Things to do in Washington DC, Boston & Niagara Falls

On the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the Lincoln Memorial stands at the west end, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum displays the 1903 Wright Flyer and the Apollo 11 Command Module Columbia, and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History shows the T. rex and Triceratops in the David H. Koch Hall of Fossils – Deep Time. Free U.S. Capitol tours from the Capitol Visitor Center visit the Crypt, the Rotunda and National Statuary Hall, and in the holiday season the National Christmas Tree on the Ellipse lights up near sunset each evening. In Boston, follow the 2.5-mile Freedom Trail past 16 historic sites from Boston Common to the Bunker Hill Monument and stand atop the Green Monster on a Fenway Park tour of the Red Sox home, in use since 1912, while Philadelphia's Liberty Bell Center shows the Liberty Bell for free. Farther afield, Niagara Falls State Park, America's oldest state park, has overlooks along the falls, the Observation Tower and Cave of the Winds close to the water, and the Art Institute of Chicago on South Michigan Avenue anchors a Midwest detour.

Good to knowThe Air and Space Museum is free but everyone needs a free timed-entry pass, while the Natural History Museum needs no tickets at all and the Lincoln Memorial requires tickets only for the Undercroft. Capitol tours are best reserved ahead (walk-ins are accepted if you arrive by 2:30 p.m.), the Liberty Bell Center screens every visitor and bag and has no restrooms, and Fenway Park tours allow only small single-compartment bags. The Art Institute of Chicago is closed on Tuesdays and stays open late on Thursdays, and expect to get wet near the spray at Cave of the Winds.