This trip was across the country to Washington DC in September 2023. We were there six days, arriving Sunday afternoon and leaving the following Saturday afternoon. We did a lot on this trip, visiting all the monuments on the National Mall, the White House, Capitol Building, Library of Congress, National Archives, Arlington Cemetery, and a few of the Smithsonian museums (Air & Space, American History, and some of Natural History). The weather was great the whole trip, with some rain when we got there Sunday, and the other day being rainy was Saturday due to Tropical Storm Ophelia.
If planning a first time trip to DC, I would plan on spending most of a day exploring the National Mall, and each of the Smithsonian museums. The there is some distance between the Washington Monument, which is about the middle of the monument, down to the White House one way, the Lincoln Monument area on one end (Vietnam Memorial and Korean Memorial are down here), and the Capitol Building the other way. Unless you take the local Metro’s circular bus route, expect some walking. As for the Smithsonian museums, these have a lot to see. Expect to spend most of the day here as there is lots of reading to go with the artifacts. You could go back to these and see new things due to the amount of stuff in these. Take your time here!
You could probably do the National Archives, the Capitol Building, and White House could probably be done in a day. The National Archives have a few exhibits, most notably the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, and Constitution. But, these are not as big as the Smithsonian ones, and can be done in a few hours at most. The White House requires some planning to get into (look it up, requires contacting your congressman), but the tour only takes about an hour. It is well worth seeing though! The Capitol Building has its own tours you can do, also about an hour, but you can find third party tours that bundle this with the Library of Congress and the Supreme Court building that is well worth it.
As for Arlington, it is well worth a visit, abet somber. They have a hop on hop off tour around the cemetery, which is quite large, that gets you to all of the major points. These include Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (changing of the guards on the hour and half hour), Kennedys grave, and Arlington House. You can walk around from these points too and visit other areas of the cemetery.
Things I would like to do on another trip there is visit Mount Vernon, which is George Washington’s estate, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center over in Virginia. Mount Vernon is about a half an hours drive with plenty of tours from the DC area. Gettysburg on the other hand is a two plus hour drive from DC, and I do not know about tours. Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center is an extension of the Air and Space Museum, and is over in Virginia and some driving distance away.
