About Curtis Deveaux

Curtis DeveauxFormer National Park Service interpretive ranger, National Mall & Memorial Parks — Petworth, Washington, DC, United States

Where I am writing from

I was born in Petworth, in north-west Washington, and I still live there. The Mall was the place I worked, so I know it the way you know a corridor you have walked ten thousand times: which steps are cold at six in the morning, where the shade actually is in July, how long it really takes to get from the Lincoln Memorial to the Jefferson Memorial with a tired family in tow. Rangers are on duty out there from 9:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., and I have stood at the Lincoln Memorial at both ends of that shift and after it closed.

I write about the Mall full-time now. I still walk it most weeks, usually early, usually the same loop.

Why this site exists

Two facts about the National Mall sit awkwardly together. It is free and open 24 hours a day, with no admission charge to the park or to any memorial on it. It is also 1.9 miles from the Capitol steps to the Lincoln Memorial, and a realistic day that takes in the Tidal Basin is closer to four miles.

Then the DC Circulator was wound down from 1 October 2024 and stopped running on 31 December 2024. The National Mall route got no dedicated Metrobus replacement, and Metrorail serves the edges of the Mall rather than the middle. There is no free shuttle along the National Mall any more. Guidebooks and blog posts written before 2025 still tell people to hop on the Circulator, and correcting that is the single most useful thing this site does — the long version is on how to get around the National Mall.

Which leaves an honest description of what a guided tour sells here. Not access, because access is free. Transport and context: something with wheels that closes the distance, and somebody who tells you what you are looking at. That is the question every page on this site is trying to answer.

How I write about the tours

I read the operator listings, the inclusions and exclusions, and the traveller reviews, and then I say which product closes how much of the distance and who should not book it. I have written up all six guided tours that work the Mall on the reviews page, and I have grouped them by how much of the walking they take off you on the all-tours page. Where the free option beats the paid one, I say so, which happens more often on the Mall than anywhere else I could write about.

I have not personally ridden every departure of every tour, and I am not going to pretend I have. What I bring is nine summers of standing on the Mall watching what actually goes wrong for visitors, plus a careful reading of what each operator commits to. Product details, prices and ratings were checked on 8 August 2026 and they drift, so the booking widget is the final word.

How the site is paid for

When you book a tour through a link here, GetYourGuide pays me a small commission and you pay the same price you would have paid going direct. That is the whole business model, it is set out in full in the affiliate disclosure, and it does not buy a tour a better write-up. The lowest-rated product on this site is described as the lowest-rated product on this site.

Corrections

If a meeting point has moved, a price has changed or a closure has come into force, tell me and I will fix the page. My address is on the contact page.

Frequently asked questions