Until the Metrorail services are extended to serve Dulles airport, the most immediate and sensible option for those travelling to the city is an authorised Washington Flyer Taxicab costing around $50.

www.mwaa.com

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Friday’s Weekend section in the Washington Post, or the weekly City Paper.

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It’s downtown and near the social centre of Dupont Circle, but it also on a quiet street and has preserved an old-world bookish feel that is rare in America. It has a pleasant lounge with an open fire in winters that feels like the common room of some old college, and a very decent restaurant. A room is about $100.

1739 N Street, NW, at Connecticut Avenue; Tel: 1-202 785 1277; Dupont Circle Metro; www.tabardinn.com/home.htm

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Great authentic Mexican food at very low prices.

1792 Columbia Road, NW; Tel: 1-202 332 1011; Woodley Park-Zoo/Adams Morgan Metro; Open: 10am-10pm Sun-Thurs, 10am-11pm Fri-Sat

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Its best to walk but if the heat is overpowering, there are old-fashioned trolley buses roaming around the city that will take you around the monuments and into Georgetown.

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Join up with the C&O Canal in Georgetown and within a hundred yards you’ll forget you’re in a city. The canal goes north-west for miles, as you follow the towpath under a canopy of trees.

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Take the kids to the Air and Space Museum and take in an IMAX movie there.

Sixth Street & Independence Avenue, SW, The Mall & Tidal Basin; Tel: 1-202 357 2700; L’Enfant Plaza Metro; Open: Sept-May 10am-5.30pm daily; Admission: Museum free, Planetarium $8; www.nasm.si.edu/

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Stretches from one end of the city to the other, widening as you travel northwards. It is full of forest paths, streams, woods and meadows. Deer roam through the undergrowth and the occasional coyote has been spotted.

Upper Northwest; Tel: 1-202 895 6070; Open: Park dawn-dusk daily, Nature Center & Planetarium 9am-5pm Wed-Sun (closed some holidays); www.nps.gov/rocr/

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A beautiful stately home, which is also a museum of pre-Colombian art, surrounded by an Italian garden hidden, all behind a high wall in Georgetown. A perfect place for an afternoon stroll.

1703 32nd Street, NW, between R & S Streets, Georgetown; Tel: 1-202 339 6401; Bus: 30, 32, 34, 36; Open: Museum 2-5pm Tue-Sun, Garden mid Mar-Oct 2-6pm Tue-Sun. Nov-mid Mar 2-5pm Tue-Sun; Admission: Museum $1, Garden $6; $4 concessions (no credit cards); www.doaks.org/

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A stroll around the Tidal Basin to the Jefferson monument. Sit on the steps, look away from the nearby motorway and across at all the cherry trees clustered around the water. At cherry blossom time in late March early April, it is spellbinding.

Southern end of 15th Street, SW, at the Tidal Basin & East Basin Drive; Tel: 1-202 426 6841; Smithsonian Metro; www.nps.gov/thje/

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All the T-shirts claiming the wearer is from the FBI or CIA or on a witness protection scheme.

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It’s a small private art collection so you have to pay, but it’s worth it. It’s stuffed full of famous modern masterpieces but the size is more manageable than the National Gallery. There are famous post-impressionist and cubist works, and a few nice Rothkos.

The Phillips Collection, 1600 21st Street, NW, at Q Street, Dupont Circle; Tel: 1-202 387 2151; Dupont Circle Metro; Open: 10am-5pm Tue, Wed, Fri, Sat; 10am-8.30pm Thurs; noon-7pm (noon-5pm June-Sept) Sun; Admission: Sat, Sun & special exhibitions $8, $6 concessions, free under-18s; Mon-Fri (permanent collection) free; www.phillipscollection.org/

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Get some political memorabilia like a Kennedy badge or a Nixon poster from the 1960s, or a Clinton-Gore sticker from 1992. There’s a shop that sells the stuff in Union Station, which is worth a few hours in itself.

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Stroll along the Mall stopping at the all the free museums and the fabulous National Gallery of Art along the way.

West Building: Constitution Avenue, between Fourth & Seventh Streets, NW; East Building: Constitution Avenue & Fourth Street, NW, The Mall & Tidal Basin; Tel: 1-202 737 4215; Archives-Navy Memorial, Judiciary Square or Smithsonian Metro; Open: 10am-5pm Mon-Sat, 11am-6pm Sun; Admission: free; www.nga.gov/

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Get them broiled not fried at any number of places. The Daily Grill on 18 and M is as good as any.

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One of the traditional great hotels of Washington. It’s where visiting dignatories tend to stay, and where Monica Lewinsky holed up during the Clinton impeachment saga.

1127 Connecticut Ave, NW, between L & M Streets; Tel: 1-800 228 9290/ 1-202 347 3000; Farragut North Metro; marriott.com/renaissancehotels/default.mi

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It is hidden down a small driveway off Georgetown’s bustling M Street. Perfect if you want to make Georgetown your base. It is best known for hosting Citronelle, one of Washington’s most famous restaurants.

3000 M Street, NW; Tel: 1-202 726 5000; Foggy Bottom-GWU Metro; www.georgetowncollection.com/

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For a standback view of the whole city, cross the Potomac river and climb the hill at the national military cemetery. On the way you can pay your respects at JFK���s memorial.

Tel: 1-703 695 3250/ 1-703 979 0690; Arlington Cemetery Metro; Open: 8am-7pm daily Apr-Sept, 8am-5pm daily Oct-Mar; Admission: free; www.arlingtoncemetery.net/

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Do the Washington power thing and eat a traditional aged steak among the political power players. The walls are decorated with caricatures of all the famous politicos who have dined there over the ages.

Address: 1225 19th Street, NW; Tel: 1-202 293 9091; Nearest Metro: Dupont Circle; Open: Lunch from 11.45am-3pm, dinner 3pm-10.30pm Mon-Fri, 5.30pm-10.30pm Sat, 5.30pm-9.30pm Sun.

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It’s very Clintonian era, but no one has a written a decent Bush period novel yet.

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