My husband is from Northern Virginia, so we often visit the area to see family and friends. What I love about Washington, D.C. is that so many of their amazing and historical sites are FREE. There’s also a lot of culture to experience. It’s easy to get lost in all the things to do, so I wanted to share an itinerary that could get you exploring the city and beyond in just 3 days.
Since my kids are still young, we try and let them set the pace. We have to work around two boys who get very cranky when hungry or tired (I know that’s pretty much any toddler). What that might mean is we have no qualms about speeding through a museum or a park, and we don’t get hung up on what we missed. Have I skipped an exhibit on my list in order to manage an oncoming meltdown? I’ve traveled enough to know I won’t remember whether I saw the exhibit in person or in my research. But if it’s an exhibit you really want to see- just put that higher up on the agenda.
Day 1: National Mall and Monuments Park
There are some monuments in the national mall that are a little closer to each other, so we visited the Abraham Lincoln Memorial, MLK Jr. Memorial and the Korean War Veterans Memorial. From the Lincoln Memorial, you can see the Washington Monument from a distance. By the time we visited these three monuments though, my boys were done. The ones we had on our list but didn’t get to were the Jefferson Memorial and the World War II Veterans Memorial.
Day 2: Smithsonian Museums
I’m still in awe that the Smithsonian Museums are free (though if you feel so inclined, they do take donations on-site). It was so hard to narrow down which ones we wanted to see, so we started at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. We also happened to park right by the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden, so conveniently we walked through the garden before heading to the Natural History Museum.
The boys loved the Natural History Museum and seeing all the animals and fossils. There was a real life scientist there. The bonus for me is that I got to see the Hope Diamond again, which was as beautiful as ever. Food trucks were lined outside of the museums, so we stopped for some lunch and ice cream before we hit up the second museum of the day: The Smithsonian Museum of American History.
My kindergartener is a huge history buff already (has a fascination with presidents) and so he enjoyed this museum for longer than I expected. Our little guy wasn’t as much of a fan, so my husband spend the time going up and down the escalators with the 3-year old before they went outside and enjoyed the small pond.
Day 3: Shenandoah National Park/Luray Caverns (Explore outside the city)
Once you’ve done the D.C. stops, I love spending at least one day outside of the city. There are so many surrounding cities that are cute and worthy of a stop- whether it’s the Alexandria, Virginia or a little further out to Baltimore, Maryland. In our case, we ventured about 75 miles out to the Shenandoah Valley along Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. We’re on a mission to visit as many national parks we can, and so we headed to Shenandoah National Park. We could have spend a lot of time there but instead went to the Visitor Center for our Junior Ranger badges. The added bonus was the Visitors Center had interactive learning displays that my Kindergartener thoroughly enjoyed. We took a few pictures from an overlook and then we headed to Luray Caverns about another 20 minute drive.
You do need tickets for Luray Caverns, but we thought it was worth it. The pathway inside is all paved, which we appreciated since we had our stroller with us.
Bonus stop:
Either on Day 1 or 2, you could easily add a stop to the Arlington National Cemetery. While a somber place to be, it provided an opportunity for us to share with our kindergartener about the sacrifices brave men and women have made for our country.
Tips:
If you have kids age 6 and under, a stroller would serve you well. We only had one so my two boys took turns riding in it as D.C. is a lot of walking.
The other tip is unless you will only be staying in the city, then a car might be handy. We surprisingly have never had issues finding parking. While I am a huge fan of the underground Metro system, it’s harder to navigate with kids.
What have we missed? Leave a comment- would love to hear from you!
