Week-ends

We%26#39;re getting close to finalizing our plans for a week in October...We%26#39;ll be doing a Wed-Wed. trip....What should we plan on visiting on the week-ends and what should we try and stay away from...We have the museums, zoo and Arlington to work around our tours planned by our congresswoman..Thanks again

Week-ends

I don%26#39;t really think the weekends are overly crowded in October. You get alot of conference people during the week, but it%26#39;s not super busy on weekends. If it%26#39;s a really beautiful day, the zoo can be crowded on weekends. You may want to try to do that on a nice weekday if you can. Have a nice trip!

Week-ends

A lot of people do the Bureau of Engraving %26amp; Printing (BEP) tour, on the same day they tour the monuments. The BEP is closed on the weekends, so if you were planning on doing this tour, it has to be on a weekday.

Supreme Court building is closed on the weekends.

State Department tours are only available select days of the week (not the weekends), but you have to reserve those through your Congressional Representative anyway.

Everything else is open daily.

Correction on the State Department tour.

They are not booked by your Congressional Representative--you can call the State Department yourself, at (202) 647-3241. A very fast talking recorded voice will tell you to go to this website to reserve your tour:

http://receptiontours.state.gov/

The difficult part is finding an opening--there is no way to see which slots are already full. You just have to keep inputting days and times (3 different possibilities each day, Mon-Fri @ 9:30, 10:30, 2:45) then hit the button that says something like ';check to see about availability for this date and time.';

Eventually, if you%26#39;re lucky, you%26#39;ll find an opening. Just fill out everything correctly, submit it, and they are supposed to send you an e-mail confirmation.

Update.

There is a purple box on the left hand side of the State Department website. If you click on the word ';CALENDAR';, you can see which slots are available, and which are unavailable.