For travelers hoping to unplug on their next beach vacation, a new report suggests the best escape may be the one with weaker cell service and less development along the shore.

When an innovative museum opens beneath the Lincoln Memorial and the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum expands in the same year, the timing is deliberate. Washington, DC has aligned several of its largest cultural investments with America’s 250th anniversary, framing 2026 as a yearlong civic moment rather than a single ceremonial milestone.