I'm going to NY/DC!

[Gustaf]

So, this will be my first trip to the US. I will be in NY on the 3rd of November until the 10th and then in DC until the 17th.

Apart from traditional attention whoring over this, I have a few points:

1. If anyone wants to meet up in either city, let me know. I will not be free during the days when I'm in DC, I don't think, but NY I'll have lots of spare time.

2. If anyone have any tips on stuff to do apart from the typical tourist things that I'll find out about anyway, feel free to offer!

3. If anyone have specific tips on accommodation in NY, that'd be great! I am fixed up for DC but need to figure something out for NY.

(and yes I know I made an old thread about this, but then I knew less about my trip and I'm too lazy to drag it out again)

[Mr. Morden]

Which tourist sites will you be visiting in DC?  And will you have a car?

[ilikeverin]

I certainly insist you make some time in DC to see Atlasians.  I, for one, will not stand for not seeing you!

[Keystone Phil]

And skipping the major city in the middle? You must make a pilgrimage to (the soon to be different) PA 13!

[Yelnoc]

Which tourist sites will you be visiting in DC?  And will you have a car?

You can get around D.C. well enough without a car by walking and using the metro, in my experience.

[Mr. Morden]

Which tourist sites will you be visiting in DC?  And will you have a car?

You can get around D.C. well enough without a car by walking and using the metro, in my experience.

Yes, of course that's true within the metro area.  But there are various historical sites further afield that the metro wouldn't go to.

[Gustaf]

I won't have a car, but in DC I'll be with a group so I think transport will be organized by other people.

[Mr. Morden]

OK, well there's lots to see within range of the metro anyway, so that's fine.  I guess you don't need me to tell you to see things like the stuff on the national mall and the Smithsonian and the like.  There are of course quite a few interesting historical sites around the area.  Old Town Alexandria has a church that was attended by George Washington, and later Robert E. Lee.  The cemetery there includes the remains of Aaron Burr's (alleged) illegitimate daughter.  You can also see black marks on some of the headstones, left from soldiers lighting campfires there during the Civil War.  There's a tavern in Old Town that was frequented by several of the founding fathers, and you can also see the spot where some of the first shots of the Civil War were fired (depending on how you define the start of the war).

Within DC itself, there's Ford's Theater, if you want to see where Lincoln was shot (and the bed that he died in, which resides in a building across the street).  You'll be visiting right when Spielberg's "Lincoln" movie comes out, so maybe they'll have some special event there?

I also kind of like the International Spy Museum, if you're into that sort of thing.

Oh, and keep in mind that DC is a very high crime city, so hopefully travel with people who know the area, so you know what neighborhoods to avoid.  But in general, most areas directly around tourist sites should be OK, and most of the worst neighborhoods (as far as I can remember, as I haven't lived there in over 5 years) are east of the green line:

http://www.wmata.com/rail/maps/map.cfm

and the area along the Anacostia River is especially bad.  (Although I heard that might be changing, so my info might be out of date.)

[ilikeverin]

Yes, your info is a bit out of date - anywhere east of the Anacostia is still "bad", but Columbia Heights/U Street and NoMa have been ground zero of gentrification of late.  (They're where cool nightlife is.)

More info for Gustaf: DC isn't an absolutely fantastic food town, but the area around Dupont Circle has a lot of good places to eat.  Since you're coming from overseas, I suggest that you try some burger places while you're in DC; there are few better cities to get that quintessentially American food.  I also have specific recommendations if you decide to visit Silver Spring for some reason.  (I also strongly recommend you don't visit College Park, which is boring, unless it's the only place Xahar and/or Akno and/or I can see you!)  Take the Metro, but do realize the bus system is not bad around here - if you get a SmarTrip card (recommended; the Metro costs $1 more per use without one), you can also use it on buses, where you can get unlimited transfers between buses and cheaper fares when traveling between the Metro and the bus.

[memphis]

Be adventurous. If only for a minute, step out of your comfort zone and visit a "bad" area. You're not getting an accurate picture of the US if you don't go to the East part of DC or to the Bronx. Try and get away from the masses of tourists at Time Sqaure and the National Mall and see what regular people are up to. You must not limit yourself to Manhattan, especially when the subway makes getting to the other Boroughs (staten island doesn't count) so easy. Try to catch a baseball game.

[Frodo]

Be adventurous. If only for a minute, step out of your comfort zone and visit a "bad" area. You're not getting an accurate picture of the US if you don't go to the East part of DC or to the Bronx. Try and get away from the masses of tourists at Time Sqaure and the National Mall and see what regular people are up to. You must not limit yourself to Manhattan, especially when the subway makes getting to the other Boroughs (staten island doesn't count) so easy. Try to catch a baseball game.

Have you done it?  Have you been to the grittier parts of these cities?  If so, tell us about it. 

[memphis]

Be adventurous. If only for a minute, step out of your comfort zone and visit a "bad" area. You're not getting an accurate picture of the US if you don't go to the East part of DC or to the Bronx. Try and get away from the masses of tourists at Time Sqaure and the National Mall and see what regular people are up to. You must not limit yourself to Manhattan, especially when the subway makes getting to the other Boroughs (staten island doesn't count) so easy. Try to catch a baseball game.

Have you done it?  Have you been to the grittier parts of these cities?  If so, tell us about it. 

I have family in suburban Maryland and Brooklyn, so I've been to DC and New York many times. New York City is somewhat of a police state, which I found, makes safety less of concern there, constitutional issues notwithstanding. DC, which can still be scary in some areas, is gentrifying so quickly that dangerous neighborhoods may soon be a thing of the past. In any case, I come from a city with plenty of "bad parts" so it's not an especially surprising thing for me to see. The Bronx has nothing on South Memphis. And I briefly taught high school at Frederick Douglass High School, in North Memphis, though that is an experience I'd like to put behind me. However, the worst neighborhoods I've seen are easily in New Orleans. I haven't been back since Katrina, so I don't know how current this is, but New Orleans 10 years ago may as well have been in Haiti.  Everybody I knew at Tulane was a crime victim at some point. Robberies, car thefts, you name it. One student, whom I fortunately did not know, disappeared during Mardi Gras, only to be found a few months later in the Mississippi River.  I have a habit of going for long walks, and I'm not as sensitive to the perceived threats of "bad neighborhoods" as most white people(during the daytime, anyway). And in New Orleans, the most direct way between places is frequently through run down areas. I was once asked by a black woman, if I was lost, because, of course, a white guy would never just walk through her neighborhood. It's funny how paranoid everybody can about certain neighborhoods, yet we all ignore the risks of driving, which kills tens of thousands of American every year.

[milhouse24]

If you visit the White House, walk to it on Penn Ave, through Lafayette Park.  The building is much closer and you get a better view.

It stupid that tour guides take their groups around back of the White House, where the Helicopter Pad is because you can't see the White House, its too far away. 

Just walk around to the front, you can literally throw a rock through the window.  But you'd be arrested.