WASHINGTON · DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Monuments, museums, and the Mall after dark.
The National Mall and its memorials, the free Smithsonian museums, the Capitol and the cruises on the Potomac. Arlington across the river, Georgetown, the cherry blossoms, and the day trips out to Mount Vernon.
Only here
Three things you only get in the capital.
Plenty of cities have monuments and museums. Memorials floodlit and open at midnight, the working halls of Congress, and the largest museum complex on earth, every one of them free, belong to this one.
After dark
The Mall by Moonlight
Washington’s memorials never close, and after sunset they empty out and light up. The Lincoln statue glows at the end of the Reflecting Pool, the Vietnam wall runs black and quiet, and the floodlit Capitol dome sits over all of it. Few cities hand you their landmarks like this, free and open at midnight.
- 1 DC Memorials Night Tour: Glass-Roof Convertible Upgrade Option
- 2 National Mall Monuments Night Tour with 10+ Stops, Entry Tickets
- 3 Washington DC Monuments by Moonlight Tour by Trolley
The seat of power
Under the Capitol Dome
You can walk straight into the working seat of Congress. Guided visits run beneath the cast-iron dome and the fresco in the Rotunda, then cross to the Library of Congress and its Great Hall, the most ornate room in the city. Reserve ahead and the gallery passes put you above the House and Senate floors.
- 1 DC Monuments and Capitol Hill Tour by Electric Cart
- 2 VIP Best of DC with US Capitol + National Archives Reserved Entry
- 3 Small-Group Guided Tour inside US Capitol & Library of Congress
All of it free
The Smithsonian
Nineteen museums, most of them ranged along the Mall, and not one charges admission. Air and Space hangs the Wright Flyer and the Apollo capsules; Natural History keeps the Hope Diamond; American History holds the Star-Spangled Banner itself. It is the largest museum complex on earth.
- 1 Guided African American History Tour with Reserved Museum Entry
- 2 Smithsonian Museum of Natural History – Exclusive Guided Tour
- 3 African American History Tour with Museum of African American History Ticket
Start here
If you do one tour in Washington.
More first-time visitors build a trip around this than anything else: the monuments and memorials, seen the way the city means them to be.
The classics
Washington's Most Popular Tours
The Mall and its monuments, the memorials by night, the Smithsonian and the Potomac. The days most people come to D.C. for.
Where to begin
The experiences a Washington trip is built around.
The monuments, the memorials after dark, the free museums, the Potomac cruises, Arlington across the river and the day trips beyond the Beltway. The handful of days most trips are planned around, and the best way to do each.
The two-mile question
How to see the National Mall.
It runs two miles from the Capitol steps to the Lincoln Memorial, with the monuments and museums strung the whole length. How you cross it matters as much as whether you do. Three ways, depending on your legs, the season and the time you have.
Late March into April
When the Tidal Basin turns pink.
Japan gave Washington three thousand cherry trees in 1912, and they still ring the Tidal Basin below the Jefferson Memorial. For two weeks around peak bloom the water disappears behind a wall of pale blossom, the festival fills the city, and the early morning belongs to whoever gets there first.
Read the guide: the best cherry blossom tours →The river
The city from the water.
The Potomac runs along the edge of everything: the Lincoln Memorial, the Kennedy Center, Georgetown’s old harbour and the jets dropping into National. A sightseeing cruise trades the crowds for the skyline, and in spring the cherry trees along the bank read best from the deck.
Potomac cruises & boat trips →African American history
The history the monuments grew toward.
From the MLK Memorial on the Tidal Basin to the museum on the Mall that took a century to build, to the U Street blocks Duke Ellington came up on, Black Washington is woven through the whole city. Guided walks and visits trace the people and the places the textbooks skip.
- 1 Guided African American History Tour with Reserved Museum Entry
- 2 African American History Tour with Museum of African American History Ticket
- 3 Washington, DC: African American History Tour & Museum Entry
By area
The capital is bigger than the Mall.
The Mall for the monuments. Georgetown for the cobblestones and the canal. Capitol Hill for the halls of power. Arlington for the cemetery across the river. Old Town Alexandria for the colonial waterfront. Mount Vernon for Washington’s own estate.
By activity
Or pick how to see it.
On foot if you want the inscriptions. By bike if you want the distance behind you. By trolley if you’d rather sit. Cruise the Potomac, hunt ghosts after dark, or spend the day in the museums.
Costs nothing
The best of Washington is free.
No other capital hands over so much for nothing. The museums, the memorials, the seat of government and the nation’s founding papers all open their doors without a charge. Here is where to start, and how to make a day of each.
Plan it
A first-timer's three days.
First time in the city? Three days that cover the essentials, in the order that makes sense on the ground.
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