Union Station to National Zoo with Kids

[jrenaut]

We’d love to hear about how it went afterwards. Good luck!

[karencoutts]

We are back home after a wonderful 9 nights in DC! What a fantastic trip we had. As you know, the weather was amazing… like summer with temperatures in the low 70s.

We passed under Crystal City on Saturday night at 7 pm on the Metro from the airport to the hotel, which was too late to enjoy the bicycle fest.

We rented bicycles for 4 days, for a total of $144 plus taxes = $152, using the Entertainment coupon. They work on a scale of decreasing cost per day as your rental lengthens. We had two “comfort” bikes, one trail-a-bike, and one child’s bike.

I highly recommend touring the sites by bicycle for an active family. We headed to the zoo via National Mall and the Rock Creek Trail. If you start out early in the morning 9-10 am-ish, you can avoid the hordes of walkers. Most of the time we had empty sidewalks and gravel paths to navigate. The only vexing aspect of this was the crossing of major roads. If you don’t enjoy curb jumping and try to steer your bicycle over the wheelchair curb cutouts, you will find yourself coming off the corner of both streets and veering back to cross the street. The best place to cross is down the middle on the gravel paths, where there are lights for pedestrians. The problem with those are the very long wait times, despite sometimes a complete lack of traffic. We never crossed against the lights.

The ride to the zoo was very easy. There was only one questionable stretch beside the busy highway where there is nothing between you and the cars. We walked that very short distance. The path was easy to follow and in good condition, except for a few tree roots creating ripples through the pavement in only two spots. We did not even feel the elevation gain, since it was so gradual, save the short steep hills near the turn into the zoo. We were surprised how quickly we reached the zoo. Total trip time is about one hour, which is at a very leisurely pace, about the speed of a runner.

The trip back was faster.

The Cathedral sidetrip was done after arriving at the Zoo and walking in the hot (!) sun for 2 hours. What a mistake. I guess I was emboldened by the easy ride to the zoo. What should have been a quick 20 minute trip dragged into an hour as my 9 year old suddenly refused to ride at all, not happy with the hills. My husband was cycling up these same hills with his trail-a-bike with the 7 year old in back without a problem.

We also had a ride around the monuments on another day. Navigating the criss crossing diagonal paths with long intersection waits and the narrow pedestrian paths was challenging.

We did swim at Rumsey Aquatic Centre. The cost for our family of 4 was $22(!) and we were surprised how empty it was given that admission is free for DC residents.

Thanks again to all for your excellent advice.

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