How do I get to Washington DC?

Reagan National (DCA) sits 7 km south of the National Mall, across the Potomac in Arlington. It is the airport you want for domestic flights. Walk off the jet bridge, follow signs to the Metro, and the Blue or Yellow line puts you in downtown DC in under 20 minutes for $2-3. The terminal smells like Dunkin' and recycled air, the gates feel cramped, but nothing else puts you this close to the city. Delta, American, United, and Southwest all fly heavy schedules here. Mind you, DCA has a 1,250-mile perimeter rule that caps most nonstop routes to cities east of Denver, though exemptions reach LAX, SFO, SEA, and LAS. If your origin city falls outside that radius and lacks an exemption, you're landing at Dulles.

Dulles International (IAD), 42 km west in Loudoun County, is where long-haul and transatlantic flights land. United runs a major hub here with nonstops to London Heathrow (8 hours, $650-1,100 round-trip), Frankfurt, Paris CDG, and Tokyo Narita. British Airways, Lufthansa, and Turkish Airlines operate daily from their home hubs. The Silver Line Metro extension opened in November 2022 and now connects the airport to downtown in about 55 minutes for $6. Before that, your options were a $70 taxi or the Silver Line Express bus. The terminal is enormous. Wear flat shoes and budget 20 minutes from security to the distant C and D concourses, where the air tends to sit warm and still.

Baltimore/Washington International (BWI), 50 km northeast near Baltimore, is Southwest Airlines territory. If you're price-sensitive, BWI fares tend to run $50-100 cheaper than DCA on the same domestic routes. The trade-off is distance. The MARC Penn Line train reaches Union Station in about 50 minutes for $8, but service drops to hourly on weekends. Amtrak from BWI's rail station covers the same ground in 30 minutes for $16-25. A rideshare to downtown DC currently runs $45-65 and takes 50-75 minutes depending on I-295 traffic. That said, if your hotel is near Baltimore's Inner Harbor, BWI makes more sense than either DC airport.

For the Northeast Corridor, skip flying entirely. Amtrak's Northeast Regional from New York Penn Station takes 3.5 hours to Union Station and costs $30-90 each way. The Acela cuts that to 2 hours 50 minutes for $80-200. From Philadelphia, the ride is under 2 hours for $25-60. Union Station drops you on the Red Line at the north end of the Mall. You'll step onto the station's cool marble floors, past the food hall where espresso and pizza compete for your attention, and out onto Massachusetts Avenue where the Capitol dome sits heavy against the sky to the south. Peak airfare season runs March 20 through April 15 during cherry blossom weeks, and again mid-June through August. The cheapest flights appear in January and February, when temperatures hover around 1-4°C and you might have the steps of the Lincoln Memorial (opened in 1922) to yourself at 9 AM.