A weekend at Washington DC

Be prepared to walk and wear comfortable sandals/shoes. Keep lot of change and $5 and $1 handy if you plan to take a cab around. It usually cost $7 from one sightseeing point to other within the city. Have snacks and water bottles ready in your backpack all the time as you may not have much time to visit refreshement snack stores especially if you are planning to take the red bus.

We took the Big Red bus this time. $35 for each adult for 24 hours ( this is tricky. Though they state it is worth 24 hours, you can actually travel only till 6 pm after which there will be no buses) that covers the red and blue loops are worthy. We were able to visit all the major sightseeing places like Washington Monument, White house, Lincoln memorial , Jefferson Memorial, Capitol, and Pentagon/memorial. Don't forget to take that nice little walk along the reflection pool in the tree shade from lincoln memorial to WW II memorial. We soaked and relaxed in the cooling fountains there..

There is the option to get on an elevator inside the Washington Monument that would take you up 550 feet for a great view of the city.. It is splendid at nights especially. The tickets are free but booking is required quite a number of weeks ahead. There is around a $3 service fee while booking online. The other way is to stand in queue and try your luck for limited number of free tickets distributed every day morning at 8 AM at the Washington Monument visitor center.

Ofcourse, there are the museums a day worth of information at each. Hence, you would want to spend a week if you plan to cover the museums in detail. We had a glimpse of Air and Space museum, and Spy museum. Spy museum is not free (located near the Arts museum) and open until 5 pm only unlike the other museums that are free and open until 930 PM. Hence, plan your day accordingly.

We did stop by at Air & Space museum but it was very crowded. The best times to visit museums are start early on the day or late in the evening. Even better if you can avoid weekends and squeeze it in on a weekday morning. Oh, The permanent exhibit at Holocaust museum will require you to book a time slot quite ahead which you can do for free on the website, but you can visit the rest of the museum and other displays at any time without any reservations.

Back view of the Capitol near the visitor's entrance