Frommers Star Ratings System
Every hotel, restaurant, and attraction listed in this guide has been ranked for quality and value. Heres what the stars mean:
 | Recommended |
 | Highly Recommended |
 | A must! Don't miss! |
AN IMPORTANT NOTE
The world is a dynamic place. Hotels change ownership, restaurants hike their prices, museums alter their opening hours, and buses and trains change their routings. And all of this can occur in the several months after our authors have visited, inspected, and written about these hotels, restaurants, museums, and transportation services. Though we have made valiant efforts to keep all our information fresh and up-to-date, some few changes can inevitably occur in the periods before a revised edition of this guidebook is published. So please bear with us if a tiny number of the details in this book have changed. Please also note that we have no responsibility or liability for any inaccuracy or errors or omissions, or for inconvenience, loss, damage, or expenses suffered by anyone as a result of assertions in this guide.
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Sunset over the Capitol Building.
CONTENTS
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Washington Monument.
A Look at Washington, D.C.
F or many visitors, a trip to Washington, D.C., isnt just a vacation. Its a pilgrimage of sorts. Schoolchildren are bused in by the thousands and swarm the Mall in organized platoons, determined teachers feeding them facts about its importance. Veterans pay homage at memorials to fallen comrades. And ordinary citizens arrive in droves to be part of the most powerful city in the world, at least for a short time. Where else, after all, are decisions made that affect not only the lives of every American citizen, but also the lives of people across the planet? The city was designed, from its very inception, to be a worthy place for pilgrimage, with its monuments, broad avenues, and traffic circles (symbolic of the rays of the sun). But over the years, Washington has become even more multifaceted than the original planners could have envisioned. Its a highly cosmopolitan, multiracial, and wonderfully diverse city, thanks to its embassies (and their resident staff), large immigrant populations, and proud African-American community. What follows is just a sampling of the impressive sights youll see and adventures youll have in this engrossing capital.
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) on the National Mall their first stop, so they can pick up info about special events and exhibitions at other Smithsonian museums.
The Mall
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The National Mall stretches from the Lincoln Memorial () near its center.
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Artist Daniel Chester French's statue of Abraham Lincoln towers 19 feet inside the Lincoln Memorial.
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The Jefferson Memorial () is set in a rotunda like the one he designed for the University of Virginia.
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FDR's beloved dog Fala is included in the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial ().
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The curvilinear National Museum of the American Indian () was created by a team of celebrated Native-American architects and is meant to evoke forms found in nature.
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A National Parks ranger leads a guided tour of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial ().
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The Albert Einstein statue outside the National Academy of Sciences ().
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).
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The Apollo 11 command module at the National Air and Space Museum ().
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The Washington Capitals parade through downtown Washington, D.C., to celebrate their first NHL Stanley Cup championship.
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The 19th-century Clock of America, at the National Museum of American History, animates American history with folk motifs.
Northwest D.C.
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Le Diplomate restaurant in Logan Circle.
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Lively nightlife in Adams Morgan ().
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Statue of Irish patriot Robert Emmet near the Irish Embassy.
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A panda-cam watches the National Zoos () most beloved residents 24/7.
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