I'm an Europoor that will be living in Washington DC during the summer.
What are the best things that you can see there and in cities and states nearby in the US?
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I'm an Europoor that will be living in Washington DC during the summer.
If you're into museums DC, Philly, NYC all have some great ones.
You'll have access to amtrak which can be used to get to NYC in 3-4 hours, Boston in ~7-8. Which can be done cheaply if booked in advance.
Besides that DC has some cool monuments and neat looking buildings.
If you're into outdoors shit you're not too far from Appalachia, but you'll need a car.
Updating this:
I was wondering if non-car travel is even possible. You think it's best to find some buddies to travel by car?
In short, I'm good on cash but I don't like to overspend on bullshit. How sustainable is air travel? Any tips and tricks?
I have soft spots for places like Leesburg, Fredericksburg, and the old historic sites of Tidewater Virginia. Berkeley Springs, WV can be a cute little spot to get your feet wet and have a drink as a quick road trip stop. Parts of the PA highlands can also be quite lovely, pic related.
Also before you venture out if the District, try to make some effort to acquaint yourself with the local music scene. It's really quite good and distinctive.
>no car
Most of the cities and bigger suburbs of the Northeast can be reached by train and bus. Fredericksburg, for example, is easily accessible from DC. Doing anything more adventurous is challenging without a car. Don't take the Greyhound.
You can do Amtrak to Richmond, NYC, or Boston for a day trip or a weekend.
If you're fine sleeping overnight in a train seat, or are willing to pay for airfare or an amtrak bedroom, Chicago is another decent city within a reasonable distance of DC.
Most comments ITT are pretty good advice (t. lived all over Virginia). Addressing some specific items:
For public transit, the DC Metro is probably not as good as many Euro trains but for the US it's one of the better ones. If you're able to stay near one of the stations it'd be cheaper than buying/renting a car for day-to-day travel around the city. Amtrak is the light rail that can take you further to Philadelphia/New York/etc which all have their own separate subway systems. If you want to do virtually anything outside of the cities, you'll need a car. Bus systems are generally bad everywhere.
Re: air travel, I'd only do it for cities that aren't along that northeast corridor. Amtrak is generally cheaper, and it's only about a 3 hour trip from DC to NYC. Looking at Google Flights, flights down to Miami, Atlanta, and Chicago regularly go for under $100.
Spitballing some other ideas:
> Shenandoah National Park is the only national park within easy driving distance, rent a car and make it a weekend trip
> civil war and Revolutionary War monuments are all over the place, Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown, Harper's Ferry, Fredericksburg, and Gettysburg are big ones. Mount Vernon where George Washington lived is a day-trip about 30 minutes outside of DC.
> Busch Gardens is probably the best theme park in the region, themed after Europe so YMMV.
> within DC proper, the big ones to do are all along the Washington Mall (Smithsonian museums, Capitol building, White House, monuments, etc). That's a few days worth of things to do by itself. Many of these will have tours, even the Pentagon out by Crystal City, but you'll need to book in advance.
> Lastly, beaches in the mid-Atlantic are nice during the summer, and there are a million nice spots along the Chesapeake Bay. For the Atlantic proper, +1 to other recommendations for Ocean City as a starting point and if that's too much then just going to public beaches a few miles north or south of that.
Updating this:
I was wondering if non-car travel is even possible. You think it's best to find some buddies to travel by car?
In short, I'm good on cash but I don't like to overspend on bullshit. How sustainable is air travel? Any tips or tricks?
Great Falls of the Potomac
Harpers Ferry
Downtown Annapolis
Federal Hill, Inner Harbor and Canton in Baltimore
Ocean City Maryland
Assateague Island
Mount Rag
Shenandoah National Park
This and adding the C&O canal footpath (it's like 100 miles long starting in DC so plenty of places to go and it's along the river and scenic). My grandfather used to take me there and I really liked it.
What are you interested in and what are you okay with skipping?
I went to college in Maryland. I loved going out in DC, but Baltimore is lot less snobbish. DC has a lot of gays and hipsters in the bars.
There is a good fast train between DC and Baltimore. You should absolutely take the train the Baltimore and go to an Orioles game at Camden Yards. It's still one of the best stadiums in baseball. You can walk over to Federal Hill afterwards and do a bar crawl. Pub Dog, Magerks for a good cheesesteak and cheap beer, Nobles, Mother's. Those are all great locals bars with a white, 20-40 year old, middle class vibe.
You have to do Ocean City. It's one of the trashiest and most fun boardwalks in the US. It's also really cheap because there are so many shitty motels. Try to go on weekend to really see it in all it's glory. Rent a car for that. The bus takes forever and the drive over the Bay Bridge is amazing and absolutely worth the trip. If you're into seafood, the food is godly. Maryland crabcakes are legit. You also want a car to drive down to see the wild horses on Assateague.
DC is pretty central to most major cities in the US i.e. Chicago, New York, Boston, etc. You can hop down to Florida if you want to see some beaches. The summers in DC are humid and fricking suck. All these insufferable morons here who can't wait for winter to be over.
>summer
have fun
but seriously, dc is awesome because so much of it is free. you can just dip in and out of the museums, etc. as you see fit. great for getting out of the heat.
it's also a great city for cycling. if you're spending the whole summer there, i'd recommend picking up a used bike instead of relying on capital bikeshare. maybe get the metro up to bethesda and ride the capital crescent trail or canal path down to roosevelt island and then onto gravelly point?
You can do Shenandoah as a day trip. Go further into Virginia and you can go to the old colonial towns, which are some of the nicer parts of america. They're very charming and quite distinct.
Annapolis is a good day trip. Can go over the bridge towards Delaware. St Michaels was nice but sleepy.
I interned for a summer in D.C. I had a love-hate relationship with the place. Try to make some friends early, see the monuments, go to the bars in Georgetown, Alexandria, Arlington, DuPont Circle or wherever else is the trendy place these days, and then rent a car to drive out to Shenandoah etc. Amtrak up to Philly might be worth it. Drive out to Valley Forge and whatnot if you can.
It gets pretty hot and very humid so be prepared for that. The east side of D.C. is an African slum.
>What are the best things that you can see there and in cities and states nearby in the US?
lived here my entire life
DC:
Anywhere that's not near the water or on/near the mall has the potential to be dangerous, especially at night
things to see
>Tidal basin cherry blossoms (currently under construction)
>WWII, Jefferson, Lincoln, Washington monuments, you can ignore all others
>Museum of Nat History, Hirshhorn museum
>Natl Air & Space Museum
>Ignore the WH and Capitol Building, they're boring along with most of the rest of the museums
>National Cathedral
>The Wharf is nice now
MD:
Anywhere that's not MoCo has the potential to be dangerous
things to see
>Bon Secours in Baltimore - super shitty hospital with razor wire around it, cool to look at
>Great Falls from the MD side is less crowded than the VA side, also has more to explore
>buy a cheap tube and tube down the potomac starting from Brunswick, MD
VA:
Generally pretty safe except for Richmond, Norfolk, black people areas down around there. Fredericksburg kind of sucks and isn't worth visiting unless you want to drink. Colonial Williamsburg is great and has a bunch to do. Richmond is copy-paste old east coast city, basically baltimore but less shitty
things to see
>Udvar-Hazy ctr in Dulles
>Leesburg Main Street, tons of antiques and restaurants
>Bull Run battlefield in Manassas
>Tysons Corner
>Reston Town Center
>Great Falls Park
>Shenandoah
To do anything outdoors, you're going to have to drive ~45min or be stuck in a small forest enclave in the DC burbs. VRE/Amtrak goes north-south, but everything north of DC is absolute dogshit. The Potomac is fun in the summer.
If you'll be here for multiple months, you'll honestly have more fun drinking and ubering places. DC has fallen off, but Clarendon and Arlandria have nice drinking spots, as does Bethesda.
If you play golf, you'll have a ton of fun near DC.
as for cities and states nearby:
>Delaware: utterly boring and sucks, unless you want to partake in a nice auto race at Dover Downs
>Maryland: a dangerous shithole unless you're in Montgomery County or more specifically Cabin John. Fredneck is a fun place but a hike to get to. The people there are weird and likely distant relatives of each other.
>Virginia: NoVA is utterly soulless but has an enormous amount to do. Stay away from Springfield; there's nothing to do there. Richmond is OK, but nothing to write home about. Charlottesville, Roanoke, etc. are all empty shitholes.
>New Jersey: avoid it, it sucks, it's terrible, there's nothing fun there
>Pennsylvania: Fun stuff, you'll need to take a train. If you like the outdoors and mountains, PA is where it's at.
>West Virginia: Boring as shit but it's probably the most accessible version of "what was america like before AIPAC fricked everything up for everyone." Nice people.
>Carolinas: just avoid them, there's nothing there
>Georgia: Can't say enough about Savannah, super fricking fun city for the summer, aesthetic as frick with all of the spanish moss. Worth visiting if you get the chance
>New York: Sucks nuts, but upstate's beautiful, see Lake George
>Massachusetts: Boston's fun, Salem's homey and full of spooky shit
>NH/VT, etc: Visit Lake Winnipesaukee
My rec is, take 5-6 days off at least once and take the train up, skipping NY, and go to Boston to see the harbor and everything there. Then spend a night in Salem and see the other side of the harbor. Rent a car, go explore the lakes in NH, drive through Upstate NY, visit Ticonderoga, drive south to Lake George, then to Albany, drop your car off in NYC, and take the train back. Nothing else on the east coast is really worth seeing.
If you end up having time, US bucket list cities are probably San Diego, LA, Colorado Springs/Denver, and Las Vegas. Everything else is just standard neo-americashit
The Carolina coast has some of the most pristine and gorgeous beaches in the US. The Outerbanks are absolutely worth seeing. Asheville has one of the best brewery scenes in the world if you're into beer. North Carolina also an amazing place for hiking if you're into waterfalls. The food is fricking amazing too. You won't eat better BBQ anywhere.
I'd also add that West Virginia has arguably the best white water rafting in the US if you're into that.
>The Outerbanks are absolutely worth seeing
I would say if you're on limited time, go to Hilton Head instead, as Savannah is like an hour away. The last time I was in OBX, the beaches were rocky from the string of east coast hurricanes we had that wrecked the sand.
One thing that swings in OBX' favor is the non-tourist part. If you go to OBX, head north of Nags Head and do hang-gliding on the dunes or rent a four-wheeler and go see the wild horses
One anon mentioned Ocean City, which is a shithole and should be avoided. Maybe 10 years ago it was OK but you're better off going south if beaches are your thing, since the water is also almost unswimmably cold above the outlet of the Chesapeake
>San Diego, LA, Colorado Springs/Denver, and Las Vegas.
Why recommend Denver and LA to someone without a car over Chicago? Magnificent Mile and North Side are worth a couple days.
Denver has a lot of violent crime, even beating out Chicago now in some respects
>US News and World Report further elaborated on the topic, noting that Denver's crime rate was higher than that of the typical city of a similar size. According to the data presented in their report, 479.1 violent crimes are committed per 100,000 people in Denver. This compares to Chicago's 252.8. Meanwhile, Denver's property crime rate is 3,187.6 per 100,000 people, compared to Chicago's 1,174.
https://denvergazette.com/outtherecolorado/news/colorado-city-among-most-dangerous-places-to-live-in-us-says-report/article_741e6f60-f5cc-11ed-8147-0f4cdd85841a.html
https://denverite.com/2023/11/21/a-new-era-of-violent-crime-in-denver-shows-few-signs-of-slowing-down/
I wouldn't stay in denver, I'd just fly in since Denver Airport in itself is kind of a spectacle. The route south from Denver to Colorado Springs is absolutely beautiful, and I don't think that you can see that kind of view driving up above the cloud line on your way to Castle Rock anywhere else on earth except for maybe the Karst-y areas of China. CoSpr is a little crime-y as well, but if you stay west near the USAFA and Pike's Peak, you'll avoid the worst of it.
LA is just "king of the west coast cities"
The insane sprawl is fun to see, and you can do gay shit like Sunset Blvd and the hollywood hills.
Any time I go to LA, I do it exactly the same as Las Vegas
>Spend one day in LA, then head East to the high desert
>Spend one day in Las Vegas proper, then head North or West to VoF or RRC
>I don't think that you can see that kind of view driving up above the cloud line on your way to Castle Rock
>Karst-y areas of China
I drive that route every day for work; not to be rude but what the frick are you talking about? Between Denver and the Springs is almost unbroken suburbia with a view of some boring mountains in the middle-distance. If by karst you mean the Hogback, it's barely visible from the road. You could throw a dart at a map and hit a more interesting stretch of highway.
Seriously? Maybe it's changed since I was there last. The last time I went Denver to CoSpr was probably 2015-16
>expensive
true
>courses are packed
sometimes
Reston National and Westfields are spectacular clubs, Westfields in particular is kept up very well. You'd have to drive out to Chantilly from DC, but I'm in the DMV habit of calling everything north of Hoodbridge and everything south of Gaithersburg DC
>If you play golf, you'll have a ton of fun near DC.
DC is a horrid town for public golf. It's expensive and courses are packed (because there aren't that many of them). Some elite private clubs though.
I live in Arlington. I might go to East Potomac golf course this weekend even. Its kinda shitty but I love it.
I don't know why everyone is tell this dude to go to Reston or Fredericksburg or PA or whatever. Lmao.
You can spend the entire summer running around DC and if you get city claustrophobic go hiking in VA or go to Ocean City and get a real american beach experience.
>DC monuments, bars, exploring
>VA hiking
>MD Ocean City
^There. Short, sweet, probably won't even have time to do all three. Enjoy it
If you're interested in a certain niche of internet history, Ruckersville VA is two and a half hours away by car.
prepare yourself to be culturally enriched. lots of lunchtime rowdies in D.C.
I live in DC (Navy Yard). It's a shithole.
If you actually think DC is a shithole, you've never been in an actual shithole.
NW west of the park is nice. I can say that much.