A kid-friendly trip to Washington, D.C.

We planned to spend two nights and two days in D.C., and to see as much as we could. Our tentative itinerary was jam-packed. That was our first mistake.

The early-morning direct flight from Boston to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport was a quick, easy jaunt. We hired an XL ride share, battled with the portable booster seats we’d brought, and arrived at the Royal Sonesta Capitol Hill hotel before lunchtime. The recently opened hotel has spacious rooms (standard rooms starting under $200 a night, depending on the time of year), with contemporary furnishings. We stayed in a suite with a separate seating area and an adjoining room. The two rooms gave us plenty of space. We especially liked the hotel’s location, which was an easy walk to the US Capitol and the National Mall, a 2-mile or so green park lined with Smithsonian Institution museums.

First on our agenda was a visit to the International Spy Museum in the Southwest Waterfront neighborhood along the Potomac River. Confession: This was the adults’ choice; we’d never been to the museum and wanted to check it out. Currently showing: “Bond in Motion,” a collection of 17 original James Bond vehicles. We were psyched to see it; the kids weren’t much interested.

There are a lot of displays here that go right over young kids’ heads, but the museum turned out to be the 8-year-old’s favorite spot. We picked up our secret identities and undercover mission cards upon arrival and looked for the spy mission hands-on activities throughout the museum, including cracking secret codes, practicing observation skills, creating gadgets, and testing our strength, hanging from a hand bar. The youngest played along, pushing this and peering through that, and clamoring through The Duct Crawl, several times. But we concluded that this museum is best for older children, say 8 or 9 years and older.

“Consider your kids’ ages,” Elliott L. Ferguson II, president and CEO of Destination DC, the official destination marketing organization for the nation’s capital, advises. “Washington, D.C., boasts attractions for every age group. I recommend making sure you visit the ones tailored to spark the most interest and creativity.”

After the International Spy Museum, our plan was to visit the Jefferson Memorial. But it had already been a long travel day for the kids. We enjoyed Ben & Jerry’s ice cream cones at the nearby Wharf, a new, lively waterfront development, followed by a little downtime at the hotel.

Later, in the early evening, we jumped on the Big Bus Night Tour, a spur-of-the-moment decision that turned out to be the right one. Washington, D.C., is especially beguiling at night when the monuments are lit up. The hop-on, hop-off tour visits many of the major memorials, including the White House and the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials. The kids could relax on the bus (they skipped the headphones for the prerecorded commentary) and still took in the iconic sights.

“There’s something special about seeing the monuments and memorials lit after dark,” Ferguson agrees. “Don’t miss seeing them aglow after dinner.”

Another note about the Big Bus hop-on, hop-off tours: well worth it! The daytime Red Loop tour makes 17 stops at major Smithsonian Museums and famous monuments and memorials. We used it for sightseeing, but also for transportation, hopping on when little legs (and weary adults) needed a rest. (Tip: Also bring a stroller; you’ll need it. And wear comfortable shoes; you’ll be walking a lot.) “You won’t need a car in Washington, D.C. In fact, one of the best ways to experience the city is on foot,” Ferguson says. And taking the bus or subway and hiring rideshares all are better options than driving.

Let’s go kids; we have a full day of fun activities planned! On our second day, we walked to the US Capitol and along the National Mall. The kids enjoyed running and playing tag (lesson: leave time for unstructured play), as we made our way to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. This massive museum is one of the largest of its kind in the world, filled with extraordinary exhibits and collections, with some 148 million specimens and artifacts. The kids were instantly drawn to the Hall of Mammals, with full-size giraffes, hippos, lions, cheetahs, and many, many more. The David H. Koch Hall of Fossils, with some 700 fossil specimens, was another kid (and grown-up) favorite, including a face-to-face greeting with a life-size skeleton of the Nation’s T. Rex and triceratops. In Sant Ocean Hall we walked under a model of a 45-foot-long North Atlantic Right Whale, and gazed into aquariums filled with sea creatures and coral. The hall features more than 600 specimens. We posed for photos looking through the jaws of a megalodon, a giant shark that went extinct some 3.6 million years ago.

The 6-year-old, who had just received a rock tumbler for his birthday, was excited about the Geo Gallery and got everyone else involved, looking at the massive, shiny gemstones, and the collection of meteorites. In all, the museum has some 350,000 mineral specimens and 10,000 gemstones, one of the largest of its kind in the world, including the world-famous Hope Diamond.

We thought we’d buzz through the O. Orkin Insect Zoo, the oldest continuously operating insect zoo in the US. But the kids were mesmerized by the collection of creepy crawlies. They nudged to the front of a live presentation on a bug we didn’t recognize “Who wants to touch it?,” the presenter asked, and a group of little hands flew up. Scrambling through a 14-foot-tall model of an African termite mound was another favorite.

The museum was a hit. Next on the agenda was a visit to the National Children’s Museum of Washington, D.C. However, we’d already missed our timed entry slot. Did we have time for another museum? A visit to the National Zoo? Not really.

“A common misconception is about the time you’ll spend exploring museums,” says Ferguson. “We often hear that families had no idea how cool it would be to see the dinosaurs, or spaceships, or presidential artifacts.”

We’d overloaded our itinerary, and we suspected the kids were now on sensory overload. We grabbed snacks and drinks from a sidewalk vendor and walked and skipped our way to the Washington Monument, roaming through some of the Smithsonian Gardens along the way.

What to do on our final morning before our flights back to Boston? The choices were overwhelming. We decided on a visit to the lesser known National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., which had just opened its “Building Stories” exhibition. The four-room, immersive exhibition examines the world of architecture, engineering, construction, and design found in children’s books, including 150 books representing 28 countries. We found it fascinating for both kids and adults. The kids particularly enjoyed receiving a sketchbook and souvenir pencil that served as a guide through the exhibition, with places for stamps to collect along the way. There are cozy reading nooks, a small theater in the round, illustrating favorite books like “The Snowy Day,” a wall of alphabet books, and an entire area designed and built by David Macaulay, illustrating his “Rome Antics,” a 1997 picture book depicting buildings of Rome as seen by a homing pigeon. The final room features large, soft building blocks for kids to build their own structures. The second floor “Lego Room” (as the kids called it) featured a collection of iconic world landmarks and places built out of Legos, and a play area where kids could build their own Lego constructions.

We ended in a mad dash to the airport, where we waited for our delayed flight home. For more information, visit www.washington.org. Note that some Smithsonian Museums require timed entry reservations.

Diane Bair and Pamela Wright can be reached at bairwright@gmail.com