Post by countthestars on Oct 17, 2021 15:24:20 GMT -5
We are going to take a long weekend in DC with our kids in November. Kids are 8 and 6. We fly in on a Thursday at 2pm and out on Sunday early.
We’re hoping to do a few museums and monuments but don’t have any structured plans yet.
I’m looking for recommendations in hotels (pref with indoor pool, close to the action) and kid friendly restaurants (one extremely picky eater). I’d also love recommendations on which museums we should hit and if there are any monument tours or anything else you’d recommend. We are very comfortable with public transport or could use Uber/Lyft/taxis with bubble bum car seats.
We will be there this Thursday to Sunday with our 13 year old. Ended up booking the Willard which is right by the White House. For a hotel with a pool I though the Marriott at the metro center looked good.
We pre-booked/bought tickets to the Holocaust museum, library of Congress and Mount Vernon. Hoping to also get tickets for the Washington Monument but you can only do it one day in advance. Other things we will see as we go. Likely will hit us the Natural history museum and air and space. Also will visit Arlington National cemetery. With younger kids I would think the spy museum would be good. I found trip advisor helpful for both places of interest and restaurants.
Dd was 7 or 8 and we did the natural history museum and it was a hit. It’s huge. We also did the Washington monument. On a whim we did a bus tour bc dd got tired of walking. She got bored toward the end but it was a great way to learn a lot across the whole city. I liked it a lot. The natural history museum had a good cafeteria downstairs that we ate at. It had a lot of options and it was a good spot to hit a break.
It didn’t have an indoor pool but we loved staying at Hyatt house on the wharf. The wharf was just so fun and there is a free shuttle bus that takes you to the nearest metro station or to the mall(that stop is right in the middle of the mall).
My kids were 11 and 8 at the time. They both loved the American history museum, natural history museum and air and space museum. We also did a tour of the Bureau of Engraving but I think that is still closed to the public due to Covid.
We had great dinners at Old Ebbitt Grill and Founding Farmers.
No idea on hotel. All the Smithsonian museums are good. The Air and Space is a fan favorite.
Previous poster mentioned the Holocaust museum but for 6 and 8 that would be hard. Her child is 13 and I think that’s fine but 6, I would say no for a 6 year old.
We also like the zoo and the botanical gardens. The building museum is good if there is interest in architecture.
Depending on your kid’s comfort riding bikes, I highly recommend the Bike and Roll bike tour. We did this when my kids were 8 and 10 and we loved it. We hit all the monuments and it was so much better than walking (to cover them all it’s a long distance!). The guides had tons of interesting facts that (mostly) held the kids interest. You’d bike along, stop to hear about the monument from the guide and then go off on your own to explore and take pics. After 10-20 minutes you’d hop back on and go to the next one. They often have those trail-a-bike hookups too if your kids would prefer to ride with you.
We’ve done a similar tours in Paris and NYC, it’s a great way to cover a lot of ground and learn a lot!
We stayed in the Holiday Inn Capitol four years ago and it was really close to just about everything. It was clean, nice, and they had a few good deals on parking and kids eating breakfast free, which was a good start to a day when we were walking so much.
We did get tickets on one of the hop on/hop off trolleys and I would not recommend it--the wait for the next bus was entirely too long, so we generally just walked.
I love the National Museum of the American Indian and their Native Foods Cafe is great--it's essentially fare from many different indigenous groups available food court style. I can't wait to take my daughter back (now that she's a more adventurous eater).
I highly recommend the monuments at night, particularly the Korean War Memorial--it's absolutely haunting.
Oh I totally forgot we did the zoo. It was very nice. It’s on a hill so look up the tip of where to enter and exit so you aren’t climbing the massive and steep hill at the end of the day when your girls are exhausted.
Before booking, call about the pool. DC still has pretty heavy Covid restrictions, you’ll see mask wearing outside. So I’m unsure if most have reopened indoor pools.
We were just there last weekend. We stayed out in sterling because we were there for soccer but it worked out nicely.
Saturday night her team put together a tour with old town trolley that was super nice. We drove past all of the monuments, the White House, Arlington cemetery, and Iwo Jima. Mlk and Roosevelt’s memorials were great.
We did the second location of the air and space museum. They had the discovery and Enola gay out there which were what I really wanted to see. We spent all Sunday afternoon there.
Monday we took the metro in and walked all over the mall. Get reservations for the Declaration of Independence. Talk to the park rangers. They had so much information. The American history museum was a favorite.
Check what days things are open they all have different days. The national air and space museum On the mall is under construction. We only spent a minute in it due to time.
ETA: the Korean memorial is under construction. It was still nice but not as impactful as normal. The pentagon memorial is also closed. That’s how we ended up at the second space museum.
Post by liverandonions on Oct 18, 2021 8:47:01 GMT -5
We went in July and it was super hot and we only had two days - we did the zoo and a hop on/hop off bus tour. Most of the museums were still closed or booked up, so we couldn't get reservations anyway, and didn't think my kids (8 & 6) would have dealt with all the walking for two days. We liked the zoo a lot - we picked an early reservation time and just paid for parking so the total cost was the parking only. As soon as we got in we got panda passes for the panda trail for a few hours after we arrived, and that was super fun. They weren't out in their enclosure playing but we got to see them sleeping.
We stayed in Arlington VA at Marriott and were right across from an Awesome park for the kids, and it was really easy to get into DC.
We live in the area but did a 2 night trip with my kids a few years ago when they were 10 and 7. At those ages I think the standard Air & Space Museum, Natural History Museum, and Zoo are good choices. I also recommend Old Ebbitt Grill - there is an ice cream place nearby and well as a Pi Pizza, I think. We also did the WWII memorial, which has a monument for each state and is generally a nice place to walk around. I'd recommend a few museums, a few monuments, and not trying to walk too much! If you can get to the Udvar-Hazy Air & Space museum near Dulles it's a GREAT place overall and particularly awesome on a rainy day as it's huge and the kids can be a little rambunctious and not annoy too many people. We go every winter!
We did the second location of the air and space museum. They had the discovery and Enola gay out there which were what I really wanted to see. We spent all Sunday afternoon there.
I love this museum so so much. It has The Space Shuttle! It's a bit outside of DC proper, but is amazing. They had some good hands on stuff for kids (space suits, getting to play with controls of a small plane), but not sure how covid has impacted that.
I'm usually in the minority on this, but I've always found the air and space museums so boring, both as a kid and now. DH and DS aren't into them either. The Virginia one is popular, but it's a decent drive away from DC. If you're only there a couple of days I'd just do the one on the DC mall if you decide to do one. It still has a lot of good stuff (for people into that sort of thing lol). The natural history museum is our favorite. The American history museum is great, and I'm not generally a history person, but they have some cool exhibits. The DC zoo is a great zoo, but it's exhausting because of the hill, so if you do it, you may not be up for much else that day. It's not that close to the metro, so I'd consider Uber or similar. We always drive.