National Mall Tours and Tickets

There are plenty of ways to experience the National Mall. Looking at ratings and reviews previously given by customers, these are the best tours available right now:

• National Mall Monuments Night Tour with 10+ Stops, Entry Tickets

• DC Monuments and Capitol Hill Tour by Electric Cart

• Small Group National Mall Night Tour with 10 Top Attractions

• See DC in A Day: Guided Small-Group Ultimate Day Tour

• Washington DC Day Tour from New York City

It’s free to visit the National Mall—but visiting with a guided tour is a great way to make your trip more interesting. Washington DC monument tours generally start at around US$40, or US$49 for hop-on, hop-off excursions. Private guided tours of the National Mall start around US$185.

Yes, the National Mall is worth visiting. It's the cultural heart of Washington DC, with iconic landmarks including the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, and the World War II Memorial. Guided tours are a great option for travelers visiting multiple spots, as they can save you the hassle of driving and parking.

Per one customer who booked the National Mall Monuments Night Tour with 10+ Stops, Entry Tickets, "This was awesome! Covered so much with this tour. It was both beautiful and fun. We had a great driver and a fantastic tour guide. He provided so much great information."

A loop of the National Mall and its major attractions typically takes several hours; set aside half a day (or more) if you want to linger at its monuments and museums. The Mall is about 2 miles (3 kilometers) long, and it covers more than 300 acres (125 hectares).

Numerous major DC monuments—including the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument—plus more than a dozen museums are located in and around the National Mall; tickets aren't needed to enter most of them. You could spend an entire vacation seeing it all, but at a minimum, set aside at least half a day for basic sightseeing and more for museum-going.

One of the best times to visit is in late March or early April, when its famous cherry trees are in bloom. Alternatively, to enjoy comfortable walking temperatures without massive crowds, skip spring and summer and aim for autumn (weekdays are typically calmer, too).

That depends on your itinerary, as the National Mall is home to dozens of major monuments, memorials, and museums. At the very least, you are likely to see top-tier highlights like the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, US Capitol, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the National World War II Memorial, and pass by a number of Smithsonian museums including the National Air and Space Museum.

Yes, there are numerous restrooms on or near the National Mall. There are 10 public bathrooms located on the Mall, while most of the area's dozen-plus museums also offer public restrooms. Smithsonian museums are free for the public to visit, and so are their bathrooms.

There are tons of fun things to do when you're done visiting the National Mall. According to travelers, these are some of the top attractions in Washington DC:

• The White House

• Martin Luther King, Jr Memorial

• U.S. Capitol

• Lincoln Memorial

• Washington Monument

View Viator's guide to all the best attractions in Washington DC.