DC History & Monuments Open Air Guided Small Group Cart Tour
Description
Explore Washington, DC’s iconic landmarks and famous Memorials up close on a fun, guided cart tour designed around a scenic “Water View” route. This shorter, 110-minute experience focuses on the beauty of the Tidal Basin and DC'S landmarks offering prime photo opportunities of the city at its most picturesque. Glide around the National Mall, catch views of the White House, and take in select memorials along the way. To maximize time along the waterfront, this route does not include stops at the Korean and Vietnam War Memorials, allowing for a more relaxed, visually focused experience. Throughout the tour, your expert guide brings the city to life with engaging history and stories as you capture stunning moments at every turn.
Tour Options
Itinerary
Capitol Hill is the seat of the U.S. government, home to the domed United States Capitol, Senate, Houses of Representatives and the neoclassical Supreme Court.
The National Gallery of Art, founded as a gift to the nation, serves as a center of visual art, education, and culture. Our collection of more than 150,000 paintings, sculpture, decorative arts, photographs, prints, and drawings spans the history of Western art and showcases some of the triumphs of human creativity.
The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year.
The National Museum of African American History and Culture, colloquially known as the Blacksonian, is a Smithsonian Institution museum located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in the United States. It was established in 2003 and opened its permanent home in 2016 with a ceremony led by President Barack Obama.
The National Monument stands as the tallest structure in Washington, D.C. Shaped like an Egyptian obelisk, it is 555' 5/8” high and made of marble, granite, and bluestone gneiss, it took 36 years to complete. From the top viewers enjoy 30 to 40 miles visibility in clear weather.
The Jefferson Memorial is a national memorial in Washington, D.C., built in honor of Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence, a central intellectual force behind the American Revolution, a founder of the Democratic-Republican Party, and the nation's third president.
See the Tidal Basin’s edge and take stunning pictures as their pink petals reflect on the water — a truly unforgettable DC experience.
The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial is a presidential memorial in Washington D.C., dedicated to the memory of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the United States, and to the era he represents. The memorial is one of two in Washington honoring Roosevelt.
The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial is a national memorial located in West Potomac Park next to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It covers four acres and includes the Stone of Hope, a granite statue of civil rights movement leader Martin Luther King Jr. carved by sculptor Lei Yixin
The memorial is surrounded by 36 fluted Doric columns, one for each of the 36 states in the Union at the time of Lincoln's death. When you walk up the steps, two additional columns are located at the entrance behind the colonnade. These columns are 44 feet tall with a base diameter of seven feet and five inches.
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800 when the national capital was moved from Philadelphia
Highlights
What's included
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
- Vehicle type may be adjusted due to weather or safety conditions.
- Kindly note that access to some memorials may be limited at times due to special events or security requirements.
- For safety and accessibility reasons, strollers and walkers are not permitted on this tour
- This tour/activity may have a maximum of up to 14 travelers.
Reviews(50)
Great way to see the area. Tour guide, Lorenzo, was friendly and knowledgeable.
We appreciate you coming! We are delighted that you had fun exploring the area with Lorenzo. The trip is always made more memorable by his kind disposition and enthusiasm for sharing local history. We sincerely appreciate your nice remarks and look forward to seeing you again soon for more adventures!
Great experience. Lots of stops and left us time to take photos and look around. Hit all the spots on the agenda. Recommend!
Hi Natalie, We’re so happy to hear you had such a wonderful experience! It’s great to know you enjoyed the variety of stops and had enough time to take pictures and explore each location without feeling rushed. Our team works hard to make sure guests see all the major highlights while still having time to enjoy the moment. 😊 Thank you for your recommendation and for choosing to tour with us — we’d love to have you join us again on your next visit! 😉
If you’re even 10 minutes late you’ll be out the entire amount you paid. Even if they’re having technical difficulties with the carts and running late themselves. I arrived late the carts were still there but since I warned them 3 hours prior that I may be late they resold my seats. They told me to come back at a later time and I would be able to catch the next tour. But that too was booked. So now I’m out $414, and had to uber my way around DC so it wasn’t a wasted trip. I live 2 hours from DC and got stuck in traffic. Don’t put your money into this company. I paid for a service that I didn’t recieve and they got double the money and couldn’t even refund me half. 10/10 don’t recommend, even his guides told me this happens often.
We are disappointed to see a second review posted after the original review was removed following a documented appeal process. We believe it is important to respond with the full context of what occurred. Your reservation was for a 3:00 PM tour. Our records show that communication from your side was not received until after the tour had already departed, despite multiple outreach attempts from our team. While you mentioned earlier in the day that you “may” be running late, we were never given an updated ETA that would have allowed us to hold seats indefinitely past departure time. Like most guided tour and reservation-based businesses, we operate on a strict schedule and maintain a clearly stated 10-minute grace period. This policy exists because delaying tours impacts every other paying guest, our guides, vehicle schedules, and subsequent tours throughout the day. Your claim that we “resold” your seats is incorrect. Once guests are marked as no-shows and a tour departs, available seats may be released to waitlisted or standby customers so that tours can operate efficiently. That is standard practice in the tourism industry. When you contacted us after the tour had already started, our staff still attempted to assist you by checking availability for a later departure and even offered to help arrange another day. Unfortunately, the later tour you requested was fully booked and we did not have capacity to accommodate an additional group of six guests. We also want to address the statement suggesting our guides told you “this happens often.” We have strict operational procedures and customer service standards, and we do not condone staff making misleading or disparaging remarks about the company. Additionally, our tours depart successfully every day with thousands of guests each season who arrive on time and enjoy their experience. We genuinely understand that traffic in Washington, DC can be unpredictable and frustrating, especially for visitors traveling from out of town. However, we cannot operate a time-sensitive guided tour business by making exceptions that negatively impact other guests who honored their reservation time. We stand by the professionalism of our staff, the fairness of our policies, and the extensive documented communication surrounding this reservation.
This was a great tour that lets you get off at many of the major monuments - it saves a lot of walking and you learn some interesting facts.
Hello Jessica, Thank you so much for sharing your experience! We’re glad to hear you enjoyed the tour and found it convenient to get off at the major monuments. It’s great that it helped save you walking while also allowing you to learn interesting facts along the way. We truly appreciate your feedback and hope to welcome you again on another tour in the future! 😊
Excellent way to see a lot in a short amount of time. The guide is so passionate about the history of DC and it was infectious! We learned so much and enjoyed every minute.
Hi Stacey, Thank you so much for your fantastic review! We’re delighted to hear that you found the tour to be an excellent way to see so many highlights in a short amount of time. It means a lot to us that your guide’s passion for the history of Washington, DC was infectious and helped make the experience both enjoyable and educational.😊 Our team takes great pride in sharing the stories behind these iconic landmarks, and we’re thrilled that you learned so much while having fun along the way. Thank you again for choosing to tour with us—we truly appreciate your kind words and support. We hope to have the pleasure of welcoming you back for another memorable adventure the next time you’re in Washington, DC! 🌟
Lorenzo was great; even though it was cold and rainy he had a great attitude and was very informative!
Hello, Thank you so much for your kind review! ⭐ We’re so glad to hear that Lorenzo made your experience enjoyable, even with the cold and rainy weather. His positive attitude and informative storytelling are exactly what we strive for on every tour. We truly appreciate you taking the time to share your feedback, and we hope to welcome you again for another great experience in the future! 😊
Tour guide and the driver were both very knowledgeable and friendly! I would recommend this tour to everyone. A+
Hi Tara, We truly appreciate your kind words! 😊 We’re so happy to hear that both your tour guide and driver were knowledgeable and friendly throughout your experience. Your recommendation means a lot to us, and we’re glad you had an A+ time on the tour! We hope to have the pleasure of welcoming you back again soon for another fantastic visit. 🚐✨
What a great activity to see all of the sites in DC. I came to DC for years and saw more on this trip than all the “self” guided tours before. Our tour guide was very informative and nice. Great time!
Thank you so much Patricia! We’re really happy to hear you had such a great time exploring DC and that the tour helped you discover even more than your previous visits. 😊 It means a lot to know our guide made the experience informative and enjoyable for you. We truly appreciate you joining us and your recommendations means a lot , hope to see you again on another adventure soon! 😊
I planned a trip for myself and my partner, who had never been to Washington before. It was also my first time visiting Washington for leisure, so we thought a city tour would be the perfect way to explore and see the historic sites. When we arrived at the Amtrak station, we realized we wouldn’t make our originally scheduled 3:00 PM tour. I contacted the company, and they quickly agreed to move us to the 5:30 PM tour without any issue, which we appreciated. We arrived at the hotel pickup location and waited for the shuttle. When it arrived, there were already two other groups on board. The tour cart had four seats facing forward and one row facing backward. Unfortunately, we were seated in the back row, which meant we were facing oncoming traffic instead of the landmarks the tour was approaching. As a result, we ended up viewing much of the city backwards. Additionally, the roof of the cart was quite low, which limited our ability to see the buildings and attractions around us. On top of that, the seat belts were damaged—some were cut, tied, or too small—which raised serious safety concerns, especially for those seated in the back row. Overall, I was very disappointed with the experience and would not recommend this tour. By the end, I felt like I hadn’t truly seen the city at all.
Thank you for taking the time to share your detailed feedback. We truly appreciate you choosing our tour for such a special first visit to Washington, and we're glad we were able to accommodate your schedule change to the later tour. We are sincerely sorry to hear that your seating position and visibility affected your overall experience. We understand how important it is to clearly see the landmarks—especially on a first visit—and we regret that the rear-facing seat and roof height made that difficult for you. Your comments about the seat belts are also very concerning to us, and safety is always our top priority. Please rest assured that we take this feedback seriously and will review the condition of our equipment with our team immediately. Our goal is for every guest to leave feeling that they truly experienced the city, and we are disappointed to hear that this was not the case for you. Your feedback helps us identify areas where we can improve, and we genuinely value you bringing this to our attention. Thank you again for your honest review, and we hope we may have the opportunity to provide you with a much better experience in the future.
This tour was nothing short of amazing and interactive. Our tour guide Tommy was the absolute best! I’d recommend this tour a million times
Thank you so much for your wonderful feedback! We’re thrilled to hear that you had such an amazing and interactive experience with Tommy. He truly loves what he does, and it means a lot to know his enthusiasm made your tour so memorable. We sincerely appreciate your recommendation and hope to welcome you back again for another great adventure!
