9 Ideal Virginia Destinations for a 3-Day Weekend

Staunton puts on Shakespeare by candlelight. Cape Charles has one of the only beaches on the East Coast where the sun sets over the water. Natural Bridge is a 215-foot stone arch that Thomas Jefferson once owned outright. A Virginia long weekend really can be almost anything, and these nine destinations are the ones to build one around.

Charlottesville

Charlottesville carries Thomas Jefferson's fingerprints at every turn. The author of the Declaration designed both Monticello, his hilltop mansion begun in 1769, and the Rotunda at the University of Virginia, a scaled-down Pantheon that anchors one of the loveliest campuses in the country. A weekend here balances all that history with serious modern pleasures: the pedestrian Downtown Mall is lined with restaurants, bookshops, and galleries, the IX Art Park splashes murals across an old industrial lot, and the Monticello Wine Trail threads through the foothills just outside town. Round it out with lunch at the 1784 Michie Tavern, then a night at a vineyard inn. For history buffs and wine lovers alike, this is the heavyweight.

Staunton

Tucked in the Shenandoah Valley, Staunton (say "STAN-ton") punches well above its weight. Its crown jewel is the Blackfriars Playhouse, the world's only full re-creation of Shakespeare's indoor theater, where the American Shakespeare Center stages the Bard the way audiences saw him in 1600: by candlelight, with the house lights up and actors spilling into the aisles. Beyond the stage, the Frontier Culture Museum is a living-history park where costumed interpreters work recreated farms representing Ireland, England, Germany, and West Africa, and the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library sits in the president's childhood home. The compact Victorian downtown, full of restaurants and shops, is made for wandering. For a weekend of theater, history, and valley views, Staunton is a quiet overachiever.

Lexington

Lexington is a two-college town with a deep Civil War streak, set against the Blue Ridge in the Shenandoah Valley. Virginia Military Institute and Washington and Lee University give it youthful energy and a walkable, red-brick historic downtown of boutiques and farm-to-table restaurants. History runs thick here: tour the 1800s Stonewall Jackson House, the only home the Confederate general ever owned, and visit the 19th-century University Chapel, the burial place of Robert E. Lee. For a breather, the Maury River runs past town on its way to the James, and the Boxerwood Nature Center offers easy trails, a pond full of turtles, and a boardwalk over a swamp. Base yourself at a cozy downtown inn, and you are 15 minutes from the Blue Ridge Parkway's foliage drives.

Winchester

At the northern end of the Shenandoah Valley, Winchester wraps more than 250 years of history around a lively pedestrian Old Town. The Loudoun Street Mall is the spine, lined with the kind of indie shops, bookstores, and restaurants that make a weekend vanish; grab lunch at the Cork Street Tavern in an 1830s building and a flight at Winchester Brew Works. The town's cultural anchor is the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley, built around the 1794 Glen Burnie House and seven acres of formal gardens laced with trails. Winchester is also the hometown of country legend Patsy Cline, whose restored house is open for tours. Cap the stay at the Georgian Revival George Washington Hotel, open since 1924.

Natural Bridge

Some weekend destinations are a town; this one is a 215-foot limestone arch. Natural Bridge, carved by little Cedar Creek over millions of years, so impressed Thomas Jefferson that he bought it, along with the surrounding land, from King George III in 1774. Today it anchors Natural Bridge State Park, where the shaded Cedar Creek Trail leads under the arch and on to the 30-foot Lace Falls. Beyond the bridge, the park rolls out forests and meadows dark enough at night for genuine stargazing. Bed down at the stately red-brick Natural Bridge Hotel, perched with views of the Blue Ridge and the James River valley, and spend a weekend doing what people have done here for 250 years: standing under a very large rock and feeling appropriately small.

Williamsburg

Williamsburg turns early American history into a place you can walk through. Colonial Williamsburg is the largest living-history museum in the country, some 300 acres of restored 18th-century buildings where costumed interpreters churn butter, fire muskets, and reenact the arguments of 1775. Walk the Duke of Gloucester Street, duck into the taverns for peanut soup and ale, and you have the makings of a full day. But the town is only one point of the Historic Triangle: Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in America (1607), and the Yorktown battlefield, where the Revolution effectively ended, are both a short drive away. Add the College of William and Mary, the nation's second-oldest, and the roller coasters of nearby Busch Gardens, and a three-day weekend barely scratches the surface.

Cape Charles

Out on Virginia's Eastern Shore, Cape Charles is the rare East Coast beach town where the sun sets over the water. Built from scratch in the 1880s as a railroad and ferry hub, it kept its tidy grid of Victorian and Craftsman homes, which now mingle with ice cream shops, galleries, and oyster bars along Mason Avenue. The free public beach sits right at the end of town on the Chesapeake Bay, calm and west-facing, which turns every clear evening into a parade of people hauling folding chairs down to watch the sunset. Golfers have the acclaimed links at Bay Creek, and the broader Eastern Shore unfolds into small towns, wildlife refuges, and fresh seafood. It is a slower, saltier Virginia, and a weekend here resets you.

Occoquan

Just 20 miles south of Alexandria, Occoquan is a pocket-sized historic river town that makes for an easy, low-key weekend. The entire walkable historic district runs along the Occoquan River, its old mill-town streets now packed with independent shops, art galleries, and antique stores, plus the obligatory Virginia LOVE sign for your photo. Grab a table at the Secret Garden Cafe, set in an 1840 clapboard house with a garden patio and a menu of globe-trotting American fare, then walk it off in River Mill Park, where a footbridge crosses the river beside a small waterfall. Boaters can launch into Belmont Bay and the Potomac from the nearby regional park. It is proof that a great weekend does not have to be a big production.

Mount Vernon

Technically, Mount Vernon is an estate, not a town, but George Washington's riverside home is worth a whole weekend on the Potomac just south of Alexandria. The mansion and grounds are open for tours, furnished much as the first president left them, with the famous back piazza looking across the river to Maryland. Down at the water, you can catch a seasonal cruise to Alexandria or the National Harbor. A couple of miles away, Washington's reconstructed Distillery and Gristmill tells a lesser-known story: by the time he died in 1799, Washington was running one of the largest whiskey distilleries in the country. Buy a bottle, then work off the tour on the Mount Vernon Trail, a riverside path made for a bike ride or a long walk with the Potomac at your shoulder.

Make It a Long Weekend

The best thing about Virginia is how little time it asks of you. You can tour a president's house, see a colonial capital, hike to a waterfall, and still make it home by Sunday night. Whether you are after Shakespeare in Staunton, oysters in Cape Charles, or Jefferson's fingerprints all over Charlottesville, the Old Dominion has a long weekend with your name on it. Pick one, point the car east, and go.