Washington Hotels

Overlooking the Potomac and Anacostia rivers, Washington DC spills over into the two neighbouring states of Maryland and Virginia.

Washington is deceptively large. Most of the big-ticket attractions cluster around the Mall in the centre. Downtown is all about the city's raison d'être. In the west, office and residential buildings begin to rub shoulders in Foggy Bottom (named after the mist rising from the Potomac), while historic Georgetown is one of the city's swankiest neighbourhoods. North of the city centre is relaxed Dupont Circle. Further north, Adams Morgan is about as much fun as you can have in DC, although the Shaw/U Street neighbourhood is a strong competitor.

The five colour-coded lines of the Metrorail system bend through the city, providing an easy way of getting around. It's an efficient system and many of the stations share the same sense of oversized monumentalism that characterises the city at large. Stations open at 5am Monday-Friday and close at midnight Sunday-Thursday and 3am Friday and Saturday.

Washington has more than 6000 cabs so hailing one is rarely a problem. Cabs in suburban Maryland and Virginia are metered, but since 1931 cab fares in DC have been zoned. This has advantages and disadvantages: you don't pay for time spent locked in traffic and you can go a surprisingly long way in one zone for the minimum charge. On the downside a short trip that crosses zone boundaries can be relatively expensive. There are additional peak hour and baggage charges.

DC's extensive Metrobus network is largely designed to ferry commuters in and out of downtown. Use the local bus service for areas like Georgetown, where the nearest Metrorail station is in the next neighbourhood. There's a flat fare system for tickets.

DC is surprisingly large, but as the majority of the must-see attractions flank the Mall you can see the best of the city on foot. Downtown, the west and north are all navigable on foot but some neighbourhoods in the city's southeast are best avoided.

Although peak hour traffic in and out of DC can be intolerable, driving conditions in town are generally fine. Inexperienced drivers may find the larger traffic circles, such as Dupont Circle, tricky to navigate. Finding a place to park on the street is a lottery with draconian parking infringement regulations and private parking expensive, however, so avoid driving if you can.

Fares on the Metrorail depend on the number of stops you travel. There's a minimum and maximum charge, and prices are higher at peak times in the morning and afternoon and after 2am on days when the Metrorail operates that late. Most suburban Metrorail stations have adjoining fee-paying car parks.

See two-and-a-half centuries of DC in Georgetown – the best preserved of Washington's historic districts. The 1765 Old Stone House on M Street is DC's oldest building in existence. Look at the canal for the source of 19th-century prosperity, before the area became a slum in the 1920s. The New Deal revived Georgetown's fortunes and a newly married Senator for Massachusetts lived here in the 1950s before moving into the White House.

Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) website