Washington DC

[Phillygirl]

How much are the tours and are they kid friendly?

The hop on, hop off tours are about $31 per adult (online price) and $18 for kids up to 12 (under 4, free). You can get them for second day free as well. It's really just transportation around the city as well as getting a bit of information about the sites, etc.

The museums of the Smithsonian are all free. How old are the little girls?

The American History museum has all the dresses of the First Ladies as well as Dorothy's ruby slippers and other "pop" history stuff that is fun.

I brought my 9 year old niece, along with 2 boys last year. My niece loved the American History museum, the boys loved Air and Space (she liked it as well) and they all got a lot out of the Holocaust Museum (there is an entrance fee for that, I believe, but the basic tour is fairly inexpensive and more suitable for young children than the full tour, due to the subject matter).

[eagleexpress]

You may want to re-arrange that to be for your first full day in town, because those tours are an excellent way to "get your bearings" once you arrive. After that, start buying MetroRail one-day passes. This will be vastly more convenient for you, especially after a long day of walking around The Mall and such. The Metro is quick, convenient, clean, safe, and quiet. My favorite subway system in the world (and I've been on a lot of subways).


I would guess well over $100 each way from central DC. It's about 40 miles away. Far better way to do it: Rent a car for one day in the city itself (not at the airport). If you do that on a weekend day, it should be plenty cheap. A quick-and-dirty pricing of a car picked up at Union Station on June 4 for a 24-hour rental is $27 plus tax for a total of $33.68. That gets you the car without your having to pay $40/day to park it in the District, and it would afford you the possibility to go drive around some of the pretty Maryland countryside around there, too

Best money-saving tip: stay in Arlington or Pentagon City or Crystal City or Alexandria and take the Metro into town. You get much better deals on hotels across the Potomac and many of the hotels there run shuttles to the Metro station(s) as well as Reagan airport. You can get something like an Embassy Suites or a Residence Inn that has a fold-out sofa for the girls and feeds you breakfast in the morning and whatnot for ~ $250/night or better, and only have to pay for one room that way without being stacked up like cordwood like you would be in the District.

Been passing the ideas to the husband he wants to know how safe is the area

[eagleexpress]

The hop on, hop off tours are about $31 per adult (online price) and $18 for kids up to 12 (under 4, free). You can get them for second day free as well. It's really just transportation around the city as well as getting a bit of information about the sites, etc.

The museums of the Smithsonian are all free. How old are the little girls?

The American History museum has all the dresses of the First Ladies as well as Dorothy's ruby slippers and other "pop" history stuff that is fun.

I brought my 9 year old niece, along with 2 boys last year. My niece loved the American History museum, the boys loved Air and Space (she liked it as well) and they all got a lot out of the Holocaust Museum (there is an entrance fee for that, I believe, but the basic tour is fairly inexpensive and more suitable for young children than the full tour, due to the subject matter).

The girls are 7 and 8 they love the Wizard of Oz and it would be fun to show them the dresses that is my must see. I am a bit worried taking them to the Holocost Museum at their ages

[Odysseus]

The girls are 7 and 8 they love the Wizard of Oz and it would be fun to show them the dresses that is my must see. I am a bit worried taking them to the Holocost Museum at their ages

I wouldn't take my daughters to the Holocaust Museum until they are a lot older (7 and 3), and even then, it's not exactly a feel-good event for a vacation. I can't imagine that there's really anything age appropriate there, and the thought of Washington bureaucrats trying to come up with something makes me cringe. I can just see a crematorium tilt-a-whirl, or the ball pit/mass grave. :eek:

Stick to the Smithsonian.

[Kay]

If you have the time to branch out a little, I think my favorite all time historical place to visit is George Washington's Mt. Vernon home and it isn't too far from DC. That is something everyone should see. Also just south of DC about half an hour is the Marine Corps Museum. That's awesome to visit and right across from the main gates of the Quantico base.

Going north about 2 hrs is the Baltimore Inner Harbor (Chesapeake Bay) where Frances Scott Key wrote the Star Spangled Banner. They have the national flag museum there at the Ft. McHenry, and also the National Aquarium is there....but then the Inner Harbor could be a whole vacation in itself. There is just so much to see and do up in that whole area.

[megimoo]

I am taking my family to Washington DC the first week in June and would love to find some funn things for us to do. My husband is a military nut so we will be going to Arlington but other than that is there anything else military that is free or cheap for a family to do while we are there?

A bit morbid for kids but historical ,Hannibal Lector would enjoy it !

National Museum of Health and Medicine .The AMM was established during the American Civil War as a center for the collection of specimens for research in military medicine and surgery.

They have a sliver of bone from President Lincolns head found on the floor in the presidential box at Fords theater !

In 1862, Hammond directed medical officers in the field to collect "specimens of morbid anatomy ... together with projectiles and foreign bodies removed" and to forward them to the newly founded museum for study.

The AMM's first curator, John Brinton, visited mid-Atlantic battlefields and solicited contributions from doctors throughout the Union Army.

During and after the war, AMM staff took pictures of wounded soldiers showing effects of gunshot wounds as well as results of amputations and other surgical procedures. The information collected was compiled into six volumes of The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion, published between 1870 and 1883.

[BadCat]

Been passing the ideas to the husband he wants to know how safe is the area

Don't go out when it's dark.

[Starbuck]

I am taking my family to Washington DC the first week in June and would love to find some funn things for us to do. My husband is a military nut so we will be going to Arlington but other than that is there anything else military that is free or cheap for a family to do while we are there?

Where ya coming from? Take Amtrak, if you can. Get a roomette.

[Phillygirl]

The girls are 7 and 8 they love the Wizard of Oz and it would be fun to show them the dresses that is my must see. I am a bit worried taking them to the Holocost Museum at their ages

I wouldn't take my daughters to the Holocaust Museum until they are a lot older (7 and 3), and even then, it's not exactly a feel-good event for a vacation. I can't imagine that there's really anything age appropriate there, and the thought of Washington bureaucrats trying to come up with something makes me cringe. I can just see a crematorium tilt-a-whirl, or the ball pit/mass grave. :eek:

Stick to the Smithsonian.

I took a 7, 11 and 12 year old. There is a good portion called daniels story that shows the lifeof a jewish child bwfore and during the war. I was nervous about bringing the kids, but it was on the oldestones must see. While sobering, it was completely appropriate and the end of the tour is filled/with audios from sports and other famous figures talking about diversity in a manner that I thought to be good..even the 11 year old who cares only about sports got something out of it. We started the day with that tour and it didn't dampen the experience.

If you stay downtown, the embassy suites is right next to chinatown and the kids loved that. Its small, but impressive to kids.

[Adam Wood]

Been passing the ideas to the husband he wants to know how safe is the area

The near Virginia area? Totally safe. I've walked all over there at night with no concerns at all.