Holiday Washington DC in Nov 2025: Day 2 – The Washington Monument – NOT!

By Nige on November 10, 2025 at 12:29 pm
Type: Post
Story: Holiday Washington DC in Nov 2025 Category: Travel
Tags: Hilton | Holidays | USA | Washington DC

We were looking forward to our trip up the Washington Monument. We had booked our tickets 30 days ahead and secured a visit at 10am.

There was lots of debate about whether it would be open, but they had reminded us by email just 3 days ago that we had a booking on Mon, so it all looked promising.

However, it didn’t seem very busy from the outside as we approached and we found the most annoying notice in the reception building.

Our hopes were dashed again. The last time we tried to enjoy the Washington Monument, we think it was closed due to high winds, or something like that.

Would we ever visit the Washington Monument?

We had to think of something alternative to do.

The obvious thing was to find a Starbucks. If in crisis, the answer is always to find a Starbucks.

Of course, we had to admire the amazing views of the US capital.

Although it was 9 deg c, it felt really cold, due to the biting wind! The forecast suggested that the following day it was going to be -2 deg c when we would be heading out for a Starbucks! Ouch!

We didn’t spend too much time at the top of the hill on which the Washington Monument sits – it was too exposed.

We decided to wander down to the WWII memorial and along the reflecting pool towards the Lincoln Memorial.

We ended up at a Starbucks near to the University on E and 20th streets.

Our coffees were a nice warmer and it was an opportunity to top up our food intake.

But we had noticed something across all of the Starbucks stores: the music was too loud to comfortably hold a conversation.

In this store, we specifically asked whether they would turn down the volume, and the response? The level is pre-set.

We suspected it was a tactic to discourage those that wanted to work whilst they sat in a store to.

Holiday Washington DC in Nov 2025