My DH and myself will visit Washington, D.C. for a couple of days this summer. We realize we will never be able to find everything we want to see on our own in that amount of time. Can previous visitors please recommend day tours that will cover the major sights? Thanks.
Guided/Escorted Day Tour of Washington, D.C.?
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What sights in particular do you think you would need a tour for?
Here is a map of the National Mall and surrouding areas:
http://www.nps.gov/nama/planyourvisit/upload/NACCmap1.pdf
(Ignore the part about the Museum of American Art and Portrait Gallery being closed - they are now open.)
It is a little over 2 miles from the Capitol Building to the Lincoln Memorial. A lot of the "major sights" are in this area. They are almost all free. It can be very humid in DC in the summer.
<We realize we will never be able to find everything we want to see on our own in that amount of time. >
Are you saying that you can't see everything you want to see in two days, and a guide would somehow help with the time factor? Because there's no way you can see a fraction of what there is to see in that city in two days, that's true, but I can't see what a guide could do to change that much.
Or are you saying you think it would be difficult for you to "find" the things you want to see? Most of DC's must-sees are grouped together, as vjpb says, and because it's such a heavily touristed city, they're easy to get to.
As you can tell, I am not a person who uses guides much. I'm sorry for this unhelpful post and hope that someone can recommend a guide for you, but I also think you could do very well without one.
I don't think you'll need to take a tour. Just decide what things you really want to see and make those your priority.
If you want to take a White House or Capitol tour, contact your congressman now, as it takes a few months for those tours to be approved. He or she should have information on that on their website.
You might want to think about visiting the monuments at night, when it may be a little cooler. We did a guided walking tour with www.dcbyfoot.com which we really enjoyed.
Lee Ann