A capital built to a French plan, where the Smithsonian is free, the memorials never close and the best museum hour is after dark
✈ International🛂 Visa — B1/B2 Required💱 $
$3,091
Est. total budget
5
Days
10
Attractions
13
Meals planned
💡 Recommended trip length for Washington DC: 5 days — the Mall and its memorials, Air and Space, the African American History museum, the Capitol and Arlington, and Georgetown at the end of an afternoon.
🗓 Prices & visa rules verified: August 2026
1
Arrival Day
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2
Day 2 — a free sample of your itinerary
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08:00
☕Breakfast
Coffee and a bagel before the Mall opens.
$6.81 /person (est.)
🏛
09:15
🏛United States Capitol· Capitol Hill
🕒 08:30–16:30 · Last entry 14:30 · Closed Sun · Free, but tours must be booked in advance through the Visitor Center — or, for Indian visitors, simply booked online like anyone else. The Library of Congress across the street is free, needs no ticket and its Main Reading Room is arguably more beautiful than anything in the Capitol. A tunnel connects the two.
Free — book ahead⏱ 2 hoursculture
United States Capitol → Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
🚶~15 min on foot · Capitol South / Union Station → L'Enfant Plaza
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11:30
🚀Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum· National Mall
🕒 10:00–17:30 · Last entry 15:00 · FREE, but it requires a timed-entry pass booked online in advance — they are released on a rolling window and go quickly in summer. This catches people out badly, because every other Smithsonian on the Mall you can simply walk into. The Udvar-Hazy annexe near Dulles holds the Space Shuttle Discovery and a Concorde, and needs no pass.
Free — timed pass⏱ 3 hoursculture
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14:30
🌭Lunch
A half-smoke, or Ethiopian in Shaw.
$15.72 /person (est.)
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum → The National Mall
🚇~20 min by metro · L'Enfant Plaza → Smithsonian (Blue/Orange/Silver)
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15:50
🏛The National Mall & the memorials· National Mall
🕒 Open all day · All free, all open 24 hours, and the memorials are genuinely better after dark when they are lit and empty — the Lincoln at 22:00 is the single best hour in this city. It is much bigger than it looks on a map: Capitol to Lincoln is 3 km one way, so use the Circulator bus or hire bikes rather than walking it twice.
Free⏱ 4 hoursculture
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20:00
🦀Dinner
Maryland blue crab cakes, or Ethiopian injera.
$25.14 /person (est.)
3
Day 3
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4
Day 4
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5
Departure Day
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🔒 You're viewing 1 of 5 days. Unlock to open the other 4 fully-planned days.
✈️Flights$1,634
Per person · return from India$817.18
Total · 2 adults$1,634
🏨Accommodation$481.93
3-Star hotel · per night (per room)$120.48
4 nights × 1 room$481.93
🎭Attractions & Activities$72.00
Washington Monument$2.00
International Spy Museum$70.00
Total (all pax)$72.00
🍽️Food & Dining$412.78
🌅 Breakfast × 4d × 2 pax$54.48
☀ Lunch × 5d × 2 pax$157.15
🌙 Dinner × 4d × 2 pax$201.15
Total food & dining$412.78
🚇Local Transport$120.00
Per person · per day (public transit)$12.00
5 days × 2 pax$120.00
🛂Visa — B1/B2 Required$369.99
Entry typeB1/B2 visitor visa (no visa on arrival)
FeeUS$185 per applicant
ProcessDS-160 online + consular interview
Appointment waitOften several months — apply early
Visa validityTypically up to 10 years, multiple entry
TipPassport valid 6+ months. ESTA does not apply to Indian citizens.
Estimated Grand Total
Washington DC · 5 days · 2 adults
$3,091
Estimate · 2 adults, 3-star. Your dates, group & final plan set inside the full itinerary.
In your Itinerary
10 attractions
✓ All 10 attractions with descriptions, opening hours & ticket prices. Your personalised day-by-day plan unlocks with the full itinerary.
✓ Day 2
01 / 10
🏛 The National Mall & the memorials
National Mall
culture
4 hours
Three kilometres of lawn from the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial, with the Reflecting Pool, the Vietnam wall sunk into the ground and Roosevelt's granite rooms strung along the Tidal Basin.
✓ Day 2
02 / 10
🚀 Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
National Mall
culture
3 hours
🕒 10:00–17:30
The Wright Flyer, the Spirit of St Louis, Apollo 11's command module and a touchable piece of the Moon, in the most visited museum of its kind on earth.
✓ Day 2
03 / 10
🏛 United States Capitol
Capitol Hill
culture
2 hours
🕒 08:30–16:30
The cast-iron dome Lincoln insisted on finishing during the Civil War as a sign the Union would go on, over a rotunda frescoed with an apotheosis of George Washington.
04 / 10
✊🏿 National Museum of African American History and Culture
National Mall
culture
4 hours
🕒 10:00–17:30
A bronze-latticed building whose history galleries start three storeys underground in the slave trade and climb, floor by floor, into the present — the most affecting museum in the country.
05 / 10
🦕 Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
National Mall
culture
2.5 hours
🕒 10:00–17:30
The Hope Diamond, a 4-metre African elephant in the rotunda and a fossil hall rebuilt around a Tyrannosaurus caught mid-meal — no ticket, no pass, just walk in.
06 / 10
🗼 Washington Monument
National Mall
culture
1.5 hours
🕒 09:00–17:00
169 metres of marble with a visible colour change a third of the way up where construction stopped for the Civil War and resumed with stone from a different quarry — and a lift to a view over the whole plan of the city.
07 / 10
🕊 Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington
culture
2.5 hours
🕒 08:00–17:00
Four hundred thousand headstones in rows across a Virginia hillside, the Kennedy eternal flame, and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier where the guard is changed with a precision that stops conversation.
08 / 10
🖼 National Gallery of Art
National Mall
culture
2.5 hours
🕒 10:00–17:00
The only Leonardo painting in the Americas, a deep Vermeer and Rembrandt holding, and an underground concourse between the two buildings lit by a moving neon ceiling.
09 / 10
🕵 International Spy Museum
L'Enfant Plaza
leisure
2.5 hours
🕒 09:00–19:00
The largest public collection of espionage artefacts anywhere — an Enigma machine, a KGB lipstick pistol, Cold War tunnels — and a cover identity you have to maintain through the building.
10 / 10
🛶 Georgetown & the C&O Canal
Georgetown
shopping
2.5 hours
Federal-era brick streets above the Potomac, a disused canal with its locks still in place running behind the shopfronts, and the steep stone staircase from The Exorcist at the bottom of the hill.
✓ All 3 stops on your Day 2 route. Unlock to see all 10 attractions mapped across your full itinerary.
✓ All 10 tips — visa, airport transfer & ways to spend less.
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Airport → your hotel
Washington has three airports and the choice matters. Dulles (IAD), 42 km west, takes most long-haul flights from India; since 2022 the Metro Silver Line reaches it directly — about $6 and 55 minutes to downtown, which is far better than the old bus-plus-rail combination. A taxi is $70–90. Reagan National (DCA) is only 8 km away and sits on the Blue and Yellow lines — $2–3 and 20 minutes — but takes almost no international flights. Baltimore (BWI) is 50 km north and connects by MARC or Amtrak. Verified Aug 2026.
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Ways to spend less
This is the cheapest major American city to sightsee in, by a wide margin. All 17 Smithsonian museums, the National Gallery, the National Zoo, every memorial, the Capitol and the Library of Congress are FREE. Budget for hotels and food, not tickets.
But book the free timed passes early — Air and Space and the African American History museum both require them, and the latter is the hardest ticket in the city. Free does not mean walk-in.
The DC Circulator bus is $1 and covers the Mall, Georgetown and Union Station — a fraction of the Metro fare for the routes most visitors actually want.
Metro fares are distance- and time-based, so travelling off-peak is materially cheaper. A SmarTrip card is required; there are no paper tickets.
Hotels are much cheaper at weekends. This is a government and lobbying town that empties on Friday — the same room can drop 40% from Friday to Sunday, the reverse of most tourist cities.
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Emergencies
911 for everything. Tap water is safe. US medical care is extremely expensive — travel insurance is not optional. Pharmacies are CVS and Walgreens.
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SIM & data
T-Mobile and AT&T prepaid SIMs, or an eSIM, both work well. Coverage is excellent and the Metro has mobile service throughout the tunnels.
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Best time to visit
April for the cherry blossoms — about 1.5 million people come for them, so book months ahead — and late September to early November for the best weather of the year. July and August are hot and very humid, routinely 33°C with thunderstorms, and the Mall has almost no shade. Winter is cold but the museums are empty and hotels are cheap.
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Getting around
The Metro is clean and easy but fares vary by distance and time of day, and you need a SmarTrip card. The $1 DC Circulator covers the Mall and Georgetown better than the Metro does. Note that Georgetown has NO Metro station at all. The Mall is far bigger than it looks — 3 km end to end — so do not plan to walk it repeatedly.
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Visa for Indians
Indian passport holders need a B1/B2 visitor visa — no visa on arrival, no ESTA. US$185 MRV fee, DS-160 form, then an in-person consular interview; appointment waits from India have run to several months, so apply long before booking. Usually issued 10-year multiple entry.
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Food to try
The half-smoke (a DC-only sausage) at Ben's Chili Bowl, Maryland blue crab and crab cakes, and the city's outstanding Ethiopian food around Shaw and U Street — Washington has the largest Ethiopian community outside Ethiopia. Vegetarians do very well; Ethiopian cooking in particular has a whole vegan platter tradition.
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Free still needs booking
The two things that will defeat you are both free: the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the Air and Space Museum, which both run timed-entry passes released on a rolling window. Book them the day your dates are fixed. Every other Smithsonian you can walk straight into, which is why people assume these two work the same way.
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Museum hours are shorter than you expect
Most Smithsonians close at 17:30 and the Washington Monument at 17:00, so the museum day effectively ends mid-afternoon. That is why the memorials-after-dark walk works so well as an evening — it is the only major thing in the city that never closes.