Practical Information for visiting District of Columbia

Coverage is excellent throughout the District, including most of the Metro, and Wi-Fi is universal in hotels, cafés, public libraries and the Smithsonian museums.

Federal buildings apply their own rules, and some require phones to be surrendered at security.

The federal core and the main visitor areas are heavily policed and safe. The District has areas with higher crime, as any large American city does, and they are mostly not places a visitor would go.

Security screening is routine at federal buildings and museums, and restricted areas near the White House and the Capitol are enforced without discussion.

Summer heat is the most common reason visitors need help, usually on open ground in the afternoon.

No vaccinations or precautions are needed and tap water is safe.

Heat exhaustion between June and September is the realistic risk, and the Mall — two miles of open ground with no shade — is where it happens.

Healthcare is excellent and expensive; travel insurance covering medical costs is essential for non-US visitors.

Tipping is expected: 18-20% in restaurants and bars.

Stand right, walk left on Metro escalators. This is enforced socially and with some vigour.

Eating and drinking are prohibited on the Metro, and unlike in most cities the rule is actually enforced.

Photography is fine outdoors but restricted inside many federal buildings, and tripods on the Mall may need a permit. Security staff will tell you; argue at your own cost.

The drinking age is 21 and identification is checked routinely regardless of apparent age. Open containers of alcohol in public are illegal.

Cannabis is legal to possess and to give away but not to sell, an unusual arrangement created by the collision of a District ballot measure with congressional control of the budget.

911 reaches police, fire and ambulance; 311 is the non-emergency city services line.

Major hospitals include George Washington University Hospital, Howard University Hospital and MedStar Washington Hospital Center.

The District is unusually dense with federal law enforcement — Park Police on the Mall, Capitol Police around the legislature, Secret Service near the White House — and which force responds depends on where you are standing.