmosphere with free food and beer, handouts from the country, dancing demonstrations, balloon bounces for kids, etc. It is not as organized as the Europe open house (which is next weekend), so if there is some country you are particularly interested in I would suggest googling their Washington DC embassy to see what the deal is and if they are participating...in my opinion, that type of thing would be alot more DC-ish than the zoo.
Also would recommend for monument viewing go at dusk or at night...they will still be crowded but a bit less than during the day (which will be hot this weekend), and in my opinion at least they are a bit more special at night. The Korean War Memorial is probably my favorite spot in all of DC in the evening, the subdued lighting and shadows on the statues makes it in all a very poignant scene.
Matchbox is a great recommendation for food downtown, as is Ben's Chili Bowl if you get up that way. I wouldn't bother with Gordon Biersch, not a bad place to eat but again a big chain you can eat anywhere.
However, I don't know how much longer I will be here in D.C. It could be 3 more days, it could be a month. Anyone have any suggestions on what to do once I run out of free museums? Some stuff a little off the beaten path?
edit: Does anyone know of good disc golf courses that are are possible to get to without driving in the D.C. area?
These
There should be an option at the fare machine to select the one-day or seven-day pass