Fall in Washington, DC
8 Day Package

Price Per person double occupancy

Dates
For groups of 20 or more Request a quote or call 800-322-0788 for more information.

Price Includes: Superior tourist class and first class hotels, transportation, meals and sightseeing as per itinerary.

Not Included: Airfare, taxes, transfers, travel insurance, gratuities to guides and drivers.

Airport transfers are included only when airfare is purchased from Pilgrim Tours. Taxi service is available for those purchasing their airfare elsewhere.

Deposit Required: $300 per person will reserve your place. A $100 service fee will be charged for cancellation at any time in addition to our normal payment and cancellation policy.

Day 1: Arrive in D.C.

We arrive in Washington and have dinner prior to hotel check in.

Day 2: White House • Holocaust Museum

After breakfast at our hotel, we will stop at Lafayette Square for a photo opportunity at The White House. Then we will visit the FBI Building. Then on to the Old Post Office for lunch. Our day continues with our guide taking us to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, the largest producers of security documents in the United States. The BEP prints billions of Federal Reserve Notes for delivery to the Federal Reserve System each year. The BEP produces several other specialty printing products, such as postage stamps for the United States Postal Service, hand engraved invitations on behalf of the White House, and various miscellaneous security documents for other government agencies. Our day continues with a visit to The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. This is America's national institution for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust history, and serves as a witness to all those who died during the Holocaust and can not speak for themselves. We dine at Blackies before we return to our hotel for overnight.

Day 3: Touring Gettysburg • Sight & Sound Theater

After breakfast at the hotel, we board our motorcoach for a trip to Gettysburg National Military Park where a guide will take us on a battlefield tour. The small town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania was the site of the largest Civil War battle ever waged in the Western Hemisphere. The Battle of Gettysburg opened on July 1, 1863 and closed two days later with the climactic "Pickett's Charge". It resulted in a Union victory for the Army of the Potomac and successfully turned back the second invasion of the North by General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. We stop for lunch on our own. We travel to the Amish country and the famous Sight and Sound Millennium Theater, which offers inspirational live stage productions.. The magnificent 40-foot tall sets, fabulous period costumes, inspiring scripts, and multimedia special effects are all developed on site in the theatre production facilities. Each year over 800,000 guests enjoy dynamic live presentations. Our dinner is at Hershey's Farm. We return to our hotel for overnight.

Day 4: Mount Vernon • Memorial Tour of D.C.

Today starts off with breakfast at our hotel before we travel to Mount Vernon to learn more about our first President, George Washington. This is America's most visited historic house. Mount Vernon houses furnishings which are original pieces acquired by Washington himself. We visit Old Town Alexandria and stop at Christ's Church. Lunch is on our own. Then return to D.C. by coach for a Memorial Tour to include Arlington National Cemetery and Iwo Jima memorial. For the almost four million people who visit annually, Arlington National Cemetery represents many different things. Arlington Mansion and 200 acres of ground immediately surrounding it were designated officially as a military cemetery June 15, 1864. Chosen to represent the contribution of all Marines, the famous scene of the flag-raising on Mount Suribachi during the battle of Iwo Jima in World War II was first immortalized by a chance photograph taken by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal on February 23, 1945, as the Marines planted the U.S. colors during the raging battle for control of the strategically situated island of Iwo Jima. We have dinner at the Orleans House and entertainment this evening will be a guided tour of the Kennedy Center or a performance at the center. We return to our hotel for overnight.

Day 5: Capitol Hill

After breakfast at our hotel this morning, our will accompany us to Capitol Hill for our tour of the United States Capitol, (meet with Government official if available). We then move to The Supreme Court Building where our third branch of government exercises its mandate to protect and interpret the Constitution. Union Station is the site of our lunch stop, after which we travel to the Library of Congress, the largest national library in the world. Our next stop is the National Air and Space Museum building. NASM maintains the largest collection of historic air and spacecraft in the world. It is also a vital center for research into the history, science, and technology of aviation and space flight. Located on the National Mall., the Museum has hundreds of artifacts on display including the original Wright 1903 Flyer, the "Spirit of St. Louis," Apollo 11 command module, and a Lunar rock sample that visitors can touch. Dinner will be at Via de France, followed by a tour of Builders Museum, which contains the largest Corinthian columns in the world. Our full day is complete and we return to our hotel for overnight.

Day 6: Naval Academy • Chapel Service • Tour Fort McHenry

After breakfast we board our motorcoach for a short trip to Annapolis, the home of the United States Naval Academy, the Navy's undergraduate professional college. Here we attend the Naval Academy Chapel Service and Guided Tour. The chapel windows were designed by Tiffany Studios. Below the chapel is the ornate crypt of John Paul Jones. His remains had been transferred from a Parisian cemetery and honorably laid to rest here in 1905. We stop for lunch on our own and then move on to Fort McHenry. This late 18th century star-shaped fort is world famous as the birthplace of the United States' national anthem. The guardian of Baltimore's harbor, it was the valiant defense of Fort McHenry by American forces during a British attack on September 13-14, 1814, that inspired 35 year old poet-lawyer, Francis Scott Key to write "The Star-Spangled Banner." Of all the areas in the National Park System, Fort McHenry is the only one designated a national monument and historic shrine.

Day 7: Memorial Tours

After breakfast at our hotel we embark on a day of visiting many of the most famous memorials in Washington. We visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial which serves as a testament to the sacrifice of American military personnel during one of this nation's least popular wars. The purpose of this memorial is to separate the issue of the sacrifices of the veterans from the U.S. policy in the war, thereby creating a venue for reconciliation. We move on to the Lincoln Memorial with it's amazing gothic statue of a seated Lincoln and his now immortalized Gettysburg Address Inscribed on the south wall. We stop at the Korean War memorial, often called “the forgotten war”. The passing of more than four decades has brought a new perspective to the war and its aftermath. The time has come, in the eyes of the Nation, to set aside a place of remembrance for the people who served in this hard-fought war half a world away. The next doorway we cross is that of the Smithsonians National Museum of American History and Museum of Natural History. Here we break for lunch. The day continues with a tour of the National Cathedral. In 1791, when Congress selected the site to be the capital of the United States, President George Washington commissioned Major Pierre l'Enfant to design an overall plan for the future seat of government. Included in l'Enfant's plan was a church, "intended for national purposes, such as public prayer, thanksgiving, funeral orations, etc., and assigned to the special use of no particular Sect of denomination, but equally open to all." The magnificent beauty and reverence observed here speaks to the successful accomplishment of that purpose. Tonight we have dinner at Alfios before we return to our hotel for overnight.

Day 8: Washington Monument • Roosevelt Memorial

After our buffet breakfast we are whisked away to the Washington Monument. Alone among the Founders of the United States George Washington earned the title "Father of his Country" in recognition of his leadership in the cause of American independence. We then visit the Roosevelt Memorial. This monument traces twelve years of American History through a sequence of four outdoor rooms-each one devoted to one of FDR's terms of office. Sculptures inspired by photographs depict the 32nd President: A 10-foot statue shows him in a wheeled chair; a bas-relief depicts him riding in a car during his first inaugural. At the very beginning of the memorial there is a statue with FDR seated in a wheelchair much like the one he actually used. We end up at the Ronald Regan Building for lunch before we depart for home.