Woodley Park in Washington, from Zoo gates to Rock Creek

Passes to Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (Connecticut Avenue, Woodley Park) cost nothing, and every guest needs one reserved online before arrival, infants included. Giant pandas Bao Li and Qing Bao sit behind glass on Asia Trail, and the queue to see them forms at the Asia Trail entrance opposite the Visitor Center. Rock Creek Park (the neighbourhood's eastern edge) holds more than 1,700 acres of wooded gorge, and you can walk into it from the Metro.

The Zoo gate on Connecticut Avenue

Bronze lions flank the pedestrian gate on Connecticut Avenue. Past them the path drops down a wooded hillside into the Rock Creek valley. Bamboo lies stacked on concrete rockwork behind the panda glass.

Reserve a pass for each person in your party in advance. Entry is free, but nobody gets in without that pass, and it is the only admin this neighbourhood asks of you. The Zoo opens at 8 a.m. and closes at 4 p.m. Last entry is 3 p.m. Arrive at opening if you came for the pandas.

Rock Creek Park below the street

The creek is boulder-strewn and runs through a deep wooded gorge, hardwoods leaning over the water. A paved valley trail follows it, passing stone retaining walls directly below the high bridges on Connecticut Avenue. Entry is free and the park has no gate.

The park was established in 1890 and is America's oldest urban national park. Some 32 miles of trail run through it, more walking than a visit to Washington will ever use, so take the valley trail in one direction and climb back out at a bridge. Picnic groves can be reserved by permit.

Crossings at the Taft and Ellington bridges

William Howard Taft Bridge (Connecticut Avenue) carries the avenue 125 feet above the gorge on unreinforced-concrete arches. Four pale cast-concrete lions by Roland Hinton Perry crouch at the bridge ends. They were recast from Perry's 1906 originals and reinstalled in 2000, out of the same moulds that produced the bronze lions at the Zoo gate. Ornate lamp standards line the parapet. The footway leads down to Kalorama and Dupont Circle.

Duke Ellington Bridge (Calvert Street) is a 1935 Art Deco concrete arch carrying Calvert Street over the treetops of Rock Creek. Low sculpted parapet panels and period lamp posts run along it, and the view up the wooded valley is long and clear. It is named for the Washington-born bandleader. The crossing takes two minutes and lands you on Adams Morgan's bar strip on 18th Street. Walk it after dinner.

The Marilyn mural at 2602 Connecticut Ave

John Bailey painted the Marilyn Monroe Mural (2602 Connecticut Ave) in 1981, above what was then the Salon Roi. It covers two storeys of upper brick wall, blonde hair and pink-highlighted face gazing down over the pavement. The paint was refreshed in 2001 and again around 2020.

Uplighters are mounted below it for night viewing, so the walk back from the bridges works as well as the walk out. The detour from the Metro exit takes 45 seconds. Stand clear of the Connecticut Avenue footfall while you look up.

Tregaron's woodland on Macomb Street

Tregaron Conservancy (3100 Macomb St NW, or 3031 Klingle Rd NW) covers 13 acres of designed woodland on a slope at the Woodley Park and Cleveland Park line. Rustic stone bridges and stone stairways cross two small streams. A pond, a native meadow and an open lawn lie below a 1912 Georgian Revival mansion.

The mansion is private. The parkland is free, open dawn to dusk, and needs no booking. Free guided landscape and bird walks run as programmes. Come here on a morning when the Zoo passes have gone.

Breakfast and lunch at the Zoo gates

Open City (Calvert Street) is open 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily and busy from 7 a.m. The corner room has a brick oven and chalkboard menus, with worn wooden booths behind a glassed pavement frontage. Breakfast runs all day, $12 to $18. Mains are $16 to $26. No reservations are taken and the weekend brunch wait is long. The kitchen takes catering orders. If you are waiting on an 8 a.m. gate with children, all-day breakfast is the useful fact.

Duke's Counter (opposite the Zoo entrance) fills an East London-styled pub room under the Woodley Park apartment block, facing the gates across the street. The street-level patio is big, tables packed close under umbrellas. Burgers and plates are $16 to $25. Happy hour runs noon to 7 p.m. on weekdays. The patio takes no bookings. Duke's opened in 2016 as the sister to Dupont's Duke's Grocery, and it holds one of DC's most-praised burgers.

Dinner on Connecticut Avenue and Calvert Street

New Heights (Calvert Street) has been here since 1986 and is the neighbourhood's proper dinner. The first-floor dining room sits in a rowhouse, and the floor-to-ceiling windows fold open so the bar spills onto the pavement terrace. Chef Jose Molina's kitchen is listed in the Michelin Guide, and the restaurant was named to Washingtonian's 100 Very Best Restaurants for 2026. Mains run $31 to $50. Reservations are taken, and the rowhouse rooms are used for private events.

Lebanese Taverna (across from the Metro entrance) is the Abi-Najm family's branch here, and they have cooked Lebanese food in DC since 1979. The room is contemporary wood and brass, with a long bar and lounge and a wood-fired oven. Tables arrive laid with many small mezze dishes and stacked flatbread. Mezze are $9 to $16. Mains run $20 to $35. A recently refitted private room seats 56 and the mezze platters are built for sharing, so this is where a large party in Woodley Park should eat.

Sofra (Connecticut Avenue) cooks over an open charcoal grill behind a bright frontage, with an in-house bread oven sending out pide and pillowy lavash puffed from the heat. Chef Kenan Cetintas runs the kitchen. Meze are $9 to $15. Grills run $22 to $34. Weekend brunch is $28. Happy hour is 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays. Time your Zoo exit for it. Reservations are taken, the bar is full service, there are pavement tables, and the room is wheelchair accessible.

Via Roma (Connecticut Avenue) opened in 2025 in the old District Kitchen space as the region's first certified pinseria. The pinsa romana comes oval and high-rimmed on wooden boards, and the pizzaiolo works the oven in an open kitchen behind a narrow shopfront. Pinsa is $17 to $24. Doors open at 5 p.m. from Monday to Thursday. The room is small, so call ahead for anything beyond a handful of people. Washingtonian reported in July 2026 that it had become the canteen for the city's Italian expats.

Han Palace (Woodley Park) has served all-day dim sum here since April 2022, Chris Zhu's branch with chef David Xie cooking. The 70-seat Cantonese room runs no trolleys. Bamboo steamers are made to order and carried out one at a time, soup dumplings and purple-and-gold custard buns among them. Plates are $7 to $14. Dim sum is ordered by the table. Reserve at weekends.

Sleeping in Woodley Park

Omni Shoreham Hotel (Calvert Street) is the neighbourhood's architectural landmark, a Renaissance Revival and Art Deco pile in pale brick that opened in 1930. FDR held his first inaugural ball here in 1933. The Blue Room ballroom is chandeliered, and 11 acres of garden terraces and an outdoor pool back straight onto the Rock Creek treeline. The Marquee Bar & Lounge has poured since the opening. Rooms run $220 to $420 a night, with higher rates in peak spring. Ballroom and meeting capacity is extensive, and this is one of DC's biggest conference and wedding houses.

Woodley Park Guest House (Woodley Road) is a detached early-1900s house on a quiet, tree-shaded street, five minutes' walk from the Metro. It has a porch, and the bedrooms are individually furnished and hung with original art. Breakfast is laid on a communal table. Rooms are $150 to $240 a night, with continental breakfast and afternoon snacks included. The house is highly rated and has few rooms, so book well ahead.

What to book before you go

Reserve a Zoo pass for every person travelling with you, and book weekend tables at New Heights, Sofra and Han Palace. Open City seats walk-ins only, Via Roma starts in the evening from Monday to Thursday, and the bridges, the mural and Tregaron need nothing.

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