Washington D.C. — Day Trip or Stopover

The US capital is only 3.5 hours by Amtrak train from New York (from Penn Station, $30-80 depending on advance booking) and is well worth a day trip or stopover. Washington is the opposite of New York: sprawling instead of cramped, monumental instead of hectic, political instead of commercial. The city has no skyscraper — no building may be taller than the Capitol.

The centerpiece is the National Mall, a 3 km long green space stretching from the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial, lined with the nation's most important museums and monuments. The Smithsonian complex — 21 museums and galleries, all completely free — is the world's largest museum and research complex. The highlights:

• National Air and Space Museum: The Kitty Hawk (Wrights' first plane), the Spirit of St. Louis (Lindbergh's transatlantic flight), a real Space Shuttle, moon rock to touch. A paradise for tech and space enthusiasts.
• National Museum of African American History & Culture: The newest and most emotional Smithsonian museum (2016). The underground galleries on slavery and the civil rights movement are harrowing. Free timed-entry tickets (book weeks in advance!).
• National Gallery of Art: European and American masterpieces — the only Leonardo da Vinci in America (Ginevra de' Benci), Vermeer's entire American collection, Impressionists galore.

The monuments along the Mall — Lincoln Memorial (where Martin Luther King gave his "I Have a Dream" speech), Washington Monument (170 m high obelisk), Vietnam Veterans Memorial (the black granite wall with 58,000 names) — are most impressive at dusk when they are illuminated and the tourist buses are gone.