Do you ever walk into a museum and feel completely overwhelmed? Not by the beauty or the amazing exhibits but by the sheer volume of them and the complete inability to decide where to begin?

It happened to me recently in Washington D.C. I was on a mission, along with other members of my travel company, to see as much of the area as possible and to visit many of the attractions we often include on itineraries for Washington DC group travel tours, student tours, etc. This, of course, included many of the Smithsonian facilities as well as other amazing museums in the area.

One day we spread out with a list of Smithsonian museums. We hit several in a short time period, just trying to get an idea of what they had to offer and how they were unique. (For instance, many of the museums offer food courts, and we wanted to compare the space available in each and the menu available.) We had already visited a few other museums of course, and by the time I walked into the first on my list of Smithsonian facilities, I was a little fried.

It was the Air & Space Museum, the most visited museum on the planet, so I knew I should be impressed. And I was. But I was overwhelmed by the many exhibits, most of them larger than life. And there were so many ways to take in all the information – literature, video, photographs, artifacts, even walk-through pieces from air and spacecraft. I didn’t know where to begin, especially knowing that I had a limited amount of time and should only hit the highlights.

I finally just moved forward and walked through several of the displays, reading bits and pieces here and there. I saw enough to know the museum was amazing, simply wonderful, and that our student groups would love every minute there. Even the souvenir shops were bigger and more amazing than those I’d seen elsewhere. Still, I didn’t feel like I really took it in. And the overwhelmed feeling never faded, compounded by the knowledge of too little time.

Next I zipped across the Mall to a large, glorious building and stepped inside The National Gallery of Art. Walking inside was like breathing again. After the hundreds of exhibits and variety of media in the Air & Space Museum, I relaxed around the wide open space and simple display of art around me. I walked through room after room, simply designed, almost no furnishings, and just viewed one painting after another – with nothing but the art to speak for itself.

My experience was definitely due to several factors. One, I was overwhelmed. Never try to take in that many museums in such little time. Choose from among your greatest interests. Go online and view the museum descriptions – you can even see some of the exhibits. Put on your itinerary the museums whose themes interest you the most. Then maybe throw in one outside your normal area of interest – it could surprise you.

For me, the National Gallery of Art was both of those things. It wasn’t on our itinerary, so it was a pleasant surprise. But art is also the subject I’m most drawn to, so it fit that I felt most in my element there. Find a combination that works for you. spread out a few great museums in a two-day time period. Give yourself plenty of time to enjoy them, and you should have the perfect experience.

Remember the scene in National Treasure when Ben Gates tells the FBI guy that he’s found a treasure worth billions of dollars, that it belongs to the people of the world, and it should be shared with all of them? He says they need to spread it out among the world’s major museums – the Smithsonian, the Louvre, etc. I love that, and after my recent experience in Washington D.C. and New York, I feel that I’ve experienced it.

This is a photograph of the room in which President Lincoln died after he was shot in Ford’s Theater. It’s a fascinating walk-through tour, the Petersen House, as you visit this room and the one in which Mrs. Lincoln waited for the news of her husband’s death, what she probably hoped would be the news of his recovery. And while I was there, I remembered that I wasn’t looking at the actual bed on which he died.

My sister had recently been to the Lincoln Museum in Springfield, Missouri, and I knew the bed from the Petersen House actually rested there. Sure enough, literature I found (or perhaps it was our guide) told me that was correct. Then at the Smithsonian’s American History Museum I stood in front of Abraham Lincoln’s top hat. And I loved to see that people all around the country can see artifacts from the life of this fascinating man.

And speaking of a guide, get one. I was fascinated by our guide the first day and the way he could point out interesting connections to the things we were seeing and things we might be familiar with elsewhere. (Example: While standing at The Awakening, a five-piece sculpture of a giant at the National Harbor, our guide talked to us about its creator, a man named John Seward who is also known for his bronze replicas of the famous end-of-the-war photograph with the soldier kissing the nurse. He is also the son of the Johnson & Johnson legacy). These are the kind of things you’ll never forget, the things that connect us.

Another beautiful moment for me happened on my tour of the Tommy Hilfiger offices in New York City. Having just come from Washington D.C., we immediately recognized a model of The National Mall in the office’s entry. We soon learned this was a model of the proposed Martin Luther King Jr. memorial, largely funded by Hilfiger, that will be placed between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument – the very place the audience stood when Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous speech, I have a Dream. Only days before, I had stood on the Lincoln Memorial in front of the inscription that states simply “I HAVE A DREAM / MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. / THE MARCH ON WASHINGTON FOR JOBS AND FREEDOM / AUGUST 28, 1963. I was extremely moved to have stood on that small inscription and to now see a beautiful, expanded memorial in the works. Instant connection.

On my recent visit to the places most popular for DC and New York City educational tours, I felt so grateful to the men and women throughout history who had the foresight to see me coming. And not just me, of course. But you and our grandparents and our children. These wonderful historians had the foresight to set aside the artifacts of our history, to preserve them for future generations, and to share them far and wide. I was so glad they did.

Well, our team is back from the big cities, Washington D.C. and Manhattan. We have toured until our feet hurt, thrilled to the amazing sights and sounds, and cried at the inspiration surrounding historical sites, at the beauty of D.C., the dream come true of seeing New York City for ourselves, and the powerful tribute given by our guide at the World Trade Center construction site. We’re spent.

But we have a boatload of info and tips to help us serve our groups better. And I’m starting with this one: Public Transportation Rocks.

Often for student tours, it’s customary to rent a motorcoach to reach the destination. And we’d recommend hanging onto that convenience for Washington D.C., especially if you stay at a hotel a little outside the city. The attractions are sometimes a good distance from each other in this area, and it helps to have transportation between them that keeps the group together.

However, after about five minutes in New York City, as our bus sat trapped between double-parked vehicles on either side and a kind passerby attempted to wave us through one half-inch forward and one inch back at a time, we knew motorcoach simply isn’t the way to go in Manhattan. Shortly after checking into our hotel, we walked one block to a subway station, made it onto the train and to our destination with zero hassle and a grateful heart for the wonderful inventors of the metro.

Our expert guides agreed that Metro is the way to go for group travel tours. As the seven of us and our guide squished onto a crowded subway car one afternoon, I wasn’t so sure about the merit of the metro for very large groups. But our guide disagreed. It’s still the way to go. As long as you organize, have enough chaperones, and communicate clearly about the each stop, groups can navigate the subway system just as easily as an individual.

So that’s my first tip. Grab yourself an any-time metro pass, learn the trick of not pulling the wrong side of the entry gate, and take full advantage of this amazingly cost-effective and convenient mode of transportation in the amazing city of New York.

Did you know when I was in high school I hated the idea of travel? At least, I hated it in reality. I think even then I fantasized about the castles of England, the streets of Manhattan, French basilicas and such. But when it came time to sign up for that youth group trip a couple states away, I balked.

Eventually, my fantasies and my daring met somewhere in the middle and I knew that to see all those wonderful places you had to be willing to go to them. I’ve lost a lot of my fear of travel, and I’m much more willing to forgo the comforts of home for the chance to see the world.

So since I’m more open to it, it thrills me to learn as much as I can about travel from the travel experts where I work. And today, a little tidbit that led to this blog post. I’m going on a whirlwind tour of Washington D.C. and New York City next week, and today we received our almost final itinerary. Which leads me to one important point.

To Be Flexible is to Be Sane

We leave in a few days, but notice I said “almost” final itinerary? I’m learning why having a professional customize your itinerary is worth the extra cost. If you’re including several attractions that require reservations, your itinerary could change with each phone call you make as you adjust the various attractions to make room for each other. But it’s not only that. You know this at home, but it’s even more true on the road: Things Happen. Tour guides get sick or have emergencies. Mistakes happen with scheduling. Weather is unpredictable except that it sometimes rains. Groups are delayed, and things never take as much or as little time as you’ve planned for. Learn to go with it. Being willing to budge on certain things you really wanted to see or the times and dates you wanted to see them could make the difference between a thrilling adventure and a week of stress.

And all that unpredictability brings me to the tip that led to this post:

Schedule Extra Time

We’ll be traveling in a group of 5-7 people, so we’ve packed our itinerary really tight, and we’ll be booking it between attractions and not spending very long in very many of them. Don’t try this at home. Or rather, don’t try this in a large group. You’ve absolutely got to schedule a cushion for the sheer madness of trying to get 30-50 people across a New York City street or in and out of the Natural History Museum without losing people in the gift shop. There is such a different dynamic when you’re in a large group. Trust the professionals and let them be your guide if that’s the case. But if you’re organizing things on your own – just take my advice on this. Leave a lot of room for travel to and from.

I love it when I hear tidbits I know will come in handy in the future as I embrace more adventure in my life. But more than that, I’m looking forward to taking the adventures so I can pass on the tips firsthand. Watch next week and after for more of that!

Photo by Katy Silberger on Flickr.