Virginia attractions

The second-oldest craft brewery in Virginia—and still independently owned and operated today—Starr Hill Brewery has been a leading beer pioneer since its founding in 1999. From its current headquarters near the Blue Ridge Mountains, it produces an eclectic range of award-winning ales and lagers, and its taproom is a destination for local and visiting beer lovers.

Located in the heart of Virginia Wine Country, near Charlottesville, the family-owned Keswick Vineyards has drawn connoisseurs with its award-winning wines for over 20 years. After planting its first vines in 1999, the winery now produces red, white, and rosé wines (as well as limited-edition sparkling and dessert wine releases), which visitors can savor in its tasting room.

Founded in 1934, the Little Theatre of Alexandria has hosted hundreds of popular productions and welcomed notable figures such as Presidents Harry S. Truman and George W. Bush as audience members. In addition to an ambitious yearly show schedule, the 90-year-old community theater also offers performing arts classes for all ages and a summer camp program for kids.

Home to the Northern Virginia Fine Arts Association (NVFAA), the Athenaeum in Alexandria serves as a gallery, performance space, and rental venue. The neoclassical Greek Revival building features 24-foot-high (7.3-meter) coved ceilings, enormous windows, ornate woodwork, and four towering Doric columns on the outside. Once a bank, factory, and church, the building is one of two surviving examples of this style of architecture in Old Town.

Travelers interested in architecture and history can visit two distinct landmarks at this site in Alexandria, Virginia. The 126-acre (51-hectare) wooded grounds are the setting for two homes overseen by the National Trust for Historic Preservation: early-19th-century Woodlawn, a plantation worked by enslaved people that became a free labor colony under Quaker ownership, and celebrated architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1940s Pope-Leighey House.