District of Columbia · United States
Nineteen Smithsonian museums, almost all of them free, arranged around a three-kilometre lawn with a monument at each end.
Photo: G. Edward Johnson · CC BY 4.0
Washington was designed rather than grown. Pierre L'Enfant laid it out in 1791 as a grid overlaid with diagonal avenues radiating from the Capitol and the White House, and a height limit imposed in 1910 means almost nothing rises above thirteen storeys. The result is a low, wide, green city that looks like no other American capital city and feels, to many visitors, faintly European.
Its central asset is the Smithsonian Institution — nineteen museums and a zoo, holding around 155 million objects, and free to enter. The Wright Flyer, the Apollo 11 command module, the Hope Diamond, Lincoln's hat and Dorothy's ruby slippers are all here, in buildings that charge nothing at the door. There is nowhere else in the world with this concentration of major museums at no cost.
Around the museums is a working city that most visitors miss entirely. Washington's neighbourhoods — Georgetown's 18th-century brick streets, U Street's jazz history, Adams Morgan's Ethiopian restaurants, Capitol Hill's rowhouses — have their own character, and the city's food scene has improved beyond recognition in the past fifteen years. A trip that stays on the Mall sees perhaps a third of what is here.
Why visit
Washington offers more free world-class culture per square kilometre than any city on earth, and it is compact enough to see on foot.
The Smithsonian's Air and Space, Natural History, American History, African American History and Culture, and the National Gallery of Art all charge nothing. Any one of them would be a paid headline attraction in another capital.
Opened in 2016, and structured as a descent to the bottom of the building before climbing chronologically through slavery, segregation, the civil rights movement and modern culture. It is the most powerfully designed museum in the country and requires timed entry.
The Lincoln, Jefferson, Vietnam Veterans and Martin Luther King memorials are open 24 hours, lit, and free. Walking them after dark, with almost nobody there, is the best two hours in the city.
The Mall is 3 km end to end, the Metro is clean and covers the whole city, and the neighbourhoods are close together. No car needed at all.
The Northeast Corridor train reaches New York in under three hours and Philadelphia in ninety minutes, city centre to city centre. The one American rail corridor that works properly.
Main attractions
Two museums a day is the sustainable maximum. Several now use free timed-entry passes, which need booking in advance.
A bronze-latticed building on the Mall, entered by descending to the history galleries at the lowest level and working upward through slavery, Reconstruction, segregation and the civil rights movement, then up again into culture, music and sport.
Tip Free but requires a timed-entry pass, released in batches 30 days and one day ahead. Allow four hours and start at the bottom.
The Wright brothers' 1903 Flyer, the Apollo 11 command module Columbia, Chuck Yeager's Bell X-1 and the Spirit of St Louis, in the most visited museum in the country. A major renovation has reopened it in phases.
Tip Free with a timed-entry pass. The Udvar-Hazy annexe near Dulles holds the Space Shuttle Discovery and a Concorde, and is worth the trip if you have a car.
Three kilometres from the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial, taking in the Washington Monument, the World War II Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall and the reflecting pool. The Jefferson and Martin Luther King memorials sit on the Tidal Basin south of it.
Tip All are free, open 24 hours and lit at night. The night walk is quieter, cooler and considerably more affecting than the daytime version.
The only Leonardo painting in the Americas, plus Vermeer, Rembrandt, Monet and one of the strongest American collections anywhere. The East Building holds modern art in a sharp-angled Pei design.
Tip Free with no ticket required. The underground concourse between the two buildings has a moving-light installation and a decent café.
The Capitol offers free guided tours of the Rotunda and Statuary Hall, booked online. Across the road, the Library of Congress's Jefferson Building has the most beautiful interior in Washington and is free to walk into.
Tip The Library of Congress reading room is visible from a gallery. It is more impressive than anything in the Capitol and takes ten minutes.
Across the Potomac in Virginia, holding over 400,000 graves including John F. Kennedy's eternal flame, with the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier every hour or half hour.
Tip One Metro stop from the Mall. The guard change is precise and moving; the hillside view back across the river is the best in the city.
The oldest neighbourhood, predating the capital itself, with 18th-century brick houses, a canal towpath, and the waterfront. Also the city's best shopping and a good stretch of restaurants.
Tip Not on the Metro. Walk from Foggy Bottom station in about 15 minutes, or take the DC Circulator bus.
Once called Black Broadway, where Duke Ellington grew up and Billie Holiday played, now a strip of music venues and one of the largest Ethiopian restaurant districts outside Africa.
Tip Washington has the largest Ethiopian population in the United States and the food here is excellent.
Things to do
The city rewards mixing museums with neighbourhoods, and the monuments are best kept for the evening.
The Lincoln, Vietnam, Korean, Martin Luther King and Jefferson memorials are all open 24 hours, lit, and free. After 21:00 they are close to empty, and the Lincoln Memorial at night with the reflecting pool is the image people take home.
Tip About 5 km for the full circuit including the Tidal Basin. Comfortable shoes and about two and a half hours.
The Smithsonian's scale invites overreach. Two properly is better than five badly, and the African American History museum alone deserves half a day.
Tip Several now require free timed-entry passes released 30 days ahead. Book them the moment your dates are fixed.
Injera bread with spiced stews, eaten with your hands from a shared platter. Washington's Ethiopian community is the largest in the country and the food is a genuine local speciality.
Tip Order a combination platter for the table. Vegetarian versions are excellent and traditionally eaten during fasting periods.
Around 3,800 trees, a gift from Japan in 1912, ring the Tidal Basin and flower for about ten days in late March or early April. It is beautiful and it draws about 1.5 million people.
Tip Peak bloom is forecast about ten days ahead and shifts every year. Go at 06:00 or accept the crowds.
A paved riverside path running 29 km from Arlington south along the Potomac to George Washington's estate, with the city skyline across the water for the first stretch.
Tip Capital Bikeshare docks are everywhere. The northern few kilometres alone make a good hour.
Ninety minutes to Philadelphia and under three hours to New York, city centre to city centre from Union Station. The easiest multi-city trip in the United States.
Tip The regular Northeast Regional is usually much better value than the faster Acela for a small time difference.
Local food
Washington's food has changed beyond recognition in fifteen years. Its two genuine specialities are Chesapeake Bay seafood and the country's largest Ethiopian restaurant scene.
Steamed whole with Old Bay seasoning and eaten by hand with a mallet on paper-covered tables, or picked into crab cakes that should be almost entirely crab with minimal filler. In season roughly April to November.
Where to try it Crab houses along the Chesapeake in Maryland, and seafood restaurants across the city.
Spiced stews — doro wat, tibs, misir wat — served on injera, a spongy sourdough flatbread used instead of cutlery. Washington's Ethiopian community is the largest in the United States.
Where to try it U Street, Shaw and Adams Morgan. Combination platters are the way in.
A coarse, half-pork half-beef smoked sausage, split, grilled and served with chilli, onions and mustard. Entirely local to Washington and unavailable anywhere else under that name.
Where to try it Long-running U Street chilli counters, several of which have been serving it since the 1950s.
The bay produces distinctive briny oysters, nearly wiped out by overfishing and pollution and now recovering through aquaculture. Best in the colder months.
Where to try it Oyster bars across the city and the Maine Avenue Fish Market, the oldest continuously operating fish market in the country.
Thick corn flatbreads stuffed with cheese, beans or pork, griddled and served with pickled cabbage. Washington has a large Salvadoran population and pupuserías across the northern neighbourhoods.
Where to try it Columbia Heights, Mount Pleasant and Wheaton just outside the city.
The Mall itself has almost nothing good. Penn Quarter, Shaw and Union Market are all within fifteen minutes and have the city's better restaurants.
Where to try it Union Market northeast of the centre is a food hall with three dozen vendors and is the easiest good option.
Accommodation
Washington's Metro is good enough that you do not need to be on the Mall — and staying in a neighbourhood gives you somewhere to eat in the evening, which the Mall does not.
Transport
Three airports serve the city and the train from New York is better than flying.
Walk the Mall and take the Metro for everything else. Washington is one of the more straightforward American cities to navigate without a car.
When to go
Washington was built on what was effectively a swamp and its summers show it. Spring and autumn are excellent; July and August are uncomfortable.
The best season, at 15–25°C, with the cherry blossom around the Tidal Basin for about ten days in late March or early April. That fortnight draws 1.5 million visitors and prices reflect it.
Hot and very humid at 30–35°C, with the Mall offering almost no shade and afternoon thunderstorms. The museums are air-conditioned, which is the saving grace, but walking the monuments at midday is unpleasant.
Clear, mild at 15–25°C and much quieter than spring, with autumn colour through late October. Arguably the single best time to visit — the same weather as spring without the blossom crowds.
Cold at 0–10°C with occasional snow that closes the city more thoroughly than the amount justifies. Hotels are cheapest, the museums are empty, and everything you came for is indoors.
Worth planning around: Cherry blossom peak, if crowds bother you — about ten days in late March or early April when 1.5 million people visit the Tidal Basin. Peak bloom is forecast roughly ten days ahead and moves each year.
Itinerary
Two museums a day at most, monuments in the evening, and one day out of the government district entirely.
Get the geography, and save the memorials for the dark.
One museum, half a day, and nothing demanding afterwards.
The working city and the cemetery across the river.
One more museum, then the oldest part of the city.
Travel tips
Practical notes, the first of which now catches out a great many visitors.
FAQ
Yes — all nineteen Smithsonian museums, the National Zoo and the National Gallery of Art charge nothing to enter. Several now require a free timed-entry pass, released in batches 30 days and one day ahead, which is a queue-management measure rather than a charge. The African American History and Culture museum and Air and Space are the two that most often run out.
Three to four. Two museums a day is the realistic maximum, and the African American History museum alone deserves half a day. Add the Mall monuments, the Capitol and Arlington, plus one day for Georgetown and the neighbourhoods, and four days is comfortable without rushing.
Usually late March or early April, with peak bloom lasting about ten days. The exact dates shift each year with the weather and are forecast roughly ten days ahead by the National Park Service. It is beautiful and it draws around 1.5 million visitors, so go at 06:00 or plan around it.
The National Museum of African American History and Culture, for most visitors — it is the most powerfully designed museum in the country, structured as a descent to the history galleries and a climb back up through culture. Air and Space has the Wright Flyer and the Apollo 11 capsule. The National Gallery holds the only Leonardo in the Americas. All are free.
Very. The Mall is 3 km end to end with the museums along it, the Metro covers everything else cleanly and safely, and the neighbourhoods are close together. A car is a liability — parking is expensive and the diagonal avenues make navigation harder than the grid suggests. Georgetown is the one area the Metro does not reach.
The Capitol offers free guided tours of the Rotunda and Statuary Hall, booked online in advance, and the Library of Congress across the road is free to walk into and more beautiful. White House tours must be requested through your own embassy or a member of Congress, months ahead, and are frequently unavailable to non-US citizens.
One of the best in the country. The Northeast Corridor train runs from Penn Station to Union Station in under three hours, city centre to city centre, roughly hourly, and it is faster and far more pleasant than flying. A ten-day trip of five nights in New York and four in Washington works extremely well with no car and no internal flight.
Keep exploring
Places that pair well with Washington, whether you have a few spare days or are building a longer route.
New York, United States
The densest, most walkable American city, where five distinct boroughs, a 24-hour subway and a century of immigration produce something no other city in the country resembles.
Don't miss The Metropolitan Museum — two million works across 5,000 years, and you could go every day for a month.
Explore Destination — New York CitySouth Carolina, United States
A walkable colonial port with the best-preserved historic centre in the United States, an outstanding food scene, and a history of slavery that the city has increasingly stopped avoiding.
Don't miss The pastel houses of Rainbow Row and the double piazzas of Church Street, walked at 08:00 with nobody about.
Explore Destination — Charleston, South CarolinaIllinois, United States
America's great architectural city, on a lake the size of a small country, with a museum of Impressionism to rival Paris and the blues clubs that shaped modern music.
Don't miss The architecture boat tour on the Chicago River — the best hour of sightseeing in any American city.
Explore Destination — ChicagoLazio, Italy
The only capital where a Roman amphitheatre, a Renaissance basilica and a Baroque fountain are all a ten-minute walk apart, and where the best paintings are free in parish churches.
Don't miss The Pantheon — a working building since AD 126, still holding the largest unreinforced concrete dome on earth.
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