Free Washington DC Scavenger Hunt: For Tourists and Locals

Washington DC has so many sights to see, and this free scavenger hunt will lead you to all the best places, local haunts, and have you keeping an eye out for what makes Washington DC unique! Below, is our free scavenger hunt, where you can click or tap each item to mark it as complete. And for the planners out there, you can drag and drop rows to change the order in case you want to map out everything in advance.

For a print-and-play instead, click the picture below and you can download and print that.

Washington DC Scavenger Hunt

Read further for more information on how to play or check out our hard-mode Washington DC scavenger hunt if you prefer that over the below checklist-style option.

Scavenger Hunt Checklist for Washington DC

ItemPoints
The Lincoln Memorial3
The ceiling of the dome inside the United States Capitol Building.4
The Great Hall of the Library of Congress3
The mural of Mama Ayesha and 11 presidents in the Adams Morgan neighborhood.4
A cherry tree in blossom2
The Supreme Court of the United States.3
A mural with Obama along the U Street Corridor.4
A statue of Thomas Jefferson3
The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.3
Union Market3
The White House3
The White House bowling alley4
The ceiling of the Great Hall in the National Building Museum.3
The gardens of Dumbarton Oaks.2
The Potomac River2
The mural of Marvin Gaye in the Shaw neighborhood.4
The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial.3
The National Archives Building.3
The Georgetown Waterfront Park.3
The Korean War Veterans Memorial.3
The United States Botanic Garden.3
The Albert Einstein Memorial.4
A mural with a tiger in the H Street Corridor.4
The United States Department of the Treasury.3
The United States National Arboretum.3
The World War II Memorial.3
The Dupont Circle Farmers Market.3
A person wearing Washington Wizards gear4
A person wearing Washington Commanders gear4
A person wearing Washington Nationals gear4
A person wearing Washington Capitals gear3

How to Play

For this Washington DC scavenger hunt, we’ve come up with a list of things to see in the city. Some of them are popular tourist attractions while others are more local secrets. For each item, you (or your team) will need to take a picture that shows both you and the listed item. For each photo you take, you’ll get the corresponding amount of points listed to the side of that item. 

At the end of the allotted time for the scavenger hunt, you can see what level of rank you’ve earned and whichever team has the most points wins! You’ll be allowed to go to City Hall and ask for a key to the city. (We haven’t actually made any arrangements, but it doesn’t hurt to ask, right?)

Additional considerations for how you play:

  1. We recommend three hours for the scavenger hunt just to have a limit on the time you’re focused on this activity, but that’s up to you.
  2. If you’re traveling as part of a group and don’t want to split up, we’d recommend treating this as a game of I-Spy and awarding points to whoever in the group spots the item first or takes the first photo.
  3. It’s up to you how tough you want to make it with respect to awarding points just for seeing something, or if you have to go inside, or taking it further and requiring even more depending on the location.

Score and Rankings

0-10: Did you even leave your hotel?
11-20: Business trip traveler
21-30: Frequent business trip traveler
31-40: Tourist
41-50: Lives in the next city over
51-60: Over-caffeinated tourist
61-70: Recent transplant
71-80: Local
81-90: Actually grew up here and has always lived here
91-100: Mayor

Think you’re the best ever? Let us know how you did in the comments (and how long it took you) and sign up for our newsletter to be alerted of other scavenger hunts, our challenges designed for only the top finishers, and more.

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