Visiting Washington DC

I love D.C., am jealous!
Yup, Metro is the way to go as well as the Hop on Hop off type trolleys.
Trying to remember if D.C. Metro is the one you still need your ticket to EXIT the subway? If you pay $1.65 to go to X station, but ride it to Y station, they want to make sure you paid full fare.
Ditto the Ulday-Hazy (? Sp) Museum. Look it up to see if it your interest, parking was $15 last year, but museum is free as it is a Smithsonian Museum.
Have fun.

#1 thing to know is that having a toad will not be an advantage in DC. Parking is horrible there. But the Metro goes essentially everywhere you might want to go, is inexpensive, and mostly hassle free. Those of us who live within a 3 or 4 hour drive to DC use the Metro as much as possible on trips there instead of spending half a day circling around trying to find a parking spot.

In all the 35 years I've lived here, I've never needed advance tickets for anything. But YMMV.

If you are interested in things aeronautical, a toad will get you to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum out by Dulles airport. That is a great museum to visit, btw, well worth the trip.

All Smithsonian museums are free. There are few museums in the area that are not part of the Smithsonian, and will cost. One of them it really worth seeing - The Newseum, which about news. Fascinating - a lot of artifacts of famous news stories. The ticket will cover two days.

If you like Modern Art - the Phillips Collection is also privately run, but worth seeing.

If you want to go to restricted government facilities, contact your Congressional Reps office. They have tickets for their constituents.

If you are staying at Cherry Hill, you should also consider a day trip to Annapolis. Baltimore also has some interesting areas.

If you have a toad be sure to check out the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum Annex (Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center) at Dulles International Airport. It houses several fascinating aircraft. The space shuttle, Concorde and the Enola Gay to name a few. It's around the beltway and down The Dulles Toll Road (no toll if your going to Dulles). You won't disappointed.

Spring & summer are peak tourist seasons for Washington, DC. Lots of high school trips in Cherry Blossom season, so be patient. Don't try to do too much in 1 day. Take a break now & then, like the movies at the Air & Space museum to get off your feet a bit. The Museums & Monuments on the Mall are free, which adds to the enjoyment.

The National Zoo is worth a visit. Take METRO, it's between 2 stops, so get off at Cleveland Park when arriving, and get on at Woodley Park when leaving - that way your walk (couple of blocks) is down hill both ways.

Great city to visit. Spent last weekend there and it was spectacular. Easy city to get around in even during the 20th anniversary of the million man march. In addition to walking, we logged 10 to 12 miles per day 4 days in a row, make use of the Metro, Uber and Lyft. All were great help to seeing so much in a short time.

Note - Arlington National Cemetery closes around 4:00, maybe 5:00 so if you want to see it go early afternoon at the latest. I highly recommend seeing most monuments in daylight and at night. Striking differences at most of them. I only got to see the FDR and Korean War Memorial at night and these two need to be visited in daylight IMHO. The White House is quite a sight daylight or night.

Hope you have a great time.

Washington Monument is the only ticket I remember.Free of charge,but first come,first served.You can reserve online for the day you want,but do it ahead of time.Other places I don't think you'll need anything .Whitehouse you need your Congressman to set you up.Takes about a month ahead of time. We just spent two weeks there and could have spent two more.
If staying at Cherry Hill,it's a pretty good place.Buses stop every 20 minutes to take you to the subway station.Study the maps and it gets real easy to get around.The only drive we took was to Mt.Vernon and I recomend the small drive.Have fun.It's a daunting amount of walking.

Take the Metro to Union Station then go out front and hop on an Old Town Trolley. It will take you to all the sites with hop on and off. We visited most all the memorials and Smithsonian museums and paid nothing except for the trolley ride and the parking at the Udvar-Hazy Center of the Air and Space Museum near Dulles. Now there are some private specialty museums that charge for entry but we didn't go to any of them.

I never needed a ticket for the museums or monuments on the plaza, but that was several years ago.