Berlitz Pocket Guide Washington D.C. (Travel Guide eBook)

By Berlitz Publishing

Washington, the seat of power in the US, is an all-American city. From its broad avenues, Southern climate and multiple parks and monuments, it's a city to visit all year round. Be inspired to visit this city that is central to American history with the brand new Berlitz Pocket Guide Washington, a concise, full-color guide to this bustling city that combines lively text with vivid photography to highlight the best that DC has to offer.

Inside Berlitz Pocket Guide Washington:

Where To Go takes you from The White House to Capitol Hill and north to Georgetown.
Top 10 Attractions gives a run-down of the best sights to take in on your trip, including the Lincoln Memorial, The White House and surrounds, decadent Union Station and the National Museum of American Art and the Portrait Gallery.
Perfect Day provides an itinerary for one day in the city.
What To Do is a snapshot of ways to spend your spare time, from shows to spectator sports and shopping, plus nightlife.
Essential information on Washington's culture, including a brief history.
Eating Out covers the city's best cuisine.
Curated listings of the best hotels and restaurants.
A-Z of all the practical information you'll need.

About Berlitz: Berlitz draws on years of travel and language expertise to bring you a wide range of travel and language products, including travel guides, maps, phrase books, language-learning courses, dictionaries and kids' language products.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Insight Guides
• Release date: Jun 2, 2016
• ISBN: 9781780049434

Book preview

How To Use This E-Book

Getting Around the e-Book

This Pocket Guide e-book is designed to give you inspiration and planning advice for your visit to Washington, DC, and is also the perfect on-the-ground companion for your trip.

The guide begins with our selection of Top 10 Attractions, plus a Perfect Itinerary feature to help you plan unmissable experiences. The Introduction and History chapters paint a vivid cultural portrait of Washington, DC, and the Where to Go chapter gives a complete guide to all the sights worth visiting. You will find ideas for activities in the What to Do section, while the Eating Out chapter describes the local cuisine and gives listings of the best restaurants. The Travel Tips offer practical information to help you plan your trip. Finally, there are carefully selected hotel listings.

In the Table of Contents and throughout this e-book you will see hyperlinked references. Just tap a hyperlink once to skip to the section you would like to read. Practical information and listings are also hyperlinked, so as long as you have an external connection to the internet, you can tap a link to go directly to the website for more information.

Maps

All key attractions and sights in Washington, DC are numbered and cross-referenced to high-quality maps. Wherever you see the reference [map], tap once to go straight to the related map. You can also double-tap any map for a zoom view.

Images

You’ll find lots of beautiful high-resolution images that capture the essence of Washington, DC. Simply double-tap an image to see it in full-screen.

About Berlitz Pocket Guides

The Berlitz story began in 1877 when Maximilian Berlitz devised his revolutionary method of language learning. More than 130 years later, Berlitz is a household name, famed not only for language schools but also as a provider of best-selling language and travel guides.

Our wide-ranging travel products – printed travel guides and phrase books, as well as apps and ebooks – offer all the information you need for a perfect trip, and are regularly updated by our team of expert local authors. Their practical emphasis means they are perfect for use on the ground. Wherever you’re going – whether it’s on a short break, the trip of a lifetime, a cruise or a business trip – we offer the ideal guide for your needs.

Our Berlitz Pocket Guides are the perfect choice if you need reliable, concise information in a handy format. We provide amazing value for money – these guides may be small, but they are packed with information. No wonder they have sold more than 45 million copies worldwide.

© 2016 Apa Digital (CH) AG and Apa Publications (UK) Ltd

Table of Contents

How To Use This E-Book

Washington, DC’s Top 10 Attractions

Top Attraction #1

Top Attraction #2

Top Attraction #3

Top Attraction #4

Top Attraction #5

Top Attraction #6

Top Attraction #7

Top Attraction #8

Top Attraction #9

Top Attraction #10

A Perfect Day in Washington, DC

Introduction

A Brief History

Choosing the Site

Thinking Big

The British Light a Fire

Civil War Capital

Growth, Depression, and a New Deal

Transformation

Historical Landmarks

Where To Go

The White House

Around the White House

The Mall

The Capitol

Supreme Court

Library of Congress

Federal Triangle

Around the Mall

Old Downtown

Union Station

South of the Mall

North of the White House

Georgetown

Further Northwest

Museums

Smithsonian Museums

Arts and Industries Building

Freer/Sackler Gallery of Art

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

National Air and Space Museum

Smithsonian American Art Museum and Portrait Gallery

National Museum of American History

National Museum of Natural History

National Museum of the American Indian

National Postal Museum

Museums of Asian and African Art

Renwick Gallery

Non-Smithsonian Museums

National Gallery of Art: West Building

National Gallery of Art: East Building

National Gallery of Art: Sculpture Garden

National Museum of Women in the Arts

Phillips Collection

Other Museum Highlights

Arlington

Excursions

Alexandria

Mount Vernon

National Arboretum

Monticello

Williamsburg

Annapolis

Baltimore

What To Do

Sports

Spectator Sports

Shopping

Where to Shop

What to Buy

Entertainment

Calendar of Events

Eating Out

What to Eat

Restaurants

Capitol Hill and Union Station

Downtown

Foggy Bottom & Georgetown

Adams Morgan & Dupont Circle

Alexandria

Baltimore

Charlottesville

Williamsburg

A–Z Travel Tips

A

Accommodations

Airports

B

Bicycle Rental

Budgeting for Your Trip

C

Car Rental

Children

Climate and Clothing

Communications

Crime and theft

D

Disabled Access

Driving

E

Electric Current

Embassies

Emergencies

G

Gay and Lesbian Travelers

Guides and Tours

H

Health and Medical Care

Hitchhiking

I

Internet

L

Language

Laundry and Dry-cleaning

Liquor (Alcohol) Regulations

Lost Property

M

Maps and Street Names

Money Matters

N

Newspapers and Magazines

O

Opening Hours

P

Photography and Video

Police

Public (Legal) Holidays

R

Radio and Television

Religious Services

S

Smoking

T

Times and Dates

Tipping

Toilets

Tourist Information Offices

Transport

Traveling to Washington, DC

V

Visas and Entry Requirements

W

Websites

Weights and Measures

Recommended Hotels

Capitol Hill and Union Station

Downtown

Foggy Bottom & Georgetown

Adams Morgan & Dupont Circle

Baltimore

Charlottesville

Williamsburg

Washington, DC’s Top 10 Attractions

Top Attraction #1

iStock

White House

Home to the President of the United States. For more information, click here.

Top Attraction #2

Nowitz Photography/Apa Publications

The United States Capitol

The seat of the U.S. Congress. For more information, click here.

Top Attraction #3

Getty Images

The National Gallery of Art

An excellent showcase for Western art from the Middle Ages to the present. For more information, click here.

Top Attraction #4

Getty Images

The Washington Cathedral

The sixth largest cathedral on earth, built in Neo Gothic style. For more information, click here.

Top Attraction #5

Nowitz Photography/Apa Publications

The Washington Monument

This white obelisk is a tribute to George Washington. For more information, click here.

Top Attraction #6

Nowitz Photography/Apa Publications

The National Museum of American History

A fun and fascinating collection. For more information, click here.

Top Attraction #7

iStock

The Zoo

One of the oldest zoos in the United States. For more information, click here.

Top Attraction #8

iStock

Arlington National Cemetery

The nation’s war heroes have been laid to rest here. For more information, click here.

Top Attraction #9

Nowitz Photography/Apa Publications

The John F. Kennedy Center

See a theater, dance or music performance at this modern center. For more information, click here.

Top Attraction #10

Nowitz Photography/Apa Publications

Mount Vernon

The plantation house of George Washington on the banks of the Potomac River. For more information, click here.

A Perfect Day in Washington, DC

9.00am

Breakfast

Enjoy an artisanal toast and crafted coffee at Slipstream (for more information, click here) or simply grab delicious coffee to go at Peregrine Espresso.

9.30am

First things first

Take a walk to the White House (advance reservations only – see online) to admire the magnificent state rooms and take photos. If you are not lucky enough to have a tour of the house, take a walk in the President’s Park and view it from the outside.

11.30am

Washington Monument

Cross Constitution Avenue and look up at the towering Washington Monument which at its 554 ft (169 meters) is the world’s tallest stone structure. Then walk to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum at Wallenberg Place.

12 noon

Holocaust museum

In this unusual museum you’ll step into another era, paying homage to the victims of the Holocaust. Then, as it’s already past lunchtime, stop for lunch at a local cafe.

2.00pm

The Mall

Stroll down the green Mall for 1.2 miles (1.8km), visiting some of the city’s best museums along the way, including the National Museum of Natural History, the National Museum of American History and the National Gallery of Art.

4.30pm

Capitol Hill

Walk to Capitol Hill to see the impressive seat of Congress with spectacular views of the entire Mall. For a break from sightseeing, take the metro to Union Station where retail stores abound.

5.30pm

Best buys

Enjoy your shopping spree and then settle down to relaxed dinner at one of restaurants at Union Station’s Food Mall. Then as night begins to fall, take a cab (15 minutes’ drive) over to the Lincoln Memorial.

9.00pm

City of light

At night, the grandly illuminated Lincoln Memorial is a sight to behold, as are the Jefferson and Roosevelt Memorials standing tall over the Tidal Basin nearby.

10.00pm

On the town

Hit the 9:30 Club (815 V St. NW), arguably the best live music venue in Washington. Alternatively, buy tickets for one of the shows at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Introduction

The City and Its People

Washington D.C., although not one of the 50 United States, is truly the all-American city. In the best sense of the word, the nation’s capital belongs to the people, who look upon it as half-shrine, half fun-fair, and as such it has long been one of the most popular family vacation spots in the country. No visitor should miss this uniquely American experience.

In climate and flavor Washington is Southern, for it lies south of the Mason-Dixon Line, the boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland that had traditionally separated the North from Dixie, the South. It was the first modern city built from scratch to be a national capital. In 1790 George Washington himself picked the spot for the Federal City that was to bear his name, and laid the cornerstone of the Capitol; but he died before Congress first met here, in 1800. Virginia and Maryland ceded parts of their state territory along the Potomac River for the site set aside as the District of Columbia