Washington DC - how long to look around?

Never been there and wouldn't mind popping over to see it whilst in New York.
Roughly how long would it takes to seee the main things such as The White House, Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, Pentagon (assuming you can get reasonably close to see it?) etc?

If thats all you want to see you could easily 'do' them in a day but you won't 'see' much.

Just getting to DC from NYC will take around 3 1/2 hours on the train (slightly quicker on the Acela) and around the same total time if flying - flight time is 1 1/2 hours.

But you're missing out on a awful lot such as the Capitol Building and Library of Congress (excellent free tours of both on offer) as well as the dozen + museums and galleries that form the Smithsonian Institution (all free)

Alexandria is worth 1/2 a day as is Mount Vernon (Washington's Home and Farm)

Should have really put this in the general travel section...but too late now

Does seem to be a little more than I knew about off the top of my head! Will have to get my 'Fallout 3' map out for research purposes

[mcmbenjamin]

Moved for you.

There also is the Air and Space museum never Dulles airport. Consider seeing things off the Mall area. Come up to U Street (home of the riots and Ben's Chili Bowl), Adams Morgan (tend Bars, and the Zoo).

If you want to see all of DC, leave 36 hours.

I suggest you fly to NYC then take the train down and fly home from Dulles. Book your train ticket in advance. Prices go up last minute.

[HighFlyer]

Arlington cemetary is also well worth a visit, albeit somewhat poignant. If you like museums you can easily fill a few days there, the spy museum is rather interesting for a short visit. We have been for 3 night stays and seen much of what we wanted to, so I would say 2 days would be enough to see a little of all the main attractions - plus if Ben is in town he can point you to some good places to eat and drink. We really like DC for a short break.

Thanks,
Sarah

Well I am off on Thursday and am staying 4 nights....have been before but with an interest in politics and museums this length of stay suits me best!

If you really want a quick overview of DC then you could do a bus tour. OK, you miss out on the actual visiting of the places but we used to recon' the places and decided which ones we definitely wanted to visit. We used the Open Top Sightseeing company which is a hop on - hop off tour.

We were lucky that when we got on to the bus, the driver ran out of paper for his ticket machine. He told us to pay on the next bus we got on but we stayed on the bus and did a 'free' tour.[;)]

We had a 4 night stay and considering our earlier flight got canceled effective lost 1/2 day. We managed to fit in the Air and Space Museum, National Archives, Capitol Hill, Arlington, Georgetown, Washington v Pittsburgh hockey game, the Mall memorials and White House. Also went to Pentagon City for shopping.