Washington travel guides & articles
All 44 in-depth pieces we’ve published on Washington — newest first.
Tours & tickets
Washington's Lincoln Memorial with Kids and the Cave Below
The steps, the echo and the cave that just opened underneath, plus the memorials and paddle boats nearby that keep small children walking all day, bribes included.
Tours & tickets
September Ghosts and Cobblestones in Washington's Georgetown
A two-hour walk through Washington's oldest quarter, where the ghost stories attach to real crypts, a re-watered canal and a 1765 foundation, with the hours, prices and closures that govern a September visit.
Planning Five Nights in Washington in Late October
A first-timer's plan for Washington in late October: how to get the free tickets before they go, what to do once the museums close at 5.30 p.m., and whether Shenandoah is still worth the drive.
The Smithsonian Without the Foot Pain: A Museum Strategy for Washington's National Mall
The Mall holds more free world-class museums than any sane person can walk in a day — here is how to choose, pace, and actually enjoy them in 2026.
Three Thousand Reasons a City of Policy Looks Up: Washington's Cherry Blossom Reckoning
For four weeks each spring the capital of memos and marble surrenders to a gift of three thousand trees — here is how to meet the bloom honestly, crowds and closures and quieter corners included.
Planning a Washington Music Weekend Around October 3
The festival takes one Saturday in Maryland, and a dozen Washington rooms cover the nights either side of it. This guide is specific about doors, group sizes and how you get home.
Chasing Orcas: A Whale-Watching Guide to Washington's Salish Sea
Where to sail, who to book, and how to actually see orcas across Washington's Salish Sea — an honest, operator-by-operator guide for 2026.
Washington DC by Metro, Bike and Water Taxi
Washington was laid out for walking and riding rather than driving, so this is how to land, sleep, eat and see the whole first-timer's list without ever hiring a car.
Washington With Kids Once You Have Walked the Mall
Fifteen places off the lawn: a zoo built on a hillside, a free hall big enough to run in, and a carousel with a closing date. They hold up when the monuments have had their turn.
A Weekend Alone in Washington Beyond the Monuments
Two days of markets, ranger tours, communal tables and general-admission rooms in a city that is much easier to travel alone than most visitors expect.
Washington DC Holidays 2026: National Christmas Tree, Museums and Free Things
What is on in Washington this holiday season, when it opens, what it costs and which parts you have to book before you travel.
Pacing a First Washington DC Trip Around Museums and Meals
Two museums a day, a proper lunch two blocks off the Mall, and evenings in Georgetown, Capitol Hill and U Street: how a first Washington trip actually works.
A Slow Outdoor Day Along Washington's Rock Creek Park
Five car-free miles of Beach Drive, a working mill, two fine gardens and a kayak at the river: the capital's easiest good day, planned properly.
Three Days of Live Music and Monuments in Washington DC
A three-day Washington weekend built around the 3 October 2026 festival, the U Street rooms, a free 6pm set and one long drive north.
The Other Smithsonian: Washington DC's Quirky Museums That Never Make the Postcards
While the queues stack up outside Air and Space, ten free Smithsonian buildings across DC sit nearly empty — here's how to route them, group-by-group and street-by-street.
How to Eat Washington DC from Georgetown to the Wharf
A first-timer's eating route across Washington DC, west to east: what to order, what it costs, and which rooms will seat a group.
Planning a Washington Weekend Around DC Fashion Week
Two runway nights on 15th Street NW, and the dinners, resale rails, rooftops and rest days that fit around them all on foot.
The Capital Drinks Better Now: Washington DC's Cocktail Revival After Dark
A calm, honest walk through the bars that turned the capital into a genuine cocktail city — which rooms to book, which to hunt for, and which suit a couple or a crowd.
A Fall Weekend in Washington From the Mall to Shenandoah
Which free tickets go first, when to walk the monuments, where to eat afterwards, and whether to give a Sunday to the Blue Ridge.
The Best Whale Watching Tours in Washington
Orcas in the San Juan Islands, grey whales on the wild coast, and a downtown-Seattle shortcut — an honest 2026 guide to which Washington whale watching tour actually suits you.
Late Plates and Loud Rooms in Columbia Heights, Washington DC
Lao heat, Ethiopian platters, a heated roof deck and a Sunday drum circle: how to eat and spend an evening in the part of Washington DC that isn't putting on a show for visitors.
DC Cherry Blossom Festival 2027: Centennial Dates, the New Night Parade and How to Plan
The 2027 festival runs three weeks, but peak bloom lasts days, so timing matters more than the schedule. The cherries grow well beyond the Tidal Basin crush, and the handful of things that sell out are worth booking before you fly.
A Day and Night in Shaw, Washington's Black Broadway
Washington's oldest stages, its soul food counters and four Michelin kitchens all sit within a few blocks of each other, and this is how I plan a day around them.
Washington's Potomac Memorials on a Dawn Camera Marathon
One walk along the Potomac, from blue hour to full sun, with the distances, the gate times and the caveats that decide how much of it you actually get.
Washington DC Farmers Markets Worth Getting Up For
Fifteen Washington markets ranked by what is worth eating at eight in the morning, with opening times, real prices and a straight answer on which ones can take a group.
Washington's Logan Circle and 14th Street on foot
A walking route through Washington's Logan Circle rowhouses and the 14th Street strip, with the door rules, closed days and bookings that set the order.
Watergate to the Wharf: Washington DC's Southwest Waterfront and the Mile That Reinvented the River
How a forgotten stretch of the Potomac behind a freeway became DC's best-run waterfront, from a fish market older than the Capitol dome to a concert hall built from scratch.
Washington After Dark: The Monuments at Night When the Crowds Clear
After the coaches leave and the last ranger folds up, the floodlit National Mall belongs to almost nobody — here is how to walk it, monument by monument, in the quiet hours.
Tours & tickets
Seeing the Founding Documents at Washington's National Archives
Walk-in entry is free, a reserved slot costs $1, and 90 minutes covers the dim domed Rotunda, where the Declaration, Constitution and Bill of Rights lie flat under amber light.
Tours & tickets
Walking the National Gallery of Art in Washington
Two buildings, a tunnel of moving light and a free rooftop over Pennsylvania Avenue: how to walk Washington's National Gallery at a pace that actually works.
How to walk Washington's National Mall and Memorial Parks
Lincoln's Undercroft, the rebuilt Tidal Basin loop, the Mall's free museums, and which tickets you have to book before you travel.
Washington Beyond the Monuments
Beyond the marble and the monuments, Washington's real culture runs through Shaw, U Street, H Street NE, and Petworth — go-go music, Ethiopian food, and rooftops built for groups, not photo ops.
Washington Without the Mall, from the Cathedral to Hillwood
A calm, walkable day that starts on the highest ground in Washington and ends at a collector's mansion full of Russian imperial silver, plus the gardens, free churches and small house museums that fill the days on either side.
On U Street, Washington DC's Black Broadway Still Plays
A walking and listening guide to the theaters, jazz room, landmarks and diners that made U Street Black Broadway — and still keep it singing in 2026.
Tours & tickets
How to Get Inside Washington's Church of the Presidents
St John's on Lafayette Square has hosted every president since Madison, but it is a working parish and only a few hours a week get you through the door.
Tours & tickets
Washington's Wall of Honor and the museum across the street
Free galleries fill a 1920s schoolhouse, and the plaza across the street carries more than 185,000 names. A single walk through Shaw takes in both.
Downtown Washington and Lafayette Square on foot
A Downtown Washington walk checked door by door: the reopened half of Lafayette Square, the fences still up, what $5 buys and the twenty seats at the Round Robin.
Woodley Park in Washington, from Zoo gates to Rock Creek
Free Zoo passes, two bridges over the Rock Creek gorge and the Connecticut Avenue dinner strip, in a Washington district you can walk end to end.
Walking The Wharf and Southwest Waterfront in Washington
The Washington Channel boardwalk runs for a mile, past an 1805 crab market, a cruciform granite memorial and a rooftop pool.
Walking Anacostia, Washington's side east of the river
Tours of Cedar Hill take 10 people at a time. The Big Chair never closes, and the National Park Service runs a roller rink down by the water.
Washington's H Street NE, from Hopscotch Bridge to the Atlas
Head east from Union Station on a weekday and you pass a free Deaf history museum, four small theatres, Belgian mussels and cocktails poured until 3 a.m.
Columbia Heights, Washington, from the cascade to 11th Street
The cascade on Meridian Hill runs again. Walk down from it and you pass a 1924 cinema that was saved, a mural staircase on embassy row, then the Lao, Ethiopian and Cantonese kitchens on 14th and 11th.
Inside Washington's Rare Book Reading Rooms
A walkable circuit through ten Washington libraries where free reading rooms, private society archives, and university special collections let ordinary visitors sit with the paper trail a governing city keeps.
A day and a night in Ivy City, Washington
A 1937 Streamline Moderne warehouse, DC's largest Catholic cemetery, two distilleries and the club people cross Washington for all sit in one district that has no Metro station.