Start from 36 curated places around Alexandria, VA, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
Vermilion
Old Town's farm-driven New American anchor, led by Chef Anthony Chittum, with a deep commitment to Mid-Atlantic watershed producers. The menu shifts with the seasons — some combination of Chesapeake oysters, VA heritage pork, and whatever's perfect from local farms, served in a warm room on King Street. Consistently voted the best restaurant in Alexandria.
Virtue Feed & Grain
An 1800s feed house on the waterfront converted into a warm American tavern — exposed brick, big windows over the Potomac, scratch-made cocktails, and a menu of refined pub fare. It's one of the best-looking rooms in Old Town and the kitchen holds up its end. The burger and the oysters are the right call at the bar.
Trails & outdoors
Mount Vernon Trail
An 18-mile paved multi-use path along the Potomac River connecting George Washington's Mount Vernon estate to Theodore Roosevelt Island — one of the most scenic urban trails in the Mid-Atlantic. About 5.6 miles of the trail pass through Alexandria, with the Old Town waterfront section being the most beautiful stretch.
Huntley Meadows Wetland Trail
A 2.8-mile loop through the largest Fairfax County park — the half-mile boardwalk section through the beaver-created wetland is the crown jewel, passing over open water where herons, kingfishers, and river otters are regulars. The surrounding upland forest adds red-tailed hawks and deer to the wildlife list.
Things to do
The Birchmere Music Hall
A 500-seat listening room in Alexandria that has hosted everyone from Emmylou Harris to Jerry Seinfeld since 1966 — one of the most respected mid-size music venues on the East Coast. The sight lines and acoustics are exceptional, the booking is eclectic (Americana, bluegrass, jazz, comedy), and tickets reliably sell out.
Alexandria Black History Museum
Housed in the Roberts Memorial Library, which was built in 1939 as Alexandria's segregation-era library for Black residents — the same building where the 1939 Alexandria Library sit-in took place, one of the earliest civil rights actions in the country. A small museum with an outsized story.
Landmarks & sights
Torpedo Factory Art Center
A former WWII naval munitions plant on the Old Town waterfront that now houses 82 working artists' studios and 10 galleries — the largest concentration of publicly accessible artist studios under one roof in the country. Walk the three floors and watch painters, ceramicists, printmakers, and jewelers at work; most artists are happy to talk about their process.
Gadsby's Tavern Museum
Two-building tavern and inn complex from the 1770s and 1793 that served as the social center of colonial Alexandria — George and Martha Washington celebrated his birthday here, and the first five presidents all passed through. The preserved ice well beneath the building is one of the earliest commercial refrigeration systems in America.