Virginia

Known as the gateway to the south, Virginia is home to 7,386,330 inhabitants and is located midway between the eastern seaboard states of New York and Florida. Virginia – a commonwealth, not a state – is bordered by District of Columbia and Maryland to the north, North Carolina and Tennessee to the south, West Virginia and Kentucky to the west, and the Atlantic to the east. Its location means it has 4 seasons, but its summers tend to be hot and humid (except in the mountains) and winters tend to be mild and wet but with little snow except at higher elevations.

It is a land of mountains in the west (the Allegheny range of the Appalachians and the Blue Ridge Mountains, which run parallel and are divided by the famous Shenandoah Valley), a hilly central region, and a flatter, sandy coastal plain. To a book-loving, horse-loving, grade-school girl (me), its coastal island of Chincoteague (and Assateague, which is in Maryland) were well-known as the home of the wild ponies, Misty and Stormy, and Pony Penning Day, made famous in the children's books by Marguerite Henry.

Virginia is also a land of history: named after Elizabeth I of England, the Virgin Queen, Virginia is the site of Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in America, and is one of the original 13 American colonies. (It's not surprising then, that Virginia is also known as the Old Dominion.) The state was home to famous figures of American Revolutionary War history such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, and James Madison. And its Yorktown was the location of British General Cornwallis' surrender to Washington. Virginia, a slave-holding state, joined the Confederacy during the Civil War, and its capital, Richmond, became the capital of the Confederacy. The state was the scene of important battles, such as Manassas and Fredericksburg.

With all this history, it is a great place to be a tourist, particularly if one has any interest in American history. You can see colonial architecture, visit museums and historic sites, and experience living history reenactment at locations such as colonial Williamsburg. In the north, the DC suburbs of Alexandria and Arlington also have sites of national significance, such as Arlington National Cemetery, Fredericksburg National Battlefield Parks, and George Washington's former estate, Mount Vernon.

Do you confess that you're not really interested in history? It may interest you to know that their tourism slogan, which has been around since 1969, is the provocative "Virginia is for Lovers" – which is a catchy, all-encompassing version of the originally suggested longer, site-specific slogans, "Virginia is for mountain lovers," "Virginia is for beach lovers," etc. So you can also visit parks or the seashore, and hike, bike, horseback ride, nature-watch, beach comb, sail, swim, to your heart's content.

If you are interested in cultural pursuits, the DC suburbs are a short ride from the amenities of the capitol. Throughout the state, there are options to please a wide variety of tastes – art and folk art museums, professional theatrical companies (plus dinner theatres and Shakespeare festivals), opera companies, ballet companies, and orchestras.

So long as you're a lover of something, you'll do just fine in Virginia.

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