Long weekend in washington

[Princess Alison]

Will three nights be enough for a trip to Washington?

What should be prioritise and is there a better area to stay that is near to the main places to visit please?

[YorkshireT]

Good to stay within walking distance to The Mall, as that is where the majority of the must sees are and you will save so much time. We stayed at the JW Marriott which is hard to beat for location, but any in that area are well situated.
Get your name down via the internet for the Capitol building tour. That is great.
There's all the museum's flanking the Mall as is Whitehouse, and Lincoln Memorial is at one end.

[Princess Alison]

Thank you for this advice, very helpful

[Team Jeans]

Three nights will be loads. We stayed at Westin Downtown, near Thomas Circle. Five minute walk to White House, we were lucky enough to get on the White House Tour (applied via congress, best googling a member of congress,as they have all changed recently). We walked the Mall, visited three of the Smithsonian museums, Arlington Cemetery, Pentagon, Ford Theatre, Lincoln Memorial, all in less than 48 hours. Only other place I wished we had visited was the Holocaust Museum. We got a card for the Metro, for Arlington and the Pentagon, but the city was so walkable.

[bluesky30]

I go to DC each year as my friends live in Maryland. 3 of my favourite places are Georgetown, the zoo and the Washington harbour

[cornishfrogboy]

We stayed at the Doubletree by Hilton in Arlington, just across the Potomac river that runs immediately behind the Lincoln Memorial.
Whilst a standard 3 star hotel ( albeit nice and v clean), it has several advantages over most other areas.
1. It is situated within a $5 taxi ride of the road adjacent to the Lincoln Memorial. A perfect spot from which to start an excursion.
2. you go right past the Pentagon and the Arlington Cemetary is right behind that.
3. On the 12th floor of the Hotel is a rotating restaurant. This rotates every 15 minutes and gives absolutely fantastic views all the way up to the Capitol.
4. It is next to Reagan Int.
5. It is about $70 to the Hazy Centre at Dulles .. or a very easy drive.
6. It is $25 from Washington railway station.
In short, I would not consider any other location on a revisit as my interests are totally covered by taxi .. for $5 a fare.

As regards Washington. I would suggest that 3 full days would cover..
The sightseeing in general including Capitol, Monuments and White House
Airspace (probably the most significant aircraft collection in the World).
Smithsonian Castle
Museum of American History inc The star spangled banner.
National archive with Dec of Independence
Natural History Museum
All the monuments
Arlington National Cemetary.

Their are other, guided tours that other threads cover, such as the Capitol, but I cannot advise as I didn't do.

Hope it helps.

[disneywiseowl]

Have a look at the Hotel Harrington on 11th St. The rooms are basic. We always book a family room as they have fridges & microwaves.
The location can’t be beat imo. I have limited mobility but can walk to all the main attractions from there.

[sheluk]

We did 2 nights in Washington and could have easily done longer. I highly recommend a Segway tour as a quick hit of all the main highlights - as everything is quite a decent walk, though totally manageable - and its great fun. We saw a lot of the main 'things' on that and then when finished walked the entire length of the Mall again.

We did a 'quick hits' on the museums as you could really loose days and days in those there is so many. Saw the Constitution, original flag - its massive!- and a tour of the Senate building. You'll want to get advance tickets to go up Washington Monument as we missed out.

We didn't get time to do Arlington or the Cathedral which I'd like to do next time.

There are plenty of hotels within walking distance to the White House/Mall - any of those would do the job nicely. I seem to recall ours was a Marriott.

[Princess Alison]

Thanks all. Lots of great ideas here to help my planning!

[Infinity Red]

This thread has been useful to me as my daughter and friends are looking for a basic/ budget hotel for one night, 3adults. So far they've picked a hostel but I think I prefer her in a hotel, so any more suggestions would be great.
Sorry for jumping in.😃