• Virginia Tourism, Travel and Hotels Guide. Learn Where to Go and What to Do in Virginia. Includes: Alexandria, Appommattox, Charlottesville, Chincoteague, Fredericksburg, Lexington, Norfolk, Richmond, Virginia Beach, Williamsburg and More.
  
  Traveling through the State of VIRGINIA, the oldest, largest and wealthiest of the US colonies and the single most powerful influence on early America, is a nonstop history lesson. Pretty and rural it may be, but it's the past that predominates: wherever you go you are pointed towards this or that painstakingly restored two-hundred year old building, where something or other happened a long time ago. The more you know about it all, the more rewarding Virginia is to visit, but the historical plaques get a bit ridiculous after a while, marking every spot where George Washington slept, Thomas Jefferson thought, or Robert E. Lee tied his horse to a tree. You can see why Disney chose northern Virginia as the site of its proposed theme park of American history a few years back and you will also soon understand that Virginia takes itself a bit too seriously to allow such a project to get off the ground.
  
  The recorded history of Virginia began at Jamestown, just off the Chesapeake Bay, with the establishment in 1607 of the first successful British colony in North America. Though the first colonists hoped to find gold, it was tobacco that made their fortunes. The native strain used for hundreds of years by Virginias indigenous population, of whom almost no trace remains, was too strongly flavored for European tastes. When a smoother, more palatable variety was introduced in 1615 by John Rolfe the same man whose shipwreck on Bermuda inspired Shakespeare's The Tempest, tobacco quickly became the colonys major cash crop. Before long, vast plantations, owned by a very few aristocratic families, sprang up along the many broad rivers that flow into Chesapeake Bay. To grow and harvest tobacco required both an immense amount of land so the Native Americans had to go and intensive labor which led to the plantation owners bringing in slaves from Africa. By the end of the seventeenth century, enslaved African Americans accounted for nearly half of the colony's 76,000 people: a hundred years later, they numbered over 300,000. Virginians had an enormous impact on the foundation of the nascent United States: George Mason, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison wrote the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and four of the first five US presidents were from Virginia. However, by the mid 1800s the state was in decline, its once fertile fields depleted by overuse and its agrarian economy increasingly eclipsed by the urban and industrialized North.
  
  Check Our Lodging Discounts at All Alexandria Hotels, Charlottesville Hotels, Richmond Virginia Hotels and Virginia Beach Hotels. Additionally: Appommattox, Chincoteague, Fredericksburg, Lexington, Norfolk, Williamsburg and More top destinations.
  
  As the confrontation between North and South over slavery and related economic and political issues grew more divisive, Virginia was caught in the middle. Though this slaveholding state initially voted against secession from the Union, it joined the Confederacy when the Civil War broke out, providing its capital, Richmond, and its military leader, Robert E. Lee, who had previously turned down an offer to lead the Union army. Four long years later, Virginia was ravaged, its towns and cities wrecked, its farmlands ruined and most of its youth dead. It has never regained its early prosperity, or its prominence in national affairs.
  
  Richmond itself was largely destroyed in the war: today it is a small city, with some good museums, and is the best starting point for seeing Virginia. The bulk of the colonial sites are concentrated just to the east, in what is known as the Historic Triangle. Here the remains of Jamestown, the original colony, Williamsburg , the restored colonial capital, and Yorktown, site of the final battle of the Revolutionary War, lie within half an hour drive of each other. Another historic center, Thomas Jeffersons Charlottesville, sits at the foot of the gorgeous Blue Ridge Mountains, an hour west of Richmond. An attractive small college town in its own right, its also within easy reach of the natural splendors of Shenandoah National Park and the little towns of the western valleys. Northern Virginia, often visited as a day trip from Washington D.C., features several posh suburbs and a number of restored historic homes, the closest colonial architecture to the capital in Alexandria and Manassas, the scene of two important Civil War battles.
   
• Virginia Beach Tourism
  In both character and geography VIRGINIA BEACH VIRGINIA is about halfway between Marylands huge, frenzied Ocean City and North Carolinas untamed open Outer Bank. Virginias only real summer resort has grown to become the largest city in the state, but takes care to pitch itself as a family destination; among steps to deter the Spring Break crowd, Virginia Beach home to evangelist politician Pat Robertsons Regent College, has enacted anti cruising laws that make it illegal to drive past the same spot twice within three hours. That said, the oceanfront vicinity can be a monument to tackiness, and there are several testosterone filled surfer bars. Fortunately a multimillion dollar program to widen the beach keeps it from getting too sardinelike and the overall lazy atmosphere actually leads some to stay longer than planned.
  
  The City
  The city's focus is its long straight sandy beach, lined with all the usual hotels and motels, and backed by a boardwalk strip of bars, restaurants and nightclubs. The forty-block downtown area is too spread out to walk the length of, but you should find all you need within a smaller radius, as it's fairly homogenous. During the day, the main activities are sunbathing and playing in the waves: Virginia Beach is one of the main east coast surfing centers, hosting the summer-long Billabong competitions. You can rent surf, skim and boogie boards from Wave Riding Vehicles, at 19th and Cypress tel 757 422-8823. Away from the sands, most of the action is along Atlantic Avenue, the main beachfront drag.
  
  High tech interactive exhibits and an IMAX theater combine at the Virginia Marine Museum, 717 General Booth Boulevard (daily: mid-June to early-Sept 9am-9pm rest of year 9am-5pm $9.95, or $14.95 with IMAX show, which features all things aquatic, from submarines to seabirds, and has a pleasant nature trail linking its two main buildings. The museum organizes regular dolphin-watching expeditions in summer $17 reserve a day in advance at 757 437-BOAT.
  
  The eccentric ARE Visitors Center at the headquarters of the Association for Research and Enlightenment, at 67th Street and Atlantic Avenue Mon-Sat 9am-8pm, Sun 11am-8pm free, focuses on Edgar Cayce 1877-1945, a pioneer in hypnotism and ESP, known as the sleeping prophet because of his alleged ability, while in a trance, to diagnose and heal the ailments of individuals anywhere in the world. Visitors can use an enormous metaphysical library, or join "testings" of group ESP daily June-Aug at 1pm free.
  
  Once the people watching on the town beach starts to pall, head a few miles up or down the coast to find some beautiful and much more peaceful stretches of golden sand. To the south lie the four-mile long Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge, where you can walk or fish but not officially swim or sunbathe, and False Cape State Park. Closer at hand to the north, the thick woodlands of First Landing State Park was the site at which the first English settlers touched land in 1607 before moving on to Jamestown: it is now popular with weekend boaters and cyclists, and has a beach on Chesapeake Bay. Several adventure organizations such as Sandbridge Eco Sports, 577 Sandbridge Rd tel 757 721-6210 or 1-800 695-4212, run kayaking and dolphin watching expeditions in the area.
  
  Virginia Tourism and Hotels Guides
  VIRGINIA TOURISM VIRGINIA BEACH HOTELS WILLIAMSBURG HOTELS WILLIAMSBURG HOSPITALITY HOUSE FOUR POINTS HOTEL WILLIAMSBURG GREENSPRINGS PLANTATION HAMPTON INN KINGS CREEK PLANTATION LA QUINTA INN WILLIAMSBURG MARRIOTT MANOR CLUB POWHATAN PLANTATION WILLIAMSBURG QUALITY SUITES RADISSON FORT MAGRUDER RAMADA INN 1776 WILLIAMSBURG RAMADA LIMITED WILLIAMSBURG RAMADA SUITES HOTEL SUPER 8 MOTEL SUPER 8 POTTERY TRAVELODGE WILLIAMSBURG WILLIAMSBURG COURTYARD WESTGATE HISTORIC WILLIAMSBURG WILLIAMSBURG MARRIOTT

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