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Vacation travel tips for Washington D.C.?



 
 
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  #1  
Old March 6th, 2011, 07:47 PM posted to rec.travel.usa-canada
stonej
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Posts: 32
Default Vacation travel tips for Washington D.C.?

What would be the minimum amount of time needed to see most of the
familiar sights?

Is D.C. family friendly? I know its not Walt Disney World so little
kids might get bored
looking at monuments etc.

  #2  
Old March 7th, 2011, 02:29 AM posted to rec.travel.usa-canada
Keith[_3_]
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Posts: 10
Default Vacation travel tips for Washington D.C.?


"stonej" wrote in message
...
What would be the minimum amount of time needed to see most of the
familiar sights?

Is D.C. family friendly? I know its not Walt Disney World so little
kids might get bored
looking at monuments etc.

I was about to reply when I realized that it's been a lot of years since we
first brought our kids to DC. They were 5 and 7 then, and were actually
content to walk along the National Mall, look at the monuments, esp the
Washington Monument, the Capitol and the White House. At the time, we
didn't enter any museums, but did take them for a ride on the metro system.
It was their first train ride of any type, but they were most awed by tne
tremendous length of the escalator where we got on (Foggy Bottom, I think).
We spent a day in DC proper, and packed a picnic lunch the next day for our
visit to Mt. Vernon. I don't know if that's still allowed, but we ended up
eating in the car anyhow due to rain.

The next time we went they were 12 & 14, I think, and had interests of their
own. One wanted to visit the Natural History Museum, and the other the
American History Museum, so we split the first day, each of us accompanying
one kid to each museum for nearly day-long visits. We also visited the
Capitol the next day. Our congressman had arranged passes for the general
tour, and also to visit the House chamber while they were in session. After
that we visited the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. The tour there is
short, but really fascinating.

We had hoped to tour the White House that afternoon, but learned that I'd
misunderstood the hours. The day had turned into a real steamer anyhow, so
we ended up in the hotel pool for the afternoon.

Our stop in DC was enroute to Williamsburg, and we stopped at Arlington
National Cemetary. This was at the request of our history buff, but we were
all awed and humbled.

You know your own kids, so you'll have to figure out what they'll like
best. There are several website that cover things in DC for kids, and yes,
it's a kid-friendly city. Parent-friendly, too, with lots of places to sit
and rest.


  #3  
Old March 7th, 2011, 03:36 AM posted to rec.travel.usa-canada
[email protected]
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Posts: 53
Default Vacation travel tips for Washington D.C.?

I guess it all depends on how young they are. We've got the Spy
Museum, the Newseum, Air & Space, American Indian Museum, and the
American History Museum. Oh, and Ford's Theater. Most popular of all
is the FBI museum.

Do take advantage of your Congressman's services for access to Federal
government buildings and tours.

Plus all the military sites, government buildings, Arlington National
Cemetery, the huge Air & Space Annex in the suburbs, Mount Vernon, Old
Town Alexandria. And a short drive to Baltimore, with the inner harbor
and Ft. McHenry and Harper's Ferry. Further to Gettysburg and
Williamsburg.

I'd say there's plenty for a good five days without leaving the
immediate DC area. I've been here 28 years and haven't seen it all
yet. 8

-- Larry
  #4  
Old March 9th, 2011, 08:01 PM posted to rec.travel.usa-canada
Mark Brader
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Posts: 346
Default Vacation travel tips for Washington D.C.?

"Larry" refers to:
the huge Air & Space Annex in the suburbs


Just by way of clarification, it's called the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center
and it's located in Chantilly, near Dulles Airport. Basically this is
where the Air and Space Museum puts its exhibits that are too large for
their main building downtown. Both buildings are well worth seeing if
you're into air and space.
--
Mark Brader "Things are getting too standard around here.
Toronto Time to innovate!"
-- Ian Darwin and David Keldsen

My text in this article is in the public domain.
  #5  
Old March 10th, 2011, 08:31 PM posted to rec.travel.usa-canada
Ad absurdum per aspera[_2_]
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Posts: 26
Default Vacation travel tips for Washington D.C.?


Is D.C. family friendly? * I know its not Walt Disney World so little
kids might get bored looking at monuments etc.


How old the kids are, and what they're interested in, is about 110%
of how long you stay (overall and at each site) and where you go.
(If there are two adults, consider taking some kids each and heading
for an age- and interest-driven subset of the possibilities.)

An advantage of Washington is that there's a lot to do concentrated in
one area, the "National Mall" and its vicinity.
The National Zoo and the Smithsonian Institution's museums of *.* are
among the obvious choices that would have something to appeal to most
kids. Monuments, the Capitol tour, etc. are more in the "depends on
the kid" category; I frankly think of those and the battlefield
monuments as being more in the teen-to-adult category.


You could blow through the familiar sights in a day, or spend a day in
each of the Smithsonian buildings, or anything in between.

Washington has major league teams in the prominent professional
sports for every season; ditto Baltimore and Philadelphia.

If you have a car, note also that there are other things to see and do
within a couple of hours of DC -- battlefields of both the
Revolutionary and the Civil Wars (per interest), naval and aerospace
stuff and Colonial Williamsburg down in the Hampton Roads area, etc.
come to mind. Purely recreational things like beaches are also a
possibility down there and southwards.
North of there you've got Baltimore (a popular choice of airport for
the budget traveler to DC, incidentally) and Philly. You could drive
the Blue Ridge Parkway as a cool summer getaway (or in leaf-peeping
season), etc.

Finally, what time of year do you have in mind? This determines a lot
about what there is to see, how comfortable you'd be with kids, etc.

Enjoy your trip,
--Joe

 




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