Our 3-Day Washington DC Family Itinerary: What We Loved, What We'd Skip & How We Used Points
Night Time Monument ecart Tour
The Gist: Our 3-Day Washington D.C. Itinerary at a Glance
Here's the short version of how we spent our three days in Washington, D.C. with our 10- and 14-year-old:
Transportation: We drove from North Carolina. While there, we used rideshare
Hotel: Intercontinental D.C. Warf
Day 1: Arrive + InterContinental Wharf pool → Anniversary dinner at Old Ebbitt Grill → nighttime monument tour
Day 2: Spy Museum → lunch and downtime at the hotel → Georgetown shopping → dinner at Il Canale
Day 3: U.S. Capitol tour → Air & Space Museum → National Archives → National Museum of African American History & Culture → dinner at Pink Tiger → rooftop pool + evening at the Wharf
What we'd change: On our next trip, we'd plan one major museum or attraction each morning and leave the afternoons for relaxing, shopping, exploring neighborhoods or seeing monuments. Three museums in one afternoon was simply too much!
Our Trip:
We took a quick three-night trip to Washington, D.C. in the third week of August with our two girls, ages 10 and 14, and we really loved it.
This was actually Jeff and the girls' first trip to D.C., so I wanted to make sure we hit some of the big sights…but I also didn't want to spend three straight days dragging everyone from museum to museum.
And even with that intention, I still think we tried to do a bit too much one day (for us anyway…we like an easy pace). I think it is easy to do in D.C. with so much to do and much of it free.
But we learned a lot, and now we have a much better idea of how we'd plan our next visit: pick one major museum for the morning, then leave the afternoon for relaxing, shopping, exploring a neighborhood, or seeing a monument.
Here's exactly what we did, what we loved, what we'd skip, and how we used points, credits and perks to make the trip more affordable…and a little more bougie than we would have otherwise.
Where We Stayed: InterContinental Washington D.C. The Wharf
Intercontinental D.C. Warf Lobby
We stayed three nights at the InterContinental Washington D.C. The Wharf, and we really loved it.
The cash price for our three-night stay was about $1,498, but we were able to use a combination of points and credits to bring our out-of-pocket cost way down.
I used my second player's Chase Sapphire Reserve EDIT credit and IHG credit, along with 55,000 IHG points through the Points & Cash option and some leftover travel credit. Our total out-of-pocket cost when we reserved the hotel was around $90 total for the three nights in a two queen standard room.
We also have IHG Platinum Elite status through our Chase Sapphire Reserve cards, so two days before our trip I emailed the hotel. I let them know that it was our wedding anniversary, that it was Jeff and the girls' first trip to D.C., and mentioned our IHG status.
It worked out beautifully and is a great example of how travel hacking allowed us to stay at a nicer hotel than we would have otherwise and we experienced some upgrades.
We were upgraded to a premium two-queen room with a large balcony overlooking the water,and the hotel surprised us with a bottle of wine and a really nice cheese plate for our anniversary.
The service was friendly, the hotel itself is beautiful, and the beds were comfy.
But my favorite part?
The rooftop pool.
You can see the Washington Monument and Jefferson Memorial from the pool, and we really enjoyed spending time up there. The view of the Potomac was beautiful and you could enjoy from IN the pool too. The girls loved having a pool at the hotel, and I loved having an easy way to build some downtime into our trip.
We were also given two complimentary drink tickets when we arrived, which was an unexpected bonus. We enjoyed an Aperol spritz and a beer poolside.
Intercontinental D.C. Warf Roof Top Pool
We really liked the Wharf
I wasn't sure how I'd feel about staying at the Wharf since it isn't within easy walking distance of all of the major D.C. museums and monuments, but we ended up really liking it.
The Wharf has a great energy at night, and there are restaurants, shops and places to walk right outside the hotel.
If you can get a room with a water view, I think that's a definite bonus.
And we didn't mind ridesharing to the places we wanted to visit. We used Lyft to get to and from Georgetown, the Capitol and the museums, and that worked perfectly well for us…and with our travel credit cards we had a lot of rideshare credits to use.
One hotel lesson learned
We did run into some issues getting our $100 EDIT hotel credit applied correctly, along with a couple of other charges. The manager assured us he'd take care of everything, but we had to follow up a couple of times, but after about two weeks, all was fixed.
So my lesson learned?
If there's an issue with a hotel credit or charge, get it resolved before you leave…even if the manager tells you they'll take care of it.
Day 1: Pool Time, Anniversary Dinner & D.C. at Night
We arrived at the hotel around 2:30 p.m. and were able to check in early thanks to our status.
Instead of immediately rushing out to start sightseeing, we changed into swimsuits and headed to the rooftop pool.
This ended up being the perfect way to start the trip.
We had our complimentary drinks poolside, enjoyed the views and relaxed for a couple of hours before getting ready for dinner.
Dinner at Old Ebbitt Grill
That evening we had a reservation at Old Ebbitt Grill, and since it was our anniversary, we decided to go all out.
This was also our first time using our two Chase Sapphire Reserve dining credits, which was particularly fun because we don't have any restaurants in ourcity where we can use that benefit.
When the check came, we both clunked down our CSR credit cards $150 CSR credits toward the meal, asked our server to split the bill down the middle, and after tip we each paid less than $10 out of pocket.
I have to admit it felt really good!
We all agreed that the drinks, food and service were fantastic, and it felt like a really fun way to kick off the trip.
Seeing D.C. at night
After dinner, we headed out for an 8:30 p.m. nighttime e-cart monument tour that we booked through Viator. We also booked while Rakuten was offering an elevated points/cash-back multiplier…I believe it was around 12%, so while we couldn’t cover the cost of this trip in points, we earned some booking it!
We lovedthis.
It was such a fun way to see D.C., especially because it was our first night and we weren't trying to figure out where everything was ourselves.
And seeing the monuments lit up at night was beautiful. It also wasn’t as hot in the evening and the breeze from the ecart felt really good!
I also loved that we could sit back and let someone else do the navigating after dinner.
It was a late night, but it was a great start to the trip. I would highly recommend this to someone wanting to see the monuments and then decide where you want to go back and spend more time.
Temporary National Military Monument in Washington D. C.
Day 2: Spy Museum + Georgetown
Because we knew we'd be getting back late the night before, we deliberately didn't schedule an early morning activity.
Instead, we bought 10:00 a.m. timed-entry tickets to the International Spy Museum. The Spy Museum does cost money to get in and they do recommend buying tickets in advance.
It was an easy walk from the hotel, which was another nice thing about staying at the Wharf.
The Spy Museum was the kids' favorite
We spent three hours at the Spy Museum, and while we did not see everything (you just can’t) we saw A LOT in that time.
It was the highlight of the trip for the girls and something all four of us really enjoyed. They make touring the museum an experience and the girls loved that they got to DO something throughout the visit.
If you're visiting D.C. with tweens or teens, I would absolutely put this one on the list.
Afterward, we grabbed lunch back at the hotel. We had packed a cooler for the trip, and the hotel brought us up a refrigerator for the room, which made having easy lunches and snacks really convenient.
We rested for a while in the afternoon before heading back out.
Georgetown
That afternoon we took a Lyft to Georgetown for some shopping and exploring.
This was another place where I'm glad we didn't try to fill every minute of the day with sightseeing. The girls enjoyed shopping (especially the H&M, it was huge!) and it gave us a completely different feel from the museums and monuments.
I loved the quaint feel of Georgetown. The cobblestone streets and unique store fronts were really cool to see. There are a lot of big chain stores but there are also some cool consignment stores that we enjoyed exploring.
For dinner, we had a reservation at Il Canale and had a lovely pizza meal outside.
After a full morning at the Spy Museum, a relaxed afternoon of shopping and an outdoor dinner felt like exactly the right pace.
Day 3: The Capitol & Three Museums (Maybe Too Many!)
Our third day is where I learned my biggest D.C. lesson.
Touring the Capital is free, but you likely want to reserve your ticketed entry in advance, especially at peak times and especially if you want to go in the first part of the day.
We had a 10:20 a.m. Capitol tour booked and were told to arrive an hour early.
Because crowds were apparently very low that week, we breezed through security and were actually able to join the 9:30 tour instead.
The U.S. Capitol
The United States Capitol tour was excellent.
It lasted about an hour, although the actual tour portion was closer to 45 minutes after a 13-minute introductory video.
You have a live guide, but everyone wears a headset, so you can hear the guide really well.
Our guide was excellent, and we all really enjoyed the tour. I had no idea how pretty our Capital Building is.
And even though we were told the crowds were low…there were still a lot of people there. It was impressive to see how efficiently and effectively everything was managed to create a great experience for everyone.
Capital Tour - You have a live tour guide but you have a headset so you can hear the tour guide well.
National Air and Space Museum
From the capital we walked to the National Air and Space Museum. If you look at a map, the museums essentially line the part of the mall between the Capital and the Washington Monument, so you can go from one to the other pretty easily (but it is a good bit of walking).
I'm going to be honest: we were a little underwhelmedwith the National Air and Space Museum.
Maybe that's partly because we're spoiled by some really great museums in Greensboro that have some similar experiences or because of the ages of our kids, but it wasn’t as interesting to us as we expected it to be.
That said, seeing the original Wright brothers' airplane from Kitty Hawk was very cool, especially knowing we're from North Carolina.
We grabbed a very casual lunch from a kiosk outside the museum, sandwiches, pizza, soda and a beer, and then continued on.
National Archives
Next up was the National Archives Museum.
This one was much more interesting to us.
There's something really cool about standing in front of the original documents that you've read about in history books.
We knew exactly what we wanted to see (constitution, declaration of independence etc) but also discovered some other really cool documents and learned some new things too. I really think you could dedicate a morning to this museum.
National Museum of African American History and Culture
And then we went to the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
While this museum is free, you do need a timed entry ticket. We noticed all day that there were plenty of times available so we assumed we could just show up and they would let us in, but we still had to reserve a time and fill everything out. So go ahead and do that prior to arrival. We were still let in no issue fortunately, but it did require us to stand their in the heat and take care of reserving the tickets.
This was, without a doubt, my favorite museum of the trip.
And this is where our ambitious museum schedule caught up with us.
We started at the bottom and made it through two floors, but we barely scratched the surface. We could have spent an entire day here.
There was so much to see and experience that I found myself wishing we'd given it the time it deserved.
Which leads me to my biggest takeaway from the trip:
Don't try to do three museums in one day.
At least not if you actually want to experience them.
If I had it all to do again, I would have kept the capital tour but then would have picked one museum, for example, the National Museum of African American History and Culture. And then spent the rest of the morning there. Had lunch at the museum (at this one in particular we have heard the lunch is excellent) and then maybe done a little more of the museum and then headed back to the hotel and enjoyed a different experience in the late afternoon/evening.
An early dinner & the perfect ending
After our museum marathon, we headed back to the hotel to take a minute to cool off and decide what we wanted to do for dinner, then back out to the Wharf for an early dinner at Pink Tiger.
First of all, the decor is beautiful.
The food was good, and the girls had fun trying different things. We'd definitely go back.
Then we did something that felt absolutely perfect after a long day of sightseeing:
We went swimming.
We enjoyed another evening swim at the rooftop pool before heading back out to walk around the Wharf at night.
The Wharf has such a great energy in the evening. There were people out walking around, bistro lights, restaurants buzzing, it was nice.
And, of course, we needed dessert.
Evie got a crepe with Nutella and strawberries, while the rest of us shared chimney cake with ice cream.
It was a pretty perfect way to end our last night in D.C.
Chimney cake with ice cream!
Day 4: A Slow Morning & Travel To Easton, MD
We didn't schedule anything for our departure morning.
We slept in, took our time, had breakfast at the hotel and then packed up and headed out.
We were driving to Easton, Maryland, to spend the weekend with friends, so there was no need to squeeze in one last attraction.
And I was actually really glad we didn't.
After three busy days, a slow morning felt like the right ending.
What We Loved…and What We'd Change
Overall, we really loved this trip.
But if I were planning the same three days again, I would make one major change:
I'd slow down.
Our original itinerary looked manageable on paper, but D.C. museums aren't really “pop in for an hour and check it off the list” attractions.
Next time, I'd plan:
Morning: One major museum or attraction
Afternoon: Relax, shop, explore a neighborhood or see a monument
Evening: Dinner + something fun
Our Spy Museum day we did this and it was perfect. When we go back, we will go to the Holocaust museum and the African American museum again and plan it this way.
That would give us enough time to actually experience the museums instead of feeling like we were racing through them.
Our family favorites
Night Time ecart monument tour was definitely a favorite
If I had to narrow down the trip, these were our winners:
Spy Museum – The kids' favorite and a hit with all four of us.
Nighttime monument tour – A fun and easy way to see the city on our first night.
National Museum of African American History and Culture – My favorite and the place I'd most want to return to with more time.
Rooftop pool at the InterContinental – Not technically a D.C. attraction, but absolutely part of what made the trip enjoyable.
Old Ebbitt Grill – Great food and service, cool old pub atmosphere, made even better by our CSR dining credits…but we would eat here again without them. I also have a friend who says that their brunch is AMAZING. So we may try that next time after a morning at a museum.
Our D.C. Points & Miles Wins
This trip was a good reminder that the best points trips aren't always about getting completely free travel. Sometimes it's about stacking the benefits you already have.
Here's what we used:
Chase Sapphire Reserve EDIT credit toward the hotel
One time IHG hotel credit with Chase Sapphire Reserve
55,000 Chase Ultimate reward points used in the portal with our other credits
$100 hotel credit to use at EDIT properties
Free breakfast for two daily EDIT benefit
Two CSR dining credits at Old Ebbitt Grill
Lyft credits from both CSR cards
Bilt card for additional rideshare expenses
Uber gift cards purchased using an Amex Business Gold office-supply benefit at Staples
Rakuten elevated rewards on our Viator booking
The hotel breakfast was perfectly fine, and the portions were generous. The $40-per-adult daily credit covered our breakfast and coffee, and after using the $100 hotel credit toward the girls' meals, we ended up paying roughly $50 total for the girls' breakfasts over the three mornings.
Would we have paid for the hotel breakfast out of pocket?
Probably not.
But was it convenient to walk downstairs, eat breakfast and get on with our day without finding a restaurant every morning?
Absolutely.
The actual benefit between the free breakfast credits and the $100 credit we applied towards the girls breakfasts total $340 in credits, but we would value this at around $240 in benefit because knowing us, we would have wanted to try the breakfast at the hotel one morning but would have picked up food from Starbucks around the corner the other two mornings.
A Few Practical Tips for a D.C. Family Trip
If you're driving, think about parking before you arrive. We valet parked for $75/day, while self-parking was $65/day. We never touched our car during the entire stay, so there was absolutely no reason for us to valet. We simply didn't think about it.
Don't make our mistake.
Don't be afraid to rideshare.We didn't mind at all that the Wharf isn't walking distance to all of the major museums. We rideshared to and from Georgetown, the Capitol and the museums, and it worked well for our family.
The metro is also very easy to use in D. C. We did not use it this time do to ease of rideshare and credits we had, but metro can also be a great option.
Make reservations/timed entries ahead of time.We had reservations for Old Ebbitt Grill, Il Canale and the nighttime monument tour, and timed entry for the Spy Museum. Having those pieces planned made the trip much easier.
Pick your museums carefully.If you only have three days, don't feel like you need to see every Smithsonian.
Pick the ones that interest your family most.
And give them enough time to actually enjoy them.
Consider the season.We visited in the third week of August and were told crowds were lower than earlier in the summer. Public schools in our area hadn't started yet, while private schools had already gone back, so we may have hit a bit of a sweet spot.
Would We Do It Again?
Absolutely.
And I think that's the biggest sign of a successful family trip.
We saw some incredible things, discovered that the Spy Museum is a huge hit with our girls, celebrated our anniversary, spent time relaxing at a beautiful hotel, ate some great food and got a taste of D.C. without trying to turn the trip into a giant checklist.
Next time, though?
I'm picking one museum a day.
And I'd rather leave D.C. wishing we'd had time to see one more thing than wishing we'd slowed down and actually enjoyed the things we were already seeing.
