Washington DC in 5 Days on a Budget (Daily Costs)

Washington DC in 5 Days on a Budget (Daily Costs)

Five days keeps the full 4-day city core , the Mall memorials, the Monument, the Capitol, the free museums, Arlington and Georgetown, and adds one day-trip day: a Metro-only run to Old Town Alexandria, or a paid splurge to Mount Vernon if presidential history matters more than saving the admission fee. Only need the city? Drop back to the 3-day itinerary . For the cost logic behind these numbers, read the Washington DC budget guide .

Book these before you go

Day Focus Distance / travel time Est. cost
1 Mall west memorials, Washington Monument, a free Smithsonian, Ben’s Chili Bowl in DC $20 to $35
2 Capitol tour, National Archives, National Gallery of Art, Eastern Market lunch in DC $15 to $30
3 A timed-pass Smithsonian, Tidal Basin loop, Kennedy Center Millennium Stage in DC $10 to $25
4 Arlington National Cemetery, Georgetown, C&O Canal towpath in DC $15 to $30
5 Day trip: Old Town Alexandria or Mount Vernon Alexandria 7 mi / 20-25 min Metro; Mount Vernon 16 mi / 30-45 min by car or tour $10 to $60

Day 1: Mall West and the Monument

Land at Reagan National (DCA) if you can; it sits directly on the Blue and Yellow Metro lines, 15 to 20 minutes from downtown. Buy a Smart Trip card or set up the app immediately, and if you’ll take more than two or three rides today, the $13.50 one-day unlimited pass beats paying the $6.75 max single fare repeatedly.

Walk the Lincoln Memorial, the Reflecting Pool, the WWII Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the Korean War Veterans Memorial, all free and open 24 hours, a genuine 2.2-mile stretch worth three to four hours.

Do you need to book the Washington Monument ahead? Yes. Entry is free, but every visitor needs a timed ticket from recreation.gov plus a non-refundable $1 fee, released 30 days out at 10am with a smaller next-day batch at 3pm. During March through August, tickets can sell out within seconds.

Spend the afternoon at a walk-up Smithsonian with no pass required, the National Museum of Natural History or the National Museum of American History both work, then close the day with dinner at Ben’s Chili Bowl on U Street: a half-smoke and a drink runs roughly $15 to $20.

Day 2: Capitol Hill and the Free Museums

Book the Capitol tour at visitthecapitol.gov , never through recreation.gov; tours are free, the Capitol Visitor Center runs 8:30am to 4:30pm Monday through Saturday, last tour 3:20pm. Follow it with the National Archives, free, to see the actual Declaration of Independence and Constitution.

For lunch, Eastern Market on Capitol Hill runs a weekend produce-and-flea market with genuinely cheap food stalls, a better value than a Mall-adjacent tourist restaurant. Spend the afternoon at the National Gallery of Art, free every day, and worth remembering it isn’t a Smithsonian despite sitting right alongside them on the Mall.

Dinner in Shaw or on the 9th Street stretch, DC’s Ethiopian food corridor, runs a genuinely local $20 to $30 a person, cheaper and more distinctive than another Chesapeake crab cake plate.

Day 3: Timed-Pass Museum and the Tidal Basin

Your booked pass runs the morning. NMAAHC deserves a full three hours if that’s the one you secured; without a pass, the Air and Space Museum’s Mall building or the always-open National Gallery of Art both work as a fallback. Passes for both release 30 days ahead through si.edu , plus a same-day batch (NMAAHC’s opens 8:15am EST).

Midday, walk the Tidal Basin loop past the Jefferson and MLK memorials, both free and unticketed. Food, transit and the Monument’s $1 fee across these three days run roughly $45 to $90 total, before lodging.

Close the day at the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage, a free performance most evenings around 6pm in the Grand Foyer or the REACH, no ticket needed.

Day 4: Arlington National Cemetery and Georgetown

Arlington National Cemetery sits just across the Potomac in Virginia but functions as a de facto DC stop, reached directly by Metro (Blue, Orange or Silver Line to the Arlington Cemetery station). It’s free to walk, 8am to 5pm most of the year; a paid narrated tram tour runs continuously from the Welcome Center if you’d rather not cover the hilly grounds on foot. All US visitors need a government-issued photo ID, foreign visitors a passport.

Spend the afternoon in Georgetown: the C&O Canal towpath is free to walk, and the neighborhood has no Metro station by original design, so walk in from Foggy Bottom in about 15 minutes, cross the Key Bridge from Rosslyn, or take Metrobus 32, 36 or 38B along M Street or Wisconsin Avenue. Dinner back toward Dupont Circle or U Street keeps the day’s total in the same range as the rest of the trip.

Day 5: Old Town Alexandria or Mount Vernon

Do you need a car for Day 5? Only if you pick Mount Vernon. Old Town Alexandria sits directly across the Potomac in Virginia, reached by the Blue or Yellow Metro line to King St-Old Town in about 20 to 25 minutes, no car required, and the cobblestone waterfront historic district costs nothing beyond food to walk. It’s the cheaper, easier pick if a car-free trip matters more than presidential history.

Mount Vernon, George Washington’s working estate, farm and tomb, sits about 16 miles south, 30 to 45 minutes by car, tour bus, or a seasonal Potomac riverboat that doesn’t run year-round. Admission runs $30 adult, hours 9am to 5pm April through October and 9am to 4pm November through March. This is a paid historic-house museum, not a free NPS site, and not the same thing as the Washington Monument bearing his name. A guided day trip (linked above) skips arranging the transit yourself.

How much does 5 days in DC cost total? Food, transit and required fees across the first four days run roughly $60 to $120. Add $10 to $20 for an Alexandria day, or $30 to $60 for Mount Vernon’s admission plus transit, and the full five-day trip, lodging aside, lands somewhere between $70 and $180 depending which Day 5 you pick.

Bring a reusable water bottle across all five days. DC tap water is safe, and free, and it adds up over a museum-heavy week.