Virtual Tours
Book a real-time virtual tour and experience Washington DC from the comfort of your home
Schedule a virtual interactive excursion with DC Design Tours! Hear captivating stories, visit beautiful sights, and learn fascinating secrets you’d experience on tour, but from the comfort of your own home. Each talk is a live video conference with your private guide.
Our talks are perfect for educational programs, conferences, social groups, or families. Get in touch to reserve your experience!
America’s Main Street: Pennsylvania Avenue and the White House
America’s most famous avenue, connecting the White House and US Capitol, hasn’t always been a grand thoroughfare. Pennsylvania Avenue and the surrounding neighborhood has been renovated, re-imagined and revitalized over and over again. From Murder Bay, a center of crime, gambling, and prostitution, to the stately boulevard of Presidential inaugurations, hear the story of metamorphosis along America’s Main Street.
Highlights include:
- The White House
- Eisenhower Executive Office Building
- Blair House (President’s Guest House)
- Federal Triangle
- The Willard Hotel
- Old Post Office Tower
- J. Edgar Hoover FBI Headquarters
- National Archives
- Federal Trade Commission Building
- Temperance Fountain
Millionaires Row to Embassy Row: Washington’s Gilded Age
Washington’s movers and shakers once strolled the streets of Dupont Circle, where Massachusetts Avenue was the city’s premier residential address. Heiresses, industrial magnates, newspaper tycoons and political elites built opulent mansions along the avenue, all to impress Washington society. After the Great Depression, many of these magnificent mansions were converted into embassies, social clubs, and offices. Hear the stories of the Capital’s ruling class and learn about the history of Washington’s premier promenade.
Highlights include:
- Dupont Circle
- Embassy of Indonesia
- Alice’s Palace
- Society of the Cincinnati
- Turkish Ambassador’s Residence
- Embassy of Latvia (Alice Pike Barney Studio)
- The Hobbit House (Edward Lind Morse Studio)
- The Phillip’s Collection
Urban Oasis: A History of Rock Creek Park
Established in 1890, Rock Creek Park was the third national park created in the United States and the first in a major city. More than 2,000 acres of Washington were set aside as a refuge for wildlife and an escape for District residents. Before the founding of the park, the land supported Indigenous people, agriculture, fishing, and industry. The creek powered mills, watered orchards, and was a conduit for trade in the nation’s capital. While the landscape feels natural today, much of Rock Creek Park was meticulously laid out by the noted Olmstead Brothers. Their rustic style of bridges, roads, and structures helped set the tone of national “parkitecture” across the country.
Highlights include:
- Peirce Mill
- Milkhouse Ford
- Boulder Bridge
- Smithsonian National Zoo
- Pulpit Rock
- Fort DeRussy
- Peirce Klingle Mansion
- Jules Jusserand Memorial
Monumental Core: The Evolution of the National Mall
Over nearly 250 years, the National Mall has evolved as the center stage of our Nation’s Capital. The founding fathers envisioned the District of Columbia as a shining beacon of democracy for a newly independent nation, with the National Mall as its core. Progress, however, was slow and laborious. Less than 40 years after the establishment of Washington, Charles Dickens described the underwhelming capital as a “City of Magnificent Intentions”. From pasture lands to military training grounds and from mud flats to grand monuments, hear the tumultuous and lesser known history of our most enduring national landmarks.
Highlights include:
- The L’Enfant Plan
- United States Capitol Building
- Washington Monument
- The White House
- National WWII Memorial
- Vietnam Veterans Memorial
- Lincoln Memorial
The Smithsonians: Tracing the Arc of American Architecture
Our “Nation’s Attic,” the Smithsonian Institution has shaped the character of the National Mall since 1855. Washington’s most beloved museums trace the arc of American architecture, from the Gothic Smithsonian Castle to the modern Museum of African American History and Culture. Romanesque to Victorian, neoclassical to Brutalist, each unique building is an architectural study all its own. Learn about the style, design, controversy, construction, and fascinating backstory behind these celebrated museums.
Highlights include:
- Smithsonian Castle & Garden
- Arts and Industries Building
- National Museum of Natural History
- Freer Gallery of Art
- Hirshhorn Museum
- National Air and Space Museum
- Museum of the American Indian
- National Museum of African American History and Culture
Deep in the District: Washington’s Hidden Neighborhoods
There is a distinction in the Capital City often made by locals between Washington and DC. “Washington” is the federal city– grand government buildings, monuments, memorials, and the famous icons of our Nation’s Capital. But “DC” is where the real soul of the city lives. The District’s diverse neighborhoods each have their own unique character, from the well preserved colonial streets of Georgetown to the drastically (and tragically) altered Southwest Waterfront. Explore far off the Mall and learn about the real history of the District.
Neighborhoods include:
- Georgetown
- LeDriot Park
- Dupont Circle
- Mt Pleasant
- Southwest Waterfront
Unique Memorials: Obscure Landmarks of Downtown DC
The Washington Monument towers 555 feet above the city; once the tallest structure in the world. But sitting in its long shadow is an obscure little landmark. The Jefferson Pier, a 3-foot-tall stone marker, marks what our third president hoped would be the center of the world. Just to the south, nestled among Washington’s famous cherry trees, is a 170-year-old Japanese stone pagoda. And hidden among the grand neoclassical buildings along Pennsylvania Avenue sits a long-neglected fountain, a testament to the sordid past of a neighborhood once known as “Murder Bay.” Explore downtown Washington’s most unique and little-known monuments, memorials, and landmarks!
Highlights include:
- Jefferson Pier
- Japanese Pagoda
- Fire Air Mail Flight Marker
- Original FDR Memorial
- Titanic Memorial
- Temperance Fountain
- Americans Disabled for Life Memorial
- Bartholdi Fountain
- Japanese American Memorial to Patriotism During WWII
- Freedom Bell
Inside Georgetown: Rags to Riches in DC’s Oldest Enclave
Founded fifty years before the federal capital of Washington, DC, Georgetown got its start as a gritty port city on the banks of the Potomac River, described by Abigail Adams as a “dirty little hole.” Despite very modest beginnings, this neighborhood eventually came to have some of the most expensive and desirable property in the District.
Learn about the highlights and secrets of the city’ most exclusive neighborhood, home to palatial mansions, notable cemeteries, stately churches, and a world-class university.
Highlights include:
- Healy Hall at Georgetown University
- The Car Barn
- Newton Baker House
- Miss Lydia’s English Seminary
- Georgetown Waterfront
- Old Stone House
- Chesapeake & Ohio Canal
- Pomander Walk
- Jackie Kennedy House