United States Botanic Garden, Washington DC

I had been to DC many times, but never to the botanic gardens. This time we were taking a Capitol tour and saw this was nearby, so thought we would stop in. We were blown away! The variety and care was astonishing, and the descriptions of many of the plants and their uses were fascinating. We particularly enjoyed the medicinal plants section. They had the bridge and steam in the tropical plants section closed for construction, and there were more people there than we expected on a Saturday afternoon, but it wasn't packed and it was quite relaxing to walk around the building. We saw quite a few plants that reminded us of our time spent living and traveling in other continents, which bright up some great memories. Overall, really enjoyed this visit, and wish we had gone years ago! You can easily walk at a moderate pace and see everything in an hour, or catch a few highlights in 20 minutes, or spend several hours to take a close look at everything. Highly recommended!

This place is beautiful with many rooms filled with endangered or simply beautiful plants. I thought it would be bigger than it was but I’m not complaining. It’s an amazing place to take pictures. It’s definitely not an all day experience more of like a hour trip. It’s free it is a nice side trip after visiting the capital.