what's going on everybody this is Island Hopper TV and today we are
going to do the things to know about visiting Washington DC let's do it
let's talk about the experience in and of itself that means what are you going to wear
and what is it going to be like with the weather so first and foremost the summertime
is brutal hot humid that means june july august even a little bit of september a
little bit of may but here i am in the spring absolutely beautiful time to visit dc is during
the spring especially with all the walking that you're going to do now in the winter in december
january february it does get bone chilling cold here so do keep that in mind now it doesn't get
extremely cold like it does in the far north but do keep that in mind when you're trying to visit
this part of the country so when it comes to the attire we'll talk about that a little later on
when planning to come to washington dc set aside almost up to a week or more because
there are so many different museums that you should probably take a look at including all
of the smithsonian museums the american history museum the natural history museum
there's a lot of museums all across dc that you want to take in that doesn't even include the
national mall mount vernon which is about 30 miles south of here 30 minutes south of washington dc
arlington the pentagon area the virginia side the maryland side so a week in dc but at least
four days you can do it all in 24 hours though but you won't see the full experience so things
to know about the clothes when you come out here washington dc in the morning it can be cold and
brisk and you feel like you need a sweater and pants and then by the time it's one o'clock in
the afternoon you're like you want shorts on and you want a short sleeve shirt but definitely
bring walking shoes because there's a lot of walking you're going to do when you're out here
all right guys the thing to know about washington dc the way it's set up on a grid and in the
pattern that it's set up on it's set up diagonally named after states and the reason they set it up
that way was to be in a uh geometric pattern that they found to be uh the best and so what you have
in the middle is the washington monument and then towards the north you have the white house towards
the south you have the jefferson memorial and then towards the east you have the u.s capitol
and then to the west you have the lincoln memorial and so that is very interesting
how they set up that pattern some would say that it was set up that way by the masons
all right guys one of the things i wanted to say about the structures and the memorials the
monuments out here they're actually made out of real stone granite marble if you take a look here
this is not plastic this is not rubber this is not synthetic this is real so good craftsmanship
out here in dc at all these monuments did you know this right here is where martin luther king
jr gave his speech about the i have a dream right here at the lincoln memorial
and when you come down here to the national mall in particular you're going to discover
that there's not going to be any restaurants around you within the whole area so you're
going to have concession stands like this one that says refreshments but they're going to
have these little mobile concession stands on the side of the road occasionally where
you can buy water a hot dog burgers but do bring some sort of snacks or something
but don't expect to eat a meal while you're in the national mall area of washington dc
yeah so here we are we're buying a ticket it's thirteen dollars for one day
plus two dollars for the card and here's the actual
smart trip card that you get they do take cash and card right here on this machine
so here's something to know about washington dc that a lot of people won't tell you
in fact they'll tell you the opposite what i'm about to tell you people in washington dc
are friendly they've all been friendly to me now it could be that we're here during a beautiful
time of year being spring and i don't know how it is if i come here in january when it's a blizzard
but from my experience the people of washington dc whether they be locals or people just here
short term or visitors i've had great encounters with everyone here in washington d.c i would say
it is a friendly city so don't believe everything here about oh the people back east the people in
dc the people up north they're not so happy so far from what i can tell very happy people
all right here's something to know there is more to dc than just the downtown
area of the national mall and you could take a water taxi across the potomac to go to
national harbor which is where i'm at right now you can go over from here to the actual alexandria
uh wharf and you can take this up to the georgetown area so the water taxi
will take you all over there and then to the wharf in downtown dc
so getting around there's many different places to explore alexandria national national harbor
which is where i'm at now the national mall downtown and georgetown so do get around
here's another thing to know about washington dc it's really close to baltimore annapolis
and some other cities that are worth checking out around maryland even if you go a little bit
further south into virginia you go into mount vernon where george washington's house was
right here you could see this is baltimore it's about a 40-minute train ride about
40-minute car ride from washington dc to get here to baltimore this here is inner harbor uh people
come up from washington dc to try out some really good seafood come straight out of the chesapeake
bay because baltimore is known for that so uh when you're coming up to washington dc don't be afraid
to get out there and go 40 minutes north to baltimore or 40 minutes to the east to annapolis
all right here's something that you're going to want to know about washington dc there's three
airports so be airport savvy the one that arrives directly into dc right there on the potomac ronald
reagan airport that's the one that's centrally located if you can get a flight in there that's
probably best the one to the west of washington dc is called dulles it's a big airport that's
washington's main big airport then north of there in between baltimore you have baltimore washington
international airport where the third good marshall station is so knowing the three airports
of how to get into washington dc can be really useful i do recommend uh either dulles or ronald
reagan but if you want to see baltimore go ahead and hit up baltimore washington international
all right guys that's going to conclude this episode from washington dc so when you guys
come out here take advantage of the free tours take advantage of all of the history that you
can explore here that you're not going to get anywhere in the united states and enjoy
the environment it is a very beautiful green city and it's modernizing lots of construction lots of
development taking place here i would say it's one of the fastest growing modern cities in america
and remember it is sibling cities of baltimore annapolis which are very powerful cities in the
united states dynamic so watch some of these other videos and we'll see you on the next one
you