Rent a Car in Washington, D.C.

The National Mall and its museums, the monuments and most of downtown D.C. are genuinely walkable, and the Metro covers the city and close-in Virginia and Maryland suburbs well — for a trip that stays inside the District, a car is more hassle than help given the traffic and pricey parking. Where a hire car changes the trip is everything beyond the Beltway: Shenandoah National Park and the Blue Ridge Mountains are about 1.5 hours west, Annapolis and the Chesapeake Bay waterfront are under an hour east, and Colonial Williamsburg and Virginia's historic triangle are roughly three hours south.

D.C. is also a convenient base for a wider Mid-Atlantic loop. Baltimore is about 45 minutes north on I-95, and Harpers Ferry, where Virginia, Maryland and West Virginia meet at the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers, is under 90 minutes northwest. None of these day trips are well served by transit from the city, which is why most visitors who want to see beyond the monuments end up renting a car for part of their stay.