Knight Kiplinger is editor-in-chief and president of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine, Kiplinger.com and The Kiplinger Letter, launched by his grandfather in 1923. Taking the old school approach to new media, Kiplinger is one of America’s most highly respected and upstanding journalists. He is also passionately, eminently knowledgeable about his birthplace and hometown of Washington, D.C.
“Many American cities have their fair share of attractive conference centers and fun nightlife, but none can match Washington for unique venues that are steeped in history and breathtaking settings,” Kiplinger says. “Where else can you party on the roof of an elegant hotel (the august Hay-Adams or the hip W) that looks right into the windows of the White House?”
For other amazing rooftop views, Kiplinger continues, try the Kennedy Center or the Newseum, overlooking the U.S. Capitol and Pennsylvania Avenue. For historic connections, he recommends the Willard Hotel, where Julia Ward Howe wrote the Battle Hymn of the Republic during the Civil War, and the colonial ballroom at Gadsby’s Tavern in Alexandria, Va., where George Washington and Thomas Jefferson once bowed to their partners.
“In Washington, the best meeting venues and party sites are all rich in political intrigue, scandal and world-changing events,” Kiplinger says. “Groups can convene in the courtyard of Decatur House, the Lafayette Square mansion of War of 1812 hero Stephen Decatur, or hold a dinner dance in the magnificent Pension Building (now the National Building Museum), where Civil War veterans received checks for decades after the conflict.”
For artistic settings, his choices include the Phillips Collection, the Kreeger Museum and the National Museum of Women in the Arts, while for memorable evening events, groups can glide along the Potomac River aboard “floating party palaces” from operators like Odyssey Cruises past Washington’s lighted memorials and monuments.
“You can get a windowless hotel meeting room in any city in the world,” Kiplinger says, “but if you want to immerse yourself in our nation’s past, Washington is the place to be.”
