National Air & Space Museum

Lonely Planet review

Each year, eight million people visit these cavernous halls filled with alighted airplanes and soaring spacecraft (including the Wright Brothers' Flyer , Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St Louis and the Apollo 11 command module). The museum's 23 galleries trace the history of aviation and space exploration through interactive displays and historic artefacts.

There are 23 different galleries presenting the history of aviation and space exploration via interactive displays and historic artifacts. We'd recommend walking through the DC-7 cockpit, checking out the WWII permanent exhibit and taking the controls on the flight stimulator ride. The Wright Brothers exhibit, opened in 2003 to honor the landmark's 100th anniversary, is documents in rich detail how humans learned to fly.

Whatever you do, don't miss the astronauts' ice-cream (around around US$3 ), which can be purchased in the museum gift shop, and the Lockheed Martin IMAX Theater, which offers a rotating list of films shown throughout the day. To Fly , the grizzled granddaddy of in-your-face IMAX films, still plays here daily, along with newer offerings.

Alternative shows at the Albert Einstein Planetarium send viewers hurtling through space on tours of the universe. All of these shows sell out (especially the IMAX), so buy your tickets as soon as you arrive at the museum.

The museum has a second exhibition facility, the Steven F Udvar-Hazy Center (www.nasm.si.edu/museum/udvarhazy) at Washington Dulles International Airport. Visitors can wander across suspended walkways and airborne bridges to get a close-up view of hundreds of fighter planes, space ships and other flying machines suspended from the 10-story ceiling. Of the 200 aircraft and 135 spacecraft, highlights include the SR-71 Blackbird (the fastest jet in the world), and space shuttle Enterprise. Many engines, rockets, satellites, helicopters and experimental flying machines are on display for the first time. Visitors can also observe ongoing preservation work in the restoration hangar, or hang out in the observation tower and watch the planes take off and land at Dulles airport. A shuttle bus transports guests from the Air & Space Museum on the Mall to the Dulles airport facility four times per day.

Together the two sites comprise the world's largest collection of aviation and space artifacts, which we think is pretty damn cool.