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Washington, D.C./Adams Morgan-Columbia Heights

Adams Morgan, Mount Pleasant, and Columbia Heights are three bordering neighborhoods in Washington DC, each with a different character, but united in an unmistakable sense of dynamism, diversity, youth, and nightlife. There are plenty of great ethnic restaurants, most often offering a better value for your money than in Dupont Circle, downtown, or Georgetown. These neighborhoods are good places to see the city at its most dynamic; people from all walks of life, culture, race, sexual orientation, immigrants, natives, transplants, etc. all converge here to have a good time.

Understand

Adams Morgan is north of Dupont Circle and the U St Corridor. It is best known for the nightlife district on 18th St between Florida and Columbia Rd, which after midnight on weekends gets so packed full of revelers that it's hard to move down the sidewalk. It's more than that, though—it's a lovely, historic, culturally vibrant neighborhood, full of eccentric shopping, outdoor markets, great restaurants, and community murals! The name "Adams Morgan" is derived from the names of two formerly segregated area elementary schools — the all-black now-defunct Thomas P. Morgan Elementary School and the all-white John Quincy Adams Elementary School.

Mount Pleasant, with a population of approximately 11,000 people, is more of a small town in the city. Mount Pleasant Street is full of small shops, bars, and restaurants, primarily serving Latin American food. Although 50% white, the population here is 25% Hispanic and is the cultural center of the city's Salvadoran population, although the vast majority of the area's enormous Salvadoran population lives outside the city proper. It is nice for a Saturday stroll to soak up the Latin vibes, see some chanchona bands, and delve into one of the city's famous pupuserías.

Columbia Heights, like much of the city, was devastated by the 1968 riots following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. The neighborhood includes the Tivoli Theatre, home of the GALA Hispanic Theatre, and the DCUSA shopping mall, which includes several major chain retailers including Target, Best Buy, Marshall's, and Bed Bath & Beyond. There are many restaurants, bars, and hipster hangouts, lending to a vibe as close to that of New York's Williamsburg.

Columbia Heights is marked dramatically on its southern border by a geological formation known as the Fall Line, which runs along Florida Avenue. This steep escarpment divides America's Piedmont Plateau from the Tidewater region of Virginia. If you are looking for a good view of the city, head to the hill on 13th St just north of Florida near Cardozo High School. This natural formation is also responsible for the dramatic terraces and fountains of Meridian Hill aka Malcolm X Park which, aside from restaurants and bars, is the major point of interest in the neighborhood.

By Metrorail
For more information on riding the Metrorail in Washington DC, see Washington DC.

The closest stop to Adams Morgan is the Woodley Park-Zoo/Adams Morgan stop on the Red Line, which is actually a 10 minute walk from Adams Morgan's bars on 18th street. The Columbia Heights metro station on the Green Line is located at the main commercial intersection of Columbia Heights and is a few blocks from Mount Pleasant.

By bus
The following are the main bus routes operating in these neighborhoods, along with links to timetables and route maps. For more information on riding buses in Washington DC, see Washington DC.

 * #52, #53, and #54 operate north-south along 14th St from the East End through Shaw to the Columbia Heights metro station, and then north to the Takoma metro station in Takoma.
 * #H2, #H3, and #H4 run east-west from the Cleveland Park Metro station on the Red Line Upper Northwest through Mount Pleasant, past the Columbia Heights metro station, the Washington Hospital Center, and on to Catholic University in Brookland.
 * #L2 runs north from West End through Dupont Circle, then straight up 18th St in Adams Morgan before veering west to the Woodley Park-Zoo/Adams Morgan metro station in Upper Northwest and continuing past the National Zoo.
 * 42 connects DC's downtown West End with the Mount Pleasant neighborhood. Like the L2, it begins at Farragut Square and travels north on Connecticut Ave, with stops in DuPont Circle, before turning right onto Columbia. The 42 has a handful of stops in Adams Morgan on Columbia Road before turning north into Mount Pleasant.
 * D.C. Circulator's Woodley Park-Adams Morgan-McPherson Square Green Line stops at the intersection of 18th St & Columbia Road, then the Columbia Heights metro stop, and then goes west to the Woodley Park-Zoo/Adams Morgan metro station in Upper Northwest, and then south along 14th street through Shaw, and on to the West End.

By car
The main streets for driving north-south are 16th St and Georgia Ave, although 14th St can be a surprisingly quick route north of U St. Major east-west routes are fewer and more confusing: Columbia Rd is the best route to go between Connecticut Ave in Dupont Circle and the Washington Hospital Center and Catholic University and points in Brookland.

Parking & safety considerations
It's not very hard to find street parking on side streets in Columbia Heights and to a lesser extent Mount Pleasant. Adams Morgan, on the other hand, is packed. Since these neighborhoods have an above-average frequency of muggings, be careful when walking back to your car at night by yourself.

By taxi
Taxis are easy to catch on the main drags in Columbia Heights and Mount Pleasant, and pretty much anywhere within Adams Morgan.

See

The Adams Morgan Heritage Trail is a 2-hour self-guided walking tour around the neighborhood. The tour will take you to 18 poster-sized street signs that include historical information, pictures, and maps. Important sites on the trails are marked by large poster-sized signs attached to lampposts. Each of Columbia Heights, Mount Pleasant, and Adams Morgan have a separate Neighborhood Heritage Trail.

Murals

This part of the city has plenty of colorful neighborhood murals, worth seeking out if you like public art, and worth noticing even if you couldn't care less!

Buy
Columbia Heights is the location of the DCUSA Shopping Mall, the largest retail development within the city limits, which includes the large discount chains of Best Buy, Target, Marshall's, and Bed Bath & Beyond.

Fashion

Farmers' markets
These outdoor markets, held on Saturday mornings year-round except winter, are extremely popular places to buy locally produced goods from farmers and bakers.

Eat
Jumbo Slice Pizza is the food specialty of Adams Morgan. Various take out stores along the 18th St nightlife strip, between Columbia Rd and Florida Ave, serve enormous, greasy slices of pizza for around $8 per slice to hungry drunks until 4AM. There are different opinions about which of the jumbo slice pizza places is best, but the truth is that it's never good pizza --- but it can be very satisfying late at night if you need a quick fill, especially after drinking at the adjacent bars. The three most well-known pizza stores are Pizza Mart (2445 18th St NW), Jumbo Pizza (2341 18th St NW), and Pizza Boli's (1511 U St NW), a DC-area chain with a location in Shaw.

Salvadoran Cuisine, provided by the area's enormous Salvadoran community, is the food specialty of Columbia Heights and Mount Pleasant. There is one word that you will know after a visit, and that is pupusa. Pupusas are thick corn maize tortillas stuffed with soft cheese, cheese + loroco (a Salvadoran flower), squash, pork, refried beans, or all sorts of other things, then topped with pickled cabbage (curtido) and tangy red sauce. They generally cost $1.50-2.00 each, but you will need at least a few if you are hungry. Pupusas revueltas include more than one filling, such as bacon and cheese - a local favorite. They are delicious. Pupusas in D.C. are serious business; they are always cooked to order, and will take at least ten minutes to prepare. Someone will almost always speak some English, but it's a good idea to keep a little Spanish in your pocket (dos pupusas de loroco con queso, por favor). Aside from pupusas, look for Salvadoran soups and delicious atoles. An atol is somewhere between porridge, hot chocolate, and a milkshake, made from corn meal, most of the spices you'd expect in pumpkin pie, and occasionally chocolate.

Beware Mexican food served in the Salvadoran restaurants, or anywhere in D.C., as there is virtually no Mexican immigrant community. With the exception of Taquería Distrito Federal and Super Tacos and Bakery, the Mexican dishes are inauthentic rubbish. Stick to the Salvadoran entrees. The Salvadoreños do Peruvian food quite well, though, so you'll find good lomo saltado everywhere, and occasionally some incredible pollo a la brasa.

Drink
You have plenty of choices for drinking in Adams Morgan - you'd be well-served to do your own reconnaissance by walking up and down 18th St. Several bars and clubs have sidewalk or rooftop patios that are open during the warmer months. Bars serve anything from cheap pitchers of beer to expensive cocktails.

Be aware that on Friday and Saturday nights, the crowd is young and drunk and the whole thing can look a bit like the capital's take on Mardi Gras. That's either a plus or a minus depending on your view, but you can escape this crowd if you choose your bar carefully. Regardless of your tastes, you should be sure to stop by the legendary New Orleans themed Madam's Organ, which offers live music every night of the week.

Budget

Crime
Muggings are a serious problem in Adams Morgan and Columbia Heights. Muggings happen more often on quiet side streets, so simply restricting your walks to the main streets and traveling in groups of three or more will lower your odds of a problem.

Pickpocketing is rampant on 18th St on weekend nights. Immense crowds of drunk people bumping into each other makes for a pickpocketing bonanza.

Connect
In addition to the cafes/coffeeshops above, the Mt Pleasant Branch Library is a great place to surf the web on the public terminals or the free Wifi:

Go next

 * Dupont Circle - a wealthier neighborhood to the south.
 * Shaw - a nightlife destination to the south.
 * Brookland-Petworth-Takoma - the neighborhoods east of Columbia Heights.
 * Upper Northwest - the Zoo and parts of this neighborhood are in easy walking distance, just across the Duke Ellington Bridge along Calvert St. from Adams Morgan.
 * Wheaton - the location of more fantastic ethnic dining options in nearby Maryland.

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Washington, D.C./Anacostia

Anacostia is the popular name for the huge swathe of the capital consisting of the many neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River (often referred to as East of the River). Its heart, in the small, historic neighborhood of Anacostia, is immediately across the Frederick Douglass Bridge from the Nationals Ballpark.

Understand
Most D.C. metro area residents reflexively recoil in fear at the sound of infamous "Anacostia," known only for its extreme poverty, prowess in homicide statistics, and the ever lurking danger of accidentally crossing that river and falling into a panic attack, hopelessly lost among its labyrinthine streets.

This is all more than a little melodramatic and misinformed. There are a bunch of good reasons to add a day trip to D.C. East of the River on your itinerary. First and foremost, with its unusually rural character and extreme poverty, Anacostia is so different from the rest of the city that no serious traveler could be bored. The fact that such a place could exist so incongruously in the shadows of the nation's capital is reason enough to send a tingle up a curious traveler's spine when crossing the Anacostia River.

But the most important reason to visit is simply to better appreciate the area's rich history, which served as home to notable residents from Frederick Douglass to Ezra Pound, Marvin Gaye, and the infamous former mayor of D.C., Marion Barry (who was jailed for (literally) smoking crack in office). There are two excellent small museums here to help visitors do just that—the Smithsonian Anacostia Museum and the Frederick Douglass House.

History
Once covered by marshy swamplands, the region was first inhabited by a small settlement of Nacochtank Native Americans, who gave the Anacostia River its name. (The marshes have since been drained, save the beautiful preserve at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens.) The area began to be developed as a part of the nation's capital in the 1850s, when Uniontown was developed as an affordable neighborhood for workers employed at Navy Yard across the river. The neighborhood soon after gained one very famous resident just to the southeast in the abolitionist, prominent black intellectual, and former vice presidential candidate, Frederick Douglass, who at the time became known as the Sage of Anacostia. Prevented from living in Uniontown proper by segregation laws, he built his house just outside at Cedar Hill.

Beginning with the Civil War, D.C. East of the River experienced a military-fueled construction boom, as the North set to defend the capital against incursions from Confederate Virginia, and to protect Navy Yard from Confederate artillery, with a ring of forts in the region's hilly terrain. The forts have since been dismantled, but the sites of the two most notable forts, Fort Stanton and Fort Greble, have been turned into parks.

Most of the Anacostia's development took place in the early 20th century, particularly during The Great Migration of southern African-Americans to the North, and during World War I, when the U.S. government built the Anacostia Naval Station and Bolling Airforce Base.

Post World War II, Anacostia underwent rapid and dramatic demographic change—from a population that was nearly 90% white to one that was (and is) over 90% black. The first catalyst for such dramatic neighborhood change was the construction of I-295, the Anacostia Freeway, which cut off the entire population of Greater Anacostia from the waterfront. Second, during the 1950s there was a large influx of new African-American residents—not coincidentally at the same time as the federal government made the D.C. public school system the first fully integrated system in the country in 1950. By 1957, the city became the nation's first majority black city, with a good deal of the city's African-American population living in the communities of Greater Anacostia which had been founded by free blacks as early as before the Civil War. The third catalyst was the creation of many massive public housing structures East of the River, which concentrated D.C.'s poorest residents in areas far away from the city center and its services and amenities.

The corresponding White Flight in the 1950s of white residents from old communities such as Uniontown (now known as Historic Anacostia) took with it most of the community infrastructure and wealth. Anacostia, always the poorest section of D.C., badly needed investment from the federal government (which administered the city), but investment was not forthcoming; as a result, D.C. East of the River suffered, and continues to suffer, from chronic neglect.

There are, however, reasons for an optimistic vision of Anacostia's future, as the crime rate has plummeted since the peak in the early 1990s, and the city under home rule has renewed its efforts to help Anacostia grow.

The biggest issues of the day in Anacostia remain drug crime and the disastrous public schools. A great read for visitors to the area is Pulitzer Prize winning author Ron Suskind's A Hope in the Unseen. The biography chronicles the exceptionally rare journey of Cedric Jennings, a student at the abysmal Ballou High, who managed to escape the usual fate of Anacostia's high school students and go on to Brown University.

By Metro
The historic Downtown Anacostia neighborhood is easy enough to reach by Metro. Take the Green Line to the Anacostia Station, then walk out to Martin Luther King Jr Dr and turn left to walk north a half of a mile to the historic center. (To skip the walk, you can take the B2 Metrobus towards Mt Rainier.) On foot, you could easily see the Big Chair, historic center, grab some take out from Cole's, and then visit the Frederick Douglass House.

You could walk from the Anacostia Station to the Anacostia Museum up Morris Rd, but it's a hilly mile and a half walk, and Morris is a lonely road for visitors to be walking on. Take the bus instead.

The Kenilworth Gardens are further from downtown, but still easy to reach via Metro. Exit the Deanwood stop on the Orange Line. Take the pedestrian overpass across Kenilworth Avenue and go left on Douglas Street. Go right on Anacostia and enter any open gate on your left. It's about a half mile walk to the gate.

By bus
Anacostia is well served by bus. The B2 runs from the Anacostia Green Line Station up Martin Luther King Jr Dr, then Minnesota Ave, and then across the Pennsylvania Ave Bridge to the Blue/Orange/Silver Line Potomac Avenue Station, and on to RFK Stadium. The northbound route passes right in front of the Frederick Douglass House (southbound requires you walk a block from MLK Jr Dr).

For the Anacostia Museum, walk out to the W2/W3 bus stop on Howard Ave (in front of the Anacostia Metro stop). Either bus will take you right to the museum's doorstep. On the way back, for the heck of it, you could pick up the W2/W3 where you left off and take a meandering scenic route through Naylor Gardens, Garfield Heights, Shipley Terrace, and Douglass to the Congress Heights Green Line stop.

By car
A car is a very convenient way to visit Anacostia (since on-street parking is easy pretty much anywhere), and is the best way to really get to know D.C. East of the River. I-295 (SW Fwy) and DC-295 (Anacostia Fwy/Kenilworth Ave) are the main highways, which will quickly shuttle you east and west around this district. Other major thoroughfares relevant for visitors include Martin Luther King Dr especially, but also S Capitol St, Pennsylvania Ave, and Minnesota Ave.

From downtown D.C., the most attractive route across the river is the 11th St Bridge (I-295), which provides spectacular views of Historic Anacostia going south, and even more amazing views of the Capitol heading north. It also dumps you off right at the intersection of MLK Jr Dr and Good Hope Rd, making it very convenient for visiting downtown Anacostia. The other two bridges heading south from downtown are at S Capitol St and Pennsylvania Ave. To drive to the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens from downtown, it really doesn't matter which bridge you take—just get on DC-295 going east (Anacostia Fwy/Kenilworth Ave). It's tricky to get off at the right point, though—you must be on the southbound side of Kenilworth Ave, so make a U-turn at the city border, then get in the service lane to turn right on Douglas St, then right on Anacostia Ave, which will take you right to the park gates.

Coming from the Capital Region of Maryland, take the exit 22B off I-495/I-95 for MD-295 (Baltimore-Washington Pkwy), which will turn into DC-295 after you enter the city. The simplest way to get to downtown Anacostia is to take DC-295 to continue on I-295 southbound, to exit 3B and turn left on Howard Ave, then turn left on MLK Jr Dr.

From Northern Virginia, get on the Beltway (I-495/I-95) going east to exit 2A-B to get on I-295 northbound.

By canoe
OK, canoe is not a very practical way to visit Anacostia, but it is by far the most fun. The Anacostia River is easily navigable by canoe, and there are several places to launch: Anacostia Park, Bladensburg Park (in Bladensburg, Maryland), and the public boat ramp at Langston Golf Course in the east of Capitol Hill.

The main destinations for a canoer are the Anacostia Park, which covers much of Anacostia's waterfront, and of course the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, to which you can simply pull right up and disembark. It's important to watch the tides, though, since at low tide you won't get anywhere near the gardens. If you haven't canoed on the Anacostia before, pay the Anacostia Watershed Society's website a visit.

See

The principal sights—the ones you have to see in order to lay claim to having visited Anacostia—are the Smithsonian museum, the Frederick Douglass House, and, of course, the Big Chair. The two museums are small but excellent, and the latter attraction is a good photo op! The Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens are a destination in their own right, and merit a visit during the summer even if you are otherwise uninterested in visiting Anacostia.

Do

Eat and drink
The old canard that there are no sit-down restaurants east of the Anacostia River is certainly false today, and probably was always a... suburban legend. But still, full-service establishments are rare here. Most places will serve patrons through glass, with perhaps a table or two, but mostly geared towards carry-out. Exceptions to this rule though have been and are multiplying. There's even a 24/7 option at the Denny's (a particularly well-run location) at 4445 Benning Rd NE by the Benning Rd Metro stop.

There are big hopes to turn Martin Luther King Jr Ave near the Big Chair into a thriving commercial corridor, and it's probably more a question of when than a question of if, naysayers be damned. Uniontown Bar & Grill, a full-service restaurant and sports bar, was the physical embodiment of this idea, and was fabulously successful in a neighborhood starved for such options. But irony and metaphor were lurking in the shadows—the proprietor was evicted after pleading to charges of cocaine trafficking in 2012. That was a big blow psychologically, but not without hope.

If you're looking for a place to go out and drink (legally), options are limited, but one place is Player's Lounge.

Sleep
Accommodations are extremely scarce in Anacostia. You will almost certainly have better luck looking elsewhere for a hotel. There are accommodations on the military base, but those are only available to those who have official business there (i.e., people actually allowed on the base). If you are intent on staying East of the River, the closest you'll get are the hotels in Suitland, Maryland, fifteen minutes away, by the junction of I-495/I-95 and Branch Ave.

Stay safe

In the time-honored words of former Mayor Marion Barry, "Outside the killings, D.C. has one of the lowest crime rates in the country." This was considered in poor taste at the time, and rather inaccurate, but it contains at least a nugget of truth. With the one exception of homicides, D.C. East of the River actually sees a good deal less violent crime than the trendy north central neighborhoods—you are less likely to be assaulted, mugged, etc. here than in Adams Morgan! Big deal, you say—you'd rather get mugged than shot to death. But muggings are always a far greater problem for travelers. They often target visitors unfamiliar with their surroundings, and occur with far greater frequency than rare, but highly publicized homicides. The type of violence here is far less likely to affect visitors than residents. It's quite unlikely that you will experience anything dangerous walking down main streets during the day, especially in the Historic Anacostia neighborhood.

Which are those main streets? When visiting the "downtown" neighborhood, stick to MLK Jr Ave and Good Hope Rd, and the side streets in Historic Uniontown around Frederick Douglass' House. Walking from the Deanwood Metro station to the Kenilworth Marshes at night would be a bad idea, but there isn't much reason to be there after dark anyway.

Go next

 * Prince George's County surrounds Anacostia on all sides not bounded by the river, and serves an interesting contrast to the city's poorest district. Though a suburb, PG County is in places more densely populated, has far more commerce, and is indeed the wealthiest majority-black county in the United States. NASA's visitor center is just up DC/MD-295 by the beltway, and when combined with the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, makes a great itinerary (especially if you are traveling with kids).
 * For more of D.C.'s African-American history, the most important district is Shaw, which served as home to D.C.'s Black Broadway in the early 20th century.

title: Washington, D.C./Anacostia


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Washington, D.C./Capitol Hill

Capitol Hill is a venerable neighborhood just east of the Capitol building, best known as the main residence in the city for the legislative and judicial branches of the U.S. government, and for the staffers who run the place. Time permitting, you should make an effort to see not just the Capitol Building, the Supreme Court steps, and the Library of Congress, but head further east to see this beautiful neighborhood, and to have a nice meal on Barracks Row while listening to the politicos chatter away. The Hill extends several miles east of the Capitol to RFK Stadium and the Anacostia River.

Understand
Capitol Hill, just east of the National Mall, plays a central role in the country's political life, as two of the three branches of the federal government—the legislative and the judicial—are located here. The government spills far over into the neighborhood, as this is the favorite residential section of town for congressional staffers, and any other type of politico you can imagine. Streets are abuzz with intense political debate, and you'll encounter this head on when visiting a neighborhood bar or restaurant.

Capitol Hill is worth exploring regardless of your interest in politics, though. It is a beautiful historic neighborhood of 18th- and 19th-century rowhouses in a wide range of architectural styles, and a wandering stroll from the Capitol to Barracks Row along residential side streets is a nice way to take in this quintessentially Washingtonian neighborhood. The upscale dining scene is one of the best in D.C., particularly along Barracks Row (centered on 17th century U.S. Marines barracks at 8th and I St) and along Pennsylvania Ave. North of the Capitol Grounds is grandiose Union Station, which is both a major point of entry into the city, and also a historical landmark in its own right, with a beautiful, gilt main hall. The other big historical attraction is the huge Eastern Market, which is a fine place to browse, admire, or grab something good to eat.

By Metrorail
For more information on riding the Metrorail in Washington DC, see Washington DC.

The Blue, Orange, and Silver lines have stations just south of the Capitol Grounds at Federal Center SW and Capitol South. Further from the city center Eastern Market and then Stadium-Armory can be reached on the same line. Eastern Market is the most convenient stop for exploring the Capitol Hill neighborhood, as well as the eponymous market and Barracks Row. Stadium-Armory is closest to the DC Armory and Congressional Cemetery.

The most prominent stop is certainly at Union Station, on the Red Line, which is an easy walk from the Capitol, and is right by the Amtrak/MARC/VRE train station.

By train

Union Station is also the end point for the MARC Trains heading north through the Capital Region of Maryland to Baltimore. Since the MARC serves primarily commuters, train departures and arrivals are concentrated at the beginning and end of the work day.

By bus
The following are the main bus routes operating in these neighborhoods, along with links to timetables and route maps. For more information on riding buses in Washington DC, see Washington DC.

 * #90 and #92 are the most useful routes here—they run along 8th St from Barracks Row, past Eastern Market, and then north along Florida Ave to Shaw.
 * #96 and #97 run between Tenleytown, past Adams Morgan and Shaw, all the way to Anacostia.
 * DC Circulator Congress Heights – Union Station runs M-F 6AM-7PM (extended and weekend service on Nationals game days) from Union Station, past the Capitol Building, Eastern Market, and Barracks Row, before heading south to Anacostia.

By car
Street parking is not too hard to find on side streets once you get far enough east of the Capitol Building, and away from Eastern Market and Barracks Row. The traffic patterns are disastrously convoluted, though—even by D.C. standards. Main east-west routes run along Constitution and Independence, as well as Pennsylvania and Maryland Ave. Coming from Anacostia, the main bridges are at Pennsylvania Ave and E Capitol St. There are no main roads heading north-south throughout the area, only the complex diagonals.

See

The main attractions on Capitol Hill are all concentrated in the U.S. Capitol Complex, grounds managed by the Architect of the Capitol, covering roughly the three blocks east of the National Mall. These include the Capitol Building and its grounds, as well as the U.S. Supreme Court, Library of Congress, and congressional office buildings.

Capitol Grounds monuments

Buy
Union Station and Eastern Market are big shopping destinations in the city. Union Station includes a big shopping mall with plenty of high end and mid-range stores, while Eastern Market is much more offbeat, and geared to a lazy day of browsing. Outside these two heavyweights, Capitol Hill is an unorthodox shopping destination, but it does have a relatively small collection of unique and offbeat shops dispersed throughout the neighborhood, especially on Pennsylvania Ave near the Library of Congress and by Barracks Row.

Eat

Barracks Row, on 8th St SE, has classy restaurants that cater to repeat diners and to a sophisticated crowd.

Union Station has much cheaper options. The cafeteria food on the bottom level is best for the cheapest and quickest meals. The main level includes many popular national chains such as Chipotle, McDonald's, Chop't, Potbelly Sandwich Works, Pizzeria Uno, Pret A Manger, Roti Mediterranean Grill, Shake Shack, and Subway.

Splurge
The high-end restaurant scene in Capitol Hill is one of the city's best. Reservations are a must at most high-end restaurants.

Drink
There are plenty of bars in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, most of which are concentrated around the West side of the Capitol, and on the Eastern Market/Barracks Row strips. Catering to a diverse crowd of overworked hill staffers, lobbyists, lawyers, lawmakers, Marines from the nearby Barracks and neighborhood locals, there's something for everyone.

Connect
Most cafes and restaurants offer free Wi-Fi. Otherwise, the two public libraries in the neighborhood offer public terminals and free WiFi, or you could just enjoy the public WiFi on the steps of the Capitol Building!

Go next

 * The obvious destination is just west of the Hill, the National Mall, and the proximity is one of the main reasons to stay on Capitol Hill in the first place.
 * For a change of pace from Capitol Hill nightlife, consider heading just north to Near Northeast to have a beer at one of its very offbeat bars and clubs.

title: Washington, D.C./Capitol Hill


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Washington, D.C./Dupont Circle

Dupont Circle is an affluent historic neighborhood in Washington D.C. It is known for its beautiful Victorian homes, walkability, and has offices, civic institutions, hotels, night clubs, bars, cafes, art galleries, and shops.

Understand
Pierre Charles L'Enfant's original plan for Washington, D.C. included a number of grand boulevards, radiating out and intersecting with one another in a way that would create public squares and green space. One such circle, Dupont Circle, lies at the intersection of Connecticut Ave, which emanates from the White House and runs roughly north-south, New Hampshire Ave, which runs diagonally, and Massachusetts Ave which runs roughly east-west.

The Dupont Circle area remained largely undeveloped until after the Civil War, when demand for housing from returning soldiers and freed slaves spurred additional development in D.C. Construction of the traffic circle, originally called Pacific Circle, began in 1871. In 1884, the circle was renamed after Civil War Rear Admiral Samuel Francis DuPont, partial heir to the DuPont family fortune, and a bronze statue of him was added. The statue was replaced in 1921 with the large marble fountain that remains to this day. The fountain was designed by Daniel Chester French and Henry Bacon, also the designers of the Lincoln Memorial, and features creatures that symbolize sea, the stars and the wind. It is now a popular gathering spot, with many places to sit.

In the early 1900s, the area became a popular place for wealthy Washingtonians to build their mansions, most notably on Massachusetts Ave.

In the late 1940s, a tunnel was built beneath Dupont Circle as part of a Capital Transit streetcar project. Streetcar service ended in 1962, and the underground space where it was located is now an event venue. Along with the streetcar tunnel, another tunnel was constructed to allow Connecticut Ave vehicle traffic to pass beneath, helping to alleviate traffic congestion around the circle.

While the neighborhood suffered considerably during the 1968 riots, it recovered faster than the adjacent neighborhoods of Shaw and the East End due in part to the trendiness brought on by the gay community, which brought a Bohemian feel the area, similar to Greenwich Village in New York City. In the 1980s and 1990s several clubs, bars, and shops opened in the area, furthering the gentrification process.

The neighborhood is now increasingly upscale due to its walkability, centrality and historic architecture, home to older professionals and a smaller wealthy elite who can afford some of the highest home prices in the city.

By Metrorail
Metro is exceptionally convenient in Dupont Circle—the Dupont Circle stop on the Red Line is right under the circle. The station's north and south exits are fairly far apart, so take a moment to figure out which one will get you in the direction you want to go.

For more information on riding the Metrorail in Washington DC, see Washington DC.

By bus
The following are the main bus routes operating in Dupont Circle, along with links to timetables and route maps. For more information on riding buses in Washington DC, see Washington DC.

 * G2 runs along P St between Georgetown and Shaw is a good way to travel east-west. It stops on P St just off the circle on both sides.

 * L2 is a good way to quickly get up 18th St to Adams Morgan—it runs up from K St along 20th to New Hampshire, around the circle, back on New Hampshire, and then up 18th St.

 * #42 runs between Chinatown and Mount Pleasant, stopping in Dupont Circle. It is a good alternative to the Metro to getting to the National Mall area, passing many historical buildings en route.

 * D.C. Circulator's Dupont Circle–Georgetown–Rosslyn "Light Blue" Line runs from the corner of 19th and N Streets, near the south exit of the Dupont Circle Metro station, to Rosslyn, via the West End and Georgetown.

By car
Unless you are an experienced D.C. driver, it is very easy to get confused in Dupont Circle, or worse yet, wind up on the barbarous circle.

Connecticut Ave is the main thoroughfare. Massachusetts Ave is busy as well, but its traffic patterns are too confusing to be of much practical value. If passing through, make sure to stay in the left lanes to go through a tunnel under the circle, not around it. Traffic is terrible on the circle, in volume, confusion, and rage. If you accidentally get stuck driving around the circle and don't know what you are doing, stay in the outer lane and get off to save yourself the headache. P St is the best route west to Georgetown.

Parking
Street parking is scarce, and limited to 2 hours during the daytime on weekdays. There are several parking garages, with daily rates in the $15-$20 range. Late at night, you can find street parking in the deserted business district just south of M St in the West End.

See

Embassy Row
Many of the buildings that now house embassies were once the luxurious residences of the rich and famous. If you have the opportunity, take a walking tour of embassy row and learn the stories behind these beautiful buildings.

Do
Dupont Circle has plenty of activities, albeit mostly geared towards adults. The actual Dupont Circle, around which the neighborhood is centered, has a nice park in the middle of the traffic circle. It's a favorite neighborhood spot to read, play chess, and people-watch. On summer weekends there are relatively frequent musical performances.

Think tanks
Dupont Circle has probably the highest concentration of major think tanks of any neighborhood in the U.S., if not the world. They host frequent free talks and panels during lunch hour (free food is often included) and happy hour. Topics include a variety of policy issues, some of which are very technical or esoteric and others of which are more generally accessible.

Art galleries
Most galleries in Dupont Circle participate in First Friday Dupont, an open house from 6PM-8PM on the first Friday of every month, with a strong social bent (cocktails, music, etc.).

Books and music
Dupont Circle may not have many bookstores, but those that are here are beloved city-wide.

Eat

Dupont Circle has plenty of dining options, from French and Kenyan to Korean and Thai, but this is increasingly expensive territory which has pushed the city's newer, hipper and trendier places further east towards Adams Morgan and U Street. For more affordable and cutting edge dining, visit the nearby neighborhoods of Shaw or Columbia Heights.

If you're visiting on a Sunday morning, be sure to check out the farmers market on 20th Street, one of the largest and best in the city.

Budget

Drink
There are bars, clubs, and lounges catering to all sorts of different people, but the general theme is that they are upscale or clubby - you won't find many dive bars here and you likely won't be allowed into a club wearing sneakers or shorts. The main nightlife stretches are along Connecticut Ave just north and south of the Circle, P St west of the Circle, and on 17th between P and T St.

There are plenty of cafes, which are far more affordable, including many Starbucks locations. Independent coffee shops are in ample supply as well, most of which offer outdoor seating in nice weather to watch the crowds go by.

Clubs
Dupont Circle is one of the major clubbing areas of the city.

Sleep

Dupont Circle is a great place to stay when in D.C., and should be even more popular than it is. Rates are more affordable than at the big chain hotels in the touristy East End or even more upscale West End, there are several charming independent options, it's a great area to come back to in the evening, has convenient metro service, and is just a few blocks north of the main business district. If staying towards the southwest end, you'll be right by the business district of the West End, and a short walk from Georgetown, while the northeast side puts you closer to main dining and nightlife strips.

Mid-range

Internet
Almost all cafes and restaurants in Dupont Circle offer free WiFi.

Go next

 * Adams Morgan - north along 18th St, this neighborhood is popular for its bars and nightlife
 * Georgetown - west along M to Q streets
 * Shaw - east along U St
 * Upper Northwest - just north of Dupont Circle, includes the free National Zoo

title: Washington, D.C./Dupont Circle


text:
Washington, D.C./East End

East End is D.C.'s old downtown quarter, east of 15th St, and includes the neighborhoods of Chinatown, Penn Quarter, Judiciary Square, and Mount Vernon Square. Most D.C. natives simply call this area Downtown.

Understand

The East End, just north of the National Mall, is home to several museums and event venues, and full of restaurants, bars, and large hotels. Pennsylvania Ave, which runs through the Penn Quarter from the White House to the Capitol Building, serves as a bridge from the city center to the Mall. As you might expect, this road has nice views.

Neighborhoods

Like the nearby neighborhood of Shaw, the East End was decimated during the 1968 riots. Many buildings were destroyed and it became a haven for drug dealers.

In the early 1990s, when Washington Capitals and Wizards owner Abe Pollin arrived for the first time by limousine at the intersection of 7th and F St NW to scout out possible sites for a new arena, he was told not to get out of the vehicle. The site, then a parking lot, had drug dealers doing business, and the neighborhood was crime-ridden and deserted at night. But, he decided that was the place to build his new arena. The Capital One Arena opened in December 1997, and since then, the neighborhood has experienced a remarkable turnaround with tremendous gentrification.

Penn Quarter is the commercial center of the East End. It includes Gallery Place, the bustling entertainment area between the Capital One Arena and the National Portrait Gallery. The Pennsylvania Ave stretch, whose sidewalks and parks comprise a National Park, is a staging ground for races, large festivals, and parades. Penn Quarter is distinguished from the rest of downtown by its 19th century buildings and facades. After the opening of the Capital One Arena in 1997, and the resulting development boom, many buildings were redeveloped as the ground-floor facades of apartments and office buildings, resulting in the creation of an "arts and entertainment" district. The biggest draw for visitors, however, is theater and museums.

Chinatown is to the north of Penn Quarter. While the neighborhood was majority Asian in the early 20th century, most of the Asian population moved out after the 1968 riots. The neighborhood is lively in the evenings and features many restaurants. Chinatown resembles a miniature Times Square with activity day and night into the wee hours. The city heavily promotes the original ethnic character—businesses in the neighborhood, businesses including Starbucks, and local banks are required to post signage in Chinese. But those expecting something like New York's Chinatown will be sorely disappointed—area residents have taken to calling it Chinablock. While there are several Chinese restaurants, they are mostly tourist traps and the best Chinese food is in the suburbs.

Judiciary Square, to the east of Penn Quarter, includes the United States District Court building, along with the D.C. Superior Court building, and various other government buildings. Just north, straddling into the neighborhood of Shaw, is the massive, 2.3 million square foot (210,000 m2) Convention Center, just north of Mt Vernon Square. The Convention Center was completed in 2003, and has since been the favorite site for presidential inaugural balls.

By Metrorail

Metrorail stops at Metro Center (on the Red, Orange, Blue, and Silver lines), Federal Triangle (Blue, Orange, and Silver), and Archives-Navy Memorial-Penn Quarter (Green and Yellow). The Gallery Pl-Chinatown station (Green, Yellow, and Red) is at the Capital One Arena—use the H St exit for Chinatown.

For the Convention Center, get off at Mount Vernon Square on the Green and Yellow lines. For Judiciary Square in the east, take the Red Line to Judiciary Square.

By car
The East End is probably the worst place to drive to in the city. On weekdays and during peak tourist season, street parking is either unavailable, or will take a long time to find. Most parking garages fill up by 9AM. Downtown traffic jams are frequent and awful. Take note of garage hours since you won't be able to get your car after the garages close.

The main north-south routes are 7th St (which turns into Georgia further north), as well as I-395 from Virginia, which terminates east of the Convention Center. Major east-west routes include H St, which runs through Chinatown, and Pennsylvania Ave. Crisscrossing the area on diagonals through Mt Vernon Square are New York Ave and Massachusetts Ave.

By taxi
It is possible to hail taxis from the street at almost any hour of the day or night, and they are a convenient way to travel relatively short distances.

By bus
The following are the main bus routes operating in the East End, along with links to timetables and route maps. For more information on riding buses in Washington DC, see Washington DC.

 * Woodley Park-Adams Morgan-McPherson Square Circulator Bus ($1) is a limited-stop/express bus that runs Su-Th 7AM-midnight, F Sa 7AM-3:30PM. It runs from McPherson Square, at the intersection of 14th St & K St, and goes north through Columbia Heights, Adams Morgan, and then on to the Woodley Park-Zoo Metro Station in Upper Northwest.
 * Georgetown-Union Station Circulator Bus ($1) is a limited-stop/express bus that runs Su-Th 7AM-midnight, F Sa 7AM-3:30PM. It runs through the south end of Mount Vernon Square, heading east along Massachusetts Ave to Union Station, and west along K St through the West End and on to Georgetown.
 * #31, #32 and #36 run along Pennsylvania Ave northwest to Georgetown and upper Wisconsin Avenue, as well as southeast to the National Mall.
 * #52 and #54 head up 14th St to Shaw.

By foot
The Penn Quarter area is an easy walk from the National Mall and the museums by walking north through the courtyards of Federal Triangle, past the National Archives. From the White House, walk east on Pennsylvania Avenue to G, F, or E St.

Landmarks and memorials

Convention Center

Buy
There are plenty of souvenir shops in the East End. There are great gift shops at the museums - be sure to see the gift shop of the National Building Museum if you visit.

Eat
The East End has everything from chain restaurants to high-end dining to overpriced tourist traps. Nearly all the really nice restaurants here are relatively big, loud, cramped, and impersonal—but they'll serve great food. Chinatown, while small, supplies several budget options, as long as you can appreciate the "special charms" of Chinatown service.

Budget
In addition to the restaurants listed below, there are many local and national fast food chains in the area.

Asian
There are several hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurants that serve both food and alcohol on H Street, between 5th and 8th Streets ("Chinatown"). The quality and prices vary; however, the food is generally subpar and the suburbs are known for having better Chinese food than DC proper.

Drink
There are plenty of places to drink in the East End. Most restaurants here have excellent bars, particularly if you like high-end cocktails surrounded by fashionable clientéle.

For a really unpretentious spot, try one of the Chinese places on H St, which stay open late, and serve "low-end" stiff tiki drinks, Chinese beers, and plentiful cheap sake late into the night.

Sleep
The East End is a good location, close to both the National Mall and the nightlife-centered districts of Shaw and Dupont Circle.

Connect
Most restaurants, cafes, museums, government buildings, and the metro station offer free WiFi. If you need to use a computer terminal, head to the MLK library.

Go next

 * The National Mall, is just to the south of the East End and is where you will find many of the city's museums and main attractions.
 * The nightlife here is plentiful and very visitor-friendly, but it is very much divorced from real Washingtonian culture. Head up to Shaw, Dupont Circle, and Adams Morgan to see how the locals like to wine, dine, and party.

title: Washington, D.C./East End


text:
Washington, D.C./Georgetown

Georgetown is a neighborhood in Washington, D.C., south of Upper Northwest and west of Dupont Circle. It is the oldest part of the city, with buildings dating back to 1751. The neighborhood is known for high-end shopping and dining, French-style cafes and cupcakeries, quaint 18th and 19th century rowhouses lining cobblestone streets reminiscent of Old Europe, sprawling estates, exclusive cocktail parties for the social and political elite, a glistening waterfront harbor, as well as Georgetown University and the associated rowdy collegiate nightlife. Several countries have embassies in Georgetown. Georgetown is physically separated from the rest of Washington by a ravine and the lack of a Metrorail station, and the feeling of separation persists in many ways to this day.

Understand
Georgetown is situated on bluffs overlooking the Potomac River. As a result, there are some rather steep grades on streets running north-south, as well as some great views over the Potomac. The famous "Exorcist Steps", which connect M St to Prospect St, were necessitated by the hilly topography. Several of these sloping streets remain unpaved and cobblestoned. Most of Georgetown's streets are lined with tall, old trees and quaint 18th-19th century architecture. Georgetown used to be an industrial area and many of the former warehouses and factories have been beautifully repurposed into apartments, hotels, and office buildings. In 2003, the former refuse incinerator was re-developed into the luxury Ritz-Carlton hotel. Georgetown is best explored by foot.

History
Georgetown used to be inhabited by the Nacotchanke Indians, who called it Tahoga. The first written European record of its existence was by English fur trader Henry Fleet, who wrote about the settlement in 1632. It was settled by the British in 1696, who quickly expunged the local population. Incorporated in 1751, Georgetown predates Washington and it remained a separate city from Washington until 1871. The name was either a tribute to King George II of Britain, or to George Gordon and George Beall, who owned most of the land at the time the city was founded.

In colonial times, Georgetown was at the northernmost navigable point on the Potomac River. As a port city it was an important center of Mid-Atlantic trade, particularly for locally-grown tobacco and slaves. In 1789, Georgetown University was founded as the first Jesuit university in the nation. Thomas Jefferson and Francis Scott Key both lived in Georgetown, and George Washington came over often to visit the popular taverns.

The $77 million Chesapeake and Ohio Canal was constructed in the 1820s along the west bank of the Potomac River, linking Georgetown to Ohio via Western Maryland. Due to the construction of the more efficient B&O Railroad and problems with flooding and silting, the project was a dramatic commercial failure, and operated at a loss, but its legacy exists in Georgetown today as a beautiful place to take a walk or bike ride. In the late 19th century, Georgetown's fortunes declined precipitously as both the Potomac and the canal became unnavigable due to increased sedimentation. The factories around the canal shut down, and Georgetown became a slum. As the city of Washington grew, the Anglo-elite moved to newer homes in the burgeoning city, while newly freed slaves fled the south and came to Georgetown. The black population of Georgetown almost doubled and it became a majority African-American neighborhood, with a white minority as late as the beginning of the Second World War.

In the mid-20th century Georgetown's fortunes changed rapidly, as well-educated residents moved here, drawn by its proximity to the city center and especially by its beautiful architecture. Meanwhile many residences occupied by African Americans and working class whites, were condemned by the city, in collusion with real estate interests who wanted a slice of the historic neighborhood. In the 1950s, then-senator John F. Kennedy moved to 33rd and N St, and since everyone wanted to be at Jackie O's parties, the city's social and political elite returned to Georgetown in droves. Many houses were renovated and Georgetown quickly became the most expensive part of D.C, synonymous with the city's old money elite.

Today, Georgetown caters to a privileged, wealthy, international, powerful, and even somewhat aristocratic crowd, although the university presence preserves a unique mixture of beer-soaked youthful (though affluent) college town and prosperous enclave. Historic African American institutions have declined as a result of the areas high prices, though a few places remain, notably Mount Zion Methodist Church and Cemetery and Rose Park.

By Metrorail
For more information on riding the Metrorail in Washington DC, see Washington DC.

There is no Metrorail station in Georgetown. Georgetown is an easy one-mile walk from either the Rosslyn Metrorail Station in Arlington or the Foggy Bottom Metrorail Station in the West End and is 1.5 miles from the Dupont Circle Metrorail Station. Walking across the Key Bridge to/from the Rosslyn Metrorail Station also offers some really nice views.

By bus
The following are the main bus routes operating in Georgetown, along with links to timetables and route maps. For more information on riding buses in Washington DC, see Washington DC.

 * D.C. Circulator Georgetown-Union Station Yellow Line ($1) operates along Wisconsin Ave in Georgetown, then along M St towards the West End, where it passes near the White House and then into the East End on its way to Union Station in Capitol Hill. The bus operates 7AM-9PM daily, every ten minutes, with additional night service to McPherson Square.
 * D.C. Circulator Dupont Circle-Georgetown-Rosslyn Blue Line ($1) operates between the Rosslyn Metrorail Station in Arlington and Dupont Circle via M Street (and the West End).
 * Metrobus #G2 runs along P St from the University's main gates to Dupont Circle, and on to Shaw.
 * Metrobus #30N & #30S run down Wisconsin Ave from Upper Northwest past the National Cathedral, then east through Georgetown along M St.
 * Metrobus #31 & 33 runs from Tenleytown-AU, down Wisconsin, and then along M St. then goes south into the West End and GW University (near the Kennedy Center) before continuing along Pennsylvania Ave to the National Mall, and then Capitol Hill. Unlike Metrobus #32 and Metrobus #36, which stop near the Foggy Bottom Metrorail Station (on Pennsylvania Ave, before the Circle near GW Hospital), Metrobus #31 picks up and drops off directly in front of the Metrorail station.
 * Metrobus #32 & #36 run down Wisconsin Ave from Upper Northwest past the National Cathedral, then east through Georgetown along M St, then down Pennsylvania Ave to the National Mall.
 * Metrobus #38B runs from Rosslyn, across the Key Bridge through Georgetown to Farragut Square.

By car
Driving in Georgetown is not a pleasant experience and not recommended. Streets are clogged, pedestrians are aggressive (that's right, the pedestrians), drivers impatient, major arteries reverse flow and become one-way during rush hour.

Wisconsin Ave and M St are the major arteries. The Whitehurst Fwy from K St is a quick way to get between Georgetown and the West End or the National Mall. The Key Bridge at the west end of M St connects Georgetown with Arlington, Virginia, Reagan National Airport, and Alexandria. The Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway provides quick access between Georgetown and the neighborhoods along Rock Creek Park in Upper Northwest.

Parking
Street parking is almost impossible to find. Parking is available at The Shops at Georgetown Park Parking Garage (32nd & M St) for $10/hour or $20/day or the less-convenient Georgetown University Southwest Garage (37th & O St) for $3/hour or $20/day.

By taxi
It is easy to find a taxi on M St or Wisconsin Ave any time of the day.

By boat
Potomac Riverboat Company operates water taxis from Alexandria to Georgetown ($15 one-way) with narrated tours of the monuments.

By bicycle
The Capital Crescent Trail runs from Georgetown to Silver Spring.

For information on bike-sharing programs in the Washington DC area, see Washington DC.

See
Although Georgetown is known principally for its pretty residential streets, shopping, and dining, it has some of the most historical attractions in D.C. Dumbarton Oaks is a highlight of any visit to the city. A visit to D.C. would also be remiss without a stop at Georgetown University's beautiful Main and Dalghren Chapel quads, the notorious Exorcist Steps, and the C&O Canal.

Do
D.C. has a lot of outdoor opportunities for such an urban area, and Georgetown is one of the best places to enjoy them. Theodore Roosevelt Island and its hiking trails are just across the Key Bridge (free ranger-led tours on weekends at 10AM), the C&O Canal is a great place for a walk or bike ride, and Georgetown is also becoming a major jumping off point for boats, from water taxis to kayaks. The Washington Harbor development at the south end of 31st St, is the center of maritime activity, as well as a favorite (if touristy) place for a stroll to take in the views of the city across the Potomac.

Buy
Georgetown is upscale shopping central, although you won't find many discount or touristy stores here. You'll find many upscale local shops and boutiques as well many national and international chains. Along with Friendship Heights in Upper Northwest and City Center downtown, Georgetown is one of three highly upscale shopping areas in the District.

Georgetown has many modern interior design stores and showrooms concentrated between 34th and 33rd along M south to the canal. Even if you are not interested in design, some of those air conditioned stores have some very comfortable couches that you might stop in to "try out" on a hot day.

Clothes
If you like fashion, you will love shopping in Georgetown. You may also wind up in financial ruin due to the high prices, albeit with great closet riches.

National and international upscale clothing retailers include Abercrombie & Fitch (1208 Wisconsin Ave), Anthropologie (3222 M St), Banana Republic (3200 M St), BCBG (3210 M St), Brooks Brothers (3077 M St), Club Monaco Ralph Lauren (3295 M St), Coach (3259 M St), Co-Op by Barney's New York (3040 M St), CUSP (3030 M St), Diesel (3033 Wisconsin Ave), The Gap (1258 Wisconsin Ave), Gap Athleta (3229 M St), Hugo Boss (1517 Wisconsin Ave), J Crew (3222 M St), Limited (3276 M St), Lucky Brand Jeans (3273 M St), Lululemon (3265 M St), Nike (3040 M St), Ralph Lauren (1245 Wisconsin Ave), UGG Australia (1249 Wisconsin Ave), Urban Outfitters (3111 M St), Zara (1238 Wisconsin Ave) and many more, all close to each other, especially on M St east (and two blocks west) of Wisconsin and Wisconsin Ave north of M. You can walk past them all in 15 minutes.

Discounted clothing can be purchased at TJ Maxx (3254 M St).

Books
For an upscale college town, Georgetown has an underwhelming selection of bookstores, but there are still a couple of good, small, independent stores.

Eat
Georgetown has one of D.C.'s best dining scenes, with loads of options on M St. The university presence ensures that there are a lot of good budget options, but it is the high end where Georgetown excels—from stuffy and traditional to modern and chic. For more affordable options, check the bars as well, where there are some excellent eats to be had (e.g., Martin's Tavern).

Bakeries
Cupcakes, coffee and pies are serious business here and it is common for people to wait in line for a long time to buy them.

Budget
National fast food chain restaurants are rare in Georgetown. For those looking for cheap fast food, in addition to the restaurants below, try Five Guys Burgers & Fries or Chipotle's Mexican Grill. A Cosi's is available in the Leavey Center on the campus of Georgetown University.

Splurge
Georgetown is the place to go for high-end dining in D.C. The food and wines are world-class.

Drink
There are many, many places to drink in Georgetown, from upscale, exclusive bars to college joints. In addition, many places are restaurants-by-day, bars-by-night. M St is the main drag for drinking, and you won't have to walk far to stumble in and grab a beer. The nightlife in Georgetown is crowded and plentiful, but a good deal less fashionable than in less-touristy hotspots such as Shaw and Adams Morgan. The booze may be overpriced, but it is nice to have some drinks in a neighborhood where you can walk the side streets intoxicated at night without any fear of getting mugged.

For dancing, El Centro DF, listed above, is a very popular option.

Sleep
Georgetown is generally expensive. If you want to stay near Georgetown on a budget, either look for deals, or head over the Key Bridge to Arlington, or up M Street to Dupont and the West End, where you'll find better options and save a couple percent on hotel taxes.

Internet access
Most, but not all of the cafes in Georgetown offer free WiFi.

If you don't have a computer or smartphone, the following libraries offer free access to computer terminals:

Go next

 * C&O towpath and park is a 184.5 mile trail that starts in Georgetown. A few minutes into your walk or bicycle ride, you are in the middle of a green and verdant linear park alongside the banks of the Potomac. As freeways and highways in the area aren't allowed to have billboards, you won't experience visual pollution as you traverse (although you will see and hear cars and planes). Nonetheless, much like Rock Creek, it's a great walk alongside nature.
 * Arlington, Virginia, originally part of D.C. proper, is a 10-15 minute walk or even shorter bike ride over the beautiful Key Bridge. After crossing the Key Bridge to Arlington, you can take the stairs on the east side at the end of the bridge to get on the Mount Vernon Trail, which heads east to the quiet refuge of Theodore Roosevelt Island, which sports some magnificent views of its own. Further along the trail, bikers and joggers enjoy spectacular river views of the monuments, going past the airport, Old Town Alexandria, and all the way to George Washington's estate at Mount Vernon.
 * Looking for less collegiate-style nightlife? Head east to Dupont Circle or even further to Adams Morgan for the city's trendier clubs and divier bars, as well as the city's main live music venues. Or head north up Wisconsin to Upper Northwest for quieter neighborhood bars serving a slightly older (better-mannered) crowd.

title: Washington, D.C./Georgetown


text:
Washington, D.C./National Mall

The National Mall, a national park, is a famous 2-mile-long tree-lined, pedestrian-friendly boulevard in Washington, D.C. stretching from the Capitol Building in the east to the Lincoln Memorial and Potomac River on the west. The park is home to many museums of the Smithsonian Institution, some of the best free museums in the country, as well as many famous memorials and monuments. It's the #1 destination for visitors in the city, and receives 25 million visitors per year.

History
D.C.'s city planner, Pierre (Peter) Charles L'Enfant, planned the park as the cultural center of the city in the late 1700s, but it didn't take the form it is in today until the early 1900s.

In the 1840s, the Mall was mainly used to cultivate vegetables and dump trash. In 1846, after much heated debate, under President James K. Polk, Congress established the Smithsonian Institution with the funds donated by James Smithson 20 years earlier. In 1855, construction of the Smithsonian Castle was completed, setting the precedent for educational buildings on the Mall. However, it was hard to access due to the Washington City Canal, which ran along what is now Constitution Avenue. Meanwhile, in 1848, construction on the Washington Monument began.

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Station was constructed in 1855 on the site of what is now the National Gallery of Art. The noise from trains frequently disrupted sessions of Congress. In addition, around 30 people died per year crossing the surface-level train tracks. In 1881, President Garfield was assassinated at this station 4 months into his term.

The year 1900 marked the 100th anniversary of the founding of Washington and inspired calls for a redesign of the Mall in accordance with L'Enfant's original grand plan. In 1901, Congress created the McMillan Commission, which included Frederick Law Olmstead, a landscape architect that designed New York City's Central Park. After touring cities in Europe, the McMillan Commission made numerous recommendations to emphasize the importance of the Mall including landscaping the Mall into a grassy area lined with elm trees, building the Lincoln Memorial, Memorial Bridge, the reflecting pool, the Tidal Basin, and the Jefferson Memorial, and moving the train station off the Mall.

Many monuments and memorials were added later on including those for Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Martin Luther King, Jr., as well as recent wars: World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.

The Mall has served as the principal gathering space for the nation's most important civic events, especially major protests and inaugural events. The Mall, particularly the Lincoln Memorial, has had an important history in the civil rights movement: in the 1963 March on Washington, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his famous I Have a Dream speech.

Over the years, the Smithsonian expanded to include an extraordinary collection of free public museums, the majority of which are in the eastern one-mile stretch of the park. The public favorites are the National Air and Space Museum and the National Museum of Natural History, famed for their respective magnificent collections of U.S. spacecraft and complete dinosaur fossils. The expansion continues, with the National Museum of African American History and Culture having opened on the Mall in 2016.

By Metrorail
The Metrorail was designed to be extremely convenient to the Mall and is the best option to get there if it is too far to walk or bike from your accommodation.

 * The Smithsonian Metrorail station is serviced by the Blue, Orange and Silver Lines, much like other stations in Downtown. The exit is convenient to get to many of the museums of the Smithsonian Institution. Federal Center Southwest Metrorail station is also serviced by the same Lines and is closer to the easternmost museums.
 * The Archives/Navy Memorial Metrorail station in the East End on 7th Street NW and L'Enfant Plaza Metrorail stations are both 0.3 miles from the Mall.
 * The closest Metrorail stations to the Lincoln Memorial on the west side of the Mall are Foggy Bottom station in the West End (0.8 miles), Arlington Cemetery, just across the Arlington Memorial Bridge in Arlington (0.8 miles), and Smithsonian station (1.2 miles)

By bus
Routes #31 and #32, #36 all run northwest up Pennsylvania Ave to M St through Georgetown, and then up Wisconsin Ave all the way to neighborhoods in Upper Northwest. You can catch these buses as far south as Independence Ave west of the Capitol Building (after which they run up 7th St to Pennsylvania Ave).

Routes #52, #53, and #54 provide a quick service up 14th St through the Mall to nightlife hotspots in Shaw.

Routes S1, S2, & S4 operate service up 16th Street, through Dupont Circle and Columbia Heights all the way to Silver Spring. This bus is convenient if you want to catch the Sunday Drum Circle in Meridian Hill Park.

By bicycle
Capital Bikeshare, the D.C.-area's bike-share service, has stations all over the city and throughout the Mall area, making it one of the easiest ways to get to and around the Mall. Just find the station nearest your hotel, get a daily membership, bike down to the Mall, and dock your bike at one of the stations.

Once you are on the Mall, Capital Bikeshare is the best mix of speed and convenience for moving around the Mall — or for leaving the Mall to grab lunch in the East End, where the food is better than the food trucks on the Mall. Museum-going is a tiring affair, and biking can help conserve your energy and stay out of the sun.

By car
Driving in and around the Mall is a great recipe for a headache due to chronic traffic jams, unintuitive traffic patterns, and very limited parking. Driving towards a monument doesn't mean the road will lead you towards it - more likely, it will hurl you across the river into Virginia. If there is a special event going on, you can easily get stuck for hours. Parking garages throughout the West End and East End fill up early with office workers. Garage prices are steep. The 2,194 car garage at Union Station, costing $24/day, usually has space available. Double check the garage hours, so you can exit before the garage closes! Another nearby parking garage is at the Ronald Reagan Building, which is very close to several museums. The rates are generally $25 all day on weekdays and $17 on weekends. Open 24 hours.

On evenings and weekends during the winter, it is sometimes possible to find metered parking on the Mall, with two-hour limits, although it may take a while to find a space. There is no enforcement of the time limit on Sundays or Federal holidays, so if you are lucky enough to find a spot, you can stay as long as you wish. Pay close attention to the hourly limits marked on street signs. If you remain parked on Constitution Avenue during rush hours, your chance of receiving a ticket is 100%.

The main north-south routes are 7th St, 14th St, and 17th St, while Pennsylvania and Independence Ave are the main routes for east-west traffic. If coming from Arlington, the simplest routes are I-395 to 14th St, or the Arlington Memorial Bridge to Independence Ave.

By taxi or rideshare
Taxis and rideshares are easy to get all day and night, and can be an especially convenient option from Georgetown, Capitol Hill, or Arlington. Aside from peak tourist seasons such as during the National Cherry Blossom Festival, when traffic slows to a halt, these can be a nice way to take a load off your feet and quickly get from one end of the Mall to the other. Uber and Lyft drivers often have difficulty locating passengers who have input a destination such as "Natural History Museum" or "Lincoln Memorial". It is advisable to check your exact location on the map provided or the driver may be sent to the other side.

By circulator bus

 * National Mall Circulator Bus runs M-F 7AM-8PM, Sa Su 9AM-8PM. Its route begins at Union Station, travels along Louisiana Avenue and loops around the Mall via Madison Drive, Constitution Avenue, West Basin Drive, Ohio Drive and Jefferson Drive, with a stop at all of the major points of interest. Fare is $1 per trip for adults, $.50 for seniors and disabled people, and free for kids under 5.

By pedicab
Pedicab guides have been authorized by the National Park Service to provide transportation and tours around the National Mall. You might find a few available pedicab guides near the memorials on the National Mall. Pedicab guides also tour on Capitol Hill and through other areas of Washington, DC. Nightlife rides and culinary tours can also be arranged, throughout the year, not just during the peak spring and summer travel seasons. These guides are available by SMS text message, telephone appointments, and website messages. Tours are typically offered for an hourly fee. Many visitors find a pedicab tour or ride to be the highlight of their trip to Washington D.C. Local residents find them a memorable way to enjoy a day on the mall, or a night on the town. A few companies offer pedicab tours of Washington, DC such as DC Pedicab, Nonpartisan Pedicab, and Wheel The People Pedicab Tours For more information, see Washington D.C..

See
There's a lot to see on the Mall. You can walk the whole Mall on an afternoon to admire the sights and monuments, but note that it is bigger than it looks—over two miles end-to-end (3.2 km)—an illusion that is reinforced by the sheer size of the Capitol Building, Washington Monument, and Lincoln Memorial. What looks like a short stroll can quickly turn into a long, painful march in the sun on a humid D.C. summer day.

Moreover, you will want to budget some good time to visit the museums. Even a month's visit would not be enough to really devour all the Smithsonian's collections, so pick and choose according to your interests. The art galleries are fantastic, but bad for kids, who will on the other hand love the Natural History and Air and Space Museums (as will adults).

A great way to see a lot during a limited stay is to visit museums during the day and monuments at night. The museums usually close at 5:30 PM, so head to dinner after the visit, then take a long walk to visit the monuments in the dark when the air cools, and when the monuments are their most beautiful. It's a popular activity in the summer, so you won't be alone even after midnight.

Museums
The Smithsonian is a complex of 19 large museums, the majority of which are on the east end of the Mall, all of which are free, and are open every day except Christmas.

East–west along the north side:

East–west along the south side:

West section
East–west:

Do

The Mall is a public gathering space not just for protesters and pigeons, but also for locals and visitors alike who are more interested in a jog, a game of frisbee, or just a picnic out on a beautiful section of the nation's capital, in the company of monuments, history, and public art. Keep in mind, though, that a hot summer day, with the unbearable humidity, can be the worst time of the year for this—you will inevitably rush inside to the air conditioned sanctuary of the nearest museum.

Buy
The Mall is a great place to get souvenirs. All the museums have excellent gift shops and those owned by the Smithsonian are tax-free. The largest can be found in the National Museum of American History and the National Air and Space Museum. Of course, the cheaper option is to pick up your souvenirs from the street vendors along the Mall, although, as you would expect, the quality is a big step down from the museum shops.

Eat

The larger museums have cafeterias and cafes of varying prices and quality. However, your best bet on the mall is to eat at one of the food trucks - serving everything from burgers to vegetarian entrees - located at each end of the Mall. Walk around and look at which seems to be the most appetizing.

Your absolute worst bet are the little huts on the mall itself. Due to their monopoly on food over the outdoor part of the mall, they have absolutely atrocious prices and portions compared to even the Smithsonian restaurants and are much less tasty too, simply consisting of prepackaged food.

Alternatively, you can go north to the East End for chain fast casual restaurants or south to the Waterfront for some fresh-out-of-the-water crabs and other seafood.

Drink
The Mall is a national park and no booze is allowed except in very limited areas. If you want to find a bar, you have three options, head north to the East End, south to the Waterfront, or east to Capitol Hill. Of the three, the Pennsylvania Ave strip on Capitol Hill to the east has superior options to the touristy bars just north. It's within easy walking distance of the Capitol Building. If you are over by the Lincoln Memorial, you could try your luck northward to the West End, with bars near George Washington University.

You can also enjoy a beer at the cafe in the National Museum of the American Indian or a glass of wine or beer at the Sculpture Garden at the National Gallery. Beer and wine is also available from food concession kiosks located near the Natural History Museum, the Air and Space Museum, the Jefferson Memorial, and the Lincoln Memorial. You can only consume while seated at the tables provided.

If you are here on a summer day, bring water. The museums have plenty of water fountains, but you'll need water outside. The huge sandy park that is the Mall is fun for throwing around a football, or for letting the kids loose to chase pigeons, but all that sand and gravel reflects the awful D.C. summer humid heat. The street vendors stock water bottles in large supply, but charge a big markup—bringing a couple bottles from wherever you are staying is a good idea.

Sleep
People have camped out on the Mall or the Ellipse, waiting in line to get tickets for the annual White House Easter Egg Roll and other special events. Aside from that, there is neither camping nor accommodations on the Mall.

There are scores of hotels within walking distance to the Mall, at all price ranges, in the East End and West End, as well as a few in Capitol Hill. But given the great service to the Mall via Metrorail, it's reasonable to stay anywhere in the city or the close-in suburbs near a Metrorail station. Arlington, Virginia is particularly close.

Connect
Most of the National Mall, including inside of the museums, has free WiFi. The outdoor WiFi on the National Mall is very weak.

Stay safe
The National Mall is very heavily policed and very safe. Muggings have occurred at night and received major press coverage due to their sensational nature, but they are extremely rare. Use the most basic common sense and you're guaranteed a lovely evening late into the night. (Note, though, that the fountains are turned off at midnight, so it is better to see the sights beforehand.)

Most of the museums on the Mall require security screenings to enter.

Go next

 * Some of the city's best museums are not on the Mall! The East End is home to many more renowned museums, including the National Archives (where you'll find the U.S. Constitution), the National Portrait Gallery, and the National Building Museum. Head a few blocks south to find the International Spy Museum or the Museum of the Bible.
 * The three branches of the government are located just around, but not on, the Mall. The White House is just north of the Washington Monument in the West End; the must-see Capitol Building and the Supreme Court are just east on Capitol Hill.
 * The most famous war memorial in the area, Arlington National Cemetery is just across the Potomac River from the Lincoln Memorial, via the Arlington Memorial Bridge in Arlington. At the northern tip of the cemetery is the marvelous Iwo Jima Memorial; at the southern tip, the Pentagon.

title: Washington, D.C./National Mall


text:
Washington, D.C./Near Northeast

Near Northeast refers to the area just north of Capitol Hill and Union Station, but south of Brookland.

Understand
The boundaries of Near Northeast are North Capitol St to the west, Florida Ave to the north, F St to the south, and 15th St to the east. The neighborhood is just south of Gallaudet University.

The Atlas District refers to H St NE between North Capitol St and 15th St NE. This is the most popular part of the neighborhood for visitors due to its bars, restaurants, and shopping. It is named after the Atlas Theater (opened in 1938), now the Atlas Performing Arts Center, at 1338 H St NE. Compared to other nightlife-centered neighborhoods, the Atlas District attracts a slightly older, more eccentric and artsy, more local, and almost certainly less drunken crowd.

NoMa refers to the area just north of Union Station, near the NoMa-Gallaudet U Metrorail Station.

History
Near Northeast has long since been a popular area for immigrants to settle. By the 1950s, it had become predominately African-American. The neighborhood suffered some of the biggest damage during the 1968 riots that left 1,200 buildings in the city destroyed and, like many areas of eastern D.C., it was reduced to urban blight for decades.

However, since the turn of the century, efforts have been made to revitalize the neighborhood and make it a destination for locals and visitors. In 2004, under new ownership, the Atlas Theatre underwent a $22-million renovation. In 2006, Joe Englert, a local entrepreneur, purchased 8 properties on H St NE between 12th St NE & 14th St NE and converted them into top destination restaurants, bars, and concert venues. In 2012, Union Market, a warehouse-style indoor market just west of Gallaudet University, was renovated and re-tenanted.

By Metrorail
For more information on riding the Metrorail in Washington DC, see Washington DC.

The Red Line stops at Union Station and NoMa–Gallaudet U, both of which are a short walk from the nightlife in the Atlas District.

By streetcar
The DC Streetcar operates from Union Station down H St NE, through the Atlas District. The service runs every 10–15 minutes Mondays through Saturdays.

By bus
For more information on riding buses in Washington DC, see Washington DC. The following bus lines that are useful when visiting Near Northeast:

 * X2 runs along H St every 15 minutes during the day, but every 30 minutes after 10PM, all the way to the East End.
 * B2 is useful for going to the National Arboretum or to Capitol Hill.
 * 90, 92 runs from Near Northeast to the nightlife-centered U St in Shaw as well as to Anacostia.

By car
A car is not necessary to visit Near Northeast, but it is the most convenient option, provided you trust yourself to navigate all the treacherous twisting diagonals. Routes US-1 and US-50 are both quick options to head east out of the city towards I-495 Capital Beltway.

By bicycle
A bicycle is a great option for visiting the areas that are hard to reach by Metrorail. For information on bike-sharing programs in the Washington DC area, see Washington DC.

Drink
The Atlas District offers D.C.'s most eclectic, most unique, most off-beat nightlife. This isn't simply a strip full of hipsters lounging in dives—the different venues, bars, and lounges all have a very strong sense of individual character. Since many venues are on H St NE between 12th St & 14th St, you can have a very easy one-night crawl! Most of the restaurants become bars later on in the night as well.

Budget
There are several budget and mid-range hotels along US-50/New York Avenue NE just north of Gallaudet University and the National Arboreteum. These hotels mostly cater to motorists entering the city via US-50. Some of these hotels offer free shuttle buses to Union Station and are cheap options for those who are driving to D.C. but don't want to actually drive in the city. However, many are close to a noisy rail line and are quite dingy so be sure to check online reviews prior to booking.

In addition, there are several nicer and more expensive hotels just northeast of Union Station.

Connect
The NoMa Business Improvement District offers free outdoor WiFi in the area just north of Union Station. In addition, most restaurants and cafes offer free WiFi.

Go next
Besides the obvious trip south to Capitol Hill, you can also head north on the Red line to Brookland, the "Little Vatican" home to the Catholic University and the stunning National Shrine.

title: Washington, D.C./Near Northeast


text:
Washington, D.C./Shaw

Shaw is a neighborhood in north-central Washington D.C. just east of Dupont Circle and south of Adams Morgan and Columbia Heights. Although it has a diverse population, Shaw is distinctive from the adjacent areas due to its African-American heritage. It is popular due to its jazz clubs, bars, high-end bars and lounges, and for the marvelous food, including many Ethopian eateries. As a note, Logan Circle and the U Street Corridor are included for the purposes of this guide.

Understand
Shaw is a large area that borders the near neighborhoods of Logan Circle, Truxton Circle, and the sub neighborhoods of the U Street Corridor/Cardozo and Blagden Alley. It is bounded by 15th St NW, Florida Ave (formerly Boundary St), North Capitol St, and M St NW.

The neighborhood, named after Civil War Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, was first developed starting in 1865 when the end of the Civil War led to a huge increase in demand for new housing in Washington, D.C. The extension of streetcar lines in the early 1900s up 7th St and 14th St also spurred additional development.

Because Shaw was not affected by covenants that prohibited property sales to African Americans, Shaw became the center of African-American culture in Washington and was home to many black-owned businesses, entertainment venues, and other institutions. It was the birthplace of jazz great Duke Ellington, who lived on the 1200 block of T St. It was the center of Washington's music scene and includes the historic Howard Theater (opened in 1910), Lincoln Theatre (opened in 1921), and Bohemian Caverns jazz club (opened in 1926).

Following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in April 1968, riots broke out at the intersection of 14th St & U St. The riots resulted in significant damage to 1,200 buildings and resulted in thousands of permanent job losses. With the introduction of crack cocaine in the 1970s and 1980s and the subsequent flight of residents and businesses from the area, Shaw succumbed to urban blight. The entire neighborhood was considered to be unsafe due to rampant prostitution and drug use.

However, beginning in the early 1990s, a wave of gentrification restored the area. In 1986, the Reeves Center, a municipal office building, opened at the intersection of 14th St and U St, bringing thousands of jobs to the area. The Shaw-Howard University Metro Station opened in 1991. In 2000, a Whole Foods supermarket opened at the intersection of 14th & P Street and quickly became one of the retailer's highest grossing stores. Between 2000 and 2002, Harrison Square, the first large scale residential development in the area in a long time, was constructed. Since then, dozens of upscale businesses have opened and thousands of apartments have been constructed. Houses at Harrison Square, which cost $200,000 in 2000-2002, were selling for $900,000 in 2015.

The U Street Corridor (aka Cardozo) is a vibrant collection of boutique shops, restaurants, nightclubs, and art galleries along U St NW between from 9th St and 18th St. The corridor first became commercially significant when a streetcar line operated along U St in the early 20th century. It was and is still known as Black Broadway, the center of African American cultural life from the turn of the century well into the 1950s. It was particularly known as a hub for jazz music, predating the Harlem Renaissance, due to its many Black-owned live music and performance venues, a rarity in segregated pre-World War II America.

Logan Circle, named after Civil War general John A. Logan, is a traffic circle as well as a historic district whose commercial area centers around 14th Street. The beautiful Victorian buildings in this area were less affected by the riots and this area is now highly sought after. Once a seedy red light district, it has long since gentrified to become one of Washington's most fashionable addresses, with many new high-rise condos in between million dollar rowhouses. Most working class residents and artists have long been priced out, moving to Columbia Heights and further east. Logan has become an upscale alternative to U Street, with many trendy bars, restaurants, and clubs drawing people from all parts of the city and surrounding areas. Given its proximity to Dupont Circle, many foreign tourists also flock to Logan Circle, looking for something more edgy.

And finally, the Blagden Alley/Naylor Court area near the Washington Convention Center has emerged as a sub-neighborhood of Shaw, with its own distinct identity. Once a shabby-chic haven for artists and skaters, it now one of the city's finest dining areas, something of a shock to old time Washingtonians. The Michelin-starred Dabney and other trendy haunts lead the way. If you love food, you'll definitely want to make a pilgrimage to Blagden.

By Metrorail
For more information on riding the Metrorail in Washington DC, see Washington DC.

Shaw is serviced by the following Metrorail stations on the Green line:

By bus
The following are the main bus routes operating in Shaw, along with links to timetables and route maps. For more information on riding buses in Washington DC, see Washington DC.

 * Woodley Park-Adams Morgan-McPherson Square Circulator Bus ($1) is a limited-stop/express bus that runs Su-Th 7AM-midnight, F Sa 7AM-3:30PM. In Shaw, it stops on 14th St & U St and 14th & P St. It runs from McPherson Square, near the West End, and goes north through Columbia Heights, Adams Morgan and then on to the Woodley Pak-Zoo Metro Station in Upper Northwest.
 * X3 is a very convenient express route heading west from U St/Cardozo through Adams Morgan to area in Upper Northwest including Woodley Park, the National Zoo, and Tenleytown.
 * #52, 53, 54 run along 14th St from the National Mall up to the Columbia Heights Metrorail Station.
 * #S1, S2, S3, & S4 run along 16th St from the National Mall to Silver Spring.
 * #70 is a line that runs on 7th Street/Georgia Ave from the Archives Metro Station to the Silver Spring Metro Station.

By car
Driving is definitely not recommended if you are not familiar with the area. The main streets are 14th St, R St, 9th St, 7th St, and Florida Ave. North Capitol St is a good and relatively uncongested artery heading north towards Maryland and the I-495 Capital Beltway. Avoid driving on U St, because it is one of the most congested streets in D.C. On-street parking is possible on the quieter side streets any time of the week.

See

Do
The Greater U Street Heritage Trail is a self-guided walking tour with downloadable audio that will have you visiting major sights in the neighborhood.

Theatre

Buy
U St is the place for the more funky, local, boutique shopping, although discounts are hard to come by.

The art galleries on 14th St have the most exciting contemporary exhibits in the city.

If you are up for some seriously exotic shopping, head to Little Ethiopia on 9th Street, south of U St, to sample the various Ethiopian stores and food markets.

Galleries

Eat
Shaw and Logan Circle offer countless options when it comes to found, with an array of cuisines available. Shaw is famously on the cities top venues for African American and Caribbean food, though their number have declined, many historic institutions remain, most famously Ben's Chili Bowl on U Street. The U Street Corridor is also a hub for African food, particularly Ethiopian and West African cuisines. Little Ethiopia, on 9th St just south of U St, has the best Ethiopian restaurants outside of Addis Ababa. While the number of Ethiopians in the D.C. area has been debated, D.C. is widely considered to have the largest number of Ethiopian ex-pats anywhere in the world and Shaw is the epicenter of their community. To brush up on your Ethiopian dining etiquette, see Washington, D.C..

True to its heritage, Shaw is home to dozens of soul food diners, many of which have been in D.C. much longer than most residents. You won't find the best soul food in the world here, but the feel of these restaurants, which are sometimes covered wall-to-wall in pictures of famous celebrities that visited decades ago, give you a unique peek into the history and culture of D.C.

In contrast Logan Circle, is home to the cutting edge of the DC culinary scene, home to chef driven restaurants that give the best of New York City and Paris a run for their money. As such, prices are notably higher than nearby Shaw/ U Street, however the quality is impressive. 14th street is home to an endless array of cuisines, just walk down the street and go where ever takes your fancy.

On the other end of Shaw, Bladgen Alley, is a slightly more low-key but extremely trendy restaurant area with an excellent array of cuisines. Few tourists make their way here, which means prices are lower than Logan Circle and Dupont, and restaurants are packed with locals and gourmands in the know. Expect great quality, chef-driven food for the price, reminiscent of trendy parts of Brooklyn or Montreal.

As noted below in the Drink section, Shaw also has many independent chic cafes that serve sandwiches at low prices.

Budget
For the cheapest options, try one of several Mediterranean or pizza hole-in-the wall restaurants.

African

Cafes
Shaw is popular for its non-chain cafes, each with its own unique character, although the vibe is almost always hip and liberal.

Bars and lounges
Shaw has several very classy bars. These are not the places where you will find cheap beer.

Music venues
Live music finds its home in Shaw, particularly around U St. The Black Cat and the 9:30 Club are two of the city's most prominent music venues, playing host to plenty of national acts of all types, drawing varying crowds.

Nightclubs
The clubbing scene in Shaw is a younger, hipper alternative to grungy Adams Morgan or upscale Dupont Circle but can get very crowded on Fridays and Saturdays.

Sleep
Most accommodation options in Shaw are in the southwest section of the neighborhood, close to Dupont Circle, the East End, and within walking distance of the National Mall, while other options are further east, close to the convention center. In addition to large hotels, there are a couple small B&B options, although they have much less amenities to offer.

Stay safe
As in many nightlife-centered neighborhoods of Washington, DC, Shaw has a significant problem with drunken belligerent behavior on weekends, particularly around the bars and the public housing projects.

Avoid walking on dark side streets; even some more well-traveled areas like 9th St and parts of Florida Ave can get a little too quiet after midnight.

Drunken club-goers stumbling out of venues on U St, or concert venues such as the 9:30 Club and Black Cat are often targeted for petty theft. Keep an eye on your belongings, and remember to refocus your alertness upon leaving the club.

Vagrants, while annoying, will usually stop bugging you if you keep up your pace and just give them a polite smile and a "sorry."

Smash-and-grab robberies of parked cars has mostly moved to Northeast DC and less well off areas, but can occur on busy weekends.

Connect
There are plenty of cafes that have free WiFi. If you need to use a computer terminal, visit the neighborhood library.

Go next

 * Dupont Circle and 18th St in Adams Morgan are both within easy walking distance for additional nightlife, bars, and cafes. Near Northeast has more choices as well but is further away.
 * If you want to delve further into D.C.'s African-American history, cross the river to Anacostia!

title: Washington, D.C./Shaw