Only a quick jump over the Potomac River from Washington, DC, Arlington is known for being the house of Arlington Nationwide Cemetery and the Pentagon. However there is a lighter aspect to this charming county and loads of fantastic issues to see and do away from austere settings.

Come right here to dine, admire artwork, play ice hockey, see a play in an award-winning venue and even stroll in nature with among the most iconic views round. There’s way more to Arlington than you would possibly assume – listed below are 15 superb methods to expertise it.

1. Be awed by the Iwo Jima Memorial

Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Joe Rosenthal captured the second six Marines put in the US flag on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima throughout some of the hard-fought battles in World Warfare II. His soul-stirring picture turned the inspiration for the Iwo Jima Memorial – the nickname for the US Marine Corps Memorial – rising atop a knoll overlooking the Nationwide Mall.

It is highly effective and poignant, with the flag proudly flying 24/7 by government decree. On Tuesday evenings throughout summer season, the Marine Corps sunset parade, a musical extravaganza of marching, drums and bugles, takes place. Close by, the Netherlands Carillon, a present of the Dutch, gives dwell summer season live shows and automatic live shows at different instances. The grassy grounds supply an awe-inspiring perspective over the Nationwide Mall, a preferred fireworks-watching spot on the Fourth of July.

Planning tip: There isn’t a assured seating on the parade, so be happy to convey your individual garden chairs or blankets.

2. Spot planes at Gravelly Level Park

At Gravelly Level Park, close to Ronald Reagan Washington Nationwide Airport, airplanes are available in for a touchdown simply over your head, so shut you possibly can really feel the roar of the engines reverberate all through your physique as you examine their underbellies. You are proper on the flight path of touchdown and departing planes.

Locals swarm to this small, wide-open park for the casual aviation present, bringing picnics, youngsters and canines. It is a circus of exercise, with runners and bikers zipping previous on the 18-mile Mount Vernon Path, whereas the sweeping views to the east soak up DC’s monuments rising throughout the Potomac River.

Planning tip: You may solely attain the park from the northbound aspect of George Washington Memorial Parkway.

3. See a play and have dinner in Shirlington 

You do not have to go to the Kennedy Heart to see star-filled exhibits within the DC space. The Tony Award-winning Signature Theatre in Arlington is an under-the-radar regional theater that seats solely 300 folks. But it surely’s a theatrical powerhouse that not solely produces Broadway-caliber exhibits however has additionally hosted 59 world premiere works since its founding in 1989.

You may discover classics and new productions, established stars and rising abilities. It is the cultural anchor of the city village of Shirlington, a vigorous neighborhood of principally eating places, a handful of retailers and a movie show.

4. Go to hallowed floor at Arlington Nationwide Cemetery

Almost 400,000 stark-white tombstones undulate alongside the rolling inexperienced hills of 639-acre Arlington National Cemetery. Solely probably the most esteemed troopers, representing each battle for the reason that Revolutionary Warfare, are buried on this most somber of locations – the {qualifications} are stringent.

The welcome middle has displays, and that is the place you possibly can choose up the shuttle that accesses particular websites, or you possibly can stroll (warning: it is hilly!). Do not miss the altering of the guard on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and John F Kennedy’s gravesite, marked by an everlasting flame.

The land, initially owned by Robert E Lee, was confiscated by the Union after he fled to affix the Confederacy. Sitting atop a knoll, his plantation house, Arlington House, has been reinterpreted to inform the fuller story of all who lived right here earlier than the cemetery was established in the course of the Civil Warfare – the Lee household and enslaved staff alike.

5. Go on a hike at Potomac Overlook Regional Park

The namesake view of the Potomac River at this city, tree-shaded oasis within the coronary heart of Arlington is seasonal – and never a lot to jot down house about, truthfully. The rationale to go to the rollicking, 67-acre park is to hike on simple trails, taking in a typical Virginia woodland of oaks, maples, cedars and magnolias. You may hear birds flitting about, squirrels rustling within the brush and the quietude of nature. The character middle has interactive displays on native wildlife.

Planning tip: The park has a lined picnic space with tables, seating and restrooms close by. Convey your individual meals and revel in a budget-friendly lunch in a stunning setting.

6. Have fun ladies’s achievements on the Navy Ladies’s Memorial

Simply exterior the doorway to Arlington Nationwide Cemetery, you may spy what appears like a large neoclassical wall. It is not only a wall, however a memorial honoring servicewomen from all wars and occupations. Step inside, and you may uncover a contemporary schooling middle, theater and computerized registry of army ladies. Plus, there are displays with all types of fascinating information; for instance, you may study there have been ladies spies in the course of the Revolutionary Warfare, whereas others fought dressed as males.

One other spotlight is the 360-degree rooftop view. Behind you, rows of Arlington’s bright-white tombstones march over the hillside, whereas in entrance, the star-studded panorama of the Memorial Bridge and Lincoln Monument unfurls earlier than your eyes. Inspiring quotes are etched into glass panels.

7. Take a second to recollect 9/11 on the Pentagon Memorial

A sprawling complicated rising within the coronary heart of Arlington, the Pentagon is house to the US Division of Protection and one of many world’s largest workplace buildings, with 6,500,000 sq ft of working house for greater than 23,000 army and civilian workers.

5 sides comprise this huge construction, with 5 above-ground flooring and two basement ranges, its corridors measuring a complete of 17.5 miles. But due to the spoke-and-ring design, it takes solely seven minutes to stroll between the 2 farthest factors. 

On September 11, 2001, a hijacked jet struck the Pentagon’s west aspect, killing 184 folks. The out of doors 9/11 Pentagon Memorial honors these killed, with 184 illuminated benches inscribed with every sufferer’s identify, age and site on the time of assault. The memorial is open 24/7, and a 24-minute audio tour is obtainable by calling 202-741-1004.

Planning tip: You may book a tour of the Pentagon by registering and finishing safety checks. Ebook properly prematurely to permit time for the authorization course of.

8. Benefit from the springtime magnificence at Girl Hen Johnson Park

Claudia Alta “Girl Hen” Johnson was all the time recognized for her love of flowers, and whereas her husband, thirty sixth president Lyndon Johnson, was in workplace, she strove to make Washington, DC – in addition to the nation’s interstate highways – as stunning as potential.

Renamed in her honor in 1968, Lady Bird Johnson Park – an island within the Potomac linked to the mainland by bridges – places on a rare floral present all through the seasons. 1,000,000 blooming daffodils adopted by 11,000 crimson tulips announce spring, whereas prim hardwoods flip into fiery reds and oranges in fall. There are weeping willows, dogwoods, crab apples and extra. Finishing the picturesque scene, the views throughout the Potomac soak up Washington’s marble monuments.

You may discover two monuments throughout the park: the Lyndon Baines Johnson Memorial Grove on the Potomac, and the 1922 Navy and Service provider Marine Memorial. The 18-mile Mount Vernon Path meanders via, supreme for bikers, runners and walkers. Drivers can solely entry the park from the southbound lanes of the George Washington Memorial Parkway.

9. Hang around at Ballston Quarter

Arlington’s once-fading Ballston Mall has been resuscitated. Ballston Quarter, because it’s now referred to as, has undergone a facelift to create a glowing indoor-outdoor house with leisure venues, actions and, in fact, procuring. There are sit-down eating places that includes among the space’s favourite cooks, in addition to a buzzy meals corridor providing all the pieces from avenue tacos to gourmand doughnuts to native craft brews. You may come right here for a cooking class, a trivia sport, a Caps or Nats watch get together on two big screens and even participate in a live-action journey at 5 Wits Arlington.

Planning tip: On the highest ground, you may discover the MedStar Capitals Iceplex, which not solely gives a public ice-skating rink, nevertheless it’s additionally the place Alex Ovechkin and different Stanley Cup-winning Washington Capitals observe. Test their schedule here. 

10. Bike the attractive Mount Vernon Path

Edging the Potomac River for 18 miles from Theodore Roosevelt Island to Mount Vernon, the floral-bedecked Mount Vernon Trail is a primo escape for bikers, walkers, runners and rollerbladers. Solely about 4.5 miles are in Arlington, however what a 4.5 miles they’re. For a lot of that size, you may have iconic views throughout the river, taking within the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, US Capitol, Memorial Bridge and extra.

Springtime flowers bloom gloriously, whereas autumn ignites in blazing maples, dogwoods and redbuds. Highlights embrace Theodore Roosevelt Island, Gravelly Level Park (the favored plane-spotting perch) and Girl Hen Johnson Park. It runs parallel to the George Washington Memorial Parkway, which gives the identical views by automotive.

11. Stretch your legs on Theodore Roosevelt Island

A pedestrian bridge sweeps you throughout a placid channel to this 88-acre island in the course of the Potomac River, the place 2.5 miles of mountain climbing trails wander via swampland, marsh and upland forest. As soon as an overgrown farm that was reworked right into a pure oasis within the Thirties, it is now the area of squirrels, raccoons, deer and the occasional crimson fox. The focus is the 17ft bronze of the twenty sixth US president rising within the middle, honoring the person who adored the wilderness.

The island is accessible by automotive solely from the northbound lanes of the George Washington Memorial Parkway, or on foot or by bike alongside the Mount Vernon Path.

12. Make dinner reservations in Clarendon

Vietnamese refugees flocked to the Clarendon neighborhood within the Sixties and ’70s, and whereas few of Little Saigon’s eating places stay, a pair do, together with Nam Viet, with a photograph wall stuffed with well-known diners. Submit-gentrification, the neighborhood has a bevy of terrace eating places and bars catering to the going-out crowd. You may discover all the pieces from Italian and Japanese to Irish and Baltic. Ambar, Green Pig Bistro and Circa are perennial favorites.

There’s procuring, too, together with the out of doors Crossing Clarendon procuring middle, with big-name shops like Pottery Barn and Barnes & Noble. Amongst a number of annual occasions that happen right here, Clarendon Day is a enjoyable avenue competition with bar crawls, an arts competition and the thrilling Clarendon Cup, knowledgeable bike race.

13. Admire public artwork in Rosslyn

Arlington could not seem to be a creative vacation spot, however greater than 70 everlasting public artwork installations sprinkle the county – and counting.

You may discover a lot of them within the neighborhood of Rosslyn, together with one of many earliest: accomplished in 1984, Darkish Star Park options spherical concrete sculptures resembling, in line with artist Nancy Holt, “extinguished stars.” Anna and David, by Miriam Schapiro, is a colourful, three-story sculpture of a dancing couple, and Luminous Our bodies, marking 4 corners of the bridge over I-66, is a set of 26-foot-high illuminated sculptures that change colours at evening. Take a self-guided walking or driving tour to identify all of them.

14. Look to the skies on the US Air Power Memorial

Ascending excessive into the blue sky above Arlington, three curved, shimmering, stainless-steel spires honor the women and men of the US Air Power. Extra particularly, the spires characterize the contrails of Air Power Thunderbirds as they disperse in a “bomb burst” maneuver.

Devoted in 2006, the US Air Force Memorial is the final army service monument to be put in within the DC space. It is surrounded by granite partitions with inscriptions celebrating the valor and heritage of aviation pioneers and consists of an 8ft-tall bronze Honor Guard statue and a glass contemplation wall paying tribute to fallen airmen and girls. You may discover it close to Arlington Nationwide Cemetery, overlooking the Pentagon.

15. Delve into the world of medication on the DEA Museum

Tucked away in an workplace constructing in a nondescript a part of Arlington, the very last thing you’d look forward to finding is a thrilling museum devoted to medicine. However there it’s on Military Navy Drive, an entire museum spearheaded by the Drug Enforcement Company (DEA) that explores the nefarious world of drug exercise and enforcement over the previous 150 years.

Displays delve into the science and historical past of opium, marijuana and cocaine, whereas a rotating show highlights such noteworthy moments as “taking down El Chapo.” But it surely’s the artifacts which might be most riveting. Among the many DEA’s assortment of greater than 5000 objects and 40,000 images are inexperienced platform footwear worn by a DEA particular agent whereas investigating a Nineteen Seventies cocaine ring; a non secular icon discovered amongst members of the Gulf, Sinaloa and Juarez drug cartels; and a spiked bamboo booby entice that protected drug traffickers’ crops in Thailand.

Planning tip: Because the museum is inside a federal constructing, you may must convey a government-issued picture ID to enter.