Cafeterias in the Clinical Center and other NIH buildings offer meals at moderate prices. Students are responsible for making their own travel and living arrangements. The NIH is located just 20 minutes from downtown Washington, DC where cultural and recreational opportunities abound. The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts offers the National Symphony Orchestra, ballet, opera, and drama, and Wolf Trap Farm Park stages musical and theatrical events in the summer. A stay in the nation's capital offers an opportunity to visit the city's historical sites and national monuments and to observe national politics close at hand.
Nearby parks offer hiking, camping, bicycling, canoeing, and rock climbing.
About a hour from the NIH campus in Bethesda is Baltimore's Inner Harbor, aquarium, museums, theater, libraries, and Orioles Park at Camden Yards as well as other cultural institutions which offer varied extracurricular attractions.