Things to do in Charlottesville and Monticello

5 hours south-west of Washington by car, built around Thomas Jefferson's University of Virginia and its lawn of neoclassical pavilions. The main draw is Monticello, Jefferson's hilltop plantation home a few minutes outside town, where the house itself is a timed, guided visit rather than a walk-in stop, so plan the trip before you arrive rather than showing up without a slot.

The historic Downtown Mall, a pedestrian brick corridor of shops and restaurants, gives the town its evening life once the house museums close. This is a stop for architecture, history and small-city atmosphere, not for the mountain trails and caverns found elsewhere in the Shenandoah and Blue Ridge region, which makes it workable either as a long day trip from DC or as a stopover heading toward Shenandoah or further south.