1. The Hop-On-Hop Off Tour Bus - Red Trail
If you’re a first timer in DC I highly suggest taking this tour! It’s perfect for wandering souls. There’s an app you can download to see which stops you want to get off on. The bus runs roughly every 45 minutes. It’s an awesome opportunity to see many historical sites and statues of our Nation; with numerous museums along the way. There are varying trails you can take but the Red Trail covers the majority of the tourist attractions. Plus you can hop on anywhere there is a Red Trail stop you don’t have to start at location 1: Union Station.
2. Madame Tussauds Wax Museum
This can be its own separate attraction or you can do it the same day as the Hop-on-Hop off tour bus. The tour bus actually has the Wax Museum as one of its stops anyways. My suggestion would be to do it the same day. Parking is ridiculously crazy in DC. It’s hard enough to find parking up there let alone wanting to pay for parking every time you move your car.
3. The Capital Wheel
The 180-ft high Capital Wheel is located on the pier over the Potomac River at the National Harbor. For 15 minutes you’re seated in a climate controlled pod, so you don’t really have to worry about the weather and it being too cold. It overlooks the river and is a great photo opportunity.
Those are the three attractions we chose for our trip. You can actually purchase the Washington DC Explorer Pass on their website OR you can possibly find it on…...drum roll please…...GROUPON! Anything you find on Groupon is essentially going to be discounted for some percentage. Our adult passes for a 3 attraction pass was $51.30 each.
**There are child passes available for purchase as well at a cheaper price.
If we had decided instead to purchase these separately instead of with the attraction pass these are the prices we would have been paying:
$39.00 per ticket - Hop-On-Hop Off Tour Bus
$23.27 per ticket - Madame Tussauds Wax Museum
$16.50 per ticket - The Capital Wheel
A whopping total of $78.77 per person for the attractions alone.
The Explorer Pass gives you access to several different activities to do around the city, and it's completely up to you. Although I don’t suggest winging it you don’t have to pick the activities you want to do when you buy it. There is a 3, 4, and 5 attraction pass available with 20 different attractions to choose from.
My recommendation: According to the number of attractions you pay for; choose your top ones, and then have backups picked out just in case.
Zoolights Date Night Package
What is Zoolights?
Zoolights is a free annual winter holiday tradition that the Smithsonian's National Zoo hosts. Over 500,000 environmentally-friendly LED lights transform the Zoo into a winter wonderland complete with a dazzling light show set to music.
The Groupon deal: You honestly don’t have to be a “couple” so to speak for this. It came with hot chocolate for two. Sweet treats for two (2 cookies). Snowless tube riding for two. Carousel ride for two. One special take home gift.
I bought this on Groupon for $39.00 and it was worth it in my opinion. Outside of walking around viewing the lights, it gave you a few things to snack and sip on in the cold. Along with a couple of activities to get your blood pumping.
Drawbacks:
You have to pay for parking at the Smithsonian's National Zoo which is an extra $15.00.
They don’t tell you that the gift shop closes down at 8:00pm - which is where you go to get you special take home gift. It didn’t make sense to me why they wouldn’t have those up at the guest check-in desk where you go to get you date night coupon book. So we missed out on getting ours.
Although the event takes place in the winter in Washington, DC they stop the Carousel ride if temperatures go below 30 F - so you better pray that it’s a decent day out or go earlier in the day.