The best museums in Washington, D.C. to visit year round

The most iconic museum in D.C., the National Museum of African American History and Culture, has eight floors of fascinating historical exhibits. Here, you’ll find tributes to historical figures, moments, and events that have shaped America’s past and present day. You’d actually need a number of days to fully explore everything here, but you can still get a mighty lot done in a few hours (with a stop at the lovely Sweet Home Café for lunch). 

The National Museum of Asian Art is an incredibly thoughtfully put together group of exhibits to help visitors learn about Asian history in the US and beyond. From Chinese and Japanese contemporary art to artifacts from Ancient Egypt, this museum is a central hub for the Asian community and more in D.C. You can book self-guided visits, virtual tours or onsite tours, and there are kid-friendly days and tours too. 

Dedicated to America’s colonized and historically abused Indigenous people, the National Museum of the American Indian joined the Mall in 2004, bringing with it significant Native American artifacts and a renowned cafeteria. (The Mitsitam Native Foods Café offers a stunning collection of dishes inspired by Indigenous cuisines.)

The building is as much a part of the message as the exhibits. The details are extraordinary: dramatic, Kasota limestone-clad undulating walls resemble a wind-carved mesa. The museum’s main entrance plaza plots the star configurations on November 28, 1989, when federal legislation was introduced to create the museum. The museum is also curated with art in various mediums from a diverse assortment of Indigenous American nations. Artwork includes film, photography, pottery, textiles, woodworking, and much more. 

This spectacular, aggressively modern cylindrical building enlivens the predominantly neoclassical architecture lining the Mall. The structure, which was completed in 1974, was meant to house self-made Wall Street millionaire Joseph Hirshhorn’s collection of 20th-century paintings and sculptures. The museum now presents art in a range of media, including works on paper, painting, installation, photography, sculpture, digital and video art. The museum has housed some of the most-hyped visiting exhibitions on earth, from Ai Weiwei’s "Trace" to Kusama’s "Infinity Mirrors."   

This museum’s entrance pavilion lies across the amazing Enid Haupt Garden, directly across from its twin, the Sackler. The museum opened in 1987, and its primary focus is ancient and contemporary work from sub-Saharan Africa. The museum draws visitors into different aspects of African art and culture. The rich ceremonial garb and textiles, including blankets made in Mali and embroidered hunters’ shirts, are a must-see.  

The Renwick's informal motto might be "go big or go home." The museum is popular for its interactive exhibits and large-scale modern art pieces. Perhaps best known for its blockbuster, much-Instagrammed exhibits, 2015's "Wonder" and 2018's "No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man," this Smithsonian museum celebrates craft and design in the digital age. Other notable exhibits have included the quirky “Murder Is Her Hobby,” a collection of gruesome doll houses used to help detectives solve crime scenes. 

Air and Space tops visitors’ to-do list, year in, year out. In the central Milestones of Flight Hall, towering U.S. Pershing-II and Soviet SS-20 nuclear missiles stand next to the popular moon rock station, where visitors can see a lunar sample acquired on the 1972 Apollo 17 mission. The 1903 Wright Flyer—the first piloted craft to maintain controlled, sustained flight (if only for a few seconds)—and Charles Lindbergh’s Spirit of St Louis are both suspended here. Carve out three to four hours and don't miss the test model of the Hubble Space Telescope, which is currently orbiting in space, taking snapshots of the universe. 

The Museum of Natural History is iconic on the Mall. The museum boasts longtime favorites like the Hope Diamond, which has drawn crowds for over sixty years, and state-of-the-art exhibits like the Hall of North American Mammals. The recently renovated Hall of Fossils is a must-see—visitors may feel as if they've traveled back in time. But don't worry, these dinosaurs don't bite. Dinosaur fossils are posed interacting with each other, even engaged in life-and-death battles.

This three-floor museum contains more than 900 artifacts and four theaters showing archival footage and survivor testimony from the Holocaust. Themes such as the murder of the disabled, Nazi eugenics and resistance, and Jewish resistance all present a chronological history of the event.

The objects and symbols make powerful impressions: thousands of camp victims’ shoes piled in a heap personalize the losses. While the main exhibition is suitable for children of 11 and over only, a specially designed children’s exhibition, “Daniel’s Story,” at ground level, is presented to children of eight and over and teaches about the Holocaust through the story of one boy. Guests should consider reserving their tickets beforehand since wait lines can be long. 

The National Portrait Gallery and American Art Museum take up two sides of the same interconnected building. Among the most notable portraits are Gilbert Stuart’s seminal “Lansdowne” portrait of George Washington and Andy Warhol’s iconic Marilyn. The Portrait Gallery houses the only complete collection of U.S. Presidents' portraits, while the American Art Museum houses prominent works by American artists, including Edward Hopper and Georgia O’Keefe.

Unlike many other museums in the area, the dual museums also include an open, airy courtyard—the perfect place to rest, eat lunch, read a book, or splash your feet in the flowing water fountains.

Comprising two separate buildings connected by a trippy underground moving walkway, the National Gallery of Art is a world-class museum with artwork from around the globe.

The West Building highlights European and American art from the 13th to the early 20th centuries, as well as Spanish, Dutch, Flemish, French and German works from the 17th century. Don't miss Leonardo da Vinci’s almond-eyed portrait of Ginevra de’ Benci, the artist's only work in the Western Hemisphere.

The East Building represents more current work, including a skylit atrium that houses a 32-foot-long still mobile by Alexander Calder. Stroll through the sculpture garden, a six-acre square across 7th Street that includes a Louise Bourgeois 10-foot bronze spider and a pyramid by Sol LeWitt. Free timed entry passes are required.

The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) houses a collection of more than 4,500 works by more than 1,000 women from the 16th century to the present. Highlights of the permanent exhibit include Frida Kahlo’s defiant 1937 Self-Portrait Dedicated to Leon Trotsky, as well as works by Elisabetta Sirani, Alma Woodsey Thomas and Barbara Hepworth. There are also special collections of 17th-century botanical prints by Maria Sibylla Merian and works by British and Irish women silversmiths from the 17th to 19th centuries. The museum hosts free community days every other week, on the first Sunday and second Wednesday of every month.

The Postal Museum is perhaps the most obscure of the Smithsonian’s offerings. A museum devoted to postal history and philately (stamp collecting) may sound like a hard sell, but there’s a trove of interactive and entertaining exhibits housed within the skeleton of what was once the enormous D.C. City Post Office.

Check out the permanent exhibit “Systems at Work,” which recreates the journey of letters, magazines, parcels and other mail from sender to recipient. Pick out stamps from around the globe to start your own stamp collection. Write and ship a postcard directly from the museum. And go to the downstairs level of the museum to explore how mail has traveled across the country on trains, planes, and carriages.

The continuing transformation of the National Museum of American History has led to several renovations that highlight some of America's most beloved artifacts. Floors are organized around loose themes, allowing a huge diversity of exhibits to tell American stories in an entertaining and informative manner. We love the First Ladies' dresses and Dorothy’s ruby red slippers. Oh! And there’s Julia Child’s actual kitchen. 

A privately run collection, the National Building Museum produces smart, noteworthy exhibits focusing on architects and the built environment, both contemporary and historical. Among the exhibitions, "House & Home" discovers the history and many meanings of 'home,' both physical and cultural, with an array of all things household, from household goods and decorations (including a poster of Farrah Fawcett and a fondue set), to building materials to mortgage papers. Fittingly, the building itself is gorgeous: an Italian Renaissance-style Great Hall features eight colossal 75-foot Corinthian columns that lead to a ceiling 15 stories above. 

The world of D.C.’s prestige paid-entry museums was shaken up dramatically in 2019, with the Newseum closing indefinitely and the International Spy Museum moving to sleek new digs in L’Enfant Plaza. In its larger space, the museum boasts many exhibits that lean so hard into “infotainment” that a trip can feel less like learning about spies and more like a game of pretending to be one. Test your sleuthing abilities and gawk at an array of spy gadgets, including KGB-issued poison pellet shooting umbrellas and Germany’s Steineck ABC wristwatch camera. James Bond junkies will be in heaven—the groovy silver Aston Martin from 1964’s Goldfinger assumes a central spot in the museum.