48 Hours in Washington: The American capital pre-elections

48 Hours In Washington
The American capital is abuzz with election fever. Sarah Barrell votes the city a winner at any time of year
WHY GO NOW?
Because there is never a better time to visit the American capital than during the frenzy of a presidential election. At any time of year this city is the hub of the political world but right now everywhere from Washington's restaurants and museums to hotels and concert halls are alive with election fever. You can eat lunch next to bright young things as they compose drafts of speeches on café counter-tops, and watch lobbyists make frantic political predictions over happy-hour cocktails. Just watch out for those motorcades whizzing up and down Pennsylvania Avenue.

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Woman about world: trans-Siberian road trip

The likes of Flaubert and Freya Stark may have eulogised about it but for most, travel is merely a means to an end. In the jet age, the "getting there" bit of a holiday is simply a bland necessity between home and where you want to be. But what if, without the act of getting there, your destination would make no sense at all? Imagine plucking one of those itinerant writers out of, say, the London docks, plonking them down, an in-flight movie and a packet of peanuts later, in the middle of as-yet uncharted Africa?

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