Washington may not be the murder capital of the country any longer, but it is a big city and neighbourhoods can change from gracious to dangerous within a block. Don't carry huge amounts of cash, and lock up what you don't need if your hotel has a safe or safety deposit boxes. Don't carry your wallet in your backpack or back pocket. Stay out of empty streets after dark.

The main visitors areas around the Mall, Georgetown, Dupont Circle and Adams-Morgan are very safe during the day and quite safe at night if you stick to the main streets (use 18th St to walk between Adams-Morgan and Dupont Circle, M St or Pennsylvania Ave to walk to Georgetown).

Capitol Hill gets dicy east of 7th St, as do many of the Southeast and Southwest quadrants below 1-395. Take care visiting these areas during the day, and take taxis after dark, even if there's a Metro station nearby. The same applies to the borderlands between Northwest and Northeast DC - again, stick to the brightly lit cross streets like P St or U St. Stay east of 13th St NW if you're visiting the Shaw area after dark, unless you're travelling with locals.