Washington DC Walking Tour (self)
 

We will be having a layover at Washington DC and would most probably suffer from jet lag arriving from Europe. I am planning on an early morning self walking tour of the monuments since the trolleys wont be running till 9-10 am:

Jefferson Memorial - Lincoln Memorial - Washington Monument - Capitol or White House.

How long would it take to complete the above walk at a leisurely pace, and is it easy to find a cab near the Jefferson Memorial early in the morning (seems like a long walk to Lincoln Memorial :) ) ?

Thanks

You're talking about a couple of hours. Consider the Washington Monument as the middle, it's a mile east to the Capitol and a mile west to the Lincoln Memorial. The White House is north and the Jefferson Memorial is south. So, you're spreading things out a bit.

The cab depends on how early you plan your stroll. While there are no cab stands near the Jeffereson, you could likely hail one up on the Mall.

Keep in mind that rush hour can be brutal downtown (actually all over :() so you may need to put in extra time for your cab ride back to the airport - its a quick ride but you might want a buffer to ensure you can catch a cab and in case of an accident or traffic tie-up en route. What time were you planning on starting out and how long do you have?

I have a 2.30pm flight to catch at IAD, so would have to checkout from the hotel at noon. How is the traffic to IAD like at around noon ?

Layover as in overnight? Where is the hotel? There should not be a lot of traffic mid-day but if there is inclement weather or a morning accident, there could be congestion - 2.5 hours pre-flight should be more than enough time regardless. Afternoon rush hour start around 3:30pm so you would avoid any of that.

If you have elite status or are sitting in a premium cabin, use the premium passenger security line. It can be a major timesaver.

BTW - for your monument walk, jefferson is the one that is off by itself - you might want to have the taxi just wait for you if you negotiate for a few extra bucks and catch it from your hotel or elsewhere in the city. You can walk lincoln, vietnam, washington monument and up to the capital (pass the smithsonian museums) or over to the white house. I don't know the visitor process at the capital these days, you'd definitely need tickets to go inside the white house if tours are even being allowed at the moment.

If you are out at IAD you are going to have to plan on the time to get into DC from out there!

Its more of a stopover than a layover. I decided to have an overnight stay instead of a 5hr layover at IAD. Will be staying at either downtown or near Dupont Circle.

Arriving at 3.30pm and departing 2.30pm the next day. It appears that traffic is going to be heavy going into town at 4-5pm. Does it still make sense to take a taxi into town or will the fare end up to over $100 with the traffic ?

Also, how much should I offer the cab driver for a 15-20 min wait at the Jefferson Memorial, $5-6 ? (I had a short stay in DC before but never used the cab, hence unfamiliar with the cab "etiquette")

Yikes, heading in on 66 during rush hour! The Dulles access road is no problem, but it runs into 66 which runs into DC. At that time of day 66 is at a standstill through Falls Church. I'd take the Washington Flyer (or a cab) to Metro and forget the cab in, though I know most here think the Flyer is a pain in the butt. I beleive that busses are allowed to drive on the shoulder around the gridlock though I am not positive.

Also consider walking around the monuments after dark. The Lincoln, Jefferson, Vietnam and Korean War monuments/memorials are completely different at night.

There are a number of night time moment tour groups where they bus you around and you can get off take pictures and have time at each one. I ahve never been on one but you see them all the time. The momuments are definitely beautiful at night!

If you stay in Dupont Circle are then you can walk to see the White House, Treasury, and all of those buildings down there.

There is no etiquette with DC cabs. Don't even try. Your wait time charge is issued by law as noted below. Don't be surprised if the driver also tries to charge you an additional dollar or two for making the stop on top of the wait time.

Wait time charges shall apply as follows:
a. There shall be no charge for wait time up to four (4) minutes and
fifty-nine (59) seconds;
b. From five (5) minutes up to nine (9) minutes and fifty-nine (59)
seconds, the charge shall be two dollars ($2.00);
c. From ten (10) minutes up to fourteen (14) minutes and fifty-nine
(59) seconds, there is an additional charge of one dollar and fifty
cents ($1.50); and
d. If the wait time reaches fifteen (15) minutes, the entire charge shall
convert to the twenty-five dollars ($25.00) hourly rate, reflected in
Appendix 8-2, Taxicab Zone Map, prorated as six dollars and
twenty-five cents ($6.25) for each fifteen minutes (15) minutes or
quarter hour. Fractions of a quarter after the first fifteen minutes
(15 minutes) shall be charged the full quarter hour charge of six
dollars and twenty-five cents ($6.25).

Allow me to add this wager: I bet the driver will tell you he waited longer than you actually did. If you were 16 minutes, I'll bet he'd try to tell you it was 31.

For all those who hate DC cabs, we may have an opportunity to do something about it. Consider attending (.....ing and moaning?) one of these public hearings on DC taxicab service and giving them an earful.

The ONLY solution is meters. There will be no other way to stop the nonsense and the cheats.

I agree with you on the DC Cab situation! It's about 10 dollars for us to take a cab from VA to DC to go out but it's $20 to take a cab from DC to VA on the same route!!!

Just a note to confirm that the bus does use the shoulders to bypass traffic and also has a special entrance to W. Falls Church Metro.

IAD-Downtown/Dupont Circle
 

I know its not the best time to get into town from IAD at 4.00-4.30pm, but the combination of Flyer Bus-Metro-Cab may not work very well for us since we have heavy luggage to deal with. If we were to take a cab or the supershuttle at IAD, how long would it take to get into town with the peak hour traffic ?

Thanks :)

So much for the Flyer/Metro idea. At rush hour I'd expect the ride to take at least 1.5+ hours? Sorry for the guess but I've only driven the other way. You may as well go with the cab and be comfortable because the Supershuttle has not been significantly cheaper IMHE.

Also regarding the Mall at night - the obvious question is how safe is it? Short answer - quite safe.

There are parts of DC where they have more gunfights every night than in old Dodge City. But a couple of months ago there was a bit of trouble on the Mall and E H-Norton (pseudo Congressperson) threw a very public fit because it took a couple of nights to get extra cops to the Mall. I think she would have called for the National Guard had they not been on their umpteenth deployment to Iraq.

4:30 is the beginning towards middle of rush hour, in other words, expect to sit still for a while. The good news is you can use the toll road portion (exclusive use for airport business) for part of your ride which will help, the bad news is even though you are travelling in the "opposite" direction to rush hour, the DC area has a lot of traffic going all over the place and that isn't as much a benefit as it used to be.

Likely the taxi will take I-66 into the city, in which case you will hit traffic once you exit the toll road special lanes until the merge with I-66 is complete. That will be a very slow process, but it does move. I hope an hour and a half is the high side, I usually add 20-25 minutes to my ride when travelling through that area during rush hour. Note that if its bad weather, that the additional time goes up exponentially - "eek, there is a drop of rain, let me hit my brakes" is the rush hour mentality around here, unfortunately; and if it's snow, really watch out.

Because you are arriving at rush hour and you have luggage, you might want to check with a few local sedan services and see if you can get a good deal with them. They are usually flat rate, or charge by the mile and if the figure is close (your taxi cost will also be higher because of the traffic tie-ups), it might be a better solution.