I'm going for work in mid-March. The company has set me up with a hotel. That said, given the timing with Spring Break, my wife and two kids will be meeting me two days later after the conference. They are 4 and 8.

1. Where should we stay (preferably AirBnB as opposed to a hotel - more room to spread out, make a meal / order pizza if staying in one night, etc)? I guess we'd prefer places/neighborhoods that are walkable to sites, shopping, and restaurants?

2. Any places we should avoid staying?

3. What activities and what should we see (with the kids, of course)? What should we not see and/or skip?

4. Any recommendations on places to eat and/or grab drink that are kid friendly? At best, my kids could handle an upscale pub...that, unfortunately, is about it.

5. Is it easy enough getting around via car ... I'm not too sure I want them on the Metrorail.

6. Should I even be looking at extending the trip and brining the kids? Are they too young? Should the government shutdown heavily impact the trip?

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Posted by VanRIch

Wherever

Member since Sep 2007

11551 posts

Posted on 2/2/26 at 8:45 pm to GentleJackJones

I got back yesterday with my wife and 12 year old son. It was 8 degrees every damn morning but we made the most out of it. Wouldn’t normally go that time of year but my wife is a contributing author in a book that just got published and it was the book signing in DC. Actually Alexandria. That said my boy loved the Smithsonian’s. We did Natural History, Air and Space, American History and some state fair museum right by the White House just to get out of the cold a bit. We loved the first two. American History was ok. I wouldn’t ever recommend the state fair one. We also went to the National Archives but the interior layout of it made me kind of claustrophobic in a weird way.

We visited the Lincoln memorial and all that. We probably spent the most money on Ubers even though our hotel was only 4 blocks south of national mall. It was just too cold some days. Wife wants to go back for cherry blossom festival and my son was bummed we couldn’t do Spy Museum. There’s also a nice Children’s museum but my son is a bit too old for it. I’m sure people with more experience will chime in. I think the amount of things to do in walking distance would be fine for your kids especially with nice weather.