The Best Time to Come to DC

Recently, Melanie E. wrote and asked:

Is it necessary to go through the "procedure" to get a self guided tour time to the National Archives for the last couple weeks of October? I'm hoping the lines are not long this time of year and that the National Archives will be a spot we can just drop in on anytime.

The short answer is, of course, heck no. You might run into a few minutes of a line from time to time, but it'll be a pale shadow of what we see in the Spring and Summer. And while it certainly doesn't hurt to get a self-guided tour reservation, it's not something you will need to plan around, like a Washington Monument ticket.

All of which got me thinking: when is the best time to visit DC? I thought I'd write a long, thoughtful post discussing the pros and cons of each season (that's when the weather changes, for you California visitors), but really, I couldn't do it. Why? Because hands down, the best time to visit Washington is the Fall. I'm not even going to try to defend the others.

And it's not as if you should run out and cancel if you have a Spring trip planned. It's not a bad thing to come in the Spring, Summer, or Winter; it's just overwhelmingly better in the Fall. Certainly, some events make each season worth visiting for. Cherry Blossom Festival has a well earned reputation as a great time to visit DC. The Fourth of July and Smithsonian Folklife Festival are highlights of my summer. And I enjoy Christmas in DC as well. Even if it's no Rockefeller Center, the National Christmas Tree is worth seeing.

So why come in the Fall? Two reasons: crowds and weather. Not much of the first, and just the right amount of the second. As far as crowds go, you're going to run into a smattering of school groups, but it'll be nothing like the Spring. They will almost be quaint in comparison, a few eager beavers snapping there pics and oohing and ahhing in wonderment. I love giving fall tours with school kids. You can relax and spend time really exploring the city, not herding them like masses of cattle, pushing them to get in line in front of the other groups, all the while trampling small children and old people. And while the Summer sees a noticeable drop off in eighth grade field trippers, it's replaced with local day campers, as well as families visiting Washington. Totally understandable, the Summer is when kids are out of school and families can get time to travel. But it does little to lessen the crowds.

Summer is also difficult for another reason. DC is hot, humid, and miserable. Make no mistake, I love this city, I love living here, and I plan to do it for many decades to come. Except in the Summer, when I literally wilt into a puddle of my own sweat and tears. I am not a pretty sight come August.

Winter is not a bad time to visit Washington, and our winters are quite mild compared to many Northern cities. Snow is an occasion for celebration, and you only generally a few good snows a year. Unfortunately, what you do get is the dreaded "wintery mix", which is a dispiriting crappy combination of snow, rain, and slush that is neither picturesque, nor fun to play in. It is dangerous to drive in, and unpleasant to walk in. And, for an added bonus, it will tend to freeze on the sidewalks making a walk down the block a perilous journey. I'd take a good solid snowfall any day of the week.

So that leaves Fall, in all its golden glory. I've always loved the fall, so perhaps I was biased in its favor to begin with, but in DC it's a wonderful mix of less crowds and jeans and a sweatshirt weather. You can swing by the Washington Monument at ten and stand a decent shot at getting a ticket. Many attractions, like the Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing no longer require advanced tickets. But, perhaps best of all, the Fall is when ghosts come out to play...

What is "On Time"?

A good dozen of us in the DC area have been watching the latest pseudo-controversy about White House access regarding the cancellation of a tour is elementary school kids attempting to visit the White House, supposedly for a photo op with the Steelers. On the surface, it appears as the story of a callous government bureaucracy not bending a bit to help out with kindergartners.

But, once you dig through the shoddy reporting of the local news, it turns out the kids were over an hour late to the appointment. To the White House. I'm not sure what they thought was going to happen, but let me assure you, on the near impossible chance you get White House tickets, they will be unbending on rescheduling. I'm no fan of the White House's visitor policy, but on this one, I'll cut them some slack.

Which brings me to the point of this post. Not to prolong a ridiculous non-story, but to explore what an appointment time "means" when you have one. So let me run down the list of likely ticket venues and my experiences with being late. Obviously, I should lead in with the usual caveats that this is simply my experience, your's may be different, and I don't speak for any of these organizations. That aside, let's assume you have 12:30 pm tickets to all of these places:

Bureau of Engraving and Printing: I don't know why they even have tickets for this one anymore. Personally, I think their schtick has gotten stale, but if you have tickets, be on time. They're pretty good working with you if you are five to ten minutes late, but no guarantees.

Capitol Visitors Center: 12:30 is the time you line up to enter the movie theater, inside the Visitor's Center. This means you have already passed through security, which you should allow 20 minutes for, although it's routinely less (and occasionally more). Also, you will want to give yourself a few minutes to orient yourself to the new Visitors Center. So, I would plan on being in line to enter the CVC thirty minutes prior to your ticket time and use the spare time, if any, to take a break in the cafeteria and/or explore its excellent museum. The good news; although I don't recommend it, the folks at the Visitor's Center have proven to be very helpful with me in the last few months with late/delayed visitors. It's worth asking them if you miss your ticket time.

Ford's Theater: The ticket time is when the presentation starts. You want to be in line 10 minutes or so before it. You might be able to squeeze in a minute or two after, but don't plan on it. Fortunatly, you can still use the ticket to visit the Peterson House across the street, even if you miss the ranger presentation. Once the museum opens, I'll be posting on ticketing procedures for that.

Holocaust Memorial Museum: Great news here! Ticket times are good for any time after their stated time. So, you could use the 12:30 ticket at 4 pm with no problem. Also, the ticket is only for the Permanent Exhibit. If you arrive early, take the time to check out Danial's Story (if you have kids) on the first floor, or the temporary exhibits in the basement. I strongly recommend one of the current ones, State of Deception: The Power of Nazi Propaganda.

National Archives: Officially, you have to be on time, but I've had luck with just handing the security guard the appointment sheet and bluffing your way in. Not that I recommend it, but it can be done.

Tours: If you have a tour scheduled at a museum, Library of Congress, Cathedral, bike/segway etc. you're going to want to be on time. The tour will start on time and they may or may not allow you to catch up.

Washington Monument: You have about a thirty minute window to use this ticket. If you're ticket is 12:30, I'd be there right about then, but if you are a few minutes late, you'd just get in the 12:30 line and no one would be the wiser. You might be pushing it if you arrived at 12:59 and they were already taking the 1:00's in. Throw yourself on the mercy of the Park Ranger, and you might get lucky.

White House: Yeah, right. Don't be late.

I hope this highly subjective look helps. Not that I ever advocate being late, but.....

What would a visit to DC be without an early morning line?

Now that Ford's Theater has added themselves to the mix; we have a full week worth of lines to wait in, if you wish to see the Washington Monument, the Capitol, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and the Holocaust Memorial Museum. With enough advance warning, you can often purchase tickets ahead of time for each of these, but what if you're in town, and still wish to go? Each of them have "day of" tickets reserved, so you can participate in the grand old Washington tradition of waking up early in the morning and standing in line for tickets.

As I've discussed Ford's Theater elsewhere, and the Capitol is its own steaming pile of muck, let's, for now, address the Washington Monument, BEP, and Holocaust. They're all in close vicinity just off 15th St NW. One reader asks:

Our plan was to have myself or my husband get up at the crack of dawn and get in the ticket queue. How early would you suggest to get in line? Do you have any idea of how many same day tickets are available? What time are they usually gone by? Do you have a choice of time slots or do you just get the next available opening? Finally, do you think either attraction is worth the hassle?

The Washington Monument starts handing out tickets at 8:30 am. I would say you should be there at 7 in the Spring and Summer to have a chance, but you might get lucky a bit later. They will generally go right away, and it is first come, first serve for time slots.

BEP and Holocaust only require tickets from March through August. BEP's tickets start at 8:00 and you often can get lucky until 9. I've even had a stroke of luck at 10 am on a busy day, but I wouldn't plan on that. The ticket booth is on 15th ST, the portion that is renamed Raoul Wallenberg Pl. BEP is closed on weekends and holidays.

Holocaust starts handing out tickets just before the Museum opens at 10, outside it's 14th St entrance. Once the initial rush is over, tickets will be distributed at the information desk inside the museum. It's not difficult to get tickets all the way to noon, or even later occasionally. The great thing about the Holocaust tickets is that they can be used any time that day after the time on the ticket. So always book 10:00 am tickets (or as early as possible). Tickets are only for the permanent exhibit, not for general entry into the Museum.

I don't know how many tickets are on hand at each of these place. I've heard that the Monument reserves 30% of them for same day walk ups, but I have no way to confirm that. Does anyone out there in computerland have a better number? The Monument has groups go up in 30 minute intervals while BEP and Holocaust take them every fifteen minutes.

All of these ticket policies give you a timed ticket, for which you can choose from whatever is left.

The last answer, is it worth it, requires a judgment call. I'd say no, but I've been to each of them dozens of times and will likely go many more. Many, many more times. So I might not be the best judge. If you've flown in from Alaska and this is your last crack at Washington, DC, go for it. If you live nearby, come back in the fall. But if I may, let me offer a few suggestions for alternatives:

1. Washington Monument: Unless you have purchased tickets ahead of time, skip it, and head for the Old Post Office. Not quite the same height but less hassle, more room to view on top, and almost never a wait. The Monument is cool, but plan a trip in the fall if it's a must see.

2. Bureau of Engraving and Printing: Honestly, this place is totally resting on their laurels. Personally, I think they were the best game in town for so long, they've become complacent. The best part of this tour is the gift shop, which you don't technically need to be on the tour to go to. Simply go to the front door on 14th St and tell them you would like to go to the gift shop. They'll have you walk through and you can buy all the shredded money you like. The shop is in the old lobby and a impressive room in its own right. They usually have an engraver there demonstrating his craft on an old press, or whatever the technical term is. Frankly, I find chatting with him far more fascinating than watching money being printed, anyway.

3. Holocaust Memorial Museum: You can still enter the building and see the rotating exhibits, the films, and the kid's exhibit, Danial's Story. So if this is something that interests you, and you just miss out on the tickets, go ahead in and look around. The permanent exhibit is, as you might imagine, both gut-wrenching and fascinating, but in the spring and summer it's so mobbed that you can't really immerse yourself in it anyway. Check out the rest of the stuff, still worth it.

Sample Cherry Blossom Routes

Now that you've decided to come see the cherry blossoms, perhaps it would be just a bit responsible to come up with some sort of plan to actually see some blossoms.

As Connie from Pennsylvania wrote and asked:

"Would you please "guesstimate" how much time I should budget for wandering and looking at the blossoms along the tidal basin and mall? I am trying to plan out our sightseeing schedule."

Good question, Connie. For those of us that live here, we don't put much thought into it. One day, when we have a chance, we hop down to the Tidal Basin, see the blossoms, and go on about our lives. Having to budget time for the blossoms is somewhat foreign to us and worthy of a bit of consideration.

So, the answer comes down to how much you want to see and how to do it. I've laid out some options for bikes and Segways in a previous post, so I'll skip that and lay out two walking tours:

View Larger Map

For both, they involve taking advantage of the secret passageway between the Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Auditors Building, the big red brick building with a steeple on Independence and 14th (don't worry, it's not important). Neither walk's distance includes the walk to the Metro (.3 milies). If you're driving, the walks don't include the 2 mile walk to the nearest parking. Don't be fooled by the parking spaces on the map; the Park Service closes it during the Cherry Blossom Festival. 

The long walk is two miles and will take you past the Park Service's Tulip Library, the future sight of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, the FDR Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP), and finishes by the Holocaust Memorial Museum. There are some great views here. I'm particularly fond of the view of the Jefferson from FDR and the view of the Tidal Basin from the BEP. You will also go within short walking distances of the World War II, DC WWI, and George Mason Memorials if you are interested in any of those. I would plan on an hour and a half to two hours for this one and some tired legs.

If that doesn't appeal to you, obviously you can take any portion of it. I've mapped out a small sample loop that is about .7 miles. This should just take about 45 minutes. It starts and ends by the Holocaust Museum and will take in the Tulip Library, the Boat Dock, and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. If you really want to burn out your legs, feel free to rent a paddle boat (or peddle boat, as they insist on calling it). A more inefficient form of tranisit could not be imagined.