There are still times when Alex Binstead drives a Zamboni over the National Gallery of Art ice rink and is caught off guard by the scenery. “I’m pretty jaded,” he says. “I’ve grown up in DC. But sometimes you’re in the middle of the ice, and the National Archives is right across the street, and the National Mall is around you. It’s breathtaking.”
Binstead, the rink’s manager, is not alone. Every winter since 1974, the museum has attracted crowds after it transforms its sculpture garden’s central fountain into an outdoor rink. During the season, which began November 24 and runs through March 1, 2026 (weather permitting), the rink attracts more than 50,000 skaters.
The space, larger than the rink at New York’s Rockefeller Center, is surrounded by work from artists like Alexander Calder, Joan Miró, and Claes Oldenburg. Some visitors take in the scene from the garden’s granite benches, sipping hot chocolate or mulled wine from the museum’s café. The romantic setting always attracts couples. “We’ve had more proposals than I can count. Valentine’s Day is always a busy night for us,” Binstead says.
Many local families make it a tradition to come every year. But visitors are often surprised to discover a rink in the middle of the city, says Emme Porter of the Washington Elite Skating School, which leads the rink’s instruction program. “It really is this special little place you come upon. You could be touring the monuments, and you sort of find it,” she says.
Porter, who competed as an international figure skater, visited the rink as a child in the 1980s, and now watches her daughter perform on the ice. Yet after all these years, she is still wowed by the setting. “Twilight is beautiful. You’re spinning and you do a layback and you look at the sky. It’s really a special place.”
Find seven more seasonal Southern rinks here.
Larry Bleiberg is a Virginia native and past president of the Society of American Travel Writers. He served on a Pulitzer Prize–winning team and has won ten Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Awards. He has contributed to the BBC, National Geographic, The Washington Post, CNN, Fodors, Afar, AARP, and Atlas Obscura, among others. A former travel editor of the Dallas Morning News and Coastal Living, he’s also the founder of CivilRightsTravel.com, a guide to visiting historic sites from the civil rights movement.
