Tours are scheduled on a first-come, first-served basis. Applications can be submitted up to three months in advance and no less than 21 days in advance. We recommend that you submit your application as soon as possible, as there are a limited number of spaces available. All visits to the White House are free.
Requests for public visits must be submitted through your member of Congress. These self-guided tours are generally available on Fridays and Saturdays (except federal holidays or unless otherwise noted). The visit to the White House is free. Please note that visits to the White House may be subject to last minute cancellation.
Download the White House Experience app for Android Download the White House Experience app for iOS. This post is an article on how to get tickets for the White House tour, with tips for planning your visit, as well as a virtual tour to show you what you'll see. All federal buildings, including the White House, are closed to the public. A tour of the White House is just one of many great things to do in DC.
There is no cost to tour the White House, but you will have to request free tickets. Visitors from home and abroad can tour the White House. To visit the White House, it's important to know that you need to book your tickets in advance, MONTHS in advance. You can apply for White House tours up to 6 months in advance and must do so no later than 3 weeks.
Citizens and residents, applications must go through the office of your district member of Congress (find your member here). If you are coming during the peak tourist season from March to April or from June to August, we recommend you at least 3 months or more in advance to request tickets. If you are from a foreign country, we recommend that you go through their embassy in Washington DC, DC. Not all embassies will be interested or useful in the application.
However, nothing prevents you from requesting a tour through any member of Congress. There is no real requirement that you be a resident of your district or state to do so. Most will ask you for contact information at home and during your stay in DC, available dates for tours and total people in your group. In this section, we review where to enter the White House grounds, how to get there, as well as safety and prohibited items.
We strongly recommend using our Google map to get directions to the entry point of the tour. No White House metro station. The nearest metro stop to the entrance of the tour is Metro Center (red, orange, blue and silver lines) (take the 13th Street exit), which is only a 7-minute walk away. When you go up the escalators, you'll be facing 13th Street.
Take 13th Street south (downhill) and turn right onto E Street and go straight until you reach 15th Street. The McPherson Square subway station (orange, blue and silver lines) is also close to the White House. Mass transit is recommended to get to the White House. If you must drive, you can find a parking spot in a nearby garage through a service called SpotHero.
This website allows you to reserve guaranteed parking spots in advance, often for a cheaper price than the garage itself would charge. If you have been granted a tour, you must arrive before the meeting time at the visitor entrance. The tour lines up along 15th Street NW on the west side of the street next to the statue of William Tecumseh Sherman. It's across the street from where Pennsylvania Ave NW ends up dead end at 15th St NW.
You will check in with the park ranger standing guard outside the temporary fence. There is no specific address or sign, you just have to know that you are in the right place, but since there is often a line, it should be easy to spot. Security is a concern everywhere in Washington, but nowhere else but in the White House. You will need a valid government-issued ID or passport in order to enter the White House for each member of your group.
You'll need to queue for security, so make sure you arrive at least half an hour before your tour time. More time in high season or in a group). There is no dress code for touring the White House, but because of the importance of the building, you must dress well. Smartphones and compact cameras with a lens of no more than 3 inches (still images only) are allowed on the route of the public tour as long as their use does not interfere with the enjoyment of the tour by other guests.
Flash photography or live streaming is not allowed, as well as talking or texting on mobile phones during the tour. If you can't leave your belongings at your hotel, consider a storage service. Once inside, the tour is self-guided and will last about half an hour. Although the White House has 135 rooms in total, you are only shown through several rooms that you use for entertainment.
You will NOT see the family home, the Oval Office or the West Wing. These videos offer virtual tours within various parts of the White House that cannot be seen on public tours of the White House. Situation Room Video Tour Learn About West Wing Marines Watch Marine One Land in the South Lawn You will see many helicopters during your visit to Washington, D.C. And they usually won't transport the president.
Most helicopters fly along the National Mall, over the tidal basin and the Potomac River. When you see three helicopters flying through the National Mall, just after the Washington Monument (that's why there are flashing red lights on top), one of them is Marine One. For advance planning, you can keep an eye on the president's schedule. It will give an approximate time for the president to leave the South Lawn.
Marine One is often used to transport the president to Andrews Joint Base to board Air Force One. The best place to see Marine One land if you want to be as close as possible is on the south side of the White House, an area called The Ellipse. Normally, the circular sidewalk that forms the ellipse is open to the public, but when the president leaves, the side closest to the White House is closed. However, you can walk directly on the grass to the center of the Ellipse.
If you want to see Marine One with some DC landmarks in the frame, stop at the World War II Memorial, opposite the Washington Monument. The three helicopters will fly in front of the Washington Monument, queuing up for a big photo shoot. Officially, any helicopter the president is in is Marine One. That's the call sign for any USMC plane that has the president on board, just like the Air Force, one denotes any plane carrying the president.
Marine One helicopters have standard military anti-missile countermeasures, ballistic armor and can continue to fly even if they lose one of the three engines. It can accommodate 14 passengers, but it is quiet enough that the President can use a normal tone of voice on his secure line to the White House. After extensive renovation, the White House Visitor Center is now open again to the public. There are more than 90 new artifacts on display, many of which have never been exhibited before.
Some of our favorites are the desk where Franklin Delano Roosevelt sat when he gave his famous fireside talks and a scale model of the White House. Inside the White House Visitor Center, you can watch a 14-minute film that takes you inside the White House and the lives of the First Families. Public visits to the White House are free and can be scheduled through your congressional representative. Please refer to the ticketing section for more information.
Visitors will enter the White House complex from the south side of East Executive Avenue. After passing through the security screening area, guests will enter the east wing of the White House and continue through the eastern colonnade following the route to the residence shown on the White House tourist map below. While the standard public tour is interesting for architectural and historical reasons, nothing can beat the excitement of the West Wing Tour. These coveted tours are led by knowledgeable White House and Secret Service staff members.
They take you to the White House areas of work and allow you to witness our democracy in action. Right now, the only way to experience a tour of the West Wing is at the invitation of the White House or through a personal connection with a White House staff member who is willing to guide you on an after-hours tour. Download the Official White House West Wing Tour Brochure. You may be wondering who is going to take a tour of the west wing.
This information was first made available by the Obama administration through the publication of official records of visitors to the White House. This practice was suspended under the Trump administration, but has been re-established under the Biden White House. We recommend that you submit your tour request as soon as possible, as tours fill up quickly and there are a limited number of spaces available. Tours are filled on a first-come, first-served basis.
Please note that tours are subject to last-minute cancellations according to official White House schedule. Public visits to the White House remain temporarily suspended until further notice. Official residence of every president of the United States since 1800, the 132-room White House in Washington DC attracts visitors from all over the world. Admire from afar; stop by the White House Visitor Center; or request access for a self-guided tour of the East Wing, State Dining Room, Porcelain Room, and White House Rose Garden.
You are viewing Virtual Experiences in Washington DC. See more virtual experiences around the world. Unsurprisingly, security is tight inside and around the White House. Visitors must adhere to strict rules about what they can and cannot take with them during the tour.
If you are successful in your application to book a tour of the White House, there are further instructions and guidelines you should consider that day. The basement of the White House houses a dedicated dentist's office, as well as many other useful services, such as a chocolate shop and a flower shop. Had it not been this kind gesture by the then president, the Egg Roll might never have happened, as members of Congress had already passed a law banning rolling eggs outside the White House, as they felt it was too harmful. The app offers three tour experiences, including a virtual tour of the White House (with rooms you don't normally see on the tour), a neighborhood walking tour, and a room-by-room guide for visitors on an in-person tour of the White House.
Visits to the White House do not include the Oval Office and visits to the West Wing are usually reserved for VIPs or guests of the president. Both tours of the White House gardens are free and open to the public, but are only open to ticket holders. Please note that smartphones and compact cameras with a lens no larger than 3 inches are allowed on the public tour route, but video recording devices and flash photography are not allowed inside the White House. Guests can enjoy a virtual tour of the White House and the surrounding president's neighborhood, as well as take a tour of the history of the White House and how its customs have evolved.
These tickets must be ordered a minimum of 3 weeks in advance and can be requested as early as 3 months before your tour date. While visitors cannot enter the White House without requesting a tour through their congressional representative, they will still be able to see the White House from Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Lafayette Square and see the White House and South Lawn from the ellipse. If your tour request is approved, the White House will provide you with a specific date and time to arrive and a place to check in. .
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