<p class="ingestion featured-caption">My family took a trip to Washington, DC.Lucky-photographer/Shutterstock</p><ul class="summary-list"><li>My family spent four days in <a target="_blank" class href="https://www.businessinsider.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-traveling-to-washington-dc-2021-10">Washington, DC</a>, with two young kids.</li><li>The Smithsonian National Zoo was easily my <a target="_blank" class href="https://www.businessinsider.com/best-tourist-attractions-in-us-been-to-every-state-2024">family's favorite attraction</a>.</li></ul><p>My husband and I recently took our two kids (ages 8 and 3) to Washington, DC.</p><p>Many of the US capitol's <a target="_blank" class href="https://www.businessinsider.com/most-disappointing-tourist-attractions-in-the-world-frequent-traveler-2024-7">most popular attractions</a> are free, making it an attractive vacation for our wallets. It also took the pressure off seeing absolutely everything because we weren't worried about wasting money on prebooked tickets or events if we had to skip out early.</p><p>But because the area has so many spots with free admission, we also packed a lot into our itinerary. Here's what I'd definitely do again and what I'd do differently next time.</p>