Hotels in Washington, D.C., are used to catering to kids. The city draws millions of visitors each year who stroll beneath the cherry blossoms around the Tidal Basin, settle in for Independence Day fireworks or tour the monuments by night. Almost every attraction in the city is free, and Metro takes visitors from point to point for reasonable fares. You’ll find that hotels in Washington proper tend to be expensive, but if your kids want to be close to the action, it’s the only way to go.
The National Zoo might be best known for panda-watching, but roaming American bison, snarling big cats and soaring birds also populate the park’s 163 acres. Rock Creek Park surrounds the zoo, offering hiking trails and a cool creek for kids to splash in. The Omni Shoreham Hotel, built in 1920, is a short walk away. The Beatles stayed at the hotel on their first American tour, and the Shoreham hosted many presidential inaugural balls. Kids receive a backpack full of discovery-themed items along with milk and cookies on the first night of their stay. A Metro stop is adjacent to the hotel.
For most kids, the National Mall is at the top of their Washington must-see list. Site of monuments to presidents, the Fourth of July fireworks festival and the museums of the Smithsonian Institution, the Mall also provides open spaces where kids can run around and raise the roof. Holiday Inn Capitol, on the southern border of the Mall, is midway between two Metro stops. The hotel’s rooftop pool overlooks the Capitol building, and the hotel has four dining venues, including the Capitol Bistro, where kids eat free. Wired kids will appreciate the free high-speed Internet and the large, flat-panel televisions in the rooms.
Capitol Hill might be the seat of power, but it’s also home to the Library of Congress, neighborhoods of row houses, streets lined with sidewalk cafes and kid-friendly Eastern Market, a historic open-air farmers’ market. If you and your children are taking the train to Washington, consider staying just two blocks from Union Station at the George, a hotel providing lots of amenities to make your child’s stay pleasant. Young guests get a welcome gift and, if they wish, a pet fish delivered to the room for the duration of their stay. If you need to rent a stroller or find a babysitter, the concierge will help you find them.
Georgetown, once a separate village, now sprawls along the Potomac River west of the monumental core of Washington. Like Capitol Hill, the area is a combination of townhouses and large residences around a commercial district with shops and restaurants. Younger kids will enjoy a ride on a replica canal boat on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. Georgetown Suites operates two all-suite hotels a block apart. One is near the canal, the other a short walk from Georgetown Harbor, where you can hop aboard a water taxi or take a cruise of the monuments. The closest Metro stops are at Dupont Circle and Foggy Bottom, or across Key Bridge in Rosslyn, Virginia.
