My family recently spent a three-day weekend in Washington, DC, using points and miles. I think DC is one of the best destinations for families because it’s such an easy trip and there’s so much to do that’s free! You can read about how I booked this trip here, but in this post, I’m recapping what we actually did with our weekend.

Transportation

One reason I love visiting DC is that it’s so easy to get around; the accessibility of public transportation means that it’s not necessary to rent a car or travel with a car seat. Pricing for a metro ride varies by both time of day and distance, but on the weekend, a single ride will cost you no more than $2.50. You’ll need a SmarTrip card, which you can buy from the ticket machines at any Metro station, or you can buy and load one electronically with your digital wallet.

DCA is without a doubt the easier airport to fly into; you can be in the city in 20-30 minutes via public transportation or 15-20 via cab. IAD has better lounges, but is much farther out of the city and less convenient to get to. Getting to IAD on the metro is now possible, but takes over an hour, and a cab or Uber to IAD will cost you a pretty penny. BWI is technically considered a DC-area airport, but is so far away that I don’t even consider it. 

Hotel

We chose the Grand Hyatt Washington for its central location and club lounge, and the property did not disappoint. The hotel sits atop the Metro Center metro station, which is served by the red, blue, orange, and silver lines. This means that it’s possible to take the metro directly from both Dulles International Airport (on the silver line) and Washington National Airport (on the blue line) without switching lines or even going outdoors. Once you get off the train at Metro Center, follow the signs toward the 11th & G exit to find the entrance to the Grand Hyatt.

It’s also easy to get to many of the most popular attractions from this location. The blue, orange, and silver lines will take you south from the Grand Hyatt to the National Mall and Capitol Hill, while the red line will take you north to the National Zoo. Pricing for a metro ride varies by both time of day and distance, but on the weekend,  a single ride will cost you no more than $2.50. You’ll need a SmarTrip card, which you can buy from the ticket machines at any Metro station, or you can buy and load one electronically with your digital wallet.

The service we received at this property was exceptional. Every single staff member that we interacted with went above and beyond to make our visit frictionless and pleasant. I wrote to the hotel manager about two weeks before our stay requesting an upgrade. Although I only held Discoverist status at the time, we were upgraded to two adjoining high floor rooms, even though we had only booked a single room for our family of four. When my partner’s mother joined us the next night, management upgraded her room as well so that she could be just down the hall from us. We were greeted with a bottle of wine and chocolates in one room for us, and a bottle of sparkling cider and treats for our kids in the other, as well as a welcome note addressed to us all by name. 

This property was renovated in 2024, so everything was updated and clean. Our rooms were comfortable and quiet, despite facing a busy city street. But the jewel of this hotel is the Grand Club Lounge on the 12th floor. Although club lounges in the US are generally regarded as subpar when compared to their international counterparts, this club rivaled my experience at the Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile. The evening hors d’oeuvres, served from 5:00-8:00pm, included crudites, salads, deli meats, cheeses, dips, and sushi, as well as beer, liquor, and wine by the glass. Unlike the Hyatt Regency Paris, the wine was not complimentary, but the one glass I purchased was a reasonable $7.70. The club also hosts a dessert hour from 8:30-9:30pm, with a respectable assortment of cookies, cakes, and other baked goods.

As impressed as I was with the evening hors d’oeuvres, the breakfast spread in the club was even better. Hot dishes included eggs, mushroom frittata bites, pancakes, french toast, and breakfast potatoes. A variety of hot and cold cereals were available, along with deli meats and cheeses, fresh fruit, muffins, a yogurt bar, and bagels with lox. This made for a very hearty breakfast! The club also features an espresso machine, drip coffee, and tea.

Some light snacks were available during the day, including yogurt-covered pretzels, fruit, and trail mix, but nothing worth interrupting your day of sightseeing for.

Attractions

Although DC is highly walkable and easy to navigate via public transportation, not everything is close together. Even attractions that are on the National Mall can be far apart. You’ll want to plan your itinerary thoughtfully to minimize travel time between attractions.

Global Entry Interview

The very first thing we did upon arriving in the city was walk ten minutes south from the Grand Hyatt to the Ronald Reagan Building. While this is not a traditional tourist attraction, we had some important business to take care of there: our global entry interviews. The closest interview location in our home state is two and a half hours away, and we wanted to complete the approval process in advance of some international travel next month. We had no trouble getting appointments for all four of us, and the process was fairly quick and painless. 

National Museum of American History

From there, we walked another ten minutes to the National Museum of American History. Like all the Smithsonian museums, admission is free. You might think that a history museum would have little to appeal to a four-year-old and a seven-year-old, but you’d be wrong. The bottom floor of the museum has a large transportation exhibit, which captured my seven-year-old’s attention for the duration of the visit. My four-year-old was captivated by Wegman’s Wonderspace, a food-themed, gated play area for babies and toddlers. This space really seems geared for ages 18 months to maybe three years, and even includes a dedicated bathroom with a pint-sized potty.

Air and Space Museum

The next day, we visited the Air and Space Museum in the morning, which is another great space for preschool and elementary-aged kids. Note that this is one of two Smithsonian museums that requires timed entry passes; these passes are free, but you should reserve them in advance or expect to wait to enter the museum. 

National Zoo

After spending the morning at Air and Space, we got back on the Metro and rode the red line to visit the National Zoo. Instead of getting off at the Woodley Park/Zoo metro stop, we rode one stop further to Cleveland Park to get lunch at Vace, an Italian deli that sells outstanding pizza by the slice. In addition to being totally delicious, this was a quick and easy lunch that didn’t require getting two young children to sit through an overpriced restaurant meal. The public library directly across the street has public restrooms and shady benches outside where you can sit and eat. I highly recommend this as a pit stop before or after the zoo!

The walk from Cleveland Park to the main entrance of the zoo is about 10 minutes. The zoo also requires timed entry passes, although on the day we went, these passes were only for a date rather than for a time slot. The National Zoo is built into a hillside and slopes down toward Rock Creek, so if you start at the main entrance on Connecticut Avenue, your walk through the park will be all downhill. The walk back up the hill can be miserable in warm weather with tired children, so take that into consideration as you budget your time (and energy). There used to be a shuttle running from the parking lot at the bottom of the zoo back up to the top, but this shuttle appears to be defunct. 

Playgrounds

After visiting the National Zoo, we stopped at Walter Pierce Park in Adams Morgan to meet friends and let the kids blow off some steam. This park is a 15-minute walk from the zoo entrance, or a five-minute ride on the L2 bus, which picks up right across the street from the zoo entrance. Note that as of this writing, this park has no bathroom, although one is currently under construction. This park is probably best for kindergarteners and preschoolers, as it’s quite small.

Another park option which is also accessible via public transit is the Chevy Chase Playground, located a short walk from the Friendship Heights metro stop, which does have a restroom.

Natural History Museum

We spent our final morning in the city at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History; admission is free and no timed entry passes were required. This was probably the single most engaging activity of the weekend for our kids; we spent almost four hours in the museum. Exhibits include animals, gemstones and geology, mammals, ocean life, butterflies, and human evolution.

There are two restaurants in the museum: the Ocean Terrace Cafe on the second floor and the Atrium Cafe on the bottom floor. We chose the Atrium Cafe because it was set up cafeteria-style and offered greater selection. Food was surprisingly good, albeit expensive.

After bidding farewell to the Natural History Museum, we went back to the Grand Hyatt to collect our luggage and headed to the airport.

Airport Experience

IAD is a lounge lover’s paradise; I once visited six lounges there in a single day. The options at DCA are more limited, but I was excited to try them. First, we visited the Capital One Landing. I am a big fan of the Capital One lounges, so I was very curious how the Landing would measure up. 

The Landing is more like a restaurant than a lounge, with a combination of table service and staffed buffet. Celebrity chef Jose Andres created the Spanish-inspired menu. Like a restaurant, you can actually make a reservation, as far as months in advance, for a specific time. This is arguably an improvement over the digital waitlist available for the Capital One lounges. Note that unlike the lounges, Venture X cardholders can only bring one guest to the Landing. Drinks, specialty coffees, and hot dishes are available to order through a QR code on the table, while you can visit the counter to order cold tapas. 

The quality of the food was unquestionably excellent; we sampled the eggplant and tofu donburri, the grilled zucchini, the grilled cheese, the chickpea salad, and several cheeses. There were plenty of vegetarian-friendly choices for us, and kids would likely find the grilled cheese palatable (though ours didn’t, because, kids). 

But I couldn’t help feeling a bit underwhelmed by the decidedly restaurant-y vibe of the space. It just didn’t feel like a place where I could truly relax. I also found it a bit off-putting to go to the tapas bar and ask the server there to plate all of my cold appetizers for me; I would have preferred this be a self-service buffet. 

Our flight was delayed, so after eating our fill at the Landing, we stopped off at the small play area between concourses C and D. There’s not much to it, but our kids benefited tremendously from having a place to burn off some energy. Between the play area and the Landing, DCA is not a bad place to be stuck for a while.

I left the kids with dad at the play area and went to visit the Centurion lounge. As a relatively new American Express Business Platinum owner, I haven’t had much experience with Centurion lounges. This one was a disappointment. The lounge was extremely crowded, the buffet was picked over, and I had to wait in line at the bar to order a drink. When I finally did find a place to sit, it was a chair with stained upholstery. I have to admit, I’m mystified that people pay $695 per year for this (and more for guests!). If this experience was any indication, Centurion lounges have jumped the shark.  

The Bottom Line

Points and miles make it possible to have a rich experience in DC on a shoestring budget. Because my kids are little, we spent most of our time at museums, but with older kids or adults, you could incorporate a lot more history, civics, and/or architecture. There’s something for everyone in DC, and you don’t have to break the bank to do it.