Old Town Alexandria, Virginia is a cute little neighborhood in the DMV along the Potomac River. Exploring the area can be easily accomplished in a few days!

We flew in to DCA, arriving at about 2:30pm. From the airport, we took a 15 minute taxi ride to our hotel. I prefer to take taxis from DCA, rather than Ubers, because they’re so accessible from the airport exit. Just walk out the doors by baggage claim and you’ll see the taxi stand just to your right.

We stayed at The Alexandrian. It’s a historic hotel located right on King Street, the central hub of Old Town. The rooms were really nice and super quiet, but a lot of them face the street. That’s cool for views, but not so cool for outside noise.

On days we travel, we don’t really plan too much, so we just walked the neighborhood streets a bit, grabbed some food and drinks at Murphy’s Irish Pub, and had a night cap and dessert at King & Rye, the hotel bar and restaurant.

The Alexandrian charges a $25 per night (per room) “resort fee”. You can treat it like a daily credit to be used at the hotel bar and restaurant. You have to use it each day, though, and can’t stack it over multiple days. We easily used the credit with a few drinks and it was a great way to end the evening.

We spent our first full day exploring the National Harbor, admiring the Gaylord Resort, walking through ICE!, and riding the Capital Wheel.

Before any of that, though, we had to use our $25 resort fee credit, so we ate breakfast at the hotel. Luckily, King & Rye has an excellent breakfast menu with many different options. Everyone will be please here! It was also very quick and not too crowded, which is important if you’ve got an itinerary to stick to.

We Ubered to National Harbor in about 15 minutes, and then walked to the Gaylord Resort. The resort is a destination in itself, so it’s worth walking through, even if you’re not staying there! They have various shows and events throughout the year as well. We had tickets to ICE! and had a great time walking through the ice sculptures.

After ICE! we walked around the harbor streets, where there are tons of restaurants, shopping, and great waterfront views. We grabbed some Ben & Jerry’s as we walked.

After admiring it from afar several times (you can even see it flying in!), we decided to all ride the Capital Wheel. It’s $18 a person, which isn’t cheap, but the touristy attraction is super stable and secure. Be prepared to wait a bit, though, as the ride lasts about 15-20 minutes. If you don’t get there when it’s loading, you’ll have to wait for the next one.

When we were ready to return to Old Town, we opted for the Potomac Water Taxi instead of another Uber. It goes directly between the National Harbor and Old Town Alexandria, so we couldn’t pass the convenient opportunity up. We purchased tickets from the yellow “City Cruises” booth near the Capitol Wheel. Tickets vary depending on the day (weekends are more expensive) but you can expect to pay about $28 per ticket. Again, not cheap, but we wanted to take advantage of the water taxi actually going exactly where we needed to go.

The distance isn’t very short, as the crow flies, but the water taxi drivers take a meandering route. The ride takes about 20 minutes. It leaves exactly on time, so don’t be late!

We took a quick break at the hotel, then headed to dinner at Blackwall Hitch. The staff was very nice, the menu had lots of options, and the views of the harbor were excellent.

We started the next morning and our second full day at the hotel restaurant again for breakfast. Most of our day was spent walking around Old Town. We followed the “Old Town Historical Tour” from VisitAlexandria.com. I had the hotel print their little map for us and off we went!

We saw a bunch of cool stuff, including the Spite House – the skinniest historic house in America at just seven feet wide, built in 1830 to keep loiterers out of the adjacent alley.

While walking on Captains Row, a historic cobble stone street, we decided to stop and take a family photo. Keep this spot in mind! It’s an awesome place to snag a keepsake (we weren’t the only family there!).

The tour also led us through the Torpedo Factory. This cool building used to be an actual torpedo factory during World War II. Now, it’s home to three levels of active artist studios and seven galleries. It’s free to walk through so for sure check it out.

For lunch, we ate at the Alexandria Bier Garden. I would recommend the spot – the food and drinks were delicious! The interior decor is a little weird… I would have much preferred an actual outdoor space instead of a indoor space decorated like the outside, but don’t let that stop you from going.

For dinner, we stopped again at Blackwall hitch for more harbor views and a dessert-only dinner. Hey, we were on vacation after all!

On our third and final day, we Ubered over to DC (15 minutes) and walked a little over two miles form Adams Morgan to Georgetown. There’s tons of great stuff along the way – little shops, epic independent book stores (go to Lost City Books!), and cafes. We ate at Tatte (like latte), which is one of our favorites. They have several locations and we seem to always eat at one when we visit the DC area. It’s quick counter service, so it’s perfect if you’re on the go.

We Ubered back from Georgetown to Adams Morgan, picked up our luggage we stored at my brother’s apartment, and then headed to the airport around 2:30pm.

I’m always surprised by how much exploration you can fit into a short trip. Two full days bookended by travel was plenty of time for us to explore Old Town Alexandria (and beyond!).