I'm going to tell you the nine most important things you need to know for your trip
so you don't make any rookie mistakes once you get here.
Hello! Welcome to Trip Hacks DC. My name is Rob.
I'm a tour guide here in the nation's capital.
If you're coming to Washington DC and you're looking for the best tips, tricks, and hacks for exploring the city, make sure to subscribe to
this channel and hit the bell notification icon so that you don't miss any new
videos. And if you're interested in signing up for a Trip Hacks DC tour, head on over to www.triphacksdc.com
afterwards, to see the tours that I offer. If you've been to Washington DC before and you have anything that you wish you knew before
you arrived, leave a comment on this video and let everyone know what it was,
otherwise, let's get started...
1. walk left, stand right. If you don't know what I'm talking about
then you need to click over and watch my "Do's and Don'ts for Riding Metro" video afterwards.
I'm going to leave a link to that and all of the resources that I'm mentioning in this video down in the description.
The most important unwritten rule when you're riding on Metro is that you never, ever,
stand on the left side of an escalator. People walk on the left and stand on the right.
There's pretty much nothing that infuriates locals more than tourists who come to town and don't know about this rule,
but since you are watching Trip Hacks DC on YouTube, this shouldn't be any problem.
2. Try to stay downtown. With over a hundred hotels in Washington DC and hundreds more in the suburbs
there is an almost overwhelming number of choices when it comes to accommodations. Whenever someone asks me
"where is the best place to stay" the answer for general sightseeing is: downtown.
Most visitors will find the area around the White House to be the ideal location.
You'll be within walking distance of the National Mall, the museums and
Metro for getting around. But that's not the only good place to stay and I actually have a video where I laid out
eleven recommended areas
that would be great for any trip; or you can just go straight to the guide which I have posted over at www.triphacksdc.com/hotels
3. pack correctly. Washington DC has four seasons
so depending on when you come you want to make sure that you're prepared. That said,
regardless of the time of year, the number one most important thing that needs to be in your suitcase is a
comfortable pair of walking shoes.
Whether you're walking around outside around the city or
inside around the museums you're going to be doing a lot of walking. Over in our "what to pack for DC" video my fellow tour
guide Ali and I have plenty of suggestions for your trip.
4. plan ahead, but don't overdo it.
There are some things here that do require
advance planning. If you want to visit the East Wing of the White House
you need to put in your request to your member of Congress as soon as possible. During peak season in the spring and summer
it's also a good idea to make a reservation for a Capitol tour as
early as possible as well. Things that require tickets, like a concert at the Kennedy Center or a sports game are good to think about
in advance as well. On the other hand, it is not advisable to plan your trip down to the minute.
Some activities will take longer than you expected and
sometimes you get here and discover something new that you want to be able to spend some time doing; and unfortunately if your itinerary is
completely booked in advance, then you won't be able to squeeze it in.
5. Choose your dates wisely. People ask me all the time which area of the city
they should stay in to save money on a hotel, but the truth is when it comes to hotels when you come matters
so so much more than where you stay.
The reason is that big conferences and conventions are what drive hotel rates up. For example a few months ago
I had some folks on my tour who were in town because of the American Association of Orthodontists national conference. The were over
20,000 orthodontists in Washington DC for that conference.
20,000! And as you might imagine the National Association of [fill-in-the-blank] has their big events in DC pretty frequently; and believe it or not
weekends and dates around holidays are actually some of the cheapest times to come, because conference organizers try to avoid
scheduling on those dates.
6. see the monuments at night.
Let me start by saying that there is no bad time to see the monuments and memorials, however
seeing the monuments in the evening does have some benefits, and that is why most of the tours that I give are at that time.
During the hottest days of summer
seeing the monuments and memorials in the evening means that it's a little cooler and you don't have to battle the hot sun. And some
of them, like the Lincoln Memorial and World War II Memorial are
absolutely phenomenal to see at dusk or after dark. For even more tips about the monuments and memorials
I have a video that will help you out.
7. Go to the museums that interest you. People always ask me
"what is the best museum"? There is no answer to that question. I can certainly tell you what the most popular museums are.
That would be Air and Space, Natural History and American History.
But you shouldn't just go to a museum because it's popular, you should go because it interests you. Not everyone is into air and space
kind of stuff. If you're an art lover
it would be a shame to skip some of our art museums, which are actually pretty fantastic and definitely under appreciated.
8. Don't over rely on Metro
There are a ton of different ways of getting around these days.
Metro is definitely one of the most popular ways and most tourists appreciate how it is relatively inexpensive
and efficient for seeing the major sights, however,
In a lot of cases Metro is just not the best way to get around. On the National Mall
for example, Metro is basically useless,
but the circulator bus is
fantastic; and for short distance trips
Capital Bikeshare is a great way of getting around too. One easy way to make sure that you're not overly relying on Metro is to
use an app like Google Maps or Citymapper.
It will tell you all of your options from getting from point A to point B
and in a lot of cases
it will become quite obvious that Metro isn't the best one.
9. Don't stress out over where to eat. For a lot of people, including me, trying new restaurants is the best part about traveling.
I totally appreciate that
nobody wants to waste a meal at a bad restaurant, and a lot of people are rightly worried that they're going to wind up in
places that are basically big tourist traps. The good news is that there is no
shortage of great places to eat in DC at all price points.
You can click over and watch my "how to find the best restaurants video" for some tips on how to do that.
And that's it!
Thank you for watching this video,
if you found it helpful, you can subscribe to this channel by clicking on the Trip Hacks DC logo
which is popping up right now at the bottom of the screen. And if you're coming to DC and want to sign up for a
Trip Hacks DC tour,
you can click on the Capitol dome on the left side of my head,
that'll send you over to www.triphacksdc.com where you can see the tours that I offer. Enjoy your trip!