From the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Chesapeake Bay, the Commonwealth That Shaped a Nation Invites You to Discover Its Timeless Depth
There is a particular quality to the light in Virginia on an autumn afternoon, the way it falls across the red brick of a colonial courthouse, or filters through the turning leaves of a Blue Ridge forest, or catches the surface of the Chesapeake Bay in long golden slants, that makes the place feel ancient and alive at the same time. It is a quality of light that seems to carry history in it, and perhaps that is not entirely fanciful, because Virginia is a place saturated with history in a way that few places in America can match.
Virginia is where the American story begins. Not just in the historical sense, though it is that too, the place where the first permanent English settlement took root at Jamestown in 1607, where the Declaration of Independence was largely shaped by a Virginia planter named Thomas Jefferson, where George Washington was born and lived and died, where the Civil War began and ended in an arc of terrible consequence across the same red-clay soil. Virginia is where America begins in a deeper sense, in the sense that the values and contradictions, the democratic ideals and the brutal realities of slavery, the agricultural rhythms and the frontier ambition, the reverence for land and the hunger for progress, that have defined the national character were first hammered out and tested on Virginia ground.
But to reduce Virginia to its history would be to miss most of what makes it extraordinary as a travel destination. Virginia is also a place of remarkable natural beauty, from the dramatic escarpments of the Blue Ridge and the rolling pastoral landscapes of the Piedmont to the coastal plain tidewater country, the barrier islands of the Eastern Shore, and the wild, undeveloped beaches of Assateague. It is a place of world-class wine, excellent food, thriving arts communities, and outdoor recreation ranging from world-class hiking on the Appalachian Trail to paddling the New River, one of the oldest rivers in the world. It is a place where small towns of genuine character and charm sit at the foot of mountain ridges that glow blue in the afternoon haze, and where the Chesapeake Bay, one of the great estuaries of the world, shapes the culture and cuisine and consciousness of its surrounding communities with a force as strong as any mountain range.
Virginia is a Commonwealth, as its residents are fond of pointing out, not merely a state, and that small distinction carries something of the larger truth about the place. It has always thought of itself as something more than a political unit, as a community with shared values and a common destiny, shaped by a landscape and a history that demand to be taken seriously. Visiting Virginia with that seriousness of engagement, with genuine curiosity and a willingness to be moved, is one of the great travel experiences available in America.
Understanding Virginia’s Geography
Virginia’s geography is one of its defining assets, and understanding its basic structure helps visitors make sense of the state’s extraordinary diversity of landscape and experience.
The state is organized into a series of roughly parallel geographic bands running from northeast to southwest. In the east, the Coastal Plain, or Tidewater, is a low-lying region of rivers, wetlands, and estuaries shaped by the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. The Fall Line, where rivers descending from the interior drop over a series of rapids and falls, marks the boundary between the Tidewater and the Piedmont, a broad, gently rolling plateau of red clay soil and hardwood forest that extends westward to the Blue Ridge Mountains. The Blue Ridge itself forms a dramatic escarpment visible for miles in both directions, its ridges running in a long, unbroken line from the Maryland border southward into North Carolina. Beyond the Blue Ridge lies the Shenandoah Valley, one of the most beautiful and historically significant agricultural valleys in America, flanked to the west by the parallel ridges of the Ridge and Valley region. The far southwestern corner of the state, where Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee meet, is the coalfields and mountain country of the Cumberland Plateau, a rugged, culturally distinct region with its own deep Appalachian character.
NORTHERN VIRGINIA AND THE WASHINGTON SUBURBS
Northern Virginia occupies a peculiar position in the state’s geography and culture. It is, in many respects, the most prosperous and most rapidly changing part of Virginia, a dense suburban and exurban landscape that has grown dramatically in the past three decades as the federal government and the technology industry have expanded their presence in the Washington metropolitan area. And yet within this modern landscape, some of the most significant historic sites in American history are preserved with care and visited by millions.
Mount Vernon, the plantation home of George Washington on the Potomac River south of Alexandria, is one of the most visited historic sites in the United States and one that consistently exceeds the expectations of its visitors. The estate, meticulously restored to its 18th-century appearance and set on beautifully maintained grounds above the river, conveys the physical reality of Washington’s life as a Virginia planter with a vividness that no textbook can match. The mansion, with its distinctive cupola and piazza overlooking the Potomac, is toured with knowledgeable guides who bring the household to life. The working farm, the pioneer farm archaeological site, the grist mill and distillery, and Washington’s tomb on the grounds of the estate round out an experience that can easily fill a full day. The museum and education center, opened in 2006, houses an extraordinary collection of Washington artifacts and presents his life and legacy with scholarly rigor and genuine narrative power.
Gunston Hall, a few miles south of Mount Vernon on the Potomac shore, is the home of George Mason, the Virginia statesman whose Virginia Declaration of Rights served as the primary model for the Bill of Rights. The house, a Georgian mansion of extraordinary architectural refinement completed in 1759, is less visited than Mount Vernon but equally rewarding, and the contrast between Mason’s more modest estate and Washington’s grander one illuminates the variety of Virginia planter life.
Alexandria, a historic port city on the Potomac that was once one of the most important commercial centers in colonial America, has preserved its 18th and early 19th-century streetscape with great care. The Old Town neighborhood, centered on King Street, is a beautiful collection of Georgian and Federal townhouses, warehouses converted to restaurants and boutiques, cobblestone alleys, and waterfront parks that rewards hours of walking exploration. Christ Church Alexandria, where both George Washington and Robert E. Lee worshipped, is a beautifully preserved colonial church in active use since 1773. The Torpedo Factory Art Center, a converted World War II munitions factory on the waterfront, houses more than 80 working artists’ studios open to the public and is one of the most successful public art facilities of its kind in the country. Alexandria’s restaurant scene is excellent, with particular depth in the Old Town neighborhood, and the city’s proximity to Washington makes it an attractive base for exploring the broader capital region.
Arlington, directly across the Potomac from Washington, is home to Arlington National Cemetery, one of the most moving and significant memorial sites in the United States. The cemetery, which covers 639 acres of the former Custis-Lee estate on the high ground above the river, is the final resting place of more than 400,000 military personnel and their dependents, from veterans of every American war to presidents, senators, Supreme Court justices, and other national figures. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, guarded around the clock every day of the year by specially trained soldiers of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, is among the most solemn and impressive ceremonial sites in America. The Kennedy gravesites, marked by an eternal flame, draw millions of visitors who come to pay their respects to the 35th president and his family. The views from the cemetery’s high ground, looking across the Potomac to the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument and the Capitol dome, are among the most iconic in American civic geography.
Manassas National Battlefield Park preserves the site of two major Civil War battles, the First and Second Battles of Bull Run, fought in 1861 and 1862. The open fields and pine woodlands of the battlefield look much as they did during the battles, and walking the well-interpreted trails while reading the interpretive markers creates a powerful sense of the human geography of those terrible days. The Henry Hill Visitor Center provides excellent context and orientation.
RICHMOND AND THE HISTORIC TRIANGLE
Richmond, the capital of Virginia and the former capital of the Confederacy, is a city of extraordinary historical depth, remarkable natural beauty along its James River corridor, and a contemporary creative energy that has made it one of the most talked-about mid-sized cities in America over the past decade.
The James River, which bisects Richmond and drops over a series of granite rapids and falls in the heart of the city, is one of the great urban rivers in America and the centerpiece of Richmond’s remarkable outdoor culture. The James River Park System, a network of parks along both banks of the river, provides opportunities for whitewater kayaking and rafting on Class III and IV rapids minutes from downtown, for swimming in the cool, clear water below the falls, for hiking and cycling on miles of riverside trails, and for simply sitting on the granite boulders that line the river’s edge and watching the water move. The Brown’s Island and Belle Isle parks, connected to downtown by pedestrian bridges, are beloved gathering places. The Virginia Capital Trail, a paved multi-use path, runs 52 miles from Richmond to Williamsburg along the south bank of the James, passing plantations, wetlands, and farmland in a magnificent linear park.
The American Civil War Museum, which consolidated and expanded several predecessor institutions, is the finest museum in the country for understanding the Civil War from multiple perspectives simultaneously, presenting the conflict through the experiences of Confederate soldiers, Union soldiers, and enslaved African Americans in ways that illuminate the war’s full human complexity. The museum’s main facility is housed in a beautifully adapted historic building at Tredegar Iron Works, the Confederate ironworks that produced much of the artillery used by Southern forces during the war, on the James River bank below the city.
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, free to enter, is one of the finest art museums in the South, with collections of particular distinction in Art Nouveau and Art Deco decorative arts, the largest collection of Fabergé objects outside Russia, Indian and Himalayan art, and a strong survey of European and American painting and sculpture. The museum’s recent expansion has given it a magnificent new wing and created a truly world-class facility.
The Virginia Capitol, designed by Thomas Jefferson and completed in 1788, is the oldest working capitol building in the Western Hemisphere. Jefferson based his design on the Maison Carrée, a Roman temple in Nîmes, France, and the result is one of the finest examples of neoclassical architecture in America, a building that influenced the design of the United States Capitol and countless other public buildings. The Capitol houses the only life-size sculpture for which George Washington sat, Jean-Antoine Houdon’s magnificent marble statue, considered by many to be the most authentic likeness of Washington in existence.
The Fan District and Carytown, west of downtown Richmond, form a remarkably intact neighborhood of late Victorian and early 20th-century architecture, tree-lined streets, independent restaurants, boutiques, galleries, and coffee shops. Carytown’s eclectic commercial strip is one of the most engaging shopping and eating streets in Virginia, lined with independent businesses of great variety and character. The neighborhood’s culinary scene has grown significantly in recent years and now encompasses some of the best restaurants in the state.
The Historic Triangle, located in the Tidewater region southeast of Richmond, encompasses three of the most significant historic sites in America within a small geographic area: Jamestown, Williamsburg, and Yorktown.
Jamestown Island, where the first permanent English settlement in America was established in 1607, is divided between Historic Jamestowne, operated by the National Park Service and Preservation Virginia, and Jamestown Settlement, a living history museum operated by the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation. Historic Jamestowne preserves the actual archaeological site of James Fort and the original settlement, where ongoing excavations continue to yield extraordinary finds, including artifacts that rewrite the accepted history of the early settlement’s struggles and survival. The Archaearium museum on the site displays remarkable finds from the excavations. Jamestown Settlement offers a more experiential approach, with full-scale replicas of the three ships that brought the first settlers, a re-created Powhatan Indian village, and a reconstructed James Fort with costumed interpreters. The story told at Jamestown in its full complexity, including the profound violence of the colonial encounter and the essential role of the Powhatan Confederacy and enslaved Africans in the survival and development of the colony, is one that every American should engage with seriously.
Colonial Williamsburg is one of the most ambitious and most successful historic preservation and interpretation projects in the world. The restored colonial capital of Virginia, with its mile-long Duke of Gloucester Street flanked by more than 300 original and reconstructed 18th-century buildings, its working taverns and tradespeople’s shops, its costumed interpreters engaging visitors in first-person and third-person historical dialogue, and its recent commitment to telling the stories of enslaved people with the same rigor and attention formerly devoted exclusively to the lives of white colonists, is a place that can be visited many times and always yields new discoveries. The Governor’s Palace, the Capitol building, the Bruton Parish Church, and the Raleigh Tavern are among the most significant individual sites, but the experience of simply walking the streets of the Historic Area, of hearing the blacksmith’s hammer and smelling the bread from the colonial bakery and watching the militia drill on Market Square, is irreplaceable.
Yorktown Battlefield, where the last major military engagement of the Revolutionary War was fought in October 1781, is preserved by the National Park Service as part of Colonial National Historical Park. The earthworks, the Moore House where surrender terms were negotiated, and the beautifully interpreted driving tour of the battlefield convey the military history with clarity and force. The adjacent Yorktown Victory Center, operated by the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, provides broader context for the Revolution through living history demonstrations and period camp reconstructions.
THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY
West of the Blue Ridge, the Shenandoah Valley opens into one of the most beautiful agricultural landscapes in America, a broad, fertile valley between the Blue Ridge to the east and the Alleghenies to the west, drained by the northward-flowing Shenandoah River and its tributaries. The valley was the breadbasket of the Confederacy during the Civil War, the corridor through which Confederate forces mounted their invasions of the North and along which Union forces swept in the devastating Burning of 1864 that destroyed the valley’s agricultural infrastructure. Today it is a landscape of pastoral beauty, historic small cities, outstanding caverns, and the magnificent Shenandoah National Park.
Shenandoah National Park stretches for 105 miles along the crest of the Blue Ridge, protecting a landscape of hardwood forest, rocky peaks, cascading waterfalls, and abundant wildlife. The park was created largely from cutover and farmed land in the 1930s, and the remarkable recovery of the forest in the intervening decades is one of the great conservation success stories of the American East. Skyline Drive, which runs the entire length of the park along the Blue Ridge crest, is one of the great scenic drives in America, with more than 75 overlooks offering views east across the Piedmont and west across the Shenandoah Valley that on clear days stretch to extraordinary distances. The drive reaches its most dramatic at places like Stony Man, Hawksbill, and Blackrock, where exposed rock outcrops provide sweeping panoramas. Hiking in Shenandoah is exceptional, ranging from easy waterfall walks like those to Dark Hollow Falls and Overall Run Falls to strenuous summit climbs to Hawksbill Mountain, the park’s highest peak, and the Old Rag Mountain circuit, one of the most beloved and demanding day hikes in the Mid-Atlantic region, which involves a spectacular scramble through a boulder field near the summit.
Luray Caverns, in the Shenandoah Valley near the town of Luray, is one of the largest and most spectacular cavern systems in the eastern United States. The caverns, discovered in 1878, contain extraordinary formations of stalactites, stalagmites, flowstone, and columns developed over millions of years, all illuminated to magnificent effect. The Dream Lake reflection pool, a shallow underground lake whose perfect reflection of the cavern ceiling creates the illusion of immense depth, is one of the most photographed underground features in the world. The Stalacpipe Organ, a unique instrument whose rubber-tipped mallets tap natural stalactites throughout the cavern to produce musical tones, is genuinely extraordinary. Skyline Caverns near Front Royal and Endless Caverns near New Market are among the other significant cavern attractions in the valley.
New Market Battlefield State Historical Park preserves the site of one of the most poignant engagements of the Civil War, the Battle of New Market in May 1864, in which 257 cadets from the Virginia Military Institute, some as young as 15 years old, were brought into the battle line and helped turn the tide against Union forces. The Hall of Valor Civil War Museum at the site tells this story with power and sensitivity.
Staunton, a beautifully preserved Victorian city in the central Shenandoah Valley, is one of the great small-city discoveries of Virginia travel. The downtown, built on a series of hills above the Valley floor, contains an extraordinary collection of late 19th and early 20th-century architecture in remarkable states of preservation, including the Wharf district, the Beverley Street commercial corridor, and the residential neighborhoods surrounding the historic hotels and churches. The American Shakespeare Center’s Blackfriars Playhouse, a faithful recreation of Shakespeare’s indoor theater in London, stages productions year-round in an intimate candle-lit setting that brings the Elizabethan theatrical experience closer than anywhere else in the world outside England. The Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum, on the grounds of the home where the 28th president was born, is an outstanding presidential museum. The Frontier Culture Museum, on the outskirts of Staunton, is an open-air living history museum that traces the origins of the settlers who came to the Shenandoah Valley from England, Germany, Ireland, and West Africa, presenting their farm buildings relocated from their countries of origin and interpreted by costumed demonstrators.
Lexington, in the southern Shenandoah Valley, is one of Virginia’s most historically significant small cities, home to two of the most storied military educational institutions in the South: Virginia Military Institute and Washington and Lee University. The VMI Museum and the VMI campus itself, built around the parade ground with its distinctive Gothic barracks, are fascinating to visit, and the museum’s collection includes the raincoat worn by Stonewall Jackson at the time of his death, a relic displayed with the solemnity of a religious object. The Lee Chapel at Washington and Lee, where Robert E. Lee is buried and where his office has been preserved exactly as he left it on the last day of his presidency of the college, is a place of genuine historical gravity. The Stonewall Jackson House, the only home Jackson ever owned and where he lived in Lexington before the Civil War, is a superb house museum. The Natural Bridge, a 215-foot-high natural limestone arch that spans Cedar Creek and was once owned by Thomas Jefferson, is one of the most spectacular natural geological features in Virginia and has been welcoming visitors since the 18th century.
CHARLOTTESVILLE AND THE PIEDMONT
Charlottesville and the surrounding Piedmont region occupy a special place in Virginia’s geography and history, a landscape of rolling red-clay hills, vineyards, horse farms, and small towns of considerable charm anchored by one of the most beautiful and intellectually significant university campuses in America.
The University of Virginia, founded by Thomas Jefferson and opened in 1825, is a National World Heritage Site and one of the supreme achievements of American architecture. Jefferson’s Academical Village, centered on the Rotunda, which he modeled on the Pantheon in Rome, and flanked by the ten Pavilions housing faculty residences and classrooms connected by colonnaded walkways, is a composition of extraordinary spatial intelligence and classical beauty. The Lawn, the open green space at the heart of the Academical Village, is one of the most beautiful man-made spaces in America, a place that rewards slow, contemplative walking at any hour and in any season.
Monticello, Jefferson’s home on the summit of a small mountain outside Charlottesville, is among the most visited and most intellectually rich historic house museums in the United States. Jefferson spent decades designing and redesigning his house, incorporating ideas gathered from his travels in Europe and his voracious reading of architectural treatises, and the result is a building of great originality and ingenuity. The alcove beds, the dumbwaiters concealed in the dining room fireplace, the all-weather passage connecting the house to its dependencies, and the dome room, inspired by the Hotel de Salm in Paris, reflect a mind that was never satisfied with convention. The Thomas Jefferson Foundation, which operates Monticello, has made a sustained and serious commitment over the past three decades to telling the full story of the plantation, including the lives of the more than 600 enslaved people whom Jefferson held in bondage over the course of his lifetime, and the experience of the site now reflects that full complexity with scholarly integrity. The recently opened Mountaintop Project interpretive spaces, dedicated to the stories of the enslaved community, are among the most important new museum developments in American historic preservation.
The wine country surrounding Charlottesville has developed into one of the most significant wine-producing regions in the eastern United States. Virginia is now the fifth-largest wine-producing state by number of wineries, and the concentration of quality in the Charlottesville and Monticello AVA is particularly high. King Family Vineyards, Barboursville Vineyards, Blenheim Vineyards, and Michael Shaps Wineworks are among the most respected producers. Barboursville, whose winery occupies the grounds of a historic estate designed by Thomas Jefferson and whose ruins remain as a romantic backdrop to the vineyard, is a particularly atmospheric destination. The grape varieties that have shown the most promise in Virginia include Viognier, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc, and Merlot, and the best Virginia wines from these varieties now compete seriously on a national level.
The town of Orange, east of Charlottesville, is home to Montpelier, the lifelong home of James Madison, the primary architect of the United States Constitution and the fourth president. The mansion has been meticulously restored to its Madison-era appearance following extensive archaeological research, and the interpretation of the site now gives equal weight to the stories of the more than 100 enslaved people who lived and worked on the plantation.
THE BLUE RIDGE HIGHLANDS AND SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA
The southwestern reaches of Virginia, where the state narrows to a point between Tennessee and Kentucky, are among the most scenically dramatic and culturally distinctive parts of the Commonwealth. This is Appalachian Virginia, a world of deep valleys, forested ridges, coal towns, and a musical culture rooted in the oldest folk traditions of the British Isles.
The Blue Ridge Parkway enters Virginia from North Carolina and winds northward through the highlands of Floyd, Carroll, and Patrick counties before connecting with Shenandoah National Park’s Skyline Drive. The Virginia section of the parkway passes through some of the most beautiful pastoral and mountain scenery in the state, including the Mabry Mill area, where an authentic 19th-century water-powered grist mill and sawmill create one of the most photographed scenes in the entire parkway system.
The town of Floyd is a small but nationally significant cultural center for old-time and bluegrass music. The Friday Night Jamboree at Floyd Country Store, which has been drawing musicians and dancers to its broad wooden dance floor every Friday evening for decades, is one of the most authentic and joyful expressions of Appalachian musical culture available anywhere in America. Flat-foot dancing, fiddle playing, and banjo picking fill the old store building with a sound and energy that connects directly to the deepest roots of American folk music.
The Crooked Road, Virginia’s Heritage Music Trail, is a driving route through the southwest Virginia highlands that connects sites of significance in the history of old-time and country music, including the Birthplace of Country Music Museum in Bristol, the Carter Family Fold in Hiltons, and the Ralph Stanley Museum in Clintwood.
The Carter Family Fold, operated by the descendants of the original Carter Family on the property where A.P. Carter was born, presents weekly old-time music performances in a setting of extraordinary authenticity and historical resonance. The Bristol Sessions of 1927, when recording pioneer Ralph Peer captured the first commercial recordings of both the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers in a single week in Bristol, are widely regarded as the Big Bang of country music, and the museum dedicated to that moment in Bristol is a genuinely excellent celebration of its importance.
Breaks Interstate Park, on the Virginia-Kentucky border in Dickenson County, preserves the Russell Fork Gorge, the deepest gorge east of the Mississippi River. The canyon, carved by the Russell Fork of the Big Sandy River through the Pine Mountain ridge, is 1,600 feet deep in places and provides some of the most dramatic scenery in Appalachian Virginia. The whitewater of the Russell Fork in October, when the river runs at its highest and is opened for kayaking and rafting through the gorge, is considered among the most challenging and spectacular whitewater experiences in the eastern United States.
THE EASTERN SHORE AND CHESAPEAKE BAY
The Eastern Shore of Virginia, the narrow strip of land between the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean at the southern end of the Delmarva Peninsula, is one of the most ecologically remarkable and culturally distinctive regions in the state. Connected to the mainland by the 23-mile Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, one of the engineering marvels of the 20th century, the Eastern Shore feels genuinely remote despite its accessibility, a place of salt marshes, fishing villages, barrier islands, and a way of life shaped by water and weather over centuries.
Chincoteague Island, just inside the Virginia line near the Maryland border, is famous throughout the eastern United States for its wild pony population. The Chincoteague ponies, a herd of wild horses that have lived on the adjacent Assateague Island for centuries, are the subject of the beloved children’s novel Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry and the focus of the annual Pony Swim and Roundup held every July, when the ponies are swum across the channel from Assateague to Chincoteague, auctioned, and swum back. The event draws enormous crowds and is one of the most distinctive annual celebrations in Virginia. The Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, which encompasses the Virginia portion of Assateague Island, protects an outstanding barrier island ecosystem of beaches, dunes, and salt marshes that supports large populations of migratory shorebirds and waterfowl. The beach at Assateague, wild and undeveloped for its entire length, is one of the finest natural beaches on the entire East Coast.
The Virginia Coast Reserve, a system of barrier islands along the Eastern Shore’s Atlantic coast managed by the Nature Conservancy, is the longest stretch of undeveloped barrier island coastline on the Atlantic coast of the United States. These islands, accessible only by boat, preserve a wild, pre-human coastal landscape of extraordinary ecological value and staggering beauty. Kayak and boat tours to the islands provide access to some of the most remote and pristine natural environments in Virginia.
The Chesapeake Bay, which Virginia shares with Maryland, is one of the great estuaries of the world, a 200-mile-long arm of the sea fed by more than 150 rivers and streams and supporting an ecosystem of extraordinary biological richness. The bay’s history is inseparable from Virginia’s history, and its blue crab, oyster, and rockfish are not merely food products but cultural symbols of the tidewater way of life. The watermen who harvest these species using traditional methods are a rapidly diminishing community whose knowledge and culture represent an irreplaceable heritage.
The Northern Neck, the peninsula between the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers on the Virginia mainland side of the Bay, is one of the most historically significant and scenically beautiful regions of tidewater Virginia. George Washington was born at Pope’s Creek Plantation in Westmoreland County on the Northern Neck, and the George Washington Birthplace National Monument preserves and interprets the site. Stratford Hall, the birthplace of Robert E. Lee and the ancestral home of one of Virginia’s most significant colonial families, is a magnificent 18th-century plantation house open for tours on the Northern Neck’s Potomac shore.
VIRGINIA BEACH AND HAMPTON ROADS
The Hampton Roads metropolitan area, where the James, York, Elizabeth, and Nansemond rivers meet the Chesapeake Bay, is one of the most historically layered and geographically dramatic regions in Virginia, anchored by the major cities of Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Newport News, and Hampton and defined by one of the greatest natural harbors in the world.
Virginia Beach, with 35 miles of Atlantic Ocean beachfront and a permanent population of nearly half a million people, is the most visited tourist destination in Virginia. The resort strip along Atlantic Avenue is a classic American beach resort of hotels, restaurants, amusement attractions, and a three-mile boardwalk, energetic and commercial and enormously popular in summer. But Virginia Beach is more than its resort strip. The False Cape State Park and Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge at the southern end of the city preserve a wild coastal landscape of exceptional ecological value, accessible only on foot or by boat.
The Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center is one of the finest aquariums in the Mid-Atlantic region. The Military Aviation Museum at Virginia Beach, a private collection of more than 60 flyable vintage military aircraft from both World Wars, is among the finest collections of its kind in the world.
Norfolk is a city of genuine cultural richness that surprises visitors who expect only a naval base. The Chrysler Museum of Art, free to admission, houses one of the finest art collections in the South, with exceptional strength in European old masters, American art, and one of the finest glass collections in the world, including an extraordinary collection of Tiffany Studios glass. The Chrysler’s glass studio, a working facility where glass artists create and demonstrate their craft, is one of the most unusual and engaging museum attractions in the region. The Norfolk Botanical Garden is one of the finest botanic gardens in the mid-Atlantic region, with 175 acres of themed gardens including outstanding azalea, rose, and Japanese garden sections.
The Mariners’ Museum and Park in Newport News is one of the world’s premier maritime museums and the home of the most significant collection of Civil War naval artifacts in existence. The museum’s centerpiece is the recovered turret of the USS Monitor, the Union ironclad that fought the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia in the Battle of Hampton Roads in March 1862, the first battle between iron-hulled warships and one of the most technologically transformative naval engagements in military history. The conservation and display of the Monitor’s turret and the artifacts recovered from it is one of the most ambitious maritime conservation projects ever undertaken.
FOOD, DRINK, AND CULINARY CULTURE
Virginia’s culinary culture is rooted in its agricultural abundance, its tidewater seafood tradition, its Appalachian mountain food heritage, and a contemporary restaurant scene that has developed rapidly in recent years into one of the most sophisticated in the mid-Atlantic region.
The Chesapeake Bay blue crab is the sovereign ingredient of Virginia’s tidewater cuisine, steamed with Old Bay seasoning and eaten at newspaper-covered picnic tables with wooden mallets and beer, or picked and used in crab cakes, crab soup, she-crab soup, and soft-shell crab preparations during the brief and glorious spring season when the crabs are molting. The ritual of a proper steamed crab feast, the labor of cracking and picking, the conversation it demands, the cold beer that accompanies it, is as much a cultural experience as a culinary one.
Virginia oysters, drawn from the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries, have undergone a remarkable renaissance in the past two decades following the near-collapse of wild oyster populations. A thriving aquaculture industry has developed along the bay’s tributaries and along the Eastern Shore, producing oysters of exceptional quality with distinct flavor profiles reflecting their specific growing environments. Rappahannock oysters, Shooting Point Salts, Olde Salt oysters, and dozens of other Virginia varieties now appear on oyster menus at restaurants throughout the eastern United States.
The Smithfield ham, a product of the peanut-fed pigs raised in the tidewater region around the town of Smithfield in Isle of Wight County, is one of the most distinctive regional cured meat products in America. Genuine Smithfield ham, which by Virginia law must be processed within the Smithfield town limits, is dry-cured, smoked, and aged in a style that produces an intensely flavored, densely textured product quite unlike the wet-cured hams sold as commodity products. Sliced paper-thin and served on biscuits, it is one of the great flavors of Virginia food culture.
Virginia peanuts, grown primarily in the tidewater counties of the southeast, are among the finest peanuts grown anywhere in the world, with a large, meaty kernel and rich flavor that connoisseurs prize above all other varieties. Virginia’s peanut production history stretches back to the 19th century, and the peanut industry remains economically significant in the southeastern part of the state.
The Virginia wine industry, already mentioned in connection with the Charlottesville region, has grown to encompass more than 300 wineries throughout the state, from the Northern Virginia Piedmont to the Eastern Shore. The state has invested significantly in wine tourism infrastructure, and the network of wine trails connecting producers across multiple regions makes Virginia wine country increasingly competitive with better-known American wine destinations.
The craft beer scene has expanded dramatically in recent years, with excellent breweries operating in virtually every major community. The Devil’s Backbone Brewing Company in Nelson County, Three Notch’d Brewing in Charlottesville, Hardywood Park Craft Brewery in Richmond, and Starr Hill Brewing in Crozet are among the most respected producers, and the craft cider tradition has found expression at producers like Castle Hill Cider in Albemarle County, which makes some of the finest artisan ciders in the eastern United States.
OUTDOOR RECREATION
Virginia’s geographic diversity translates directly into an extraordinary range of outdoor recreation opportunities that span every season and every level of experience.
The Appalachian Trail enters Virginia from Tennessee near Damascus, a small town in Washington County that calls itself the friendliest town on the trail, and traverses the state for approximately 550 miles before crossing into West Virginia near Harpers Ferry, covering by far the longest distance of any state on the trail’s 2,190-mile route. The Virginia section encompasses some of the trail’s most beautiful and varied terrain, from the spruce forests of Mount Rogers, Virginia’s highest peak at 5,729 feet, to the pastoral ridgelines of the Shenandoah Valley approach, to the iconic McAfee Knob, the most photographed overlook on the entire Appalachian Trail, a rocky promontory above the Roanoke Valley where the rock ledge appears to float in space above the valley floor.
The New River, which flows through the western part of the state and is one of the oldest rivers in the world, offers outstanding canoeing, kayaking, and fishing in a spectacular canyon setting. The New River Trail State Park follows an abandoned railroad grade along the river for 57 miles, creating one of the finest rail-trail cycling experiences in Virginia.
Douthat State Park in Bath County, one of the original six state parks opened in Virginia in 1936 and a National Historic Landmark in its own right for its Civilian Conservation Corps architecture, is considered one of the finest state parks in the eastern United States. Its combination of mountain lake swimming, excellent trail network, camping facilities, and extraordinary CCC-era architecture creates a complete outdoor resort experience of exceptional quality.
George Washington and Jefferson National Forests, which together cover more than 1.8 million acres of mountain land in western Virginia, provide an enormous public land base for hiking, camping, fishing, hunting, mountain biking, and equestrian use. The forests contain dozens of wilderness areas, hundreds of miles of trails, and numerous rivers and streams of outstanding wild quality.
PRACTICAL TRAVEL INFORMATION
Virginia is exceptionally well served by transportation infrastructure. Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Washington Dulles International Airport serve the northern Virginia region with extensive domestic and international connections. Richmond International Airport connects the central part of the state, and Norfolk International Airport serves the Hampton Roads region. Amtrak serves Richmond, Charlottesville, Williamsburg, and several other Virginia cities on routes connecting to the northeast corridor.
Driving is the most practical way to explore Virginia’s diverse regions, and the state’s scenic byways, including Skyline Drive, the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Colonial Parkway connecting Jamestown, Williamsburg, and Yorktown, and the Crooked Road music trail, are among the finest designated scenic routes in the country.
Virginia’s climate is four-season continental, moderated by the proximity of the Atlantic and the Chesapeake. The coastal and tidewater regions experience hot, humid summers, mild winters, and pleasant springs and falls. The mountain regions have cooler summers, cold winters with significant snowfall at higher elevations, and spectacular autumns when the hardwood forests turn in October. The Shenandoah Valley fall color typically peaks in mid-October and is one of the finest in the eastern United States.
Accommodation ranges from grand resort hotels and luxury vineyard inns to historic bed-and-breakfasts in colonial towns, mountain lodges and cabins, and the full range of national chain properties in the major cities. The state’s historic inns, including the Inn at Little Washington in Washington, Virginia, which has held three Michelin stars and is considered one of the finest restaurants and inns in America, and the Clifton Inn near Charlottesville, represent the highest end of Virginia hospitality.
Conclusion
Virginia asks more of its visitors than many destinations, and it gives more in return. It asks you to engage with a history that is not always comfortable, to sit with the contradictions of a place that gave the world some of its finest democratic ideals while simultaneously practicing the ultimate denial of human freedom in chattel slavery on an enormous scale. It asks you to climb a mountain or paddle a river or walk a Civil War battlefield with the same seriousness you bring to a museum gallery. It asks you to slow down enough to taste an oyster properly, to watch the light change over the Blue Ridge at dusk, to listen to the fiddle music in a Floyd country store on a Friday night.
What it gives in return is an encounter with American history at its most vivid and most complex, with natural landscapes of extraordinary beauty and variety, with a food and wine culture rooted in genuine agricultural richness, and with the experience of a place that has been shaped by centuries of human effort, suffering, creativity, and aspiration into something that is genuinely irreplaceable.
Virginia is the place where America first tried to figure out what it was going to be. That project, it turns out, is still ongoing, and Virginia is still one of the places where you can watch it unfold in real time, against a backdrop of mountain and river and bay that has changed remarkably little since the first Englishmen stepped ashore at Jamestown and looked out at a new world that offered everything and demanded everything in return.
Come to Virginia ready to receive everything it offers. You will not be disappointed.
Virginia is for Lovers — of history, of beauty, of the land, of the honest and complicated truth of what America has been and what it is still becoming.