U.S. Capitol Building and Capitol Hill Walking Tour in Washington, DC

We did the Daytime DC Bike Tour. We have done bike tours in Paris, NYC, Boston, Amsterdam, and Munich, and have loved each and every one. This one, however, was a flop. First of all, there were several members of our group that could NOT ride a bike. We had to go extremely slowly and ride on the SIDEWALK on a busy Saturday in DC to accommodate the two boys who couldn't ride the bike because they were afraid to be too near the cars. In my opinion it is the guide's responsibility to take matters like that seriously, and if people can not keep up on the bikes, they need to have someone from the bike shop come get them instead of ruining the experience for the rest on the tour. Not only were we constantly waiting on this kid to catch up, but when he re-joined the group he would insist on being close to the front and almost hit people several times. At the end, we were going up a hill and he started in the front but could not keep the bike going and just stopped in the middle of the hill, forcing everyone behind him to stop, dismount, and then have to get going mid-hill, which, of course, is difficult on a bike. He was completely disruptive and it was not fair for the rest of the group. Also, we felt like the information given on the tour was totally lackluster and nothing beyond what we could have looked up online. We asked several questions about the universities when we were in that area, like "Is GW the oldest university in DC? Is it the largest?" etc, and our guide, who was a student at GW, didn't even know. He did, however, tell us at-length about the type of food in the dining hall. Great. Before we got to The White House, we asked if there would be any chance to see The President. Our guide said, "Oh, no, that never happens." While we were in Foggy Bottom waiting for one of the kids to catch up on his bike, we saw a helicopter. While we were at The White House lollygagging again, waiting for the non-bike riders, we looked up the Presidential schedule and saw that he had just left in the helicopter. It seems like this would be an easy thing to look up and try to plan for groups to get to witness stuff like this. It's all on-line. Then, on the way down to the Capitol building, there was a street festival. You could see it from several blocks away. The logical thing to do would be to go a couple blocks over and avoid it, but of course, our guide takes us directly through. On bikes. On the sidewalk. During a street festival. We continued on, down to the Capitol. Our guide pointed out some buildings and gave us very general, generally not interesting information. It took almost an hour to go from The White House to The Capitol, which is absolutely ridiculous (they are about 1.5 miles apart). At this point we were still riding on the sidewalks, having to wait at the end of each block for the two that couldn't ride a bike and for walk symbols, and weaving in and out of people. Pedestrians were saying things to our group about that we shouldn't be on the sidewalk. It was ridiculous. The stops along the mall were fine, but the information was still extremely basic, and every time questions were asked, the answers were either "I don't know" or seemed made up. The best example of this: there is this urban legend in DC that no buildings can be taller than the dome of the Capitol. One person asks the obvious question, "well, what about the Washington Monument, why can that be taller?" The guide is flummoxed, and then BS's something about how the way the hills are and the perspective is skewed, but that really, the Monument isn't taller. UHHHHHHH. A quick Google search will tell you that not only is the monument almost 300 feet taller, but that the whole legend about nothing being taller than the Capitol is essentially just urban legend in the first place. You can look it up and read about this for yourself. It's actually quite interesting, and would have been wonderful information to learn on our tour!! FINALLY we finished our tour, over an hour behind schedule. We were supposed to be finished by 11:30 and it was almost 1:00 by the time we were done. We were absolutely famished and frustrated, but happy to be done with the worst bike trip ever.

Really fun experience riding around DC seeing various landmarks and monuments. Friendly staff and guide. Casual pace with frequent stops (12) for the guide to share a bit of information about a given site. Bike friendly area, but you will be riding among some pedestrians at the most popular sites, and in bike lanes of a couple busy streets. Age range of our group was approximately 10 - 55. The bikes and helmets were in good shape. They provide each person with a bottle of water before the trip.

This tour was so wonderful. The cycling is easy, the guide was so informative and we saw so much. The bikes are easy to ride and there is just enough power to assist the ride without being difficult to manage. The tour was 5 hours with a lovely break for lunch and we enjoyed every minute.

We wanted to see the monuments lit up at night and this was the perfect way to see everything in one evening. Our tour guide was knowledgeable and had interesting anecdotes about the monuments. And just riding the Segways was a blast! Definitely recommend.

We took the twilight monument tour and had a wonderful time. It is August in DC so it was humid and warm but we mostly stayed to the bike paths and sidewalks and it was quite pleasant. The tour took us to most of the monuments in the tidal basin area including the Lincoln monument, Washington monument, Einstein statue, memorials to Vietnam, Korea and WWII. Our guide Andy was knowledgeable, fun and did a great job with the endless questions and stories from my 9-year old. The only reason I cannot give it five stars is there were a few minor bike issues: I had no working lights and the handle grip on my daughters bike was missing. We had a large group of 16 people but Andy kept us together safely and explained the rules of the road. Would definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a good time to see all the monuments. It was nice to see them lit up at night too.