Washington D.C. Travel Forum

Hi all,

I'll be in Washington DC for about 36 hours the 11th and the 12th of March. I kow it's a rather short stay, but I intend to get something out of it. Could any of you point me to some guided tour-operators that tour around the highlights in DC. Preferably an operator that spends a little time at the visited items (as opposed to the "drive-by-and-have-a-look"-companies.)

Thanks.

If you do some advance planning, consider using the metro and save yourself some time and money. The metro is easy to use, and you can see those sites that you want to see - and stay as long as you want at each one.

Tour companies are great - but DC by foot and metro are easy. There is an interactive map of the metro system that I would recommend for you to explore to help plan your trip. Be warned - you can spend hours in only one of each of the Smithsonian Museums - so you may also want to check out each museum online to determine what you really, really want to see to save additional time.

http://www.wmata.com/metrorail/systemmap.cfm

Have fun!

I totally agree with the previous poster - D.C. is an easy city to create your own tour. You can, as mentioned, easily spend the whole time at the Smithsonian museums, or you can cram a whole bunch of sightseeing in because everything is so compact, and because the public transportation is so easy to use. Also, there is a "Tourmobile" that operates - an inexpensive (less than $20) way to travel, and will probably get you to most of the places you want to go. (It's fun watching all of the non-English speaking tourists nod politely as the guide points out all of the landmarks... "The monument is 555 feet, 5 and 1/8 inches..." Speaking of which, hopefully the Washington Monument will be open by March 11th - it is closed an enhancement project, and due to open around then. I hope so for you, as I would suggest making getting your ticket for it the first thing to do time-wise, then go back at the time your ticket is for.

Here is the Tourmobile link:

http://www.tourmobile.com/

Here is a link to a map, (there are lots of good ones):

http://www.washington.org/WCTCoffsite.cfm?http://maps.mapnetwork.com/wctc/dispmap.asp?map=1

Have a great trip.

I work in DC, and every day when I go to the YMCA at lunch, I see the people waiting for the Tourmobile outside of that National Geographic building. (Anyway, I think it's tourmobile. It has a route, and people get on and off along the way, and there's a runniing commentary as it drives around.)

I don't quite understand why people use that instead of the metro, which, as the previous posters have said, is very user friendly. I'm pretty sure that metro has day passes for unlimited travel starting at about 9:30 am (so as not to bother 9 to 5ers like me, who are rushing to work.).

If you're primarily interested in just seeing monuments, etc., an above ground tour bus may be the way to go. If you want to spend time on the Mall, and visit the musuems, etc., you should definitely just metro it. (But, please, if you do take the metro, remember that people stand to the right and walk to the left. It's amazing how annoying clueless tourists are to people like me who need to hurry to get to work and catch the communter train home!)

Have a good trip.

Hi all,

Thank you very much all of you for the answers. I've made up my mind and will use the public transport system to see as much on my own pace.
The links, addresses, etc... you suggested helped me a great deal.

Koen

PS: No worry about the side on the stairs: I've been in situations where I was the one that needed to pass urgently :-) I'll stand to the right and walk to the left. But indeed, let's hope posting this here will guide some 'unwilling' :-D