Washington, DC
Weekend breaks & stopovers
No matter how long you stay in this great city, there's never enough time to see all of the attactions, to enjoy the ambiance, the shopping and the sheer vibe of America's Capital. Throughout the city are world-renowned museums and theatres, lovely parks such as Rock Creek - twice the size of New York City's Central Park - and lively neighbourhoods filled with restaurants, cafes and shops. These enclaves range from chic colonial Georgetown to kinetic, multi-ethnic Adams Morgan, and from colourful Chinatown to the vibrant African-American U street district, home of jazz legend Duke Ellington and once know as 'Black Broadway'.
10 Fun Things to do in Washington, DC
* Take an Old Town Trolley Tour around 24 major sites. It's narrated, you can hop on and off all along the way allowing you to take a break, have lunch or visit the museums and galleries. This is a great way to orientate yourself to the city, so we recommend that you do this early in your stay.
* Visit a presidential monument. Those to George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln are best known, but with its various outdoor 'rooms' featuring statuary tableaux of his life and times, the memorial to World War II President Franklin Delano Roosevelt is the most interactive.
* Marvel at the magnificence and variety of the aboriginal cultures 
of all of the Americas - not just the USA - in the handsome new National Museum of the American Indian. Then sample some of the Native American food in the ground-floor cafeteria.
* Play spy games in the quirky International Spy Museum in DC's trendy Penn Quarter neighbourhood. To learn more about the city's secretive past, join a two-hour tour of the city's most famous and infamous spy sites.
* Spend time in at least one of the Smithsonian Institution's 14 museums, most of them located along the Mall. Art lovers will enjoy the National Portrait Gallery and Smithsonian American Art Museum, recently opened after an extensive renovation and housing an exemplary collection of contemporary and classic works; for exhibitions of famous aircraft from the Wright Brother's 1903 Flyer to an Apollo 11 lunar command module, it's the National Air and Space Museum and its northern Virginia annex, the Udvar-Hazy Center near Dulles Airport.
* Take a cruise on the Potomac River to the former home of George Washington at Mount Vernon.
* Enjoy morning coffee and blueberry pancakes in a cafe at Eastern Market. Then stroll through the arts and craft stalls - surely their must be a treasure there demanding transport home!
* Join a tour of the White House - home to the President of the United States!
* Take a Open-Top Double-Decker bus tour of the city. Hop-on/Hop-off at 26 stops throughout the city. Very handy way of getting around and the upper deck provides a great viewing platform. Pass valid for two consecutive days.
* Take in a performance at Arena Stage, the J.K.Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the provocative Woolly Mammoth Theatre, the Shakespeare Theatres, or - if on the Virginia side of the Potomac River - the open-air Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts.
| Prices available on request from Just America |