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I love going to Washington DC for a quick vacation with my family. From where I live, it’s a 3 hours drive (2.5 hours + traffic + rest stop). This past fall 2023, we packed in 3 museums and the zoo into 1.5 days. Here’s what how and why I planned to visit them. This was the first time in a while my kids were going to DC, so I wanted to show them the bigger museums – National Air and Space Museum and National Museum of Natural History. I made a list of their main items to search for like a scavenger hunt. We will be returning this spring for some more historic and culture museums, so look out for that post soon. We also went to the DC Zoo for the first time, where they have elephants (not at our local zoo) and pandas (who returned to China Dec 2023), and to the Spy Museum which was more for me than my kids, but many activities were interactive and kid-friendly, so they all had a good time, even the nap-rebelling, cranky 3yo.
We stayed at the Hyatt Place National Mall, where we enjoyed a nice free breakfast buffet in the morning. Hotel breakfast is half the vacation for my kids. The other half is staying in a hotel room. So pretty much they were already satisfied. But then we moved on to mommy’s agenda and walked to the first museum, which took about 15 minutes. On the way, we got some nice poses with the Washington Monument. Maybe next time we will get a little closer up.
Our itinerary was to do 3 museums on the first day, and then the zoo on the second day, and then drive home. The National Air and Space Museum required free timed tickets, which they were very strict with. We went there first and climbed into planes, read about the history of flight in the US, and watched a planetarium show in very comfortable, reclining seats. It seemed to be very interesting, but unfortunately, I missed most of it since I took a nap after having been up all night to finish a presentation that I gave at 8am. We ate a light lunch in the cafeteria on the lower level to prevent hangry-ness.
Then it was off to the National Museum of Natural History. Among our scavenger hunt items were the Hope Diamond (pictured above – a lot smaller than they thought, but then we discussed how hard it was to cut a diamond), the mammal skeletons, the giant hanging mega-toothed shark (pictured above), human origins exhibit, ancient Egypt hall, and Henry the African Bush Elephant displayed in the Rotunda. The kids had fun taking photos with the different skeletons, comparing their size with the different animals, and comparing some similar exhibits to what they saw at the British Museum only 3 months earlier.
My plan was for the 3yo to take a nap after lunch, but she didn’t, so she was a little cranky during our last excursion, the Spy Museum! The oldest kid and I had just read the City Spies series, stories about orphaned kids who were recruited onto a team of kid spies, so espionage techniques and adventures were fresh on our minds. The museum starts off with some instructions and a movie, and then we sent off to get our badges and secret identities as we embark on a mission. Each rooms had an interactive screen activity that also taught about spy tips while trying to escape from villains in an effort to deliver a secret message. The kids had a fun time trying out the different decoders and crawling through some small spaces, distracting even the definitely-not-tired-3-year-old. The museum is very close to our hotel, so we grabbed some sandwiches to go on the way back and ate while we watched a movie.
The next morning, we drove out to the DC National Zoo, which required a paid parking pass reservation for the car. I recommend buying this. But the entrance to the zoo itself, like most of the other Smithsonian attractions, is free. We enjoyed the playful elephants, roly poly Pandas, and many small mammals and reptiles. We also heard the tiger roar and saw some resting lions. After the zoo, we headed back home, the kids napping for most of the drive snuggled into their eye masks and neck pillows.
We look forward to returning in the spring to visit the African American museum, the National Museum of Asian Art, and the National Museum of the American Indian (and going to an indoor water park first on the way there). Let me know what you love about DC for kids! Let’s connect on Instagram @ betamomma.