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White House Tour
Posted on 1/28/25 at 10:11 am
Posted on 1/28/25 at 10:11 am
My kids have been begging to visit DC (yes, they're nerds), so we're heading there during spring break in March. Before Thanksgiving we reached out to our House rep to schedule several tours (White House, FBI, Capitol, Engraving & Printing, etc). As of early Jan, we've been able to get everything scheduled except the White House. At that time my rep's office said that the White House isn't scheduling 2025 tours yet. They had heard that they might open it up for tours starting 3/1.
In doing more research, I found out you could also submit similar requests thru your senator. I figured to cover our bases, I'd submit a request thru his office as well. Today my senator's office responded to let us know that all the time slots are full for our requested period.
In response, my wife (whom summited the request to our House rep) reached out to the contact at our rep's office she has been working with to get everything scheduled. She received received a response that they are still waiting on guidance from the White House on tours as they haven't opened the dates yet.
We're a little confused/concerned by the conflicting responses from the 2 offices.
Does anyone have any knowledge on how the White House tours typically work? Do reps and senators get different time slots to allocate? I'm not sure which of the responses we received is more accurate.
In doing more research, I found out you could also submit similar requests thru your senator. I figured to cover our bases, I'd submit a request thru his office as well. Today my senator's office responded to let us know that all the time slots are full for our requested period.
In response, my wife (whom summited the request to our House rep) reached out to the contact at our rep's office she has been working with to get everything scheduled. She received received a response that they are still waiting on guidance from the White House on tours as they haven't opened the dates yet.
We're a little confused/concerned by the conflicting responses from the 2 offices.
Does anyone have any knowledge on how the White House tours typically work? Do reps and senators get different time slots to allocate? I'm not sure which of the responses we received is more accurate.
12
Posted on 1/28/25 at 10:19 am to Tiger_n_Texas
quote:
We're a little confused/concerned by the conflicting responses from the 2 offices.
In my experience with dealing with senators and reps, the senator's office probably just gave you a generic response because they just don't want to deal with it. They only need their constituents around election time.
Reps offices tend to be much more responsive and actually give you personalized responses and not just some generic arse email that might not even pertain to what you are asking.
So basically, I would believe the reps office in this case.
Posted on 1/28/25 at 10:24 am to Tiger_n_Texas
One of them is lying to you, not surprising...
Posted on 1/28/25 at 10:50 am to Tiger_n_Texas
We did all of the above with my 2 kids in February of 2023, all done through our Representative.
Maybe keep on them, it's usually a low level staffer that organizes the tours. Maybe with it being a transition year they are waiting to get the new administration settled into the WH, who knows.
One thing you should look into is a visit to the top of the Washington Monument. Very cool experience and a great view of the layout of DC. Reservations open up 30 days in advance and sell out very quickly. It is only $1.00 per reservation and I believe it is on recreation.gov or you can google Washington Monument Tour.
If you have time, maybe work in a day or half day to George Washington's home at Mount Vernon. It is about 30-40 mins outside of DC, but is something cool for your kids to see, and he and his wife are buried there.
Maybe keep on them, it's usually a low level staffer that organizes the tours. Maybe with it being a transition year they are waiting to get the new administration settled into the WH, who knows.
One thing you should look into is a visit to the top of the Washington Monument. Very cool experience and a great view of the layout of DC. Reservations open up 30 days in advance and sell out very quickly. It is only $1.00 per reservation and I believe it is on recreation.gov or you can google Washington Monument Tour.
If you have time, maybe work in a day or half day to George Washington's home at Mount Vernon. It is about 30-40 mins outside of DC, but is something cool for your kids to see, and he and his wife are buried there.
Posted on 1/28/25 at 11:39 am to slinger1317
quote:
One thing you should look into is a visit to the top of the Washington Monument. Very cool experience and a great view of the layout of DC. Reservations open up 30 days in advance and sell out very quickly.
The next best place for viewing is the old post office. LINK
The building is now the Waldorf on Pennsylvania Ave but the tower is operated by the National Park Service. Its free and nobody knows about it. I've been twice and the longest wait was about 3 minutes, no reservations needed. Check it out, its worth 30 minutes of your time.
Posted on 1/28/25 at 12:16 pm to Tiger_n_Texas
quote:
they're nerds
And yet no Spy Museum or Udvar-Hazy? Shame!
That said, the Rep response seems more truthful. When people admit they don't know something, I trust them more, all things being equal.
Posted on 1/28/25 at 1:05 pm to PCRammer
quote:
The building is now the Waldorf on Pennsylvania Ave but the tower is operated by the National Park Service
Yes! Good call
We were in town last week for the inauguration and we wanted to go to the tower, but they had the hotel locked down for guests only
Posted on 1/28/25 at 1:10 pm to Tiger_n_Texas
Thanks everyone for the responses/suggestions. I know we have several other things already scheduled, I just don't recall everything. However, I'm adding these to the list so we can try and work them in where possible.
We'll continue to follow-up with the HoR's office.
I guess my naivety with the senator's office reared it's head. I wasn't expecting them to lie or take the easy road, but rather an honest response. I'm hoping the schedule isn't available yet and the intern/aid/whomever just saw the dates as unavailable and lazily said they were all booked up.
We'll continue to follow-up with the HoR's office.
I guess my naivety with the senator's office reared it's head. I wasn't expecting them to lie or take the easy road, but rather an honest response. I'm hoping the schedule isn't available yet and the intern/aid/whomever just saw the dates as unavailable and lazily said they were all booked up.
Posted on 1/28/25 at 1:14 pm to Tiger_n_Texas
I'd also recommend a tour of the Library of Congress. In my opinion, it's the most beautiful building in DC. It's next door to the Supreme Court, so you could try to tour those back to back. It's been years since I've been, but the Library of Congress used to give a one hour overview tour that was fantastic. There's also a children's library that your kids can go to.
Posted on 1/28/25 at 2:48 pm to Tiger_n_Texas
I also really enjoyed the tour of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (where they print all the money in the country).
Posted on 1/28/25 at 3:23 pm to Tiger_n_Texas
Senators or House members can schedule them.
Last time I was there was during the Obama administration and Steve Scalise set everything up for us. He got us a tour of the White House and his page took us on a tour of the Capitol.
After your Capitol tour, make sure you walk through the indoor tunnel to see the Library of Congress which is quite an impressive building.
Last time I was there was during the Obama administration and Steve Scalise set everything up for us. He got us a tour of the White House and his page took us on a tour of the Capitol.
After your Capitol tour, make sure you walk through the indoor tunnel to see the Library of Congress which is quite an impressive building.
Posted on 1/29/25 at 8:22 am to Tiger_n_Texas
quote:
Does anyone have any knowledge on how the White House tours typically work?
We reserved a White House tour last May & submitted our request directly through both our senator & congressman's office. Completed the form on their websites about 4 months ahead of our trip, as both offices informed us that they can start scheduling tours at 90 days out & they fill up very quickly.
Got an e-mail from both of their staffs the day after completing the online form:
"Thank you for reaching out to our office regarding a tour of the White House. We are pleased to inform you that you have been added to our office’s White House Priority Request List. Our office will be sure to request tour tickets for you and your group for the requested dates when those tickets become available."
At the 90 day mark before our requested tour dates, we received e-mails from White House Tours with a link to plug in our info so they could do a background check on us.
"Hello, thank you for your interest in a tour of the White House! This email serves as notification that we have received your White House tour request. Please note that this email is not a confirmation of a White House tour. You will receive an email notification about the status of your tour request approximately 2-3 weeks prior to the requested date(s)."
We received 2 of these White House Tour links for background checks because both senator & congressman offices separately requested tours for us. We filled out both links to hopefully increase our chances & actually ended up getting approved for two separate reservations on different days. We only showed up & completed the tour once though.
Exactly 2 weeks prior to our trip, we received confirmation e-mails from the White House with our reserved tour dates & times.
"Hello! On behalf of the President and Dr. Biden, we are pleased to confirm your tour of the White House for 4 guests. Prior to arriving for your tour, please review and print the White House Tour Pass for your group. Please ensure all attendees are correctly registered on the guest list. Note: The White House tour schedule is subject to last minute rescheduling or cancellation with little notice due to official use or inclement weather."
Posted on 1/29/25 at 3:22 pm to Tiger_n_Texas
Arranging WH tours falls under the heading of Constituent Services. A simple explanation can be found here -LINK
The response you receive will depend on many factors especially staffing. A junior member of Congress will have fewer staff, and some from other states assigned by their party rather than picked by the member. Don't expect a special response. The 1st time I ever visited a Louisiana congressman, a beginning staffer from Kansas tried her best to help me but proved useless due to a lack of familiarity about Louisiana issues.
A very senior member like Scalise has a large mostly hand-picked staff who make a point of helping people from Louisiana.
I cringe evertime Louisiana throws away congressional seniority.
The response you receive will depend on many factors especially staffing. A junior member of Congress will have fewer staff, and some from other states assigned by their party rather than picked by the member. Don't expect a special response. The 1st time I ever visited a Louisiana congressman, a beginning staffer from Kansas tried her best to help me but proved useless due to a lack of familiarity about Louisiana issues.
A very senior member like Scalise has a large mostly hand-picked staff who make a point of helping people from Louisiana.
I cringe evertime Louisiana throws away congressional seniority.
Posted on 1/29/25 at 8:08 pm to LSU
Constituants from lower population states like Louisiana get better access through Senators than high population states like Texas.
Trump's Whitehouse team is probably working on decorating and protocols.
Trump's Whitehouse team is probably working on decorating and protocols.
Posted on 1/30/25 at 8:56 am to Shaun176
Looking to go in June with my kids, so after following this thread seems like we need to reach out to our State Reps starting now....
Posted on 2/12/25 at 8:47 pm to longhorn22
Melania said white house tours start feb.25.
Posted on 2/14/25 at 7:44 pm to Tiger_n_Texas
Just a heads up. They started booking tours within the last 24 hours. We were able to book one for March 5 through Kennedy’s people.
Posted on 2/17/25 at 10:05 pm to cdl2006
Thanks for the heads up. We saw the announcement the other day and reached out to our rep and senator again. Our rep is supposedly working on it. No response again from senators office.
Edit: Rep's office came thru and we were able to get a reservation!
Edit: Rep's office came thru and we were able to get a reservation!
This post was edited on 2/18/25 at 8:26 am
Posted on 2/20/25 at 8:28 am to Tiger_n_Texas
My wife, 2 kids and a friend of our son did a week in Washington and a week in New York about 7 years ago and I contacted our state representative's office about tours (we lived in New Mexico at the time) and they did a very good job of setting everything up for them.
Our son was 18 at the time and the staffer who showed them around town was a 19 year old intern from our district - drop dead gorgeous. She was, apparently, smitten with our son - she set up multiple tours and tickets to events in DC the week they were there and accompanied them to most of these. She also contacted a colleague from NYC who set up several show tickets for free for them when they were in New York. They (our son and the intern) actually dated a couple of times that summer when she came home from DC and before they both returned to college. I think they still talk from time to time. Our daughter was 8 at the time and says it was the best trip she has ever been on and she has been to Europe, Asia and the Carribean multiple times.....
Our son was 18 at the time and the staffer who showed them around town was a 19 year old intern from our district - drop dead gorgeous. She was, apparently, smitten with our son - she set up multiple tours and tickets to events in DC the week they were there and accompanied them to most of these. She also contacted a colleague from NYC who set up several show tickets for free for them when they were in New York. They (our son and the intern) actually dated a couple of times that summer when she came home from DC and before they both returned to college. I think they still talk from time to time. Our daughter was 8 at the time and says it was the best trip she has ever been on and she has been to Europe, Asia and the Carribean multiple times.....
Posted on 2/25/25 at 11:45 am to AwgustaDawg
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