I recently took a trip to visit a friend who lives in Washington, D.C. Another friend drove up from the Triangle and we had an absolutely wonderful girls' weekend. We did a bunch of stuff, but one of the highlights was a night-time tour of monuments. If you are going to DC (or if you live there) and haven't done it, I highly recommend giving it a try! You can do it yourself, or go with a guide. They are beautiful either way, but we opted for a guide, mostly because we are big nerds and like to hear all info and ask questions. Lots of companies and groups run tours of the monuments, including night tours. But here's the thing: we didn't take just any tour, we took the National Park Service (NPS) tour. And it was totally freakin' amazing.
First of all, it was free. Yep, free. Wait. I have to reiterate that, because it is really important. IT WAS FREE! I looked at some of the tour companies and tickets for their night monument tours cost between $35 and $75 dollars per person, with an average looking to be around $40. Why pay $40 or more, when you could pay $0? (Also, depending on how you look at it, you have actually already paid for the NPS tour. I mean, your taxes are paying for that tour to exist. So take advantage of what you've already purchased! Don't let everyone else get the free tour while you are stuck paying a bucket-load...or more.)
Second: Value-for-money. Following the old adage "You get what you pay for," the free tour could have sucked. Yeah, well, but it didn't. Our tour guide was incredibly knowledgeable and friendly, and handled some difficult issues without bias and in ways that weren't cop-outs. (For example, the issues surrounding vets, suicide, and the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial.) He was also patient with questions, had legit answers, and did a good job with pacing the tour and making sure everyone was following--literally and figuratively. We managed to pick up a couple of new tour members along the way, because he was so interesting. On the other hand, I heard some of the paid-tour tour guides and they paled in comparison. Many were horribly rehearsed and stilted. Others were barely audible. Also, as a history professional, I was appalled to hear tour guides making up answers to questions on the spot. I know that they were made up because they were factually incorrect and sounded made up ("Uhhh....well...I"m pretty sure...that is....err....."). What a waste of money to get false info on a tour! And why do they think that is OK? In other words: free tour = great, many $ tours = bleck!
Third: Tours allow you to be lazy in preparation. All we had to do was show up at the right time. I didn't have to look anything up in advance or check a map to figure out how to get from place to place. Our guide helped us navigate between sites and around crowds. He also pointed out things along the way that weren't technically on our tour, but that were interesting, like the Washington, DC monument to World War I (see photo below).
Fourth: Our guide was easy to see and follow, thanks to his distinctive uniform and classic Smokey the Bear hat. (Only you can prevent forest fires, kids!)
Fifth: This might have just been my tour, but the tour was not crowded at all. Even with the people we picked up along the way, we only had about 12 or 15 people. Plenty of room for everyone to gather or mill around and still hear. For me, I appreciated that I didn't have to fight a whole bunch of tall people to see anything. And in places that were more somber, a smaller group can be more subdued. Some of the paid tours had groups so large that they just herded them around without making much of an effort to tell anyone anything. Some of the places had lots of people, but I didn't ever really feel crowded.
Sixth: You can leave if you wanna or stay later to wander more. With the NPS tour, there is more freedom. You get yourself to the starting place, so you aren't dependent on a tour company bus. You also don't have to stay just to justify the $40 you spent, if you decide you aren't really into the whole thing.
To recap, the NPS tour was great because:
- Free
- High Quality
- Laziness
- HATS!!!
- Uncrowded
- Freedom
Whether you go on an organized tour or not, if you are in D.C. do visit the memorials. Visit them up-close...and do it at night, if possible. The Korean War monument looks like it was designed to be seen after dark, and doing so can make you feel almost like you are one of the walking figures. The Vietnam Veterans' monument is striking, but in the dark it is a truly somber place. The World War II monument--and the fountains within it--are nice during the day, but they are much, much more beautiful lit up (see photo above).
Last piece of advice: Be sure to wear good shoes and bring a camera!
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