Four days in Washington DC with teenagers
Thursday to Sunday, based on Capitol Hill, arranged around which free places still hand you a ticket and which days the buildings are open at all. Almost nothing here costs money. Almost everything here has to be booked.
Photo by Caleb Perez on Unsplash
The calendar decides the order of these days
Most city itineraries get built around geography, grouping whatever sits within a few blocks. Washington punishes that, because the buildings people come for keep office hours. The Capitol Visitor Center admits visitors with tour reservations Monday through Saturday. The Library of Congress opens Tuesday through Saturday. Put both on a Sunday and you have planned a day of standing outside them.
So the ticketed buildings go first, on the weekdays, and the open-air city fills in around them. That inversion is the whole trick. This trip runs Thursday to Sunday: memorials on the Thursday evening you arrive, Capitol Hill on Friday while it is open, the big museums on Saturday, and Arlington on Sunday when everything on the Hill is dark anyway.
The counterweight is that the outdoor half of Washington asks nothing of you. There are no fees to enter National Mall and Memorial Parks and most of its hundreds of sites, and the public may visit them 24 hours per day, with rangers on duty from 9:30 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Two sites inside the park need timed entry tickets: the Washington Monument and Ford's Theatre. Everything else on the Mall you can walk up to at nine at night, which is useful with teenagers who surface late.
Photo by Andy Feliciotti on Unsplash
A trip we'd take
The itinerary, day by day
25 stops across 4 days, with the Friday afternoon deliberately left empty.
Day 1
Thursday-
3pm Check in on Capitol Hill
Pick the hotel by its Metro stop rather than its view. Every day here ends with a walk back, and teenagers stop being good company somewhere around mile seven.
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4:30pm Lincoln Memorial
Start at the west end and work east, so the light is behind you and the walk is downhill in spirit. No ticket for any of the Mall memorials.
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5:15pm Vietnam Veterans Memorial
A few minutes north of the Lincoln steps. Look up a family name in the directory at either end first. It changes what the wall is for.
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5:45pm Korean War Veterans Memorial
Directly across the reflecting pool from the Vietnam wall, so it costs you ten minutes to see both.
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6:20pm World War II Memorial
Sits at the far end of the reflecting pool with the Washington Monument behind it. This is the photo everyone ends up taking.
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7:45pm Dinner in Penn Quarter
Book something. Penn Quarter fills on a Thursday and a group of five standing in a doorway at eight is how a good first day ends badly.
Day 2
Friday-
9am US Capitol tour
Free, and booked ahead through visitthecapitol.gov or through your senator's or representative's office. The Visitor Center is open to visitors with tour reservations from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and the last tour of the day is 3:20 p.m. The tour covers the Crypt, the Rotunda and National Statuary Hall.
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10:45am House or Senate gallery, if either is in session
The galleries are not included on the Capitol tour and separate passes are required. Request House passes from your own representative's office and Senate passes from one of your senators' offices, weeks ahead. International visitors request them at the House and Senate Appointment Desks in the Visitor Center. The galleries have their own security screening, and the passes are not transferable but can be reused.
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11:45am Library of Congress, Thomas Jefferson Building
Free timed-entry tickets are required to get into the Jefferson Building. Reserve online up to 30 days ahead, or take one of the free same-day tickets released online each day at 9 a.m. ET. Visitor hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursday, and last entry is 30 minutes before closing.
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1:15pm Lunch on Pennsylvania Avenue SE
Two blocks off the Hill and the prices drop. Anything inside a government building is a cafeteria with a queue.
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2:45pm National Archives, the Charters of Freedom
Admission is free and a ticket is not required, but visitors without a timed-entry ticket can take up to an hour or more to get into the building during heavy traffic. The reserved ticket costs $1 and holds a slot; slots run every 15 minutes between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m., and the museum is open daily 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
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4:30pm Nothing scheduled
Left empty on purpose. By Friday afternoon everyone has stood in three security lines and walked on marble for two days. Go back to the room, or sit on the Mall and do nothing.
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7pm Dinner near Eastern Market
Residential, ten minutes from the Hill, and nobody is wearing a lanyard.
Day 3
Saturday-
10am National Air and Space Museum
Admission is free and free timed-entry passes are required for all visitors regardless of age, so book a pass for the toddler too. One person can reserve up to nine passes. Open daily 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The pass fixes what time you walk in, and you can stay as long as you like once you are inside.
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12:45pm Lunch off the Mall
Walk the four blocks south. The Mall itself is food trucks and museum cafeterias, and on a Saturday both have lines.
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2pm National Museum of Natural History
Two hours is enough. Pick three halls before you go in rather than trying to sweep it, which is how museum days die.
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4pm Washington Monument, timed ticket
There is no admission fee, and there is a non-refundable $1.00 service charge per advance ticket. Tickets are released daily at 10:00 a.m. for dates 30 days out, and additional tickets are released one day before. Arrive at least 15 minutes before the time on the ticket.
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5:30pm Walk the Tidal Basin
The Jefferson and MLK memorials sit on the loop. Late afternoon is the good hour and the walk is flat the whole way.
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7:30pm Dinner in Chinatown
One Metro stop from the Mall, and open late enough that a long museum day does not have to end at six.
Day 4
Sunday-
8:15am Metro to Arlington Cemetery
The Blue Line stops at the Welcome Center. Driving in is the hard way round.
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8:45am Arlington National Cemetery
Open daily 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The cemetery is 639 acres and vehicle and bus access through it is generally not authorized, except for people holding a pass to visit a gravesite or attending a funeral service. So you walk it, and it climbs.
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10am Changing of the Guard, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
Every half hour from April 1 through September 30, and every hour on the hour from October 1 through March 31. Check which schedule your dates fall under before you time the walk up.
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11:30am No Capitol today
This is why the Hill sits on Friday. The Capitol Visitor Center runs Monday through Saturday, and the Library of Congress is closed Sunday and Monday. A Sunday planned around Capitol Hill is a Sunday spent outside the buildings.
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12:30pm Lunch in Crystal City
One stop from the cemetery and one stop from the airport, which is the only reason to eat here.
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2:30pm Metro to DCA
The Metro station is a covered walk from the terminal. It is the rare US airport where the train is the obvious choice.
The version you would send to the people coming. No app, no account.
Five things that catch people out
Free admission, ticketed entry
Washington's reputation for being free is accurate and it hides a booking layer. The National Air and Space Museum in DC charges nothing and requires free timed-entry passes for all visitors regardless of age, so reserve one for the six year old as well. One person can reserve up to nine. The Library of Congress requires free timed-entry tickets to enter the Thomas Jefferson Building, available 30 days ahead, with free same-day tickets released online each day at 9 a.m. ET. Each building sets its own rule, so check the ones you care about instead of assuming the Smithsonian works one way.
The Capitol tour does not include the galleries
People book the Capitol tour expecting to look down on the House or Senate floor. The tour visits the Crypt, the Rotunda and National Statuary Hall, and the galleries sit outside it behind a separate pass. House passes come from the office of your representative and Senate passes from one of your senators' offices, which means an email weeks before the trip rather than a request at the desk. International visitors with a valid international ID request theirs at the House and Senate Appointment Desks in the Visitor Center. The galleries also require supplemental security screening. The passes are not transferable, and they can be reused.
Capitol Hill is dark on Sunday
The Capitol Visitor Center is open to visitors with tour reservations from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and it also closes on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, New Year's Day and Inauguration Day. The last tour of the day is 3:20 p.m., so a lunchtime arrival is later than it feels. The Library of Congress keeps visitor hours 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, until 8 p.m. on Thursday, closed Sunday and Monday, with last entry 30 minutes before closing. A weekend trip that lands Saturday and Sunday gets one shot at the Hill, and it is Saturday.
The Washington Monument ticket costs a dollar and moves at 10 a.m.
There is no admission fee for the Washington Monument, and there is a non-refundable $1.00 service charge per advance ticket. Tickets are released daily at 10:00 a.m. and are available 30 days in advance of the tour date, with additional tickets released one day before. If you miss both windows there is a third route: free same-day timed tickets are available first come, first served at the Washington Monument Lodge starting at 8:45 a.m. That is a real option for a family staying nearby and a poor one for a family relying on it.
Arlington is 639 acres and you walk it
Arlington National Cemetery reads on a map like one more stop across the river. It covers 639 acres, and vehicle and bus access through the cemetery is generally not authorized, except for people holding a vehicle pass to visit a gravesite or attending a funeral service. It is open daily from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Build in real walking time, on hills, before you commit to a departure. The Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier happens every half hour from April 1 through September 30 and every hour on the hour from October 1 through March 31, so which schedule you are on changes how long the climb up needs to take.
About this itinerary
We planned this one. The shape comes from the opening hours: Capitol Hill on a Friday because Sunday would be a wasted morning, the ticketed museum first thing Saturday, Arlington on the last day because it needs a real block of walking and an early start. The Friday afternoon is empty on purpose. Four days of security screening and marble floors is more tiring than the mileage suggests, and a group with teenagers in it needs one stretch with nothing in it.
Change the parts that do not fit. In Kintinery a trip like this becomes one link: forward your booking emails or upload a PDF and the days lay themselves out, then everyone coming opens the same page on their phone with no app and no account. The people staying home can follow the photos as they appear.