I have used other "Eyewitness Travel Guides" before and I really like having all of the pictures, renderings, and map layouts. It makes it much easier to correlate what is in the book vs. what you are seeing in front of you. There were a couple of attractions (like the capitol or Washington monument) that were a bit tricky to get into or get tickets for, and it would have been nice if the book had covered those better.

The book was sufficient to be the only that I need, but still sufficiently small to stash in a bag and carry around with us.

First Eyewitness guide and I love it. Wish it was a bit more up to date.

I usually love the DK Eyewitness Travel Guides, which may have raised my expectations of this one on Washington, DC. There could easily have been an extra twenty or thirty pages - or am I just being greedy?

As I live in Australia, I thought Washington DC would mean the entire capital. The book mainly focuses on the areas along the Potomac, such as the Mall, Georgetown, and Foggy Bottom. Areas such as Dupont Circle and Kalorama have been relegated to the 'Further Afield' section, which I found disappointing.

There's quite a good section on the White House and the beautiful buildings which surround it, but again I was left wanting more.

It's still a beautiful book though, and the photographs are clear and crisp, but there just wasn't enough for this armchair traveller. I guess I'll have to get out of my armchair and experience Washington DC for myself. At least this travel guide has whet my appetite!

I usually love the DK Eyewitness Travel Guides, which may have raised my expectations of this one on Washington, DC. There could easily have been an extra twenty or thirty pages - or am I just being greedy?

As I live in Australia, I thought Washington DC would mean the entire capital. The book mainly focuses on the areas along the Potomac, such as the Mall, Georgetown, and Foggy Bottom. Areas such as Dupont Circle and Kalorama have been relegated to the 'Further Afield' section, which I found disappointing.

There's quite a good section on the White House and the beautiful buildings which surround it, but again I was left wanting more.

It's still a beautiful book though, and the photographs are clear and crisp, but there just wasn't enough for this armchair traveller. I guess I'll have to get out of my armchair and experience Washington DC for myself. At least this travel guide has whet my appetite!

For the first time visitor to Washington, D.C., this book is invaluable. With it's excellent descriptions and insights, grasping a sense of the city's many offerings is easy and fun. But what truly sets this book apart from other travel guides, are the unique and informative full color layouts of the city streets, complete with 2-D images of the buildings for reference. It's nearly impossible to 'get lost' with this guide in your hands!

Another success for the DK Eyewitness series. Well thought out, with the excellent graphics that are DK's hallmark. Well indexed, user friendly, and pocket sized. As a DC resident I own a lot of DC guidebooks; this is the one I'd recommend first, to both visitors and new arrivals alike.

A very clear guide book. Well organized with helpful facts and photos to help identify buildings and key contents. It proved most useful.

A very clear guide book. Well organized with helpful facts and photos to help identify buildings and key contents. It proved most useful.

As a 10 year resident of Washington DC, I think that there are many areas that have developed recently that deserve to be mentioned here. Also, there are quite a few inaccuracies. Although crime and racial discrimination are part of the city living so is the new development of a multicultural city. For example, there is a large number of Latinas/os all over the city who have their own newspapers, radio stations, health centers, neighborhoods (despite the gentrification efforts by the new rich or yuppies), restaurantes, theaters (e.g. Teatro Gala), bars and discos, which are very good and cheap, and a large number of Latina/o intellectuals; also the Ethiopian community is quite strong here with lots of restaurants to enjoy so there is more than black and white but the whole rainbow of human beings are here and every one has some cultural influence on the city. Also, I think that far beyond the Mall there are quite a lot of interesting and beautiful sights that this guide fails to mention such as the National Shrine (Catholic cathedral) with some pretty sights around as the Franciscan Monastery with their catacombs and the new Jean Paul II museum among many other sights and places beyond the Mall such as 14 St. and U St. areas. DC is very expensive place to live in. Although it is not NYC or San Francisco, DC is not far behind in rent and housing prices so even a very tiny one bedroom apartment can reach $5,000 a month, depending on the location. DC is also a college town. Yes, a college town! Did you know that the city itself has ten major colleges such as Georgetown Univ., George Washington Univ., Catholic University, Howard University, Gallaudet University, Trinity University, American University, University of the District of Columbia, Southeastern University, and Corcoran College of Art and Design. Plus the nearby University of Maryland (one of the top ten largest campuses in the US), George Mason University, and John Hopkins University, and many local chapters of other institutions of higher education which amount to 500,000 (yes, half a million college students!). I guess this is something worth of mentioning it in a tourist guide, right? There is a new Museum too which is the Native American Museum and the Newseum is coming up by the end of 2007 and also there is an initiative to build one for Latinos. There is a lot more to see than the Mall in DC and Georgetown and that beyond is pretty as well and very multicultural. In summary, I wish that the people from this publishing company did a better job at talking to the locals and looking beyond what is classic and researched ten years ago.

There is tons to do in Washington DC and despite several trips there I have yet to see it all. This book has been invaluable in planning things from the obvious like the Smithsonian's and the mall to the obscure like the international Espionage museum. I highly recommend its use for planning a trip in the area. Good DC Subway map as well as excellent recommendation on restaurants and hotels. The pictures are wonderful for understanding the various areas.

I used this guide for a one day trip to D.C. I especially liked how it laid out all of the floorplans and highlights of the Smithsonians, and I appreciated the Metro layout. For D.C., I might recommend this as the primary guide, and not recommend getting both a Frommers type and one of these, which I do for larger cities.

The book looked ok- however I returned it because, by the time it came, I was already in Washington.

We try to visit DC every couple of years, and next time we were thinking of paying for one of those guided city tours. We don't need the sites pointed out to us, but those tour guides always seem to have good information and anecdotes about the sites that you don't hear anywhere else. I thought that maybe we could save a couple hundred dollars if we could find a book that has that type of information. I bought the Unofficial Guide to Washington, D.C., and I also checked out the Frommer's Guide. They were very informative, but they didn't get me excited about any of the sites. They were pretty much just reference books (with very limited photos). However, when I opened up the Eyewitness Travel book, I was blown away. The color photos and color floor plans/cutaways of the buildings are outstanding. It really got me interested in places that I wouldn't have thought twice about if I had read just a text description.

The book also tells about the history of certain places and tells you what to do and where to go on three guided walks. It is a gourgeous and entertaining book that doubles as a tour guide (only cheaper). To keep up with the other guides, it also includes hotel and restaurant information.

I am not sure what the previous reviewer is talking about. I find it funny how some people politicize everything that they see, hear or read. I am into history, not politics, so this book was exactly what I was looking for.

I am planning a trip to Washington, DC, in September 2006. In order to prepare for my trip and gain insight on the many attractions in the nation's capital, I purchased the "Eyewitness Travel: Washington, DC" guide from Amazon.com in the month prior to my trip.

I was expecting to find a non-partisan, non-political guide that would not pander to any agenda or movement (we get enough of that from the liberal news media every day, and every time we go to the movie theater, as we are force-fed leftist, politically-correct propaganda spewed by the "cultural elite"). Boy, was I wrong!

The first few pages deal with the history of Washington, DC, with pictures of the various protests over the years, from women's sufferage, to anti-Vietnam War rallies, and anti-Persian Gulf War demonstrations. At first this didn't concern me, until I recalled the numerous pro-life rallies that have taken place in DC, drawing tens of thousands of anti-abortion opponents on an annual basis. Or how about the many "support the troops" (pro-war) rallies that have occurred in 1991 and since the 2003 liberation of Iraq (and I am a member of the Army National Guard, by the way)? None of those pictures were shown, but then again, that wouldn't be very PC.

Pertaining to security, page 212 of the guide attempted to minimize Washington, DC's notorious crime problems, stating: "Although as in any major city there is crime, Washington has made great efforts in reducing problems and cleaning up its streets, and with great success". That's news to me, because Washington, DC remains one of (if not THE) murder capitals of the nation, with crime beginning to affect some of DC's more elite neighborhoods and tourist areas. In late July 2006, news coverage spoke of increasing robberies, muggings, assaults, and rapes at or near the Mall, mainly during late evening and night hours. As for cleaning up the streets, I hope that DC has made progress since my last visit there in the summer of 2003, as the block behind the J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building (10 Street NW) was riddled with homeless people and the sickening sight and smell of human waste. But then again, it would be very un-PC to focus on DC's crime and homeless problem.

The kicker was when I flipped to page 203 and viewed the "cultural events pages". Mixed in with the area theaters, opera halls, ballets, clubs and bars, was a seperate section naming the location of three of DC's "well-known" gay bars. Again, political correctness is force-fed to us, as the gay agenda finds its way into a tourist guide.

In all, the guide was very informative with detailed information about the many things to do in the nation's capital and surrounding area, but why was such a liberal slant allowed to ruin an otherwise very enjoyable and helpful booklet. If I had known this, I would not have purchased the "Eyewitness Travel" guide to Washington, DC.

Traveling without doing any research is a recipe for sub-par trips and missing many things that you would want to see if only you knew where to look. The problem with most travel guides, though, is that they are great sources of information on hotels, restaurants, and attractions but they have few pictures if any. Yet, when you travel to a place such as Washington D.C., there are many attractions that have great visual appeal. How can you possibly select or prioritize among them without seeing pictures of them?

This is where the Eyewitness Travel Guides come in handy. While not comprehensive in covering the details, this guide has photos of many of the landmarks that await you in our nation's capitol. The book is an excellent starting point and can definitely help you decide what you want to see while visiting Washington. I highly recommend purchasing it along with a more detailed book such as Frommer's to get a truly comprehensive comination of source material to help you plan your trip.