Walk out of the Rosslyn Metro station, ride the long escalator up to Wilson Boulevard, and turn east. Within 200 yards you will be on the deck of the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge with the Potomac running below you and Washington unfolding across the water - the Kennedy Center, the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, the Capitol in the distance. Arlington is the closest thing in America to a second downtown for a national capital. It is technically a county, 26 square miles in area, but it functions like a city, with 230,000 residents, four Metro lines, a continuous urban corridor from Rosslyn to Ballston, and the Pentagon at its southeastern shoulder. Most travelers come to Washington and end up in Arlington without quite meaning to - because their hotel is here, because Reagan National Airport is here, because Arlington National Cemetery is here. The county wants you to keep going.
Arlington National Cemetery dominates the southeastern hill above the Potomac. More than 400,000 service members and their families are buried in its 639 acres. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is guarded continuously by the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, and the changing of the guard - every half hour in summer, every hour in winter - is one of the most attended ceremonies in the country. Arlington House, the prewar home of Robert E. Lee on the hilltop, is a National Park Service site with its own complicated story. The Kennedy gravesite with its eternal flame is a short walk down the slope. The Marine Corps War Memorial - the iconic Iwo Jima statue - sits just outside the cemetery's north gate; the Air Force Memorial is to the south, three soaring stainless-steel spires above the Pentagon. The Pentagon itself offers a 9/11 Memorial open to the public for free in the building's reflection pool, with 184 illuminated benches for the people killed in the building and on Flight 77. The DEA Museum, the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial Visitor Education Center, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington round out the major sites.
Arlington's restaurant geography follows its Metro lines. Clarendon and Wilson Boulevard form the central corridor for casual restaurants, breweries, and bars - the area sometimes called the Orange Line Crawl. Crystal City has been transformed by Amazon's HQ2 development with new restaurants opening every season. Columbia Pike is the international food corridor, a five-mile strip serving cuisine from more than 150 nationalities; the Bolivian, Ethiopian, Salvadoran, and Vietnamese restaurants here are the city's hidden treasure. For an institution, try the Arlington Cinema 'N' Drafthouse on Columbia Pike - a 1940 Art Deco movie theater turned dine-in comedy venue where John Mulaney, Maria Bamford, and Trevor Noah have all headlined. Pentagon City Mall, in the Fashion Centre, holds the conventional indoor food court. Ballston Quarter has a food hall. For coffee, Rosslyn and Court House have the most options. The biggest farmers market in the region runs Saturday mornings in Courthouse from May through November.
Park the car. Arlington's compact geography and excellent transit make driving unnecessary for nearly any visit. The Washington Metro has 11 stations in the county - more than any other Virginia jurisdiction - serving the Orange, Silver, Blue, and Yellow lines. The Orange and Silver run Rosslyn to East Falls Church along the dense northern corridor. The Yellow and Blue run along the Potomac through Crystal City and the Pentagon. Reagan National Airport (KDCA) has its own Metro station on the Yellow and Blue lines, with trains every six minutes during the day. Bus service includes Metrobus and the green Arlington Transit (ART) buses, which fill gaps in coverage. Capital Bikeshare has more than 100 docking stations across the county; the system uses an app to unlock electric or standard bikes, and you can ride from Arlington into D.C. without changing systems. The 18-mile Mount Vernon Trail runs along the Potomac from Mount Vernon to Rosslyn, with one of its most photographed segments at Gravelly Point - directly under the final approach to Reagan National's runway.
Spring and fall are the obvious answers and the obvious crowded answers. The cherry blossoms peak across the river in late March or early April, and Arlington fills with overflow tourists during that two-week window. May and October offer mild weather with fewer crowds. Summer can be punishingly humid - July afternoons routinely cross 95 degrees Fahrenheit with high humidity - but the long evenings open up outdoor concert venues like Lubber Run Amphitheater and bring outdoor seating to most restaurants. Winter is cold but rarely snowy enough to disrupt the Metro; January and February are the cheapest months for hotels. Memorial Day brings the annual Rolling to Remember motorcycle rally past the cemetery, and the Wreaths Across America ceremony in mid-December covers Arlington's gravestones with evergreen wreaths donated by volunteers. The Marine Corps Marathon runs through Arlington every fall and is one of the largest marathons in the country - check the schedule if you plan to drive on that Sunday in October. Most things to do in Arlington are accessible year-round. The cemetery is open every day.
Arlington occupies the southwest bank of the Potomac River, from roughly 38.83 to 38.91 degrees N and 77.04 to 77.17 degrees W, directly opposite Washington, D.C. Reagan National (KDCA) sits in the southeast corner. The entire county is inside Class B airspace and the Washington Special Flight Rules Area. P-56A over the Capitol and P-56B over the Pentagon and Arlington National Cemetery dominate the eastern edge. Coordinate with Potomac TRACON before any low-level operations. Dulles International (KIAD) is 18 miles northwest if Reagan National is busy or weather diverts. Watch the DCA river visual approach corridors - they pass directly over Crystal City and Gravelly Point.