United Airlines Flights from Hartford (BDL) to Washington (IAD)
Orbitz is pleased to offer airline tickets on United Airlines, which operates 2 regularly scheduled daily non-stop flights from Hartford (BDL) to Washington (IAD), departing between 2:48pm and 4:15pm, and 5 additional non-stop flights, departing between 10:11am and 7:26pm on select days of the week. The average travel time from Hartford, CT to Washington, DC is 1 hour and 25 minutes.
Quick Flight Searches
Weekend Trips - Search
Upcoming weekend flight specials and airline
deals on flights to Washington (IAD)
from Hartford (BDL)
During your Washington vacation, don't miss these great establishments and attractions:
Ford's Theatre & Lincoln Museum
On April 14, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln was in the audience at Ford's Theatre, one of the most popular playhouses in Washington. Everyone was laughing at a funny line from Tom Taylor's celebrated comedy, Our American Cousin, when John Wilkes Booth crept into the president's box, shot the president, and leapt to the stage, shouting "Sic semper tyrannis!" ("Thus ever to tyrants!") With his left leg broken from the vault, Booth mounted his horse in the alley and galloped off. Doctors carried Lincoln across the street to the house of William Petersen, where the president died the next morning.The theater was closed after Lincoln's assassination and used as an office by the War Department. In 1893, 22 clerks were killed when three floors of the building collapsed. It remained in disuse until the 1960s, when it was remodeled and restored to its appearance on the night of the tragedy. Except when rehearsals or matinees are in progress (call before you go), visitors can see the theater and trace Booth's movements on that fateful night. Free 15-minute talks on the history of the theater and the story of the assassination are given throughout the day. Be sure to visit the Lincoln Museum in the basement, where exhibits -- including the Derringer pistol used by Booth and a diary in which he outlines his rationalization for the deed -- focus on events surrounding Lincoln's assassination and the trial of the conspirators. Thirty minutes is plenty of time to spend here.The theater stages productions most of the year.
National Museum of Natural History
Before you step inside the museum, stop outside first, on the 9th Street side of the building, to visit the butterfly garden. Four habitats -- wetland, meadow, wood's edge, and urban garden -- are on view, designed to beckon butterflies and visitors alike. The garden is at its best in warm weather, but it's open year-round.Now go inside. Children refer to this Smithsonian showcase as "the dinosaur museum," since there's a dinosaur hall, or sometimes "the elephant museum," since a huge African bush elephant is the first thing you see if you enter from the Mall. Whatever you call it, the National Museum of Natural History is the largest of its kind in the world, and one of the most visited museums in Washington. It contains more than 124 million artifacts and specimens, everything from Ice Age mammoths to the legendary Hope Diamond. The same warning applies here as at the National Museum of American History: You're going to suffer artifact overload, so take a reasoned approach to sightseeing.If you have children, you might want to make your first stop the first-floor Discovery Room, which is filled with creative hands-on exhibits "for children of all ages." Call ahead or inquire at the information desk about hours. Also popular among little kids is the second floor's O. Orkin Insect Zoo , where they enjoy looking at tarantulas, centipedes, and the like, and crawling through a model of an African termite mound. The Natural History museum, like its sister Smithsonian museums, is struggling to overhaul and modernize its exhibits, some of which are quite dated in appearance, if not in the facts presented. So a renovation of the gems and minerals hall has made the Janet Annenberg Hooker Hall of Geology, Gems, and Minerals worth a stop. You can learn all you want about earth science, from volcanology to the importance of mining. Interactive computers, animated graphics, and a multimedia presentation of the "big picture" story of the earth are some of the things that have moved the exhibit and the museum a bit further into the 21st century.The Kenneth E. Behring Hall of Mammals is an example of an updated section of the museum. Here, visitors can operate interactive dioramas that explain how mammals evolved and adapted to changes in habitat and climate over the course of millions of years. At least 274 models of mammals and a dozen fossils are on display. This exhibit represents the first time the mammal hall has been updated since 1963. Also, don't miss African Voices Hall, which presents the people, cultures, and lives of Africa, through photos, videos, and more than 400 objects.Other Rotunda-level displays include the fossil collection, which traces evolution back billions of years and includes a 3.5-billion-year-old stromatolite (blue-green algae clump) fossil -- one of the earliest signs of life on Earth -- and a 70-million-year-old dinosaur egg. Life in the Ancient Seas features a 100-foot-long mural depicting primitive whales, a life-size walk-around diorama of a 230-million-year-old coral reef, and more than 2,000 fossils that chronicle the evolution of marine life. The Dinosaur Hall displays giant skeletons of creatures that dominated the earth for 140 million years before their extinction about 65 million years ago. Suspended from the ceiling over Dinosaur Hall are replicas of ancient birds, including a life-size model of the pterosaur, which had a 40-foot wingspan. Also residing above this hall is the jaw of an ancient shark, the Carcharodon megalodon, which lived in the oceans 5 million years ago. A monstrous 40-foot-long predator, with teeth 5 to 6 inches long, it could have consumed a Volkswagen Bug in one gulp. In an effort to update this exhibit, the museum in 2001 mounted a digital triceratops (that is, a computerized rendering of that dinosaur); you can manipulate the image to learn more about it.Don't miss the Discovery Center, funded by the Discovery Channel, featuring the Johnson IMAX theater with a six-story-high screen for 2-D and 3-D movies (T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous was among those shown in 2004), a six-story Atrium Cafe with a food court, and expanded museum shops. The museum also offers the small Fossil Café, located within the dinosaur exhibit on the first floor. In this 50-seat cafe, the tables' clear plastic tops are actually fossil cases that present fossilized plants and insects for your inspection as you munch away on smoked turkey sandwiches, goat cheese quiche, and the like.The theater box office is on the first floor of the museum; purchase tickets as early as possible, or at least 30 minutes before the screening. The box office is open daily from 9:45am through the last show. Films are shown continuously throughout the day. Ticket prices are $8 for adults and $6.50 for children (2-12) and seniors 55 or older. On Friday nights from 6 to 10pm, the theater stages live jazz nights, starring excellent local musicians ($5 cover).
Newseum & Freedom Park
The Newseum opened in 1997 as the world's first museum dedicated exclusively to news, it's been such a hit that it's already outgrown its location. This location is closed, and a new, larger, and higher-profile headquarters is under construction at 6th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, just off the Mall, though it won't open until 2006. You can visit Freedom Park and the Freedom Forum Journalists Memorial, however.Adjoining the museum, Freedom Park, which opened in the summer of 1996 and sits atop a never-used elevated highway, celebrates the spirit of freedom and the struggle to preserve it. Here, too, are many intriguing exhibits: segments of the Berlin Wall (the largest display of the wall outside of Germany), stones from the Warsaw Ghetto, a bronze casting of a South African ballot box, a headless statue of Lenin (one of many that were pushed over and beheaded when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991), and a bronze casting of Martin Luther King Jr.'s Birmingham jail-cell door. The glass and steel Freedom Forum Journalists Memorial (honoring, as of 2004, more than 1,528 journalists killed while on assignment; their names are etched in the glass panels) rises above the Potomac, offering views of the Washington Monument, the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials, and the National Cathedral.
Topaz Hotel
Like the Hotel Rouge, the Topaz is an upscale boutique hotel for those who think young. This hotel seems tamer than the Rouge, but it still has a buzz about it, a pleasant, interesting sort of buzz. The reception area, lobby, and bar flow together, so if you arrive in the evening, you may feel like you've arrived at a party: The Topaz Bar and the Bar Rouge have fast become favorite hangouts for the after-work crowd. At the Topaz, they're liking drinks called "Blue Nirvana" (champagne mixed with vodka and blueberry liqueur) and "Pop" (6-oz. single servings of Pommery champagne), the better-than-bar-food cuisine with an Asian accent, and the decor of velvety settees, zebra-patterned ottomans, and a lighting system that fades in and out.Upstairs are guest rooms appealingly, whimsically decorated with striped lime green wallpaper; a polka dot padded headboard for the down-comforter-covered bed; a bright blue, curved-back settee; a big, round mirror set in a sunburst frame; a light green and yellow painted armoire with fabric panels; and a red, with gold star-patterned cushioned chair. The rooms are unusually large (in its former life as the Canterbury Hotel, these were "junior suites" and held kitchenettes), and each has an alcove where the desk is placed, and a separate dressing room that holds a dressing table and cube-shaped ottoman. The Topaz pursues a sort of New Age wellness motif; do note the spill of smooth stones arranged just so upon your bed. ("Through time people have carried special stones called totems to bring them energy and empowerment.. ." reads a little card accompanying the stones.) You also have the option to book a specialty room: one of four "energy" guest rooms, which include a piece of exercise equipment (either a treadmill or a stationary bike), and fitness magazines; or one of three "yoga" rooms, which come with an exercise mat, an instructional tape, padded pillows, special towels, and yoga magazines. Wireless Internet access is available in all guest rooms.The Topaz lies on a quiet residential street, whose front-of-the-house windows overlook picturesque town houses.Facilities: Bar/restaurant (innovative American with an Asian influence); access to nearby health club ($5 per guest); 24-hr. concierge; 24-hour business center; room service (7am-11pm); same-day laundry/dry cleaning; 5 rooms for those w/limited mobility, 2 with roll-in showers. In room: A/C, TV w/pay movies, 2-line cordless phones w/dataports, minibar, hair dryer, iron, safe, robes, wireless Internet access, teapot with exotic teas.
Lincoln Suites Downtown
This is a little hotel with a big heart. It tries hard to do right by its guests and, judging from feedback I've received from readers who've stayed here, I would say it succeeds. (Check out the website, where the hotel's can-do personality shines through.) Key elements include the hotel's location, in the heart of downtown, near Metro stops, restaurants, and the White House; a congenial staff; the complimentary milk and homemade cookies served each evening; and daily complimentary breakfast (fruit, pastries, muffins, cereals, and sometimes waffles) in the breakfast room. Lincoln Suites also has direct access to Mackey's, an Irish pub right next door, and to Recessions, a restaurant on the lower level serving American/Mediterranean cuisine. Famous Luigi's Pizzeria Restaurant [ST], an Italian restaurant and veritable Washington institution, located right around the corner, delivers room service for lunch and dinner.The all-suite 10-story hotel is quite nice, in a nothing-fancy sort of way. Lots of long-term guests bunk here. Suites are large and comfortable; about 28 offer full kitchens, while the rest have wet bars (mini-refrigerator, microwave, and coffeemaker). An ongoing renovation has slowly but surely overhauled the hotel, replacing all the furniture, appliances, carpeting, and wall coverings, so that the overall design is brighter and contemporary. That goes for the lobby, which has been transformed into a hip two-story lobby/lounge. By the time you read this, the hotel will be offering high-speed Internet access and have on-site its own fitness center (most likely, you'll still have the choice to use the nearby larger facility for free).Facilities: Restaurant (American/Mediterranean); bar (Irish); free passes to the well-equipped Bally's Holiday Spa nearby; 24-hr. front desk/concierge; room service (11am-11pm); coin-op washer/dryers; Mon-Sat same-day laundry/dry cleaning; 2 rooms for those w/limited mobility, 1 with roll-in shower.
Hotel Washington
Built in 1918, this hotel is the oldest continuously operating hotel in Washington. Renovations throughout the years have played up the historic angle. The wooden moldings and crystal chandeliers in the two-story lobby are reconstructed originals. A remodeling done in 2001 added overstuffed chairs and lots of plants to make the lobby more comfortable. Decor in the small guest rooms is traditional, with lots of mahogany furnishings and historically suggestive print fabrics and wall coverings; a renovation completed in 2004 spruced up the guest rooms with new carpeting, wallpaper, and drapes, but did not change the overall decor. Bathrooms are in marble and include telephones.With at least four theaters nearby, the Hotel Washington is often home to cast members in current shows. But most of the clientele is a mix of business and leisure travelers, who are attracted to the hotel for its location and views, as well as its rates, which are among the more reasonable in this part of town. From its corner perch at Pennsylvania Avenue and 15th Street, the 12-story hotel surveys the avenue, monuments, the Capitol, and the White House. Ask for a room facing Pennsylvania Avenue for your own private view (these rooms also tend to be a little more spacious). The hotel has 14 suites, all one-bedroom, most with the capability of turning into two-bedroom suites.No other hotel in town provides a more panoramic spectacle than the Hotel Washington's rooftop Sky Terrace, where from late April through October you can have drinks and light fare. The more formal Sky Room restaurant is also on the top floor.
Need help booking your trip?
Book online or call
1-800-504-3248(toll free)
Need help booking your trip?
Book online or call
1-800-504-3248(toll free)
Need help booking your trip?
Book online or call
1-800-504-3248(toll free)
Need help booking your trip?
Book online or call
1-800-504-3248(toll free)
Other direct flights to Washington (IAD) on United Airlines