You have probably assumed the best parts of a Washington DC trip are for other people, the private tours with the good guides and the tickets that seem to sell out the minute you start looking. What I learned on our trip is that a Capitol tour through your senator is free, it is there for anyone who lives in that senator’s state, and all it takes is letting the office know you are coming. Our senator’s office gave us a private tour of the Capitol, found us free tickets to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing within an hour of my asking, and handed my husband and me Senate gallery passes that are good for two years.
We live in Kentucky, so our senator is Rand Paul, but every state has two senators whose offices do this for the people they represent. Here is exactly how it worked for us, what we saw over three rainy days, what I would skip, and the first thing to do if you are planning your own trip.
How to get a Capitol tour through your senator
Asking for a Capitol tour through your senator starts with the office every senator and representative keeps in Washington to help people from back home plan their visit. Most have a tour request form on their website, and some take requests by email, where you give them your dates, how many people are coming, and what you hope to see. You can find your senators on the U.S. Senate contact page, and the Capitol Visitor Center explains the other ways to book if your office cannot fit you in.
I mentioned to Haley, Rand Paul’s intern, that the only thing we wanted to see but could not get tickets for was the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and within an hour I had an email with free tickets. Kentucky, check his website, because there is so much his office did for our visit.
How is a Capitol tour through your senator different from the public tour?
The public tour is led by Capitol Visitor Center guides, takes about 45 minutes, and covers the Crypt, the Rotunda, and National Statuary Hall with a group. A Capitol tour through your senator is led by the office’s own staff. Ours was just the two of us with Haley, and she took time to answer every question we had along the way.
Where we stayed and how we got around DC
I used the MWR Life app to book the Omni Shoreham, a beautiful 95 year old, four star hotel sitting on 11 acres beside Rock Creek Park that has hosted presidents and inaugural balls since 1930. It is also a convention center without feeling overwhelming in size. When we first saw five huge buses sitting outside we worried, but the staff was amazing and handled every new guest with precision, and the noise level stayed surprisingly quiet.
The grounds were beautifully decorated, and we were only about 2.5 miles from all of the major attractions we wanted to see. The deluxe room the public sites priced at $946.61 for our three nights came to $445.47 through the member portal, and I walk through exactly how that works in my MWR Life review. That made it even funnier when one of our Uber drivers saw he was taking us to the Omni and said, “Aha, y’all are money! That is a nice place.”
It rained the entire three days we were in Washington, so we used Uber more than we normally would have, somewhere around 16 to 18 rides. The average ride was about $13 and the ride to the airport was $34, which worked out about the same as renting a car, without any worry over parking or figuring out where we were going. In the Uber app you can set your account to add a tip automatically, so I set mine to 10 percent, and every driver got tipped without me having to remember it. The $501.14 we kept on the hotel covered our whole Uber bill, which means the rides that got us everywhere in the rain were paid for by booking the same room at a different price.
Our first day on the National Mall in the rain
Our first stop was the Washington Monument. As we stood outside waiting for our time to go up, three Marine One helicopters flew over us, one of them carrying President Donald Trump, though we never knew which, and we got to watch them land at the White House. From the top you get a 360 degree view of the whole city, with a perfect view of the White House and its grounds, and it was a great way to start our trip. The White House had a fence all the way around it, so we could not get close or enjoy the park in front of it, which made that view from the monument even better.
Next was the National Archives Museum, where we saw the original Declaration of Independence. It also shows how this country has treated people over the years, including an immigration list from the early 1900s that kept out people labeled idiots, imbeciles, feeble minded, epileptics, criminals, polygamists, anarchists, and paupers. There was a section on equal pay for equal work, which is still in process and growing, and a section on the days when Black people could not drink out of the same water fountain as white people. The building itself is absolutely beautiful, and seeing original written documents from the 1700s and 1800s up close was very, very interesting.
We stopped for pizza at Matchbox, a cute little place where we could rest our feet so we could keep moving. Afterward we ran across the street to a little coffee shop to wait out the rain, because we could not find a single store in the main part of DC selling umbrellas. When I finally found one the next day, I paid $26 for an umbrella the size of my hand.
That evening we took the Sunset and After Dark Monuments Tour by E-Cart, and I highly recommend it. You see all of the major attractions with a little bit of history, and you stop at each one to go in and take your pictures. The young lady who drove our golf cart was a great tour guide, and when the rain paused, a beautiful rainbow appeared right on top of the Capitol with the clouds behind it. We went up into the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, where he sits inside a building made of marble that is absolutely fantastic, and we saw the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial for the first time, which was much larger than I expected.
At the base of the Lincoln Memorial, with the Washington Monument at the end of the reflecting pool, we found the National Military Monument, USAA’s tribute to those who served, a glowing flag where you can look up service members, active and deceased. My husband’s friend Robert Millen lost his father, Karl, who is laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery, so Karl’s was the name we came to find.
We found Karl’s name first and then found Robert’s name as well, and we got a picture of those, which made it more disappointing to not have gotten my own son’s. It never crossed my mind until later that I should have looked him up while we were standing there. I looked him up on the website afterward and did find him, but I was disappointed not to have seen his name on the monument.
Our 26th wedding anniversary on Capitol Hill
Tuesday, September 22, was our 26th wedding anniversary, and we spent the day on Capitol Hill. Security getting into the Capitol was extremely intense, which you expect. What amazed us was that you cannot sit down anywhere, even though there are benches everywhere, because an officer would come by to tell you to keep moving. My feet were tired!
This is where a Capitol tour through your senator is worth asking for. Haley started our private tour at the Statue of Freedom and walked us through the Rotunda, where she showed us the first stone set by George Washington. Washington laid that cornerstone on September 18, 1793, after crossing the Potomac and leading what became the first parade in Washington, and he placed an engraved silver plate beneath it at the southeast corner of the building.
We were standing there just four days after the 233rd anniversary of that ceremony. When you really stop and think about one piece of stone set by a man who has been gone that many years, it stays with you. We went into the Old Supreme Court Chamber, which was beautiful, and walked hallways built of marble that were absolutely gorgeous. There is a statue of Billy Graham in Statuary Hall, and that one was fun for me to see, because my very first date, when I was 13 or 14, was to go see Billy Graham.
Haley told us we could walk the underground tunnel to the Library of Congress to stay out of the rain, and it is a beautiful building. It holds a Gutenberg Bible in a glass case, one of the first major books ever printed with movable metal type back in the 1450s, and the Library’s copy is one of only three perfect copies printed on vellum still in existence.
The reading room is huge, and Thomas Jefferson’s book collection is there with colored ribbons in the books. A green ribbon means it is one of Jefferson’s own books that survived an 1851 fire in the Capitol, a gold ribbon means the library bought a matching copy to replace one that was lost, and a book with no ribbon came from elsewhere in the Library of Congress.
For lunch we went where the Capitol Hill business suits eat, a place called Bullfeathers, named for Teddy Roosevelt’s polite word for nonsense, with great food and great staff. We were rubbing elbows with politicians and aides from the Hill, and our server said we came in at the right time, because it is usually standing room out the door to get a seat for lunch.
Next was the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The museum itself is free, and we paid $2 for our two timed passes online. It was a very heavy visit, showing the sad events that took place in our world and what one human could do to other humans, and it was very educational and eye opening. I stood in one of the train cars that carried 100 people, and it was so small that I cannot imagine how packed it was.
To end the day we went back to the Capitol to watch the Senate in session. It was neat to be in the Capitol after the tours were over, walking the empty halls alone, and we did not leave until 7 PM. Going into the Senate gallery you surrender everything on your person, and my purse was placed in a box on a shelf, which made me very uncomfortable, and then we had to go through another scanner before we got to the chamber.
We watched them vote on two bills and saw several members of Congress we recognized, although it took us a while to figure out what was happening, because it looked like a big hangout session with friends chatting until we realized people were saying aye and no as they checked in, placing their vote and then gathering in small groups chatting with their colleagues. We thought we would see senators sitting at their desks like you see on TV, and it was nothing like that. When the two bills were read, there was no one even in the room except the interns and someone sitting at the desk who never said a word. It is not something I would do again, but it was neat to see once.
Can a Capitol tour through your senator include the Senate gallery?
Yes, the same office that sets up a Capitol tour through your senator can give you a free gallery pass. Passes are good for the entire two year Congress they are issued in. Visitors from other countries can ask for passes at the Senate Appointment Desk inside the Capitol Visitor Center, and if you cannot be there in person, the Senate streams its floor proceedings live on Senate.gov. Before you go, call the Senate gallery at 202-224-0057 to confirm it is open that day.
Watching money being made, and a tour I would skip
On our last morning in DC we had a private 8:15 AM tour of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, with Brandy as our guide, which meant more security scanners, although we got to keep all our belongings with us this time. We watched the process of making money and the security process around it, and there was one million dollars in $10 notes stacked in a box for us to see.
Brandy also showed us details on a $100 bill you would never see with the naked eye unless you knew they were there. The little triangles on the ends each say 100, and the words The United States of America are written in the collar of Benjamin Franklin’s coat.
The FBI tour was the last one on our list, and I was not really impressed. It was okay to walk through, and they were shooting at the range inside the building, but by the time we got to that area they were done. We had to get security clearance 60 days before we arrived, and I expected something more, so it is not something I would tell you to plan your day around.
We had dinner at the Old Ebbitt Grill, which has been open since 1856, with very good food and a great waitress. After dinner we walked down to the White House area and watched people in the street using their freedom of speech, then walked more than a mile around the city along H Street to let our food settle. People in the area are very interesting, and it felt like a safe place to walk, with even a man walking the roof of the White House because the president was home.
We ended the night on a bench outside St. John’s Church on Lafayette Square, calling our Uber back to the Omni. It is the church where the president elect comes to pray and be prayed over before the swearing in, a tradition Franklin Roosevelt started in 1933. The little yellow church was finished in 1816, every sitting president since James Madison has attended a service there, and Pew 54 is still set aside as the President’s Pew. Even the steeple bell has a story, since it was cast by Paul Revere’s son.
What nobody tells you about security in Washington DC
Over those days we were wanded, scanned, and told what to do all day, and we did it, and more people looked in my purse than I did. DC is supposed to be one of the safest cities in the country, with police and people carrying guns everywhere you turn, and you do feel safe, yet all of that security added a little anxiety for me at the same time.
The last surprise came at the airport. My PreCheck was not on my plane ticket, which meant the regular security line for the first time in many years, and of course I got flagged for a full pat down that went much further than I was comfortable with. I feel it was way too much, and it grossed me out for the rest of the day. Then they sent my shoes back through the scanner, which meant I had to walk on the nasty floor. Arrrrggggg!!!
It was a good trip, and we came home exhausted, as we do from most of our trips, because we go hard the whole time we are visiting to get in as much as possible. If you know that feeling of needing a trip to recover from your trip, I wrote about travel fatigue and how I personally fight it.
Three full days and 54,953 steps
We had three full days, Monday through Wednesday, and flew home on Thursday. My Whoop band counted 54,953 steps from Monday to Thursday, and that was on top of all our Uber rides. Just know before you go to DC that there will be walking, a lot of it, so take time to rest, hydrate, and keep snacks with you to keep up your energy.
Before you request a Capitol tour through your senator
If you are planning a trip to DC, start here: find both of your senators’ tour request pages and fill one out, even if your trip is only a few weeks away, since some offices ask for three to six months of notice and ours still came through on short notice.
- If you have PreCheck, check that your Known Traveler Number is on your airline reservation before you leave for the airport, so your PreCheck actually shows up on your boarding pass.
- Wear your most comfortable shoes, because you will stand far more than you sit, and around the Capitol you are not allowed to sit and linger.
- If you are new to Uber, my Uber invite link gives you 50 percent off your first two rides, up to $10 off each, at the time I am writing this, and I get ride credit when you use it.
Washington DC is not only for school field trips and people with connections. A Capitol tour through your senator is the easiest place to begin, and if a trip like this has been sitting in your head for years, the trip you keep planning and never book might be the nudge you need.
When you are ready to find out what your own trip would cost at the member price, the free pass lets you price one real stay before you spend a dollar. I am an MWR Life member myself and I earn if you join through me, which is why my own numbers are in this post instead of promises.
Be unpolished, Angela.