Smithsonian Natural History & Air & Space Tour in DC

More about the National Mall

The National Mall stretches like an open-air gallery of American history, and it serves as the perfect backdrop for this combined Smithsonian Natural History and Air and Space Museum tour. Flanked by grand neoclassical buildings, leafy elm-lined paths, and the silhouettes of the Capitol and Washington Monument, the National Mall is where the nation's most iconic museums sit side by side, free to enter and packed with treasures. Walking between the Natural History Museum and the Air and Space Museum means crossing this storied green expanse, where joggers, school groups, and visitors from every corner of the world share the same wide gravel walkways.

The tour makes the most of its location on the National Mall by guiding you efficiently through two of the Smithsonian's most beloved institutions without the overwhelm of going it alone. Inside the Natural History Museum, your guide brings the Hope Diamond, the towering African elephant in the rotunda, and the dinosaur and ocean halls to life with stories you would otherwise miss. A short walk across the National Mall then leads to the Air and Space Museum, where the Wright Brothers' 1903 Flyer, the Spirit of St. Louis, and Apollo era spacecraft hang overhead. Moving between these two anchors of the National Mall, you get a sense of how this corridor compresses millions of years of natural history and barely a century of flight into a single afternoon.

This experience is ideal for first-time visitors to Washington, families with curious kids, and anyone who wants a knowledgeable companion to cut through the crowds and crowds of exhibits on the National Mall. History buffs, science lovers, and travelers short on time will appreciate having the highlights distilled into a guided narrative rather than wandering aimlessly. By the time you step back outside onto the National Mall, you will have touched moon rock, met prehistoric giants, and gained a richer understanding of why this stretch of Washington draws millions of visitors every year.