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International Spy Museum, Washington DC

700 L'Enfant Plaza Southwest, Washington, District of Columbia

Description

The International Spy Museum is located in Washington DC and traces the story and techniques of espionnage from the Egyptians to the present day. The exhibits include artefacts, videos, photographs, and interactive displays. There are several sections focusing on theme such as cryptography, special operations or inventions used to steal secrets.

Access & Transport

The museum is in an easily identifiable building, 500-600m south of the Smithsonian Castle and Smithsonian metro station (Blue, Silver, Orange lines) on the National Mall, and the same distance southwest of L'Enfant train station.

Instructions & Recommendations

Nearby attractions include the Jefferson Memorial, the United States Holocaust Museum, the Asia Art Museum, the Smithsonian Castle and the Air & Space Museum.

Meta review

The attraction is often recommended for travellers and residents looking for family-friendly activities and online reviews are quite consistent with clear pros and cons. The quality of the artefacts and information is overall very satisfactory, but it lacks translation into other languages, the interactive exhibits are mostly quizzes or not that engaging, and the main issue is that it gets crowded regularly, in particular in the summer, so that there are some lines for the more popular exhibits. Recurring comments on pricing being too high.

Environmental & Social

No online information on building environmental aspects but it is a new 7-storey construction so presumably good on efficiency, but the greenest building is an existing building (construction is resource intensive). No social aspect - the mission statement is rather unconvincing.

Conclusion

The museum is one of the most comprehensive in the world on the topic and certainly worth considering but it suffers from excessive attendance on peak days and a very aggressive pricing which means it is hard to recommend it to first time visitors to the city, especially considering the quality of alternatives in the area.

Key positive

Genuinely interesting & informative

Family friendly

Key negative

Too expensive (even accounting for the absence of government funding)

Can be crowded with waiting time for key exhibits

Suitability

Suitable for all ages and accessible to visitors with reduced mobility

About this Rating

TYPE

Desktop

RESEARCHED IN

Updated in August 2023

PROVIDER

Koreval

Included Items
None
Timing
Duration of visit

av. transport time:0h 20m

est. visit time:2h 15m

Regulated hours

Monday09:00 - 19:00

Tuesday09:00 - 19:00

Wednesday09:00 - 19:00

Thursday09:00 - 19:00

Friday09:00 - 20:00

Saturday09:00 - 20:00

Sunday09:00 - 20:00

Pricing
Age band
Age band
Regular price / pers.
Senior
65 - 99
US$27
Adult
13 - 64
US$30
Child
7 - 12
US$19
Infant
0 - 6
US$0
Prices change slightly depending on the dates / day of the week

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