Best Road Trip Routes in Virginia

Virginia's road trips span some of the most historically rich and scenically dramatic corridors in the eastern US.

Skyline Drive and Blue Ridge Parkway
The defining Virginia drive — Skyline Drive (105 miles, through Shenandoah NP from Front Royal to Rockfish Gap) continues as the Blue Ridge Parkway (469 miles to Cherokee, NC). The full Virginia stretch of the Parkway runs an additional 217 miles south from Rockfish Gap to the North Carolina border. The combined 322 miles of Virginia's two scenic drives follows the Blue Ridge crest with overlooks every few miles. Drive north-to-south; begin at Front Royal for the Shenandoah Valley views and finish near Roanoke's McAfee Knob trailhead.

Colonial Triangle (Williamsburg-Jamestown-Yorktown)
The Colonial Parkway connects the three sites of the Historic Triangle in a 23-mile scenic road through tidal forest. Jamestown → Colonial Williamsburg → Yorktown takes 2–3 days with thorough exploration. The drive between sites on the parkway (no commercial traffic, no billboards) passes through a landscape that gives a sense of the 17th–18th-century Virginia Tidewater.

Shenandoah Valley Civil War Trail
US-11 through the Shenandoah Valley — from Winchester (Confederate White House, Stonewall Jackson's headquarters) south through Woodstock, Harrisonburg, and Staunton (Woodrow Wilson's birthplace), to New Market (site of the Battle of New Market, 1864 — where VMI cadets as young as 15 fought in battle). Continue to Lexington (Robert E. Lee's grave at the Lee Chapel, Stonewall Jackson House, the VMI Museum). A 3-day exploration of the most important Civil War valley in the eastern theater.

Southwest Virginia Heritage Loop
From Roanoke south via the Blue Ridge Parkway to the Meadows of Dan, then through Floyd (the Friday Night Jamboree — the oldest continuously running old-time music event in Virginia), Galax (the Old Fiddlers' Convention), Abingdon (Barter Theatre — Virginia's state theater, founded 1933), and Damascus. The Virginia Creeper Trail connects Damascus to Abingdon via rail trail.