Plan your District of Columbia vacation with some of these destinations and trip ideas to create the perfect Washington DC travel getaway.

Outside of the Mall and the National Monuments are 15 distinctive neighborhoods. Lafayette Square, surrounding the White House is an elegant and refined neighborhood. Museums and institutions throughout the neighborhood tell the tales of Lafayette Square’s history.

Penn Quarter and Pennsylvania Avenue have been the site of many presidential inaugural parades, and the quarter houses galleries, restaurants and museums.

For ethnic restaurants, nightclubs and bars, check out Adams Morgan or Downtown.

Anacostia was D.C.’s first planned suburb, Uniontown. The late 19th century architecture and working class feel still exists.

Capitol Hill, the District’s largest historic residential community has rowhouse designs of many styles dating from the mid-1800’s to the early 1900’s.

Brookland has the largest grouping of Catholic institutions outside of the Vatican (over 60).

Dupont Circle was originally a neighborhood of Beaux-Arts mansions and Victorian row houses where the elite lived. Today it’s the hub of cosmopolitan Washington and these mansions have been restored to house embassies, museums and art galleries.

Embassy Row, just west of Dupont Circle has the biggest concentration of Washington D.C.’s 150 international embassies.

Chinatown is home to the “Friendship Arch’, a joint effort between Beijing and Washington, D.C. It is the largest single-span Chinese arch in the world.

Georgetown, once a colonial port named for King George II, is a beautiful example of an intact historical community with shopping, dining and nightlife.

Foggy Bottom was named for the fog that rose off the Potomac river. It’s east of Georgetown and west of Lafayette Square, and was an industrial area of the city in years past.

The Southwest / Waterfront area features, sailboats, yachts, piers, fishing boats, seafood markets, and restaurants.

U Street / Shaw was once home to Langston Hughes and Duke Ellington. Jazz clubs and Washington’s historic “Black Broadway” draw music and theatre lovers of all kinds.

The Upper Northwest features the National Zoological Park, Washington National Cathedral, and a number of museums.

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