I love doing the White House Tour, in fact I"m waiting to hear if I get my third one. It doesn't take long, an hour at the most, depending on how much detailed info you read or ask about.

I don't know what the odds are for getting on a tour, I have never been declined. But June is a busy season and you won't know of your acceptance until about a week or two before your trip.

Did the WH tour in Oct. I was told that it was self guided. It wasn't. It was conducted by a secret service agent and lasted about an hour. He went into great detail and took questions in every room we visited. To us, it was well worth it and was one of the best places to visit in DC.

Thanks for the feedback. This is what I was hoping to hear and the type of info I was looking for.

it says they take requests 28 days in advance but what are the chances of getting it at this sort of late notice. I 'll be there in December and have left it to the last minute

Request anyway....you never know if they have an opening or a cancellation. Worse case, they tell you no.

You can also email your request to your Congressman or state Senators for WH tour tickets. I requested WH tour tickets more than six months in advance and didn't find out if we were able to get them until a week before we left .Be aware that you may NOT take anything w/you but a wallet, cell phone, keys or umbrella. They are dead serious about this. We were just there last week and some people were turned away because they had a camera or a purse. They will allow you to take photos out front w/your cell phone. I stressed out about this alot but it really worked out fine. There is NOWHERE remotely nearby to store your stuff.

FYI, you can also request free "constituent tours" from your Congressman or state Senators. We had a private (just the two of us!) tour of the Capitol Building and Capitol Building Visitor Center, led by a congressional aide. It was way cool to walk the tunnel between the Congressional Office Bldg and the Capitol. You may bring the usual purses, cameras, etc on this tour.Unfortunately, we were not able to meet our congressman.

We also had a constituent tour of the Thomas Jefferson Building Library of Congress .(also accessable by the same tunnel from the Capitol Bldg) This magnificent building was in the movie, National Treasure, 2. Book of Secrets.I got the idea to visit this building from reading this forum before we left.

Lastly, it's a real good idea to leave a number you can be contacted at while in DC. We left a cell phone number and were contacted on it to see if we could bump up our Capitol Bldg tour.

Hope you get the tours you want. MG

If your idea of worth it is just being inside of the WH then it's worth it. However, the tour itself is nothing to brag home about. Nothing really to see or learn as it is self-guided. Now if you can get a guided tour, that would be better. Don't know how to get those however.

how do Australians get this tour as I 've read somewhere that the Australian embassy is not keen to help

sorry, also do people actually cancel very often?