It has been a while since my partner and I set off on a trip together, so we decided that the upcoming long weekend would be the perfect opportunity to go somewhere new. We both love places with interesting history and activities that we can both enjoy, so Washington DC seemed like the perfect destination for a few days.
FLIGHTS & TRANSPORTATION
I and my partner applied for a US visa, which was relatively straightforward for us as Canadian Permanent Residents. We booked United airlines but ended up flying with Air Canada Express to DC. The round trip tickets cost us around $1500 for both of us, which was a decent price.
The flight from Toronto to Ronald Reagan airport was about an hour and a few minutes long and to our surprise, the airport was only 15 minutes away from our Airbnb.
Getting around the city wasn’t difficult, we mostly walked around the city, but used Uber to get to places that were too far. Most trips cost us less than $30, except for our ride to George Town which was around $50 one way.
ACCOMMODATION
I’m an Airbnb girl all the way! I love exploring different spaces and how they are decorated, so when I heard about Sonder, I was super excited to try it out. The Aesthetic is minimal and has so much light in the space and the service was exceptional.
We booked a room for $1159.99 from Thursday to Monday morning, but when we got there, the air conditioning wasn’t working. Fortunately, we got a complimentary upgrade and some refund for the inconvenience. We also opted for early check in as our flights were getting in by noon and check in was for 4pm, it was an extra $35, but totally worth it in the end.
One thing about the location we picked was how close to all the places we wanted to visit, and only a 10-15 minute walk from the Navy Yard restaurants.
ACTIVITIES
Washington is breathtaking! The colours of the city were vivid and the history was captivating. My first stop on my history tour was the National Mall. Although there was so much to explore in the city, I was determined to see as much as I could in the limited time I had.
DAY 1
We kept it light and visited the Navy Yard where we had lunch at due south, the restaurant was close to the Potomac river and the restaurant had a nice casual ambiance.We ended up in a Nigeria club in Maryland on a Thursday night while catching up with a friend.
DAY 2
This was our first full day and we decided to hit the National Mall starting with the National Gallery Sculpture Garden. As someone with a love for dinosaurs and history we hit the museum of National History. After 3 hours of being there, we headed down to the Washington monument to see all the famous landmarks, which was a few more steps to world war 2 memorial and Lincoln memorial .
On our way back we took a tour to the White House but couldn’t get the best view as they had setup for the Easter hunt ! By the time we were done with all these locations we were well into 25000 steps easy!!
DAY 3
We wanted to see more amazing locations and started at Capitol Hill and on to the library of congress , the beauty about the library of congress was it had QR codes for audio recordings of the different part of the library and understanding of what we were looking at. between the Museum of African art and African American history I opted for African art.
A breathtaking experience to see African culture, creativity on display, again you could spend a full day there and it still wouldn’t be enough. After the museum we headed to the Jefferson memorial but were frankly too exhausted to walk to the Martin Luther king memorial.
DAY 4
We wanted to keep it light as this was our last full day here and headed down to the famous Georgetown to experience the famous cupcake and see the picturesque town. We stopped by the water front for a nice lunch before heading back to national mall to visit the museum of bible. This was the only time we had paid for anything, the entry fee was around $70 for two adults. We spent the rest of evening visiting friends and had an early night.
FOOD
Part of the reason I stay in Airbnb is to force myself to try new things, restaurants , street food anything other than hotel food ( not that there is anything wrong with it). We got to try some amazing spots in DC like Due South for some comfort food and Surveyors which has one of the best kale salads I’ve ever had.
Do you plan on visiting D.C soon and what activities do you have lined up?
