I'm going to tell you about six places where you can see cherry blossoms if you visit Washington DC in March or April.
Hello! Welcome to Trip Hacks DC, my name is Rob.
I'm a tour guide here in the nation's capital.
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And if you're interested in signing up for a Trip Hacks DC tour, head on over to www.triphacksdc.com
afterwards to see all of the tours that we offer. If you found this video because you're planning on visiting DC to see the cherry
blossoms and want some tips, make sure to check out the video description.
I have a cherry blossom playlist and an entire podcast on this topic.
Now, when you come during cherry blossom season, the most important thing to remember is that when they bloom depends on a
complex set of weather variables. Some years they reach peak bloom in March and other years not until later in April.
However, there are actually a lot of different varieties of cherry trees in Washington DC. Some are early bloomers and some are later bloomers.
So even if you don't see them at their peak, as long as you're here when some of them are in bloom you're in for
a great time. If you have been to DC during cherry blossom season before and have your own
personal favorite places to see the blossoms, leave a comment on this video and let everyone know where that is.
Otherwise, let's get started... 1. the Tidal Basin.
You can't have a list of places to see the cherry blossoms in DC without including the Tidal Basin.
This is where the world-famous Washington DC cherry blossoms are located. In addition to the Jefferson,
FDR, and Martin Luther King jr. Memorials, there's actually a really cool spot called the Japanese Lantern. It's a stone lantern
that's over 400 years old - way older than the city itself. It actually has a twin in Tokyo
so if you're a world traveler
you can see the one here and then go try to find the one there. Now in general the Tidal
Basin is by far the most crowded place to see the blossoms. As a tour guide who spends a lot of time in the area
I can tell you that it does get very crowded.
That doesn't mean you shouldn't go, it just means it should be something you're aware of. If you can get down to the Tidal Basin
early, and I'm talking early, like on sunrise, you can beat some of the biggest crowds.
2. East Potomac Park. This is my personal favorite place to see the cherry blossoms.
I liked it so much that I posted an entire video showing you my favorite bike ride around this park.
It's the big park located to the south and east of the tidal basin.
I like this area because it has such a huge concentration of cherry trees and it's like no matter which direction you're looking
there's always a huge explosion of beautiful flowers.
3. The Washington Monument. The grounds of the Washington Monument are actually a great place to see cherry blossoms
it just often gets overshadowed by the Tidal Basin.
There are a few different concentrations of trees near the monument. One is near the lodge on the east side.
Another is a patch of trees north of the monument and in-between the White House.
The Washington Monument is also where they have the annual cherry blossom kite festival - one of my favorite yearly events
which I highly recommend if you're in town. 4. the National Arboretum.
This is a fairly off-the-beaten-path place
but if you go you will be
rewarded with much smaller crowds than on the Tidal Basin. In episode 3 of the Trip Hacks DC podcast
my guest Eric described the Arboretum as a "Museum of Trees"
so of course it's going to be an excellent place to go during cherry season. Now
it's not really Metro accessible, so to get there you'll have to take a taxi or an Uber. A bonus hack
is that the trees and the Arboretum tend to peak at a little bit different time than the ones on the Tidal Basin
so if you're too early or too late for those you might have better luck up here.
5. The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.
This is the largest Roman Catholic Church in the entire country and one of the largest in the entire world.
There are cherry trees on the grounds of the Basilica so you can get a lot of really cool photos with trees in the foreground
and the beautiful architecture of the church in the background.
It is located in the Brookland neighborhood, a historically very Catholic neighborhood several miles away from the Tidal Basin.
It's very easy to get to on the Metro and far enough away from the National Mall that you won't have those huge crowds.
6. Anywhere! I know this seems like kind of a cop-out but the truth is there are cherry blossoms all over the city and the suburbs.
In fact before the cherry trees came to Washington DC a scientist for the US Agriculture Department planted them at his home in
Maryland to test to see if they would grow here. In episode 2 of the Trip Hacks DC podcast my guest
Nicole actually said that her favorite place to see cherry trees is a neighborhood called Kenwood in Maryland. When you're here
you might just be walking down a street and come across a beautiful grove of cherry trees, and honestly
sometimes those are the best ones because you weren't expecting them. And that's it!
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