On Foot
A Tour de Force (tel. 703/525-2948; www.atourdeforce.com) is historian and raconteur Jeanne Fogel's 25-year-old company. She offers various modes of transport, from walking to bus, SUV, and limo tours. Fogel custom designs the route around the city per your request and size of group, from a romantic tour for a couple to a traditional sightseeing excursion for a convention crowd. Fogel (or her stand-in) peppers her narration with little-known anecdotes and facts about neighborhoods, historic figures, and the most visited sites. Call for rates.
Spies of Washington Walking Tours (tel. 703/569-1875; www.spiesofwashingtontour.com) offers four walking tours that focus on espionage-related sites in Georgetown and around the White House, Pennsylvania Avenue, Capitol Hill, and the Russian Embassy areas. Carol Bessette, a retired Air Force intelligence officer, conducts the tours, which cost $12 per person. Private tours and bus tours are also available.
Anecdotal History Tours of Washington, D.C. (tel. 301/294-9514; www.dcsightseeing.com) offers 2-hour walks through the streets of Georgetown, Adams-Morgan, and other locations guided by author/historian Anthony S. Pitch. Inquire about private tours. Rates are $15 per person.
Segway Tours (tel. 877/SEG-TOUR; www.citysegwaytours.com/washington) are available March through November. Though technically they are "on foot," Segways are self-propelling scooters that operate based on "dynamic stabilization" technology, which uses your body movements. Tours last 4 hours, cost $70 per person, and include training; age 16 and up.
By BusTourmobile -- Best-known and least expensive, Tourmobile Sightseeing (tel. 888/868-7707 or 202/554-5100; www.tourmobile.com) is a good choice if you're looking for an easy-on/easy-off tour of major sites, especially since security concerns have made the already limited parking nearly nonexistent. The comfortable red, white, and blue sightseeing trams travel to as many as 24 attractions (the company changes its schedule and number of stops depending on whether sites are open for public tours), including Arlington National Cemetery. Tourmobile is the only narrated sightseeing shuttle tour authorized by the National Park Service.
The company offers a number of different tours, but the most popular is the American Heritage Tour, which stops at 21 sites on or near the National Mall and at 3 sites in Arlington Cemetery. (Again, the number of stops may be fewer than 21, if regularly scheduled stops are not open for public tours due to increased security.) Normally, stops include the memorials and Washington Monument, Union Station, the National Gallery, most of the Smithsonian museums (National Air and Space, National Museum of Natural History, and the Arts and Industries Building/Hirshhorn Museum), the Capitol, the White House Visitor Center, and several other locations. In Arlington Cemetery, the bus stops at the Kennedy grave sites, the Tomb of the Unknowns, and Arlington House.
You can purchase tickets at the Union Station and Washington Monument booths, or inside the Arlington National Cemetery Visitor Center, or, for a small surcharge, order your ticket in advance from Ticketmaster at tel. 800/551-7328 or www.ticketmaster.com. Or if you'd prefer, just pay your driver when you first get on the bus. Hop on a Tourmobile at any of the designated locations, then get off at any stop to visit monuments or buildings. When you finish exploring each area, just show your ticket and climb aboard the next Tourmobile that comes along. The buses travel in a loop, serving each stop about every 15 to 30 minutes. One fare allows you to use the buses all day. The charge for the American Heritage Tour is $27 for anyone 12 and older, $13 for children 3 to 11. For Arlington Cemetery only, those 12 and older pay $7.50, children $3.75. Children 2 and under ride free. Buses follow circuits from the Capitol to Arlington Cemetery and back. Well-trained and personable narrators give commentaries about sights along the route and answer questions.
The trams are heated in winter, but they're not air-conditioned in summer; and though the windows stay open, they can get hot and uncomfortable. Readers also report that Tourmobiles, being the largest trams, take a long time to load and unload passengers, which can be frustrating to those anxious to see the sights.
Tourmobiles operate 9:30am to 4:30pm, daily year-round, except Christmas. (In the busy tourist season, Tourmobile sometimes extends its hours.) Call Tourmobile or visit the website for further information about other tours and their rates.
Old Town Trolley -- Old Town Trolley tours (tel. 202/832-9800; www.historictours.com) offer fixed-price, on-off service as you travel in three loops around the city, with a transfer point at the Lincoln Memorial stop to go on to Arlington Cemetery and a second transfer point at Ford's Theatre to get to Georgetown and to Washington National Cathedral. Many hotels sell tickets; otherwise, you can purchase tickets online or at the Old Town Trolley Tour booths at Union Station, the D.C. Visitor Center in the Ronald Reagan Building, and many other places around town. Buses operate daily from 9am to 4:30pm, extended to 5:30pm in summer. The cost is $32 for adults, $16 for children 4 to 12, free for children 3 and under. You can buy tickets online in advance and at a discount, and use those e-tickets to board at any of the stops on the route. The full tour, which is narrated, takes 2 hours (if you don't get off and tour the sites, obviously), and trolleys come by every 30 minutes or so. Old Town Trolley tours cost more than Tourmobile tours, perhaps because the buses travel to neighborhoods and attractions away from the Mall.
By Boat
Since Washington is a river city, why not see it by boat? Potomac cruises allow sweeping vistas of the monuments and memorials, Georgetown, the Kennedy Center, and other Washington sights. Read the information below carefully, since not all boat cruises offer guided tours. Some of the following boats leave from the Washington waterfront and some from Old Town Alexandria:
Spirit of Washington Cruises, Pier 4 at 6th and Water streets SW (tel. 866/302-2469 or 202/554-8000; www.spiritcruises.com; Metro: Waterfront), offers a variety of trips daily, including evening dinner, lunch, brunch, and moonlight dance cruises, as well as a half-day excursion to Mount Vernon and back. Lunch and dinner cruises include a 40-minute musical revue.
The Spirit of Washington is a luxury climate-controlled harbor cruise ship with carpeted decks and huge panoramic windows designed for sightseeing. There are three well-stocked bars onboard.
Potomac Party Cruises (tel. 703/683-6076; www.dandydinnerboat.com) operates the Dandy and Nina's Dandy, both climate-controlled, all-weather, glassed-in floating restaurants that run year-round. Lunch, evening dinner/dance, and special charter cruises are available daily. You board both vessels in Old Town Alexandria, at the Prince Street pier, between Duke and King streets. Trips range from a 2 1/2-hour weekday lunch cruise to a 3-hour Saturday dinner cruise.
Odyssey (tel. 866/306-2469; www.odysseycruises.com) was designed specifically to glide under the bridges that cross the Potomac. The boat looks like a glass bullet, with its snub-nosed port and its streamlined 240-foot-long glass body. The wraparound see-through walls and ceiling allow for great views. You board the Odyssey at the Gangplank Marina, on Washington's waterfront at 6th and Water streets SW (Metro: Waterfront). Cruises available include lunch, Sunday brunch, and dinner excursions, with live entertainment provided during each cruise.
The Potomac Riverboat Company (tel. 877/511-2628 or 703/684-0580; www.potomacriverboatco.com) offers three narrated tours April through October. The Matthew Hayes and the Miss Mallor have a 90-minute round-trip tour past Washington monuments and memorials; the Admiral Tilp is on an 80-minute round-trip tour of Old Town Alexandria's waterfront; and the Miss Christin cruises to Mount Vernon, where you hop off and reboard after you've toured the estate. You board the boats at the pier behind the Torpedo Factory in Old Town Alexandria at the foot of King Street, or, for the Washington monuments and memorials tour, Georgetown's Washington Harbour. A concession stand selling light refreshments and beverages is open during the cruises.
The Capitol River Cruise's Nightingales (tel. 800/405-5511 or 301/460-7447; www.capitolrivercruises.com) are historic 65-foot steel riverboats that can accommodate 90 people. The Nightingales' narrated jaunts depart Georgetown's Washington Harbour every hour on the hour, from noon to 9pm, April through October (the 9pm outing is offered in summer months only). The 45-minute narrated tour travels past the monuments and memorials to National Airport and back. A snack bar onboard sells light refreshments, beer, wine, and sodas; you're welcome to bring your own picnic aboard. To get here, take Metro to Foggy Bottom and then walk into Georgetown, following Pennsylvania Avenue, which becomes M Street. Turn left on 31st Street NW and follow to the Washington Harbour complex on the water.
A Boat on Wheels -- Old Town Trolley also operates DC Ducks (tel. 202/832-9800; www.dcducks.com), which feature unique land and water tours of Washington aboard the DUKW, an amphibious army vehicle (boat with wheels) from World War II that accommodates 30 passengers. Ninety-minute guided tours aboard the open-air canopied craft include a land portion taking in major sights -- the Capitol, Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, White House, and Smithsonian museums -- and a 30-minute Potomac cruise. Purchase tickets inside Union Station at the information desk; board the vehicle just outside the main entrance to Union Station. Hours vary, but departures usually follow a daily 11am, 1pm, and 3pm schedule (Mar-Oct).
By BikeBike the Sites, Inc. (tel. 202/842-2453; www.bikethesites.com) offers a more active way to see Washington, in season, from March to November. The company has designed several different biking tours of the city, including the popular Capital Sites Ride, which takes you past museums, memorials, the White House, Capitol, and Supreme Court. The ride takes 3 hours, covers 7 to 8 miles, and costs $40 per adult, $30 per child 12 and under. Bike the Sites provides you with a comfort mountain bicycle fitted to your size, bike helmet, water bottle, light snack, and two guides to lead the ride. All tours start from the rear plaza, 12th Street NW side of the Old Post Office Pavilion, which is located at 1100 Pennsylvania Ave. NW (Metro: Federal Triangle, on the Blue and Orange Line). Guides impart historical and anecdotal information as you go. The company rents bikes to those who want to go their own, unnarrated way for $7 an hour ($15 minimum) or $45 a day, including helmet, bike, lock, and pump. It also customizes guided bike rides to suit your tour specifications.
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