Parking is the part of a DC visit that eats the most time, thanks to rush hour restrictions and parking signs stacked three high on a single pole. I have been parking in this city for my entire guiding career, so this is where I would actually leave the car for the National Mall, Capitol Hill, the White House area, Georgetown, and Arlington National Cemetery.
I still tell every guest that Metro beats driving to any of our walking tours, and Capital Bikeshare or a hop-on hop-off bus will usually get you around faster than a car. If you are driving anyway, here is what I do and what I would skip.
The Quick Version
| Where you are headed | Where I would park | Know before you go |
|---|---|---|
| National Mall memorials | Ohio Drive SW in West Potomac Park | Metered with a 6 hour limit, and no rush hour restrictions |
| Smithsonian museums | A reserved garage south of the Mall | Street meters on the Mall cap out at 3 hours |
| Capitol Hill | Union Station garage | Residential streets are 2 hours without a permit |
| White House and downtown | A reserved downtown garage | Street spots are metered and hard to come by |
| Georgetown | A garage near the canal or waterfront | No Metro station, and residential streets are 2 hours |
| Arlington National Cemetery | The cemetery garage | The garage closes at 6 pm |
| Anywhere, all day | A suburban Metro garage | Free on weekends and federal holidays for Metro riders |
DC Street Parking Rules That Catch Visitors
You will see a lot of confusing parking signs in DC, and when several are stacked on one pole they all apply to that space, so read them from the top down before you walk away.
- The 2 hour limit is per zone. Most residential streets belong to a Residential Permit Parking zone, and anyone without that zone’s permit gets 2 hours during the posted hours. Moving the car to another block in the same zone does not restart the clock, because the limit covers the whole neighborhood.
- Rush hour lanes get towed. Many main roads ban parking on weekdays from 7 am to 9:30 am and again from 4 pm to 6:30 pm, and the city will ticket and tow. Constitution Avenue along the Mall is one of those roads.
- Meters on the National Mall run every day. National Park Service meters are enforced from 7 am to 8 pm on weekends and holidays too, with December 25 as the only day off.
- Bring a card or a phone. The pay stations on the Mall take credit and debit cards only, so cash and coins will not help you there.
Reserve a Garage Spot with SpotHero
Sometimes it is easier to skip cruising up and down the street looking for a space big enough to parallel park in that is not limited to 2 hours. SpotHero partners with garages, parking lots, and even a few homeowners with driveways to sell discounted spots you reserve ahead of time, and it is the app our guides use when we drive into the city for work.
I like it most for tour days because you know where the car is going before you leave the hotel, which matters when your guide starts on time whether or not you found a meter.
This is an affiliate link, which means DC by Foot earns a commission if you book through it. We use it ourselves because it really is the easiest way for us to park too.
Pay for Meters with ParkMobile
ParkMobile is the easiest way to pay for metered street parking in DC, and it works at the National Park Service meters on the Mall and in some garages too. Parking signs and pay stations list a zone number to type into the app, and some spaces have their own space number as well.
Pick your vehicle, choose how long you are staying, and go enjoy your tour. The app will remind you when your time is almost up and lets you add more from your phone, up to the posted limit for that space. One catch on the Mall is that once you hit the maximum time, you cannot extend the session at that same location.
All Day Parking Options in DC
If you would rather park once and leave the car alone until dinner, these are the places I send people.
L’Enfant Plaza
The station we call Metro Center is not actually the center of the Metro, and L’Enfant Plaza comes a lot closer because five of the six lines stop here (every one except the Red Line). From the garages you can walk to the Wharf, the Smithsonian museums, and the Tidal Basin.
Union Station
This is a good central spot because you can hop on the Red Line, catch a hop-on hop-off bus, or walk to the Capitol in 10 to 15 minutes. The DC Circulator that older parking guides mention stopped running at the end of 2024, so plan on Metrobus or your feet for short hops from here. Union Station is also pretty much the only garage option if you have an oversized vehicle.
Pentagon City
The Fashion Centre at Pentagon City is technically across the river in Arlington, and there is a Metro station underneath the mall on the Blue and Yellow Lines that gets you downtown quickly.
Any Suburban Metro Garage
You can park at a Metro garage in the Maryland or Virginia suburbs and ride in, which takes downtown traffic out of your day entirely. Metro parking is a flat daily fee on weekdays and free on weekends and federal holidays for Metro riders. Pay on the way out with a SmarTrip card or by tapping the same contactless card you rode with, since ParkMobile does not work for daily Metro parking.
Parking on the National Mall
If you are joining our daytime National Mall tour, we meet at the Lincoln Memorial and finish at the Washington Monument so with your time at the top you should plan on about 3 hours. I would park on Ohio Drive SW by the MLK Memorial, where the meters allow 6 hours and there are no rush hour restrictions. Constitution Avenue between 15th and 23rd Streets NW is closer to the start, but those spaces max out at 3 hours.
The evening National Mall option ends at WWII and is only 2 hours but check the time doesn’t conflict with rush hour restrictions.
There are no parking garages or lots on the National Mall itself, and what you will find is metered street parking run by the National Park Service. SpotHero has garages south of the Mall that are a close walk to the museums, though they are a hike from the memorials.
National Park Service meters
The Park Service meters about 1,400 spaces around the Mall, and the rules are the same at all of them.
| Rate | $2.30 per hour (current for 2026) |
| Hours | 7 am to 8 pm daily, including weekends and holidays (free on December 25) |
| Time limit | 3 hours on most streets, and 6 hours on Ohio Drive SW and in the East Potomac Park lots |
| How to pay | Credit or debit card at the pay station, or ParkMobile app |
The metered streets are Constitution Avenue NW between 15th and 23rd Streets, Independence Avenue SW between 15th Street and Maine Avenue, Madison Drive, Jefferson Drive, Parkway Drive, West Basin Drive, and Ohio Drive. Constitution and Independence also carry the weekday rush hour restrictions, so a spot that is legal at 3 pm can get you towed at 4 pm.
Madison Drive and Jefferson Drive run right in front of the museums and you have to be lucky to land a space there, especially in spring when the tour buses line up.
If you have a disability placard, there are 150 accessible metered spaces near the memorials and museums. They do require payment at the meter, the same as the spaces around them.
Hains Point and East Potomac Park
East Potomac Park, south of the Jefferson Memorial, is where the free parking used to be, and it has shrunk. The Park Service extended its meters down Ohio Drive SW to the golf course entrance in September 2025, and Lots B and C are closed until 2030 for a long term construction project.
Lot A is still open with a 6 hour meter, and roughly 500 free spaces remain along Ohio Drive around Hains Point itself. It is a great option if you do not mind walking, since you are well over a mile from the Smithsonian museums.
NOTE: This area is under construction and this information can change daily. Allow time to find parking elsewhere if you get there and it’s closed.
Where to Park on Capitol Hill
If you are joining our Capitol Hill tour, we meet at 1st Street NE and Constitution Avenue NE, and Metro is the easiest way to get there (Union Station on the Red Line or Capitol South on the Blue, Orange, and Silver Lines). With the Capitol docent tour that follows ours you will be on the Hill for about 3 hours, which is longer than the 2 hour residential streets allow, so drivers should head for the Union Station garage.
Because of security restrictions, there is very little visitor parking near the Capitol, the Library of Congress, or the Supreme Court, and the street spaces closest to those buildings are reserved.
You can find street parking in the residential blocks a short walk away, with East Capitol Street and New Jersey Avenue SE as good places to start looking. Those blocks are limited to 2 hours without a permit, so they work for a quick visit and not much else.
For anything longer, SpotHero lists a few garages and private spaces in the neighborhood, and the Union Station garage is a 10 to 15 minute walk from the Capitol.
Parking Near the White House and Downtown
If you are joining one of our downtown tours, like Lincoln Assassination, we usually just book a garage through SpotHero. That tour starts at St. John’s Church at 16th and H Streets NW and ends outside Ford’s Theatre on 10th Street NW, so the garages around 12th to 14th Streets NW sit about halfway and make for an easy walk at both ends. There is also a garage right next to Ford’s Theatre if you would rather finish at your car (but check if there is a show getting out at 9pm because that means it will take a long time to get out of the garage!)
There is plenty of street parking around the White House and downtown on paper, though the spots are metered and some streets carry rush hour restrictions. I have circled for 30 minutes more times than I want to admit before finding one, which is why I point people to the garages. Downtown has a lot of them, and you can reserve a spot on SpotHero before you leave.
Hotel valets are worth a look too, because some are not much more expensive than a garage and you skip the tight turns of an underground ramp.
The Willard Hotel has a surprisingly affordable valet option for non-guests, and you get to enter and exit through the hotel’s beautiful lobby.
Where to Park in Georgetown
If you are joining our Historic Georgetown tour, we meet at the C&O Canal at Lock 3 and finish about 2 hours later near Georgetown University at 37th and O Streets NW. A 2 hour tour and a 2 hour street limit do not leave any room for the walk back, so I would book a garage near the canal and enjoy the downhill stroll to your car afterward.
Georgetown has no Metro station, which is why so many visitors end up driving here. The farther you get from M Street and Wisconsin Avenue, the easier it is to find a street spot, and the residential blocks west of Wisconsin and north of M are where our guides look first.
Those neighborhood spots are limited to 2 hours without a permit. If you are planning a full day with a tour, lunch, and some shopping, use the metered spots near the waterfront or a parking garage, and SpotHero lists plenty of garages down by the water.
Where to Park at Arlington National Cemetery
This is the easy one, because the cemetery has its own parking garage at the main Memorial Avenue entrance, right next to the Welcome Center where our Arlington National Cemetery tour guests arrive.
| Rate | $3 per hour, up to $12 per day for passenger vehicles (current for 2026) |
| Hours | 8 am to 6 pm daily |
| How to pay | Credit card at the exit lanes, or cash and card at the pay stations in the Welcome Center and on the garage’s middle level |
Take a ticket on the way in and hold onto it, since you pay before you leave. You can also prepay through Parking.com, though prepaying does not guarantee you a space.
The garage closes promptly at 6 pm, an hour after the cemetery does, so this is not a place to leave the car for an evening in the city.
Quick Answers About DC Parking
Is there free parking near the National Mall?
Roughly 500 free spaces remain along Ohio Drive SW around Hains Point in East Potomac Park, and everything closer to the memorials and museums is metered at $2.30 per hour. However, as of 2026, this area is under construction so be caution how many spots are actually available.
How long can I park on the National Mall?
Most Park Service meters allow 3 hours, while Ohio Drive SW and the East Potomac Park lots allow 6 hours. You cannot renew at the same location once your time is up.
Can I park on the street all day in DC?
Not in most neighborhoods, because residential permit zones limit visitors to 2 hours during posted hours. For a full day, book a garage or park at a suburban Metro station and ride in.
Is parking free on weekends?
Metro garages are free on weekends and federal holidays for Metro riders. The National Mall meters are enforced every day of the year except December 25.
Where can I park an oversized vehicle?
The Union Station garage is the most reliable option for oversized vehicles, and it puts you a 10 to 15 minute walk from the Capitol.