As part of booking roundtrip flights which depart from US airports, Orbitz is pleased to offer airline tickets on United Airlines, which operates a daily non-stop flight from Munich, Germany (MUC) to Washington (IAD) regularly scheduled to depart at 11:30am and arrive at 3:01pm, and one additional non-stop flight regularly scheduled to depart at 3:00pm and arrive at 6:30pm, everyday except Thursday and Saturday. Usually an Airbus A340-300 or Boeing 777 is flown for this route. The average travel time from Munich, Germany to Washington, DC is 9 hours and 30 minutes.

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Regularly Scheduled Flights to Washington (IAD) from Munich, Germany (MUC)
				Daily Non-Stops		Select Non-Stop		Earliest Flight		Last Flight
	United Airlines			1		1		11:30am		3:00pm
	Lufthansa			1		1		11:30am		3:00pm

During your Washington vacation, don't miss these great establishments and attractions:

Smithsonian Information Center (the "Castle")
Make this your first stop, and enter through the Enid A. Haupt Garden (see description further along, in the "Parks & Gardens" section), for a pleasurable experience. Built in 1855, this Norman-style red-sandstone building, popularly known as the "Castle," is the oldest building on the Mall, yet it holds the impressively high-tech and comprehensive Smithsonian Information Center.The main information area here is the Great Hall, where a 24-minute video overview of the institution runs throughout the day in two theaters. There are two large schematic models of the Mall (as well as a third in Braille), and two large electronic maps of Washington allow visitors to locate nearly 100 popular attractions and Metro and Tourmobile stops. Interactive videos, some at children's heights, offer extensive information about the Smithsonian and other capital attractions and transportation (the menus seem infinite).The entire facility is accessible to persons with disabilities and information is available in a number of foreign languages. Daily Smithsonian events appear on monitors; in addition, the information desk's volunteer staff can answer questions and help you plan a Smithsonian sightseeing itinerary. Most of the museums are within easy walking distance of the facility.While you're here, notice the charming vestibule, which has been restored to its turn-of-the-20th-century appearance. It was originally designed to display exhibits at a child's eye level. The gold-trimmed ceiling is decorated to represent a grape arbor with brightly plumed birds and blue sky peeking through the trellis. This is also where the Seattle's Best Coffee kiosk is located, so why not grab a cuppa and a muffin and your guidebook and maps and settle yourself outside on a bench in the Enid A. Haupt Garden and plan your day.On Sundays, the Castle serves an extensive brunch in its Commons room, from 11am to 2pm, for $33 per adult, $16 for children 12 and under; call tel. 202/371-1083 to make a reservation.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
This museum remains a top draw, as it has been since it opened in 1993. If you arrive without a reserved ticket specifying an admission time, you'll have to join the line of folks seeking to get one of the 1,575 day-of-sale tickets the museum makes available each day (see "Holocaust Museum Touring Tips," below). The museum opens its doors at 10am and the tickets are usually gone by 10:30am. Get in line early in the morning (around 8am).The noise and bustle of so many visitors can be disconcerting, and it's certainly at odds with the experience that follows. But things settle down as you begin your tour. When you enter, you will be issued an identity card of an actual victim of the Holocaust; at several points in the tour, you can find out the location and status of person on your card -- by 1945, 66% of those whose lives are documented on these cards were dead.The tour begins on the fourth floor, where exhibits portray the events of 1933 to 1939, the years of the Nazi rise to power. On the third floor (documenting 1940-44), exhibits illustrate the narrowing choices of people caught up in the Nazi machine. You board a Polish freight car of the type used to transport Jews from the Warsaw ghetto to Treblinka and hear recordings of survivors telling what life in the camps was like. This part of the museum documents the details of the Nazis' "Final Solution" for the Jews.The second floor recounts a more heartening story: It depicts how non-Jews throughout Europe, by exercising individual action and responsibility, saved Jews at great personal risk. Denmark -- led by a king who swore that if any of his subjects wore a yellow star, so would he -- managed to hide and save 90% of its Jews. Exhibits follow on the liberation of the camps, life in Displaced Persons camps, emigration to Israel and America, and the Nuremberg trials. A highlight at the end of the permanent exhibition is a 30-minute film called Testimony, in which Holocaust survivors tell their stories. The tour concludes in the hexagonal Hall of Remembrance, where you can meditate and light a candle for the victims. The museum notes that most people take 2 to 3 hours on their first visit; many people take longer.In addition to its permanent and temporary exhibitions, the museum has a Resource Center for educators, which provides materials and services to Holocaust educators and students; an interactive computer learning center; and a registry of Holocaust survivors, a library, and archives, which researchers may use to retrieve historic documents, photographs, oral histories, films, and videos.The museum recommends not bringing children under 11; for older children, it's advisable to prepare them for what they'll see. You can see some parts of the museum without tickets, includingtwo special areas on the first floor and concourse: Daniel's Story: Remember the Children and the Wall of Remembrance (Children's Tile Wall), which commemorates the 1.5 million children killed in the Holocaust, and the Wexner Learning Center. There's a cafeteria and museum shop on the premises.Holocaust Museum Touring Tips--Because so many people want to visit the museum (it has hosted as many as 10,000 visitors in a single day), tickets specifying a visit time (in 15-min. intervals) are required. Reserve as many as 10 tickets in advance via Tickets.com (tel. 800/400-9373; www.tickets.com) for a small fee. If you order well in advance, you can have tickets mailed to you at home. You can also get same-day tickets at the museum beginning at 10am daily (lines form earlier, usually around 8am). Note that same-day tickets are limited, and one person may obtain a maximum of four.

National World War II Memorial
When this memorial was dedicated on May 29, 2004, 150,000 people turned out: President Bush; members of Congress; Marine Corps General (retired) P.X. Kelley, who chaired the American Battle Monuments Commission, the group that spearheaded construction of the memorial; actor Tom Hanks and news anchor Tom Brokaw, both of whom had been active in eliciting support for the memorial; and last but most important, thousands of World War II veterans and their families. These legions of veterans, some dressed in uniform, many wearing a cap identifying the name of the veteran's division, turned out with pride, happy to receive the nation's gratitude, 60 years in the making, expressed profoundly in this memorial.Designed by Friedrich St. Florian and funded mostly by private donations, the memorial fits nicely into the landscape between the Washington Monument grounds to the east, and the Lincoln Memorial and its reflecting pool to the west. St. Florian purposely situated the 7 1/2-acre memorial so as not to obstruct this long view down the Mall: Fifty-six 17-foot-high granite pillars representing each state and territory stand to either side of a central plaza and the Rainbow pool. Likewise, 24 bas-relief panels divide down the middle so that 12 line each side of the walkway leading from the entrance at 17th Street; the panels to the left, as you walk toward the center of the memorial, illustrate seminal scenes from the war years as they relate to the Pacific theater: Pearl Harbor, amphibious landing, jungle warfare, a field burial, and so on; the panels to the right are sculptured scenes of war moments related to the Atlantic theater: Rosie the Riveter, Normandy Beach landing, the Battle of the Bulge, the Russians meeting the Americans at the Elbe River. A man named Raymond Kaskey, an architect and sculptor, sculpted these panels based on archival photographs.Large open pavilions stake out the north and south axes of the memorial, and semicircular fountains create waterfalls on either side. Inscriptions at the base of each pavilion fountain mark key battles. Beyond the center Rainbow Pool is a wall of 4,000 gold stars, one star for every 100 soldiers who died in World War II. People often leave photos and mementoes everywhere around the memorial, which the National Park Service gather up daily (the NPS is currently deciding how best to maintain an archive of these mementoes). If you are lucky, you will see World War II veterans when you visit this memorial. My husband and I saw a man of that certain age, fit looking, very tan, and alone, bend down and touch the word "Okinawa" engraved in the fountain coping at the base of the Pacific pavilion, and start to cry.From the 17th Street entrance walk south around the perimeter of the memorial to reach a ranger station, where there are brochures and registry kiosks, the latter for looking up names of veterans. Better information and faster service is available online at www.wwiimemorial.com.

Make your reservations for discount hotel rooms in the Washington area, including:

Embassy Suites Hotel Downtown
This hotel offers unbelievable value and a convenient location, within walking distance of Foggy Bottom, Georgetown, and Dupont Circle. You enter into a tropical and glassy eight-story atrium with two waterfalls constantly running. This is where you'll enjoy an ample complimentary breakfast -- not your standard cold croissant and coffee, but stations from which you can choose omelets made to order, waffles, bacon, fresh fruit, juices, bagels, and pastries. Tables are scattered in alcoves throughout the atrium to allow for privacy. Each evening, the atrium is the setting for complimentary beverages (including cocktails) and light cold snacks. The hotel's restaurant offers discounts to hotel guests and a children's menu for $4.95.By February 2005, the hotel will have completed a $4.5 million renovation to give the entire property an "urban-modern, but not chi-chi" look: Dark marble replaces light marble, guest room sofas will be covered in maroon tapestry fabric, and wireless Internet access will be available throughout the hotel (guests pay $9.95 per 24-hours for a computer access card, if needed).The accommodations remain, as always, nicer than your average hotel room, with better amenities. Every unit is a two-room suite, with a living room that closes off completely from the rest of the suite. The living room holds a queen-size sofa bed, TV, easy chair, and large table with four comfortable chairs around it. The bedroom lies at the back of the suite, overlooking a quiet courtyard of brick walkways or the street. A king-size bed or two double beds, TV, sink, easy chair, and chest of drawers furnish this space. Between the living room and the bedroom are the bathroom, small closet, and a kitchenette. It's worth requesting one of the eighth- or ninth-floor suites with views of Georgetown and beyond, as far as Washington National Cathedral (the hotel will note your request, but won't be able to guarantee you such a suite). For the roomiest quarters, ask for an "executive corner suite," the slightly larger, slightly more expensive suites situated in the corners of the hotel.Facilities: Restaurant (northern Italian); state-of-the-art fitness center with indoor pool, whirlpool, sauna; game room; concierge; business center (with free Internet access on 3 computers); room service (11am-11pm); coin-op washer/dryers; same-day laundry/dry cleaning; 8 rooms for those w/limited mobility, 2 with roll-in showers.

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.

Wardman Park Marriott Hotel
This is Washington's biggest hotel, resting on 16 acres just down the street from the National Zoo and several good restaurants. Its size and location (the Woodley Park-Zoo Metro station is literally at its doorstep) make it a good choice for conventions, tour groups, and individual travelers. (Warning: You can get lost here, and I have.) Built in 1918, it is also one of Washington's oldest hotels. A massive $100 million renovation completed in 1999 replaced bed and bath linens, carpeting, and wall coverings in all the guest rooms, upgraded the ballroom and meeting rooms, restructured the outdoor pools, revamped the restaurants, and topped the lobby with a soaring four-story dome. More recently, the hotel remodeled all of the guest room bathrooms, replacing walls, floors, and fixtures. The hotel has also added outdoor seating to Harry's Bar and an outdoor cafe to its Starbucks, set in the center of beds of blooming flowers. Wireless Internet access is available in the Lobby Lounge, Starbucks, and the atrium.From the outside, the hotel resembles a college campus: There's an old part, whose entrance is draped by stately trees, and a new part, preceded by a great green lawn. The oldest section is the nicest. The 86-year-old redbrick Tower houses 205 guest rooms, each with high ceilings, ornate crown moldings, and an assortment of antique French and English furnishings. This was once an apartment building whose residents included presidents Hoover, Eisenhower, and Johnson, as well as actors like Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and authors such as Gore Vidal.The hotel has 125 suites in all, ranging in size from one to three bedrooms. Best are the 54 suites in the Wardman Tower, many of which have balconies overlooking the gardens. The size of the hotel enables it to accommodate requests for different setups: two double beds, king beds, and so on. All rooms offer high-speed Internet access, for $9.95 per day.Facilities: 2 restaurants (American, Mediterranean); pub (serves meals); deli/pastry shop (offers to-go gourmet dinners, which you can heat up in the shop's microwave); lobby bar; Starbucks; 2 outdoor heated pools with sun deck; well-equipped fitness center; concierge; business center; salon; room service (6am-1am); in-room massage; babysitting; coin-op washer/dryers; same-day laundry/dry cleaning; concierge-level rooms; 32 rooms for those w/limited mobility, 10 with roll-in showers.