Shopping

Washington, D.C.'s shopping scene is thriving, thanks to the city's strong economy. With its low unemployment rate, high-income population, and vigorous spending statistics for both visitors and residents, Washington continues to attract major retailers to open stores here, with the Apple Store in Georgetown and a new Anthropologie store in the Penn Quarter among the latest enticing additions. Local entrepreneurs, meanwhile, are doing quite nicely, at long-established stores, like The Phoenix in Georgetown, and in newer boutiques, like Hill's Kitchen on Capitol Hill. Wherever you are in the city, shops present a variety of wares, prices, and styles. 

The Shopping Scene

Most Washington-area stores are open from 10am to 5 or 6pm Monday through Saturday. Sunday hours tend to vary, with some stores opting not to open at all and others with shorter hours of noon to 5 or 6pm. Two neighborhoods prove the exception to these rules: Many stores in the Penn Quarter and in Georgetown keep later hours and are also open on Sunday. One example is the downtown Macy's department store, in the heart of Penn Quarter, whose hours are noon to 6pm Sunday, 10am to 8pm Monday and Thursday through Saturday, 9am to 9pm Tuesday and 9am to 10pm Wednesday. Other exceptions include suburban shopping malls, which are open late nightly, and antiques stores and art galleries, which tend to keep their own hours.

Sales tax on merchandise is 6% in the District, 6% in Maryland, and 5% in Virginia. Most gift, arts, and crafts stores, including those at the Smithsonian museums, will handle shipping for you; clothing stores generally do not.

Great Shopping Areas

Union Station -- It's a railroad station, a historic landmark, an architectural marvel, a Metro stop, and a shopping mall. Yes, the beauteous Union Station offers some fine shopping opportunities; it's certainly the best on Capitol Hill, with more than 100 clothes, specialty, and souvenir shops, and more than 40 eateries. Metro: Union Station.

Penn Quarter -- The area bounded east and west by 7th and 14th streets NW, and north and south by New York and Pennsylvania avenues NW, continues to develop as a central shopping area, despite the economic crisis. Look for a long list of "name" stores, including Urban Outfitters, Bed, Bath and Beyond, Banana Republic, H&M, Forever 21, Zara, and, by the time you read this, my personal favorite, Anthropologie (950 F St. NW). One-of-a-kind places include museum shops at the National Building Museum, the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Portrait Gallery, and the International Spy Museum; and the delightful jewelry store, Mia Gemma. Macy's (formerly "Hecht's"), at 12th and G streets, continues as the sole department store downtown. Metro: Metro Center, Gallery Place-Chinatown, or Archives-Navy Memorial.

Adams Morgan -- Centered on 18th Street and Columbia Road NW, Adams Morgan is a neighborhood of ethnic eateries and nightclubs interspersed with the odd secondhand bookshop and eclectic collectibles stores. It's a fun area for walking and shopping. Parking is possible during the day but impossible at night. For the closest Metro, you have a few choices: Woodley Park-Zoo/Adams Morgan, then walk south on Connecticut Avenue NW until you reach Calvert Street, cross Connecticut Avenue, and follow Calvert Street across the Duke Ellington Memorial Bridge until you reach the junction of Columbia Road NW and 18th Street NW. Second choice: Dupont Circle; exit at Q Street NW and walk up Connecticut Avenue NW to Columbia Road NW. Best bet: the D.C. Circulator bus, which runs between the McPherson Square and the Woodley Park-Zoo/Adams Morgan Metro stations.

Connecticut Avenue/Dupont Circle -- Running from K Street north to S Street, Connecticut Avenue NW is a main thoroughfare, where you'll find traditional clothing at Brooks Brothers, Ann Taylor, and Burberry's; casual duds at Gap; and haute couture at Rizik's. Closer to Dupont Circle are coffee bars and neighborhood restaurants, as well as art galleries; funky boutiques; gift, stationery, and book shops; and stores with a gay and lesbian slant. Metro: Farragut North at one end, Dupont Circle at the other.

U Street Corridor/14th Street -- Urbanistas have been promoting this neighborhood for years, but now the number of cool shops, restaurants, and bars has hit the critical mass mark, winning the area widespread notice. If you shun brand names and box stores, you'll love the vintage boutiques and affordable fashion shops along U and 14th streets. Look for provocative handles, like Pulp, then step inside to inspect their equally intriguing merchandise. Metro: U Street/African American Civil War Memorial/Cardozo.

Georgetown -- Georgetown is the city's main shopping area. Most of the stores sit on the two main, intersecting streets, Wisconsin Avenue and M Street NW. You'll find both chain and one-of-a-kind shops, chic as well as thrift. Sidewalks and streets are almost always crowded, and parking can be tough. Weekends, especially, bring out all kinds of yahoos, who are mainly here to drink. Visit Georgetown on a weekday morning, if you can. Weeknights are another good time to visit, for dinner and strolling afterward. Metro: Foggy Bottom, then catch the D.C. Circulator bus from the stop at 22nd Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. Metro buses (the no. 30 series) travel through Georgetown from different parts of the city. Otherwise, consider taking a taxi. If you drive, you'll find parking lots expensive and tickets even more so, so be careful where you plant your car.

Upper Wisconsin Avenue Northwest -- In a residential section of town known as Friendship Heights on the D.C. side and Chevy Chase on the Maryland side (7 miles north of Georgetown, straight up Wisconsin Ave.) is a quarter-mile shopping district that extends from Saks Fifth Avenue at one end to Sur La Table at the other. In between are Lord and Taylor, Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale's, and Versace (to name just a few stores), and three malls (the Mazza Gallerie, Chevy Chase Pavilion, and the Shops at Wisconsin Place). The street is too wide and traffic always too snarled to make this a pleasant place to stroll, although teenagers do love to loiter here. Drive if you want and park in the garages beneath the Mazza Gallerie, Chevy Chase Pavilion, or Bloomingdale's. Or take the Metro; the strip is right on the Red Line, with the "Friendship Heights" exits leading directly into each of the malls.

Old Town Alexandria -- Old Town, a Virginia neighborhood beyond National Airport, resembles Georgetown in its picturesque location on the Potomac, historic-home-lined streets, and plentiful shops and restaurants, as well as in its less desirable aspects: heavy traffic, crowded sidewalks, difficult parking. Old Town extends from the Potomac River in the east to the King Street Metro station in the west, and from about 1st Street in the north to Green Street in the south, but the best shopping is in the center, where King and Washington streets intersect. Weekdays are a lot tamer than weekends. It's always a nice place to visit, though; the drive alone is worth the trip. Metro: King Street, then take a free King Street Trolley or a blue and gold DASH bus (the fare is $1.50) to reach the heart of Old Town.

The Roads Less Traveled: A Back-Street tour of Historic Georgetown, with Stops at Shops

Most people who visit Georgetown never get off the beaten track of the M Street/lower Wisconsin Avenue axis. Too bad for them, but good for you: While they bump into each other in the crowded bottom of Georgetown, you can tour the lovely, quiet streets in upper Georgetown, where a number of historic houses and beautiful gardens lie close to fun boutiques and delectable cafes.

Tudor Place, Dumbarton House, and the garden at Dumbarton Oaks are open for tours, but not all day, every day, so call for hours if you want to incorporate house and garden tours into your back-street stroll; please note that all other houses on the tour are privately owned and not open to the public.

From the corner of Q Street and Wisconsin Avenue (a stop on the D.C. Circulator's Wisconsin Ave. line), walk east along Q Street to 31st Street and take a left on 31st Street to Tudor Place (tel. 202/965-0400), an 1816 mansion and gardens where Martha Washington's descendants lived until 1984. From Tudor Place, return to Q Street and walk farther east to Dumbarton House (tel. 202/337-2288), a Federal-style mansion built in 1805 and filled with 18th- and 19th-century furnishings and decorative arts.

Retrace your steps as far as 28th Street and proceed north on 28th Street, stopping to admire the 18th-century estate Evermay, built by a Scottish merchant, as you continue on your way to Dumbarton Oaks Museum and Gardens (tel. 202/339-6401) at 31st and R streets. From the gardens, walk westward on R Street to Wisconsin Avenue, passing en route 3238 R St. NW, an early-19th-century Federal brick building once used as a summer White House by President Ulysses S. Grant -- its high elevation made it cooler than 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

You have now reached Wisconsin Avenue, just a little farther north of the hustle-bustle, but a sweet spot for shopping at one-of-a-kind shops and for enjoying a scrumptious repast. Turn south on Wisconsin Avenue to find Italian and French home and garden accessories at A Mano (tel. 202/298-7200), beautiful stationery at Rooms with a View (tel. 202/625-0610), and a variety of women's trendy clothing boutiques at Sassanova (tel. 202/471-4400), Sherman Pickey (tel. 202/333-4212), and, across the street, Urban Chic (tel. 202/338-5398). For refreshment, cross back to the other side to find (no. 1645): Patisserie Poupon (tel. 202/342-3248) -- I highly recommend that you pause for a ham-and-cheese sandwich and, absolument, for a pastry dessert: Choose from tarts, éclairs, individual little cakes, and chocolate in all its forms.

Cross Wisconsin Avenue to continue your tour on the other side. Walk south on Wisconsin Avenue to N Street and turn right, following the street to no. 3307, the brick town house where John and Jacqueline Kennedy lived when Kennedy was a U.S. senator. In the same block, a few houses up at nos. 3327-3339, are five charming houses known collectively as "Cox's Row," for owner John Cox, who built the dwellings in 1817. Cox, who was the first elected mayor of Georgetown, lived at no. 3339; Revolutionary War hero the Marquis de Lafayette stayed at no. 3337 on a visit in 1824. Follow N Street to 36th Street, and turn left and again left on Prospect Street to reach Prospect House, at no. 3508. This restored Georgian-style house was built in 1788 by Revolutionary War hero and wealthy tobacco merchant James McCubbin Lingan; the house, like the street, was named for the views one once had here of the Potomac River. From here, it's a short stroll to Halcyon House, at 3400 Prospect St., whose original owner, Benjamin Stoddert, was a Revolutionary War cavalry officer and first secretary of the Navy. Two hundred years ago, the Potomac River lapped right up to Stoddert's terraced garden, designed by Pierre L'Enfant.

If you still have some energy left, finish the tour by visiting a perennial Washington hot spot, the Cafe Milano, 3251 Prospect St. NW (tel. 202/333-6183). Then go home knowing that you've seen more of the "real" Georgetown than most Washingtonians.