Washington D.C.

Named for America’s first president, Washington is a beautiful city with impressive buildings on wide tree-lined streets, grassy parks, museums, art galleries, and historic monuments. See government at work in Supreme Court sessions and Senate debates. Visit the icons that symbolize the American heritage: the Declaration of Independence and the Lincoln Memorial. Tour the White House, one of the few residences of a head of state open to the public. Retire for respite in trendy Georgetown with its wealth of shops, cafés, and restaurants.Washington, the nation’s capital, is one of those cities where you could spend a lifetime without seeing it all. To skim the highlights would take two or three days; to do it some justice, plan on a week.Getting around Washington is fairly easy using a combination of walking, the Metro system, and (we recommend) Tourmobile Sightseeing, whose buses connect major landmarks via several interconnecting routes through the city and out to Arlington National Cemetery. Unlike many of the tour companies where you travel with a group and have an allotted time at each sightseeing venue, with Tourmobile, which is affiliated with the National Park Service, your ticket is valid for the entire day (9:30am to 4:30pm) and you hop off to visit the places that interest you, spending as much time as desired and then hop on the next bus that comes along. (Buses are approximately thirty minutes apart.) Tickets may be purchased with credit cards (MC, VS) at certain stops where there are ticket booths, or if you have cash or traveler’s checks you can embark at any stop and purchase tickets on board. (For pricing and information, www.tourmobile.com, tel: 888-868-7707. Note: Inquire about their two-day pass and know that they also offer an evening, twilight tour.) Each bus is staffed with a park service representative who provides interesting and informative narrative about Washington’s landmarks.