Travel: Washington, D.C.

The cherry trees are ready to bloom. But it is the smart shops and ingenious chefs that are making America's capital a hot spot all year round

Written by Jura Koncius

However you arrive in Washington, D.C., the parade of stately monuments and leafy vistas will bring back memories of your eighth-grade class trip. But as you start exploring this 68 square miles of fetid swampland turned nation's capital, you'll find much more than the red-velvet ropes and marble columns you remember. The District of Columbia has a distinctly groovy new attitude.

"We're getting a little creative class," says Philippa P.B. Hughes, a young art collector who holds salons in a downtown loft and blogs of her adventures at hoogrrl.com. Washington, she continues, is "becoming less transient. People only used to move here for work. Now, there are lots of people who are curious and diverse" but also putting down roots. "It isn't just about the same old stodgy Washington traditions," Hughes says. (That being said, mark your calendars: The National Cherry Blossom Festival starts March 29 and ends April 13.)

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