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Charlottesville, Virginia has a special place in my heart. It was an hour from where I went to college and one year we pulled off a kick-butt upset of their University of Virginia football team. This was such an unheard of event that T-shirts were printed with the score, a brisk seller. It had the only good radio station in central Virginia, it was where lots of good bands were from, and it’s where I saw the Talking Heads on their Stop Making Sense tour. Much later I got married nearby at Wintergreen resort.
It’s still a great place to visit and for more reasons than it was in those days. It’s the home town of Dave Matthews and Money magazine even named it “#1 Small City in the South.” Some things endure, some have improved. In the former category are Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson. That’s a pricey stop, but you can see Jefferson’s architectural work on display for nothing on a free Rotunda tour of the University of Virginia’s original buildings. Outside of town you can see the home of James Madison (namesake of the rival university I attended).
What’s relatively recent, if you have a car, is that you can pop into multiple wineries that are now thick in these parts, rivaling the scene in Oregon or the Finger Lakes of New York. If there’s a tasting fee, it’ll usually be worth it and they’ll apply that amount to the purchase of a bottle. Local specialties in the region are Petit Verdot and Voignier. See VirginiaWine.org. There’s also a Brew Ridge Trail if you’re more into beer.
It’s a college town so prices to eat and drink are reasonable.You won’t have to look very hard to find happy hour deals and lunch specials.
But here’s the real kicker: you can get there for cheap on Amtrak. A train ticket from New York City regularly goes for $60 (less when there’s a promotion) and it takes about the same amount of time it would if you drove it. A ticket from D.C. (2.5 hours) is a mere $22. Then there’s a free trolley from the station and around to many places you would want to go.
Hotels are reasonable when there’s not something special going on, like $49 to $67 when I pulled up Hotwire for the week after New Year’s. There’s a hostel here too—Alexander House—but it’s usually only a better deal for a single, at $40 a bed.
There are free outdoor concerts each Friday between April and October. The Blue Ridge Parkway is nearby, which is completely free. (Skyline Drive, heading north, has a National Park fee.) The University of Virginia Art Museum is free.
If none of that American History class cramming stuck with you, take a trip to Charlottesville. You’ll probably have a good time while you’re learning something.
Official tourism site for Charlottesville, VA.
[Flickr photo by SCholewiak]
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