National Mall

With at least a dozen museums spread along 11 blocks (plus all the other monuments and memorials), there's a lot to see and do at the National Mall. As a hub of so many attractions, it's featured on just about every guided tour of the city.

National Mall tours hone in on the history of America's "front yard," while evening tours on foot, by coach, or Segway allow visitors to see the monuments and museums illuminated after dark. Some tours combine the National Mall with a trip to Arlington National Cemetery.

• The National Mall is a must-visit for all first-time visitors to DC.

• Bring comfortable walking shoes; it's a 1.9-mile (3-kilometer) walk from one side to the other.

• The National Mall and many of its major monuments and memorials are wheelchair accessible.

• Don't forget to bring sun protection and plenty of water.

The National Mall is well-connected via public transportation. Ride the Orange, Blue, or Silver Metro lines to the Smithsonian stop, or hop from one attraction to the next aboard the DC Circulator route.

The National Mall itself is open 24 hours a day, though some of the attractions in the area have their own hours. Fall (September to November) and spring (March to May) bring the best weather for enjoying the National Mall’s outdoor spaces.

One of the most prominent features of the National Mall is the 2,028-foot (618-meter) glass reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial. The pool was built in the 1920s, and today, it uses water from the Tidal Basin that's treated and filtered to up its reflection factor.

There are many ways to explore the National Mall, including walking around it. To save your feet, there are hop-on hop-off bus tours, bike tours, Segway tours, and driving tours. Washington DC's low-cost Circulator shuttle bus is another useful transportation option, and it stops at major sites around the Mall.

A loop of the National Mall and its major attractions typically takes several hours; set aside half a day (or more) if you want to linger at its monuments and museums. The Mall is about 2 miles (3 kilometers) long, and it covers more than 300 acres (125 hectares).

Numerous major DC monuments—including the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument—plus more than a dozen museums are located in and around the National Mall; tickets aren't needed to enter most of them. You could spend an entire vacation seeing it all, but at a minimum, set aside at least half a day for basic sightseeing and more for museum-going.

One of the best times to visit is in late March or early April, when its famous cherry trees are in bloom. Alternatively, to enjoy comfortable walking temperatures without massive crowds, skip spring and summer and aim for autumn (weekdays are typically calmer, too).

That depends on your itinerary, as the National Mall is home to dozens of major monuments, memorials, and museums. At the very least, you are likely to see top-tier highlights like the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, US Capitol, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the National World War II Memorial, and pass by a number of Smithsonian museums including the National Air and Space Museum.

Yes, there are numerous restrooms on or near the National Mall. There are 10 public bathrooms located on the Mall, while most of the area's dozen-plus museums also offer public restrooms. Smithsonian museums are free for the public to visit, and so are their bathrooms.