The best way to take a Washington Monument tour is to reserve tickets on their website before you go. While picking up tickets on the day you visit is possible, they tend to go quickly, and the line starts forming around 7 am. Unless you’re a natural early bird, you may as well go to the website before you arrive – especially if you don’t want to wait around for 90 minutes until they open at 8:30. Tickets to the Washington Monument are free, although reserving them comes with an extra charge of $1.50 per ticket, and they’re available on the website three months before the date of the visit. There are plenty of places where spontaneity can work out while you’re on vacation, but in our opinion, the Washington Monument isn’t one of them.

Once you’ve made it to the top of the monument, there are two floors of exhibits you can look at. These exhibits feature historical photographs and information about the memorial, the city, and George Washington himself. However, the natural attraction of the Washington Monument is the view from the top. The monument is over 500 feet tall, making it the tallest structure in DC and giving you an idea of the entire city. Make sure you bring your camera because you’ll be able to see into Virginia and Maryland from the top of the monument.
If you’re interested in seeing more of Washington, DC, why not check out our self-guided tour of the city? Available through the Action Tour Guide app on both iOS and Android, the tour will take you through some of the most exciting places in Washington, including the White House, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Smithsonian, as well as offer some background history on the city itself.
Action Tour Guide offers a Washington DC Monuments Self-Guided Walking Tour through our app on iOS and Google Play