Smithsonian "Big 3" Highlights Tour (Air & Space Entry Included)
Description
See the best of the Smithsonian Museums on a 3-hour guided tour of the highlights of the American History, Natural History, and Air and Space Museums. Includes Reserved Entry to the Air and Space Museum! The Smithsonian Institution is the world’s largest museum complex with 21 museums and miliions of objects! The Natural History, Air and Space, and American History Museums are 3 of the most popular, often referred to as the Big 3. Each of these museums can be overwhelming so we put together a highlights tour. Our expert guide will take you through each of the museums and showcase all of the "must see" items in each. Including: Lincoln's Top Hat, Dorothy's Ruby Slippers, the Cursed Hope Diamond, iconic Dinosaur fossils, the Original Wright Flyer, and artifacts from the Apollo 11 lunar mission! Note that there is walking between the museums for a total of roughly 1 mile.
Tour Options
Itinerary
Meet your guide inside the Unscripted Guided Tours DC Welcome Center at 400 7th Street NW, at the corner of 7th and D NW
Learn the full history of the Smithsonian Institution as you pass the building where it all started, known locally as the Smithsonian Castle or the Red Castle.
Enjoy reserved entry to the Air and Space museum, where your guide will show you the top highlights including the Wright Flyer, space command modules, and more!
See the famed hope diamond, visit the fossil lab and The Last American Dinosaurs exhibit.
Your guide will help you explore many highlights including pop culture icons, military history, and presidents' & first ladies' artifacts.
Highlights
What's included
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Wheelchair accessible
- Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
- Service animals allowed
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Transportation options are wheelchair accessible
- All areas and surfaces are wheelchair accessible
- Not recommended for travelers with spinal injuries
- Travelers should have at least a moderate level of physical fitness
- Sites are not listed in order visited. Museum order may vary.
- Please note this tour involves roughly 2 miles of walking
Reviews(429)
My 14yo daughter and I went together. Rett was a great guide; so knowledgeable. He took us to the most interesting exhibits and we saw a lot in 3 hours. He had great stories and info on each artifact. Highly recommend.
It’s a great highlight tour of some of she most important exhibits at the museums! The Smithsonian did not disappoint!
Amazing experience, our guide was very friendly, knowledgeable, and professional! We would definitely book again!
Kristen and Rett were awesome!! Was running late and Kristen walked me over to meet the group. Had a great time
Go team! We love it when things come together and we can make someones day!
We had a fantastic whistle-stop tour of three Smithsonian museums, and it was the perfect way to experience the highlights in just a few hours. Our guide, Dash, was absolutely outstanding—extremely knowledgeable, personable, and genuinely funny. He adapted the tour to suit the interests and pace of the group, making the experience feel both engaging and personal. This tour is an excellent introduction to the Smithsonian museums, giving you a great overview while also helping you decide which museums you'd like to explore further based on your own interests. A huge thank you to Dash for making the tour so informative, entertaining, and memorable. I would highly recommend this tour to anyone visiting Washington, D.C.!
I feel like you really understand and describe perfectly what our goal was when designing this tour. Thanks for sharing your experience!
christina was a great tour guide. she packed in everything we wanted to know about 3 museums at the perfect pace and depth that we had time to cover.
Very good tour. Claudia was GREAT! She was very knowledgeable and was very passionate about each museum history. I definitely recommend this tour.
Getting out tickets were very hard. They don't send directly to you . You have to go to an email a link then some other stuff told they were not legit. So stressed we went to one museum very nice knowledgeable guide but stressful won't use again
Sorry you had a stressful experience, however I do not believe you were on one of our tours. We do not require tickets, we have contactless check in, and our guides take care of all entry to the museums for you as part of the tour for a stress-free experience form check in to the end.
Liam is fantastic!!!! Extremely well knowledgeable. He’s passionate about at what he does and in my opinion, not an easy job. He really made this tour fun and a great learning experience! We hope to get him again as our next tour guide when in Washington DC!
You guys were so fun! I love the Smithsonian Highlights as I get to take you through astrophysics, natural history, and Americanism in one tour with the Air & Space, Natural History, and American History Museums. What a journey. Thanks for joining me! I am always here, just shoot us a message next time you are in town.
Meg was a fantastic guide! She communicated the entire time. She let us know where we were going each time, what we were going to see, and when to meet her back. It is definitely a quick overview of each museum, but was perfect to help let us know which ones we wanted to come back to and what to expect. You could easily spend days in these museums, but this is perfect tour of highlights. And Meg did amazing sharing it with us! Thank you! We loved Unscripted & Meg so much, we did several tours with them throughout the week.
We designed this tour for a couple of things: When you go home and tell someone you visited a Smithsonian and they ask "oh did you see the ___" you can say "YES!" And to give you the highlights and how to navigate so you can use your time more efficiently while visiting on your own. With millions of items and over a dozen museums it is easy to get lost in the Smithsonians otherwise for days. Meg is fantastic! Glad you agree! Thanks for joining us many times on this trip. It means a lot to us.
