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Delta Airlines Flights from New York (JFK) to Washington (IAD)
Orbitz is pleased to offer airline tickets on Delta Airlines, which operates 2 regularly scheduled daily non-stop flights from New York (JFK) to Washington (IAD), departing between 12:05pm and 7:00pm, and one additional non-stop flight regularly scheduled to depart at 4:30pm and arrive at 6:25pm, everyday except Saturday. Usually an Embraer RJ145 Amazon is flown for this route. The average travel time from New York, NY to Washington, DC is 1 hour and 49 minutes.
During your Washington vacation, don't miss these great establishments and attractions:
The White House Visitor Center
Even -- especially -- if you are not able to tour the White House, you should stop here. The Visitor Center opened in 1995 to provide extensive interpretive data about the White House and to serve as a ticket-distribution center (though that function is suspended indefinitely). It is run under the auspices of the National Park Service and the staff is particularly well informed. Try to catch the 30-minute video about the White House, Where History Lives, which provides interior views of the presidential precincts (it runs continuously throughout the day). Before you leave the Visitor Center, pick up a copy of the National Park Service's brochure on the White House, which tells you a little about what you'll see in the eight or so rooms you tour and a bit about the history of the White House. The White House Historic Association runs a small shop here. The association operates an informative website, www.whitehousehistory.org. Before you leave the Visitor Center, take a look at the exhibits, which include:Architectural History of the White House, including the grounds and extensive renovations to its structure and interior that have taken place since its cornerstone was laid in 1792.Symbol and Image, showing how the White House has been portrayed by photographers, artists, journalists, political cartoonists, and others.First Families, with displays about the people who have lived here (such as prankster Tad Lincoln, who once stood in a window above his father and waved a Confederate flag at a military review).The Working White House, focusing on the vast staff of servants, chefs, gardeners, Secret Service people, and others who maintain this institution.Ceremony and Celebration, depicting notable White House events, from a Wright Brothers' aviation demonstration in 1911 to a ballet performance by Baryshnikov during the Carter administration.White House Interiors, Past and Present, including photographs of the ever-changing Oval Office as decorated by administrations from Taft through Clinton.
Arlington National Cemetery
Upon arrival, head over to the Visitor Center, where you can view exhibits, pick up a detailed map, use the restrooms (there are no others until you get to Arlington House), and purchase a Tourmobile ticket ($6 per adult, $3 for children 3-11), which allows you to stop at all major sites in the cemetery and then reboard whenever you like. Service is continuous and the narrated commentary is informative; this is the only guided tour of the cemetery offered. If you've got plenty of stamina, consider doing part or all of the tour on foot. Remember as you go that this is a memorial frequented not just by tourists but also by those attending burial services or visiting the graves of beloved relatives and friends who are buried here.This shrine occupies approximately 612 acres on the high hills overlooking the capital from the west side of the Memorial Bridge. It honors many national heroes and more than 260,000 war dead, veterans, and dependents. Many graves of the famous at Arlington bear nothing more than simple markers. Five-star General John J. Pershing's is one of those. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles is buried here. So are President William Howard Taft and Supreme Court Justices Thurgood Marshall and William Brennan. Cemetery highlights include:The Tomb of the Unknowns, containing the unidentified remains of service members from both world wars, the Korean War, and, until 1997, the Vietnam War. In 1997, the remains of the unknown soldier from Vietnam were identified as those of Air Force 1st Lt. Michael Blassie, whose A-37 was shot down in South Vietnam in 1962. Blassie's family, who had reason to believe that the body was their son's, had beseeched the Pentagon to exhume the soldier's remains and conduct DNA testing to determine if what the family suspected was true. Upon confirmation, the Blassies buried Michael in his hometown of St. Louis. The crypt honoring the dead but unidentified Vietnam War soldiers will remain empty. The entire tomb is an unembellished, massive white-marble block, moving in its simplicity. A 24-hour honor guard watches over the tomb, with the changing of the guard taking place every half-hour April to September, every hour on the hour October to March, and every hour at night.Within a 20-minute walk, all uphill, from the Visitor Center is Arlington House (tel. 703/235-1530; www.nps.gov/arho), whose structure was begun in 1802, by Martha and George Washington's grandson, George Washington Parke Custis (actually, Custis was George Washington's adopted grandson). Custis's daughter, Mary Anna Randolph, inherited the estate, and she and her husband, Robert E. Lee, lived here between 1831 and 1861. When Lee headed up Virginia's army, Mary fled, and federal troops confiscated the property.A fine melding of the styles of the Greek Revival and the grand plantation houses of the early 1800s, the house has been administered by the National Park Service since 1933.You tour the house on your own; park rangers are on-site to answer your questions. About 30% of the furnishings are original. Slave quarters and a small museum adjoin. Admission is free. It's open daily from 9:30am to 4:30pm (closed Jan 1 and Dec 25).Pierre Charles L'Enfant's grave was placed near Arlington House at a spot that is believed to offer the best view of Washington, the city he designed.Below Arlington House is the Gravesite of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. John Carl Warnecke designed a low crescent wall embracing a marble terrace, inscribed with the 35th president's most famous utterance: "And so my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis rests next to her husband, and Robert Kennedy is buried close by. The Kennedy graves attract streams of visitors. Arrive close to 8am to contemplate the site quietly; otherwise, it's mobbed. Looking north, there's a spectacular view of Washington.In 1997, the Women in Military Service for America Memorial (tel. 800/222-2294 or 703/533-1155; www.womensmemorial.org) was added to Arlington Cemetery to honor the more than 1.8 million women who have served in the armed forces from the American Revolution to the present. The impressive new memorial lies just beyond the gated entrance to the cemetery, a 3-minute walk from the Visitor Center. As you approach the memorial, you see a large, circular reflecting pool, perfectly placed within the curve of the granite wall rising behind it. Arched passages within the 226-foot-long wall lead to an upper terrace and dramatic views of Arlington National Cemetery and the monuments of Washington; an arc of large glass panels (which form the roof of the memorial hall) contains etched quotations from famous people about contributions made by servicewomen. Behind the wall and completely underground is the Education Center, housing a Hall of Honor, a gallery of exhibits tracing the history of women in the military, a theater, and a computer register of servicewomen, which visitors may access for the stories and information about 250,000 individual military women, past and present. Hours are 8am to 5pm (until 7pm Apr-Sept). Stop at the reception desk for a brochure that details a self-guided tour through the memorial. The memorial is open every day but Christmas.Plan to spend half a day at Arlington Cemetery and the Women in Military Service Memorial.
United States Botanic Garden
The Botanic Garden re-opened in late 2001 after a major, 5-year renovation. The grand conservatory devotes half of its space to exhibits that focus on the importance of plants to people, and half to exhibits that focus on ecology and the evolutionary biology of plants. The conservatory holds 4,000 living species; 26,000 plants; a high-walled enclosure, called "The Jungle," of palms, ferns, and vines; an Orchid Room; and, outside the conservatory, a First Ladies Water Garden, formal rose garden, and a lawn terrace. You'll also find a Meditation Garden and gardens created especially with children in mind. Call in advance to arrange for a free, 4-minute tour. The USBG sometimes offers entertainment, like the live music and tours it hosted last summer, staying open until 8pm on the first Tuesday of each month.Also visit the garden annex across the street, Bartholdi Park. The park is about the size of a city block, with a stunning cast-iron classical fountain created by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, designer of the Statue of Liberty. Charming flower gardens bloom amid tall ornamental grasses, benches are sheltered by vine-covered bowers, and a touch and fragrance garden contains such herbs as pineapple-scented sage.
Make your reservations for discount hotel rooms in the
Washington area, including:
The Ritz-Carlton Georgetown
Staff at area hotels have taken to calling this hotel the "Baby Ritz," to distinguish it from the other, larger Ritz on 22nd Street. The moniker is the only cute thing about the hotel, however. The Georgetown Ritz is a sophisticated property, exclusively small (only 86 rooms), and designed to feel like a refuge in the middle of wild and woolly Georgetown. The hotel opened in April 2003, after years of construction. Look for the 130-foot-high smokestack to guide you to the hotel, which is built on the site of a historic incinerator and incorporates the smokestack into the design. In fact, you can have a meeting at the bottom of the smokestack, which, obviously, is inoperative. The lobby, whose brick walls are original to the incinerator, always smells of a recently lit fire, even on a summer day. (There's a large fireplace at one end of the lobby.) The restaurant is called "Fahrenheit," the bar is called "Degrees," and the signature drink is the "Fahrenheit 5 Martini." To get to your room, you have to go down one level from the lobby, travel along a wide, cavelike corridor with vaulted brick ceiling, to a special elevator. You must have a key card to operate the elevator, so anyone visiting you at the hotel must either be escorted by a staff person or be met by you. Rooms are very large, decorated in serious colors of moss green, gold, and a burnt red, with lots of dark wood furniture and accents. Ritz-Carlton hotels have the best bathrooms, and this property is no exception: spacious, marble vanities, separate tub and shower, fancy wood shelving.Facilities: Restaurant (seasonal American); lounge; fitness room (complimentary) and spa; 24-hour concierge; 24-hr. room service; in-room massage; babysitting; same-day laundry/dry cleaning; 1-hr. pressing; 3 rooms for those w/limited mobility, all with roll-in showers; fax and some currency-exchange services. In room: A/C, TV w/pay movies and Web access, 2-line phone, minibar, hair dryer, iron, safe, robes, umbrella, CD player, high-speed Internet access (about $10 per 24 hours).
Woodley Park Guest House
This charming, 18-room B&B offers clean, comfortable, and cozy lodging, inexpensive rates, super location, and a personable staff: How's that for a recommendation? Four local couples bought the hundred-year-old property in 2000, gutted it, and made the place over. Guests are from around the globe, a fact which inspired the owners to add an actual globe to the breakfast room; it's common practice for people sitting across the table from each other in the morning to go over to the globe and point out exactly where they live: the Arctic Circle, Brazil, Seattle -- they come from all over, says co-owner Courtney Lodico.Special features of the guesthouse include a wicker-furnished, tree-shaded front porch; exposed, century-old brick walls; beautiful antiques (mostly purchased from Antique Row in Kensington, MD; see chapter 8 for information about these shops); and breathtaking original art (the innkeepers only buy works from artists who have stayed at the guesthouse, so the art is diffuse rather than profuse, and each piece quite different). Rooms have either two twins, one double, or a queen bed, each covered with a pretty chenille spread or quilt. An intimate alternative to the grand 1,349-room Marriott Wardman Park hotel directly across the street, the guesthouse nevertheless benefits from its proximity to the big hotel, since it's able to offer lodgers quick access to airport shuttles and taxis and views of the Wardman Park's beautifully landscaped gardens. Meanwhile, the Woodley Park-Zoo Metro stop is literally cattycorner to the inn, Connecticut Avenue and its good restaurants 1 block away, and Rock Creek Park and the National Zoo only a few minutes further than that.
Four Points Sheraton, Washington, D.C. Downtown
This former Days Inn has been totally transformed into a contemporary property that offers all the latest gizmos, from complimentary high-speed Internet access in all the rooms, and wireless Internet access in the lobby and meeting rooms, to a 650-square-foot fitness center. A massive renovation undertaken by a new owner essentially gutted the old building, but the location is still as terrific as ever (close to the Convention Center, MCI Center, and downtown). Best of all, the rates are reasonable, hotel amenities spectacular, which make this a good choice for both business and leisure visitors.Five types of rooms are available: units with two double beds, with one queen bed, or with one king bed; junior suites; or one-bedroom suites. In 2003, the hotel put "Heavenly Beds" (a custom-designed, multi-layered, pillow-top mattress) in all of the rooms. Corner rooms (there are only about 10) are a little more spacious than others, which are of standard size. While guest rooms offer city views, the rooftop pool and lounge boast a sweeping vista of the city that includes the Capitol. Under separate ownership from the hotel is a recommended restaurant, Corduroy.Facilities: Restaurant (seasonal American); bar; indoor heated pool on rooftop; fitness center; business center; room service (6am-midnight); same-day laundry/dry cleaning; executive-level rooms; 8 rooms for those w/limited mobility, 3 with roll-in showers.
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