Virginia With Kids Family Travel Guide

The Historic Triangle. Jamestown where it started in 1607, Williamsburg where the colony grew up, Yorktown where the Revolution ended. All within twenty minutes of each other and one ticket covers Jamestown and Yorktown together.

Two presidents’ houses an hour apart. Monticello, Jefferson’s house on the hill outside Charlottesville, and Mount Vernon, Washington’s farm on the Potomac. Both sell timed tickets and both tell the story of the enslaved people who ran them, which they did not always.

Richmond was the capital of the Confederacy. The American Civil War Museum at Tredegar tells it from all sides, and Appomattox, where Lee surrendered, is a quiet village two hours west. Older children get it.

Hidden Figures happened in Hampton. The women who did the maths for the space program worked at NASA Langley, and the Virginia Air and Space Science Center in Hampton has the Apollo 12 capsule. A good film to watch before you go.

The Chesapeake is a working bay. Blue crabs, oysters, watermen and the skipjacks. Tangier Island in the middle of it still speaks with a colonial accent and the ferry from Onancock is the strangest day out in the state.

A Cheese Shop sandwich in Williamsburg. Merchants Square, eleven to fifteen dollars, with the house dressing on it. Eat it on a bench outside and buy a bottle of the dressing for home.

Blue crab, picked at a paper table. Steamed with Old Bay, hammered open with a mallet on the Northern Neck or the Eastern Shore. Messy, slow and the meal children remember.

Virginia ham on a biscuit. Salt cured Smithfield ham, sliced thin on a small biscuit. Sold at every country store and the correct road snack between regions.

Brunswick stew and peanut soup. The stew is a Virginia argument with Georgia, and peanut soup is served at the King’s Arms in Williamsburg the colonial way. Both work for a child who likes soup.

Apples and cider in Shenandoah. Roadside orchards along Route 340 in September and October, cider doughnuts, and the pick your own farms outside Charlottesville.

Drive from Washington, or fly to Richmond or Norfolk. Dulles and Reagan for the DC corridor, Richmond for Williamsburg, Norfolk for the beach and the Eastern Shore. Direct flights from most of the country.

Amtrak reaches Williamsburg. The Northeast Regional runs Washington to Richmond to Williamsburg and on to Newport News. Park once in Williamsburg and walk everything.

Interstate 95 is the worst road in the state. Washington to Richmond can take two hours or four. Leave early, or take the train, and never plan the Friday afternoon drive south.

Skyline Drive is 35 miles an hour. 105 miles end to end, enforced, and three or four hours with stops. Enter at Front Royal or Thornton Gap and do a section, not the whole thing.

The Bridge Tunnel is a toll and an event. 17.6 miles across the bay from Virginia Beach to the Eastern Shore, underwater twice, with a rest stop on an island in the middle. Children rate it above most attractions.

Williamsburg is the ticket. About 37.50 an adult and 10 for ages six to twelve for a single day, more for multi day. Jamestown and Yorktown together on a separate combination ticket. Book ahead in the 250th year.

Monticello and Mount Vernon are timed. Monticello’s house tour is about 42 an adult and a few dollars for children, Mount Vernon similar. Summer slots sell out, so book with the hotel.

Shenandoah is thirty dollars a car and not on the surcharge list. A week’s pass, no international surcharge, and the Blue Ridge Parkway south of it is free.

The beach is free, the parking is not. Virginia Beach sand and the boardwalk cost nothing. Parking near the boardwalk in summer runs real money. A hotel with parking included is worth the difference.

Sales tax at just over five percent. Lower than most states, hotel taxes on top, and tipping at eighteen to twenty in a sit down restaurant.

The history week. Williamsburg as the base, Jamestown and Yorktown as days, Richmond on the way in or out. Three to four hours from Washington by car or train.

The beach week. Virginia Beach for the boardwalk and the water, or across the Bridge Tunnel to Chincoteague for the ponies and the quiet. Make it the week, not the day trip.

The mountain week. Shenandoah with a cabin near Luray, Skyline Drive in sections, Luray Caverns for the rainy day, and Charlottesville with Monticello on the way home.

The long weekend from Washington. Mount Vernon, Old Town Alexandria and a Loudoun County winery with a lawn for the children. This is the trip for a family already in the capital.

Williamsburg needs a plan, not a wander. Pick the trade shops, the fife and drum, the courthouse trial, and the evening ghost walk for the older ones. A full day, with the ticket bought online, and lunch at the Cheese Shop.

Yorktown beats Jamestown under ten. The American Revolution Museum at Yorktown has a camp with cannons you can stand by and a farm. Jamestown Settlement has the ships. Both are better than the archaeological sites for small legs.

Hawksbill is the scramble. The high point of Shenandoah at 4,051 feet, a short steep trail from Skyline Drive and rocks at the top. Old Rag is an all day scramble for teenagers only.

The ponies are at dusk. Chincoteague ponies graze the marsh along Beach Road most evenings. The refuge is ten dollars a car, the beach beside it is wide and empty, and the Pony Swim in late July needs a year’s notice.

Luray Caverns is the rainy day. The biggest cave system in the east, a stalactite organ, and an hour underground at a steady 54 degrees. Twenty minutes from Skyline Drive.

Monticello’s house tour. About 42 dollars an adult, a few dollars for children, and the only way inside Jefferson’s house. Book the first slot of the morning before the heat and the crowd.

A colonial tavern dinner in Williamsburg. The King’s Arms or Christiana Campbell’s, candlelight, peanut soup and a fiddler. Expensive for what it is and the evening the children describe.

A cabin on Skyline Drive. Skyland or Big Meadows lodges inside the park, or a cabin near Luray. Waking up above the valley with deer in the meadow is the mountain week done right.

A Chincoteague pony boat tour. A small boat around Assateague to see the ponies, the eagles and the lighthouse from the water. Cheaper than it sounds and the Eastern Shore afternoon.

Williamsburg is a real town. People live in it, the college is next door, and the interpreters do not break character. There is nowhere else in the country doing this at this scale.

Skyline Drive has a speed limit and it is enforced. 35 miles an hour for 105 miles. Plan a section, not the whole road.

The Bridge Tunnel goes underwater twice. And there is a rest stop on an island in the middle of the bay. Children want to stop.

Virginia Beach water is warm. Swimmable from June to September, warmer than anything north of the Carolinas, and the boardwalk is three miles of bikes and ice cream.

Interstate 95 will ruin a plan. Washington to Richmond is two hours on paper and four on a Friday. The train is the answer.

The train to Williamsburg, or the early drive. Amtrak from Washington beats Interstate 95. Three nights in Williamsburg with the ticket bought online and the Cheese Shop for lunch on day one.

Yorktown and Jamestown as days. The Revolution museum and the camp at Yorktown, the ships at Jamestown Settlement, both on the combination ticket. Back to Williamsburg for the ghost walk.

Richmond on the way north. The Civil War museum at Tredegar, the capitol, and a night in a real city before the mountains.

Two nights in Shenandoah, Monticello on the way home. Skyline Drive in a section, Hawksbill for the scramble, Luray Caverns if it rains, and Jefferson’s house on the last morning. The beach and the ponies are the second trip.

The United States. The country guide this page sits under. Entry rules, driving, tipping and how the other states compare.

Washington, D.C. Two hours from Shenandoah and three from Williamsburg. Free museums, the Mall and Mount Vernon on the way south.

North Carolina. The Outer Banks are two hours south of Virginia Beach, and the Blue Ridge Parkway runs from Shenandoah down into the Smokies.