Worth a detourSight · MuseumFreeRainy day

National Gallery of Art

Old masters in the West Building, including the only Leonardo da Vinci painting in the Americas, and modern art in the angular East Building. The Sculpture Garden between them has an ice rink in winter.

Official website

Photo: ajay_suresh · CC BY 4.0

Open: Every day 10 AM–5 PM
Price: Free
Time needed: 2 hours
Best time: A rainy day, or a weekday morning.
Address: National Gallery of Art, Constitution Ave NW & 6th St NW, Washington, DC 20565Google Maps Apple Maps
Getting there: Archives–Navy Memorial–Penn Quarter (Green, Yellow) or Smithsonian (Blue, Orange, Silver).
Accessibility: Fully accessible; wheelchairs can be borrowed.
On site: Several cafés, including one in the Sculpture Garden; free coat check.

Why go

One of the great art museums of the world, and free. The neoclassical West Building holds European paintings from the Middle Ages to the 1800s, including Leonardo da Vinci's Ginevra de' Benci, Vermeer, Rembrandt and the French Impressionists. I. M. Pei's angular East Building has modern art and a rooftop terrace, and the Sculpture Garden between them has an ice rink in winter.

Tips

Walk between the two buildings through the underground concourse, past the light installation by Leo Villareal.
The Leonardo is the only painting by him in the Americas; ask a guard for the room.