Top Ten Reasons to Visit Bethesda

1. The positive side of what's sometimes seen as the biggest negative reason: You've decided that you're one of the people who don't need to buy a car. Since nobody likes to drive in downtown Bethesda these days, this decision puts you in good company. Free buses cruise around the downtown "shopping loop" all day, anyway. 

2. You'd like to shop (for almost anything), eat a picnic lunch in the park, visit the library, dine at a nice restaurant, watch a movie, attend a class, and/or go hiking, skating, or dancing, all in one place. This is the main attraction that caused all those people to move to Bethesda. You don't even have to move there to enjoy a traditional Bethesda shopping day...although it might be a good idea to invest in a wheeled cart to haul all those irresistible bargains around. Visit this web site for an updated look at what you might find: www.downtownbethesda.com/guide/

3. You find an international atmosphere interesting. You like hearing a different language spoken in each international-theme shop you visit, hearing them all on the street, even seeing five or six different languages printed in books in either the library or the bookstores. Perhaps you're in the market for a used Farsi dictionary (I paid twenty-five cents for mine at the Montgomery County Thrift Store) or an Indian film music album, or you're curious about Russian massage. Although individual stores come and go, so this article can't provide a full directory, Bethesda's shopping district has always been characterized by a great mix of ethnic restaurants and merchandise, catering to the diplomats who traditionally stayed in the residential areas nearby.

(For more information about Russian massage, search for "AMMA" on www.downtownbethesda.com/guide/)