It’s the perfect time to visit Washington, D.C., for a long weekend. We’re serious.

Here is a local’s guide to 72 hours in the city, with a lot of D.C., and a dash of Washington thrown in, too.

If you roll into Logan Airport at 4 p.m. on a Friday, you can be out for dinner at 7 in D.C. JetBlue and American Airlines both offer near-hourly flights to Reagan National Airport, which is a quick cab or Metro ride from downtown.

Staying near the neighborhood of Adams Morgan, with its crayon-colored town houses and easygoing night life, is a good bet. If you’re feeling frugal, skip the Washington Hilton (site of the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner and the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan) and stay across the street at the generic but totally acceptable hostel Generator (1900 Connecticut Avenue NW, 202-332-9300; dorm beds from around $50, private rooms from around $200). A pricier but more chic option is the Line, housed in a neoclassical former church (1770 Euclid Street NW, 202-588-0525; from around $250).

For a pre-dinner drink, stroll over to 18th Street and the narrow, two-story Green Zone ($12 happy hour cocktails), named for the International Zone in Baghdad, where Arak-heavy cocktails feature Middle Eastern flavors such as cardamom, pistachio, and pomegranate (2226 18th Street NW, 202-579-9606).

For dinner, try one of the neighboring Ethiopian spots Elfegne (2420 18th Street NW, 202-667-4700) or Tsehay (2429 18th St NW, 202-808-8952). Order a sampler served on a bed of tangy, spongy injera and a glass of Ethiopian honey wine. On your way home, dodge the gussied-up D.C. residents spilling out of bars and jumbo slice joints (a local specialty and hangover prophylactic — a huge floppy slice practically the size of a whole pizza).

Or, for a quieter night, eat early and hop in a cab down to the National Mall. During the day, cherry blossoms bring the hordes. But after dark, you’ll have the monuments — the majestic Lincoln Memorial, the smaller, prettier Jefferson — mostly to yourself, illuminated moon-bright and otherworldly above the Potomac.

The writer Nora Ephron reserved one of her most cutting dismissals for D.C.: It was, she wrote, “a city where you can’t even buy a decent bagel.” If this was true once, it is no longer. The distinction of the city’s best bagel is fiercely contested and deeply tribal. For me, the answer is Bagels, Etc, a decidedly un-hip spot just west of the grand marble fountain at the heart of Dupont Circle, where a plush, chewy, perfectly petite everything-egg bagel with cream cheese costs $3. Cash only. (2122 P Street NW, 202-466-7171).

For a more luxurious brunch, head to neighboring Logan Circle and Le Diplomate (1601 14th Street NW, 202-332-3333), known affectionately as Le Dip, a Parisian brasserie with pressed tin ceilings, omelets of unsurpassed fluffiness, and lots of really good butter on everything.

From Logan or Dupont, take the handy G2 bus to D.C.’s oldest and prettiest neighborhood — Georgetown, with its cobblestone streets and red brick town houses. The vast grounds at the historic estate Dumbarton Oaks (entrance at 31st and R streets NW, 202-339-6400) are out of The Secret Garden, with terraces, pools, hidden fountains, and rambling stone staircases. In the sun-soaked greenhouse, a climbing fig planted in the 1860s blankets the walls and ceilings above Palladian windows.

After exploring the gardens, pick up a sandwich from nearby Stachowski’s Market (1425 28th Street NW, 202-506-3125), along with a pickle fished out of the pickle bucket (what it sounds like). From there, stroll through Georgetown to the Key Bridge Boathouse (3500 Water Street NW) where you can rent kayaks and take a spin to the lush, uninhabited Theodore Roosevelt Island. Tie up and eat your sandwich with a view of the Watergate complex.

In the evening, head to 14th Street and the beloved Studio Theatre, which puts on daring, zany contemporary dramas across four stages (1501 14th Street NW, 202-332-3300). Before the show, head to Supra (1205 11th Street NW, 202-789-1205), a superb Georgian restaurant nearby, to sample the comforting lobio kotanshi (clay pot red beans), steaming khachapuri (bread boats filled with egg and punchy sulguni cheese), and juicy khinkali (soup dumplings the size of a fist).

If your idea of a show involves loud music and sticky floors instead of velvet curtains, head to the Black Cat (1811 14th Street NW, 202-667-4490), an iconic punk and indie venue, part-owned by Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl.

D.C. is a city of great weekend markets — Mount Pleasant and Dupont Circle both have bustling ones — but Eastern Market (225 7th Street SE, 202-698-5253) is the most iconic. Wade through vendors selling fresh flowers, pastries, and crafts to the historic vaulted North Hall, where locals line up for blueberry buckwheat pancakes from Market Lunch (202-547-8444).

Stop in at nearby Capitol Hill Books (657 C Street SE, 202-544-1621), a labyrinthine three-level bookshop in a row house with sagging stairs, cracks in the ceiling, and new and used piles stacked on every available surface. You’ll find volumes on the floor, in a hall closet, and in the bathroom (where the law books are kept). The manic handwritten signage (“BOOK SIGNING! J.D. SALINGER TONITE!”) is a legacy of the beloved late owner, Jim Toole.

D.C. offers extraordinary free museums. Within walking distance from Eastern Market, you have your pick: the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, or the National Gallery of Art, among many. If in doubt, go for the newest Smithsonian offering, the National Museum of African American History and Culture (1400 Constitution Avenue NW, 844-750-3012). Its lacey lattice exterior, inspired by African American metalworking, is like nothing else around the Mall.

The story the museum tells is one of pain: Visitors see a 19th-century slave cabin, plantation instruments of unspeakable cruelty, and Emmett Till’s vacant casket. But the pain is tempered with joy, with exhibits on music and culture, and a cafeteria devoted to the glories of Black cuisine.

Food options are scarce on the Mall, so have lunch at the NMAAHC cafeteria (think: collard greens, catfish, jollof rice) or Mitsitam Native Foods Cafe, the cafeteria at the nearby National Museum of the American Indian, where you can try bison chili, grilled cactus, or peach fry bread (4th Street and Independence Avenue SW, 202-633-1000).

If you’ve hit the big museums already, walk over to Union Station (duck in to see the soaring main hall, inspired by Roman baths). Nearby, the small National Postal Museum (2 Massachusetts Avenue NE, 202-633-5555) sounds like a complete snore, but it’s a sleeper hit: a mailbox that survived the September 11th attacks, the handcuffs used to arrest the Unabomber, letters mailed from the Titanic and the Silk Road . . . it’s a tour of world history, told through mail.

To regroup before dinner, head up to trendy Petworth to wine bar St. Vincent (3212 Georgia Avenue NW, 202-413-9763) and its romantic, tree-filled courtyard, where you can try a sparkling wine from Bulgaria or a rosé from the Canary Islands under a canopy of lights. Order the labneh-stuffed dates or Marcona almonds with Manchego and ramp salt, both topped with fried rosemary.

Wander a few blocks to neighboring Columbia Heights and the Lao restaurant Thip Khao (3462 14th Street NW, 202-387-5426), a mandatory stop on a D.C. food tour. Start with the naem khao, boats of lettuce topped with crunchy, herby, nutty coconut rice. Then try the minced alligator — or stick with one of the delicate, intensely spiced noodle soups. Sticky rice arrives in tiny hand-woven Lao baskets, so beautiful that the owners have put out pleas on social media asking customers to stop stealing them.

Round out the evening in Mount Pleasant at Suns Cinema (3107 Mt Pleasant Street NW), a sweetly pokey town house with zebra wallpaper where independent films are shown. Tickets, $12, often sell out, so book in advance.

The quaint, heavily Salvadoran neighborhood of Mount Pleasant feels both neighborly and global, with its street murals, independent shops, and some of D.C.’s best food. At Tex-Mex joint La Tejana (3211 Mt Pleasant Street NW, 202-621-8509), it’s all about the fresh flour tortillas: try them warm, flaky, and freckled from the grill with breakfast fillings including cheesy scrambled eggs, brisket, and refried beans.

A short, leafy walk west through Mount Pleasant to the east entrance of the Smithsonian’s National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute (via Harvard Street Bridge NW, 202-633-2614) showcases the neighborhood’s stately row houses. While the zoo’s two giant, bamboo-gnawing pandas get all the press, the elephants are less mobbed and more exciting (no offense, pandas). Entry is free but book in advance. Outside the east entrance, rent a bike from a Capital Bikeshare station and roll or stroll through Rock Creek Park, D.C.’s forest in the city.

Back in Mount Pleasant, have a late lunch at Purple Patch (3155 Mount Pleasant Street NW, 202-299-0022), the upscale Filipino spot that consistently tops lists of best restaurants in Washington. Or, for something quicker and cheaper, grab pupusas and an order of fried plantains from beloved Salvadoran hole-in-the-wall Haydee’s (3102 Mount Pleasant Street NW, 202-483-9199).

If you have time before your flight home, the H8 bus will take you to Petworth and one of D.C.’s lesser-known sights: President Abraham Lincoln’s summer cottage (140 Rock Creek Church Road NW, 202-829-0436), which sits on some 250 lovely acres that also house a veterans home. It’s where Lincoln would retreat from the White House in the warmer months to avoid the city’s swampy streets — en route, he’d nod to his neighbor Walt Whitman — and where he drafted what would become the Emancipation Proclamation.

It’s a hopeful note to end a visit on — with the man under whose “cautious hand,” Whitman would later write, “was saved the Union of these States.” A reminder that Washington can have some things going for it, too.

While in D.C., you can eat, if not like a king, like a deputy special assistant to the chief of staff. One hot tip that might be revelatory to Bostonians: happy hour.

For an upscale evening at a midscale price, try half-price wine at the dim and cozy Georgetown jazz bar Bistrot Lepic (1736 Wisconsin Avenue NW, 202-333-0111); discounted Mediterranean meze and drinks at Namak (1813 Columbia Road NW, 202-234-6732) or Lebanese Taverna (2641 Connecticut Avenue NW, 202-265-8681); or appetizers at the iconic chef José Andrés restaurants Jaleo (480 7th Street NW, 202-628-7949) or Zaytinya (701 9th Street NW, 202-638-0800). Be sure to check happy hour start and end times.

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Annalisa Quinn can be reached at annalisa.quinn@globe.com. Follow her @annalisa_quinn.