Kick-It Picks Things to Do in Virginia
The stops worth the drive — and the truth about the ones that aren't.
Virginia is where America started, for better and for worse, and it never lets you forget either half. This is the ground where the first permanent English colony took hold at Jamestown in 1607, where the first enslaved Africans were landed in 1619, where four of the first five presidents built their homes, and where the Civil War finally ended at Appomattox. It's also flat-out beautiful: Shenandoah National Park and Skyline Drive, the Blue Ridge Parkway, caverns full of stone organs, the Chesapeake heaping the table with oysters and crabs, and wild ponies on the Eastern Shore. These are the picks worth driving the whole long history of it — mountains to the capital to the sea.
Regions: Mountains · Piedmont · Coast
Everything below is a Kick-It Pick — the entries we’d grab you by the collar for. Each one is pulled from Kick the Bucket List: Virginia, our 120-stop field guide, and each carries a blunt Bucket Rating so you know what’s non-negotiable and what to skip. Prices and hours drift; we stamp every page with the date we checked it and fix what changes.
The Big Ten
Drive the Blue Ridge Crest
Non-negotiableWalk Into the 18th Century
Non-negotiableDrive America's Favorite Road
Non-negotiableMeet the Wild Ponies
Non-negotiableHear the Cavern Sing
Worth the driveThe Great Outdoors
Oddities
Eats
Eat a Cone From the Original Machine
Non-negotiableSqueeze Into the Millionaires Club
Worth the driveEat the Salt-Cured Ham
Non-negotiablePick a Dozen Blue Crabs
Non-negotiableDrink Jefferson's Dream, Finally Realized
Worth the driveRoad Trips
Small Towns
Month by Month
Locals-Only
Get all 120 in Kick the Bucket List: Virginia
These are the marquee Kick-It Picks. The book has 120 — adventures, eats, road trips, and the small towns worth the detour — each with a checkbox, a date line, and a Bucket Rating. Fill it in. Score yourself.
See the Virginia book →