Cherry blossoms with kids around Washington DC: Tidal Basin, Kenwood and spring gardens

DC's cherry blossom season is the most famous spring in America: for about a week in late March or early April, more than 3,000 Yoshino cherries around the Tidal Basin bloom at once and then drop. But pushing a 2-year-old into a crowd of hundreds of thousands is not a great idea, so this list puts the quiet options first.

Local families' first choice is actually the Kenwood neighborhood in Bethesda: 1,200 old cherry trees meet over the streets in a pink tunnel, strollers roll anywhere, no parking fight, and it blooms a few days after the Tidal Basin. If you do want the Tidal Basin, take Metro, pick a weekday dawn, and rent a paddle boat to see the blossoms from the water: kids remember that forever. Spring runs long after the petals fall: a whole hillside of azaleas and the Capitol Columns at the National Arboretum in late April, tulips at Brookside Gardens, cherries and ponds at Meadowlark, and Virginia bluebells under the trees at Riverbend Park, all free or a few dollars and all stroller walks.

• 6 places
• 5 free
• 6 stroller-friendly
• closest is 15 min away