Trip Motivation
In March 2023, we flew to DC for a week of museums, US history, cherry blossoms and so much walking. The kids were 5 and 8 and this was a perfect age to see all the amazing sights. This post has details on our itinerary and recommendations for museums. If you’re planning a visit to DC with kids, read on! For more on our flight and hotel logistics, head to this post here.
Guide to Setting an Itinerary
3 day itinerary to DC? 4 day visit to DC with kids? Week-long itinerary? We were in DC for 4 full days and 2 half-days. We had collected a long list of recommendations from website searches, facebook groups, and past visits. I put them into an excel list and started categorizing items as must-do/like to do along with ticket requirements. I then tried to map out the must do items together by location so we weren’t criss-crossing the city. We hit a lot of sights but also maintained a good amount of down-time and wandering-time. Something to keep in mind that walkable might mean 15 minutes, but multiple walks can be really tiring so close-by areas need to be grouped as much as possible. Even with our organizing, we took over 20,000 steps each day! Ok Let’s get to it!
Day 1: Museum of Natural History
Day 2: Museum of American History and Air and Space Museum
Day 3: National Building Museum and Memorial Walk
Day 4: National Zoo and Pool Time
Day 5: US Capitol, American Indian Museum & National Portrait Gallery
Day 6: National Postal Museum
Day 1: Museum of Natural History
We arrived in DC in the afternoon and checked into our hotel. (See more here) The hotel was located near the White house and the west side of the national mall sights. For lunch, we went to Elephant and Castle for some yummy shepherd’s pie and pizza pie to celebrate pi day.
The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History has a lot to offer kids of all ages. We spent around 2 hours here. Here are a few highlights:
Gem and mineral collection: Over 10,000 gems, including some of the most famous diamonds in the world, such as the Hope Diamond. Ellie loved the colorful gems.
Hall of Mammals: Lots of cool action poses from various mammals big and small. The Africa area even had some ambiance music going. We spent a lot of time learning facts in this section.
Dinosaur Fossil Hall: 200 dinosaur fossils, including a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton.
Butterfly Pavilion and Insect Zoo: This exhibit is a beautiful and peaceful place to relax and enjoy the company of butterflies. There are over 1,500 butterflies from all over the world. Free on Tuesdays!
After the museum, we relaxed at the hotel, including dinner and TV time. We also decided it would be really fun to watch the Night at the Museum sequel that took place in DC!
Day 2 Morning: American History Museum
The Smithsonian Museum of American History was my personal favorite of the museums we visited. It is a great place for kids to learn about the history of the United States. There are many interactive exhibits that will keep kids engaged and learning. It is so varied and has so many cool things to see. 3 floors and over 50 exhibits. We spent around 3 hours here. Some of our favorite spots include
Entertainment Nation: Sports, Celebrity, Movie artifacts and more are all featured in a really cool new exhibit. You can see R2D2, Ruby’s slippers, famous costumes, and so much more. So cool!
Spark Lab: This was a mini science museum with hands-on stations to build a pinball machine, learn about weaving, code some music and do some cool stem activities. There was also a small toddler play area next door but our kids were a little too old. Perfect for the under 5 crew (We don’t have any of those anymore!)
The Star-Spangled Banner: Here you can see the flag that inspired the song and learn about the history of the United States and the symbolism of the flag.
First Ladies of the United States: Ellie and I are a sucker for pretty dresses. Jill Biden’s inaugural dress (and mask!) are featured along with Obama, Clinton, and over 100 gowns. There are also really cool displays of China dishes and other artifacts.
American Democracy. We walked through this area quickly and wished we could have spent more time here. It was really interesting to read about the history of the founding of the nation and how voting and comprise has helped shape our current country.
Day 2 Afternoon: Air and Space Museum
After lunch (Bi Bim Bap at Rice Bar!), we spent the afternoon at the Air and Space Museum. This was a little bit of a walk but we required reservations for this museum and this was the day with the best times.
The National Air and Space Museum is undergoing some remodeling and is going to be even bigger and better later in 2023. Even with half the exhibits closed, we still spent 2 hours visiting. This museum requires reservations! This is the busiest museum in the whole country with half a million visitors a year. There’s info on the first flight, history of commercial flights, space, and even some star wars ships! Some highlights include
The Wright Flyer: The first airplane to fly successfully is on display in an exhibit by the entrance and the story of the first flight was presented in a really cool way. Carter loved this area and reading about the trial and errors of the first attempts.
Planets Gallery: Ellie’s class is really into space and I always love putting it into perspective just our different and far other worlds are.
Destination Moon: This exhibit brings you into history and shows what scientists were thinking at the time of the planning and flying. Looking back, its so crazy that we put people in space!
After our busy day, we took a short walk to see the white house from the North lawn. We didn’t have visitor reservations. For future visits, we’ll try to plan ahead. They also have a visitor center with informational exhibits. After our visit, we went to a nearby sports bar. Brewpubs usually have pretty kid-friendly food like burger and nachos. 🙂
Day 3 Morning: National Building Museum
The National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. is a great place for kids. In my searches of DC things to do, this was a less well known recommendation. It is smaller than the other museums we visited and cost a small amount ($36 for the whole family). But that also meant it was way less crowded. We spent around 2 hours here and explored some exhibits on animals in buildings, the history of homes, and spent time in the Kids play area, the building zone.
The Building Zone is a hands-on exhibit that allows kids to look at plans, build a model and build a large life-size structure. The kids loved this area and us parents enjoyed sittervising together and chatting.
For lunch, we walked to nearby Chinatown. Along the sidewalks in Chinatown, there were animals in the ground which Ellie loved finding and made the walk feel less long. We had some excellent dim sum and then relaxed at the hotel to get ready for our late afternoon/evening adventure.
Day 3 Afternoon: Memorial Walk
We started our adventure at the Washington Monument and walked around 3 miles around the various memorials. We picked up a brochure in the hotel and Carter was our tour guide along our journey. We saw the World War II Memorial, Vietnam Vets Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Korean Vets, MLK, FDR and Thomas Jefferson Memorial. This was a great walk and filled with so many amazing things to see and learn about. The kids recognized sights from movies, books and school. All the memorials were so evocative and beautiful. The entire path is well paved and would be easy to do with strollers, bikes, or scooters in nice weather. We were a few days early for peak cherry blossom but we were still able to see some pre-bloom and the end of tulip trees on our walk.
We ended our evening with a walk to the Wharf area where we ate some yummy sushi and eel bowls at Fat Fish Rolls for dinner.
Day 4 Morning: National Zoo
From our hotel, we took a $15 Lyft to the zoo. Transportation in DC is pretty easy with frequent trains, and buses. When there’s 4 of us, it does end up being a cost-benefit decision for each trip and paying for the convenience of a Lyft worked out great. If we had a car, the parking at the zoo would have been $30 anyway. Ellie uses an inflatable car seat (link here!) that is amazing for trips like this where we don’t have a car.
At the zoo, we started at the entrance by the top and worked our way downhill towards the bottom exit. We saw Pandas, Elephants, Gorillas, small mammals, lions and tigers and so much more. Have you ever heard a tiger roar? It’s pretty adorable.
As we were exiting the zoo, we looked for nearby food and went to an Irish Pub for St Paddy’s Day! Perfect! We stopped by a playground for a quick energy boost and then went back to the hotel to relax and play at the pool.
Day 5 Morning: US Capitol
Ben did a run in the morning and then we headed out for more exploration! When making our calendar of trips for the year, we like to combine interests and many cities have half-marathons and triatholons. The expo and races are fun activities for the family too! Even if you don’t have a runner, if you’re in town for an event, its fun to cheer on strangers!
After the run, we visited the US capitol. We emailed our congress people a few weeks before our visit but weren’t able to secure a guided visit. Even if you can’t get a booking, it’s worth going to see and view the lobby area. The Capitol Visitor Center is underground on the east side of the Capitol. When you’re in the lobby area, you can see some of the beautiful statues and inquire at the desk if they have any room for walk-ups. We were able to join right in. The tour started with a short video and then a guide took us around. It was awesome. We had a great tour guide with a group of around 30 people. We were able to learn about the Rotunda area, the statuary hall and hear some cool stories and history of our country. We spent about an hour total and really enjoyed our visit.
Day 5 Afternoon: American Indian Museum and National Portrait Gallery
After our tour, we walked a minutes to the American Indian Museum. We ate lunch at the cafe area. Most of the museums have restaurants and there are also lots of food trucks outside of each spot. We ate some great navajo tacos and steak and then spent about an hour exploring the museum. This museum has a great set-up for kids with lots of hands-on experiences building igloos, learning about star art, and skateboarding video games! We also briefly walked through some of the beautiful exhibits. This museum is right next to the Air and Space Museum and would be good to do in combo.
We headed back to the hotel for some downtime and then walked to the National Portrait Gallery. We spent a very small amount of time in the kid’s room “Explore”. We then spent about an hour exploring the collection of presidential portraits. It is beautiful and the Obama portrait is especially striking. There are a lot of historical details printed and some brief movies to keep the kid’s attention. We hit a lot of sites in a quick amount of time and this was one of our busiest days. The Portrait Gallery has a late closing time and was super fun to explore.
Nearby, we ate some yummy Ramen near the Capitol One center before heading back to our hotel.
Day 6 Morning: US Postal Museum
The National Postal Museum is a great place for kids. It is less visited than some of the other big museums and a little out of the way close to the Capitol side of the mall. There are so many interactive exhibits that the kids loved. We spent about 2 hours exploring and learning about the postal service. Highlights included:
A scavenger hunt throughout the museum.
Creating stamp designs and starting a stamp collection.
Fun games like delivering boxes, typing zip-codes, and being a mail deliverer.
So fun! This was the end of our trip and a nice way to cap it off.
Final Thoughts
Our week in DC was busy but fun! We had collected a long list of recommendations from website searches, facebook groups, and past visits and tried to map out the must do items together by location so we weren’t criss-crossing the city. We hit a lot of sights but also maintained a good amount of down-time and wandering-time. Our kids were 5 and 8 and this was a perfect age. Next time, we’ll hit some repeats and try some new spots too! I really wanted to go to the African American Museum, the Art Galleries, Mount Vernon, etc. There is no shortage of things to do.
