College tour VA to Raliegh, help?

We just did a similar tour and had a great time. We based ourselves in Williamsburg the first night, which is so charming and historic. Had a delicious dinner at Le Yaca--highly recommend it. Don't miss Christopher Newport University in Newport News. It's often overlooked and both of my nieces liked it the best of all the schools they've visited so far, including William and Mary, University of Richmond, U of VA, W and L, Lynchburg College, Roanoke College, Randolph College (formerly Randolph-Macon), Sweetbriar, and Va Tech. They also like Hollins University, which is near Roanoke (it's a women's college). Enjoy your trip!

While I can't answer your question, a couple of suggestions, having done a similar trip a year ago at this time with our daughter.

Rent a GPS with the car unless you have one and are bringing it. While it is certainly possible to get directions on-line, a GPS allows you to drive around the area around a college without worrying about getting lost - you can then get re-routed to college.

Second. It is going to be hot - I about dies walking around several lovely but spread out campuses. And you will end up seeing more dorm rooms, classrooms, libraries and laundry rooms (not sure why they always showed that, but they did) than you ever wanted to see.

I don't know whether I would try to fit VA Beach in with all of that. Are you planning on taking tours at all these colleges or are some going to be on your own? A lot of colleges do not offer Sat. tours so that could affect your itinerary.

I can tell you that W&M will be 1/2 hr from Newport News, UofR will be 1 hr from W&M, and UVA will be 1 hr from UofR. I have never been to W&L.

Duke will be 1/2 hr, at the most, from Chapel Hill. Guilford, I think is 3/4-1 hr from UNC. That area is about 3 1/2-4 hrs from Williamsburg.

When you are coming up I85 and I95 from NC to Newport News, the easiest route takes you almost to Richmond before you cross the river to I64. Keep that in mind when you are figuring out the order of colleges.

Have you looked closely at Guilford? While it has some really admirable attributes, it isn't in the same competitive class as the others on your list. You might want to look at Elon which is close to Guilford and very popular with the kids in our area.


AAA has a great college trip planner on their website. You have to click on the pulldown for locations to find it.

I agree w/ Birdie...How are you going to visit all of these schools in such a short time unless you just plan a drive through? Most colleges have a 1 hr info session plus 1 hr tour plus another hr to visit the bookstore/cafeteria at the minimum. Figure in lunch and you might be able to squeeze in 2/day, but I think after a couple of days you and your child will be dazed and everything look alike.

Assuming you are arriving on Wednesday, drive to Chapel Hill that night (probably 3 1/2 hrs) for a Thursday AM tour and Duke in the afternoon. Drive to Charlottesville or Lexington to spend the night (don't know how far) for a Friday AM tour of either UVA or Washington & Lee and the other in the afternoon. Drive to VA. Beach for Sat/Sun which will be 3 hrs from C'ville and 4 from Lexington at least but you will probably be driving late and miss lots of traffic. Recover and drive to Richmond (2 hrs) for Univ. of Richmond on Monday. Return to Williamsburg for the nt (1 hr) to visit W&M Tuesday AM and maybe Christopher Newport in the afternoon. I'm exhausted just typing this!

Good suggestion of GPS and AAA help and I recommend a notebook to write down all the info you hear at the sessions otherwise you won't be able to keep the schools apart. Wonder if you really want to try to visit all these schools in such a short time but good luck!

I would not try to do Virginia Beach....it isn't that nice and it's going to most likely throw your schedule into a tailspin.

Washington and Lee is in Lexington, about an hour or so further west than UVA in Charlottesville. UVA is an hour+ from Richmond and UofR, as someone else said, and Richmond is an hour west of William and Mary. I'd advise at least a couple of days for that leg of the trip.

Also keep in mind, you would want (I would think) to see a little of the town those schools are in. I went to UVA; I can tell you the town is fun, it's arty and there are lots of things to do. Lots of restaurants on the Corner, right near the Lawn, and downtown (check out the Downtown Mall). UVA has a good student bus system as well.

The University of Richmond is pretty preppy, it's not located directly in town, you'd need a car to get from it to areas with restaurants/nightlife, etc. But it's a pretty campus, and it's not that isolated, it's just not walking distance. In Richmond, check out Carytown for bars/restaurants/shopping.

Washington and Lee is also a small, pretty campus with a preppy reputation. Lexington is a cute, small town. VMI is also located there.

William and Mary is sort of like UVA in that the town is right slap up on it.

Thanks for all the help, can anyone tell mo about Richmond. I like the idea that it is an artsy town. Where should we stay if we are visiting U Richmond and UVA? What should we see in this town?

In Richmond, I would definitely go to Carytown for shopping and possibly dinner. The college kids hang out at bars and restaurants in the Fan District a lot (my own daughter lives there).

What are you intersted in seeing, eating, drinking <g>, etc. in Richmond? Unfortunately there aren't a lot of hotels near U of R. There is a Sheraton on Broad that would be the closest and a Courtyard Marriot just East of it at Broad and Horsepen.

I'm pretty sure Hellion was referring to Charlottesville as an artsy town. It's a great college town.

Richmond has some good arts influences as well, but of course it's a much larger metropolitan area. Carytown has already been mentioned, and is a fun place to spend a couple of hours. VCU (Virginia Commonwealth University), closer to downtown, has a phenomenal arts program, which is leading to somewhat of a renaissance in that area of town. Richmond also has a lot of Civil War history, and many neighborhoods with different flavors and feels.

U or R is in a very nice, older suburban area to the west of downtown. The campus is an intimate enclave within that area -- very pretty, although not an urban or artsy feel. My wife is a UR grad and liked it very much, and most grads seem to have had good experiences there. (UVA and W&M grads also seem to be very loyal.)

Hope that's helpful.

My wife is a UR grad and liked it very much, and most grads seem to have had good experiences there. (UVA and W&M grads also seem to be very loyal.)
___
I will see you and raise you Hokie fans <g>.

So true. All that orange and maroon garb certainly isn't about fashion! (Apologies if you're a hokie....)

OK, so Charlottesville is the cute artsy town. We are from Boston so really want to get a sense of the area. We don't need to do the historical tours and of course need to find places to stay. We fly in to Newport News attempting to see William and Mary and U of R, should we go back to Williamsburg? And what about good food there?

I live between Williamsburg and Richmond and work in Richmond, have some definite suggestions. I recommend you take I-64 to Newport News - Williamsburg - Richmond - Charlottesville - then west to I-81 and go south to Lexington to W&L. From Lexington you can head south - on 29 maybe - to North Carolina. To drive straight from Newport News to Richmond would be about 1 hour, to Charlottesville another hour, to Lexington two hours more, then maybe 3 or more hours drive to NC.

Do you like barbecue? Pierce's PItt Cooked BBQ is on outskirts of Williamsburg on 447 East Rochambeau, www.pierces.com. The owner's home next door was just burned (arson) but restaurant is up and running and terrific! Buz and Ned's BBQ in Richmond BEAT Bobby Flay in a throw-down show on Food Network, 1119 North Boulevard, www.buzandneds.com. Neither of these places are fancy but food is great!

I agree with poster who mentioned Christopher Newport, good school that a friend's son goes to and really likes.

Richmond: UofR has lovely campus and is a happy place with new president. My cousin graduated from there, enjoyed his time there. U of R is on west side of city, come back east to Carytown area, take in a cheap movie in evening at historic Byrd Theatre, www.byrdtheatre.com

VCU has one of best advertising programs in US, has medical/ dental/ nursing/ pharmacy programs and more! VCU has many international partnerships also if you are interested in travel. And great basketball team! I got my BS and MS from VCU, can you tell?

Did you know Richmond is the only city in US with Class 4 rapids in middle of downtown? The James River splits the city, VCU is to the north, and the James River Park System is a short walk from VCU's Monroe Park Campus. www.jamesriverpark.org You can go on a guided rafting trip, rent a kayak or canoe, just take a walk and see eagles, osprey, blue herons, lots of birds! You can walk from near the Tredegar Iron Works and Civil War Center www.tredegar.org over a pedestrian bridge to Belle Island and really see the city from a different vantage point.

Just about 30 to 45 min north of Richmond on I-95 is small town of Ashland and Randolph-Macon College. www.rmc.edu Lovely small town, gorgeous campus, big enough for lots of opportunities and small enough for individualized attention and small classes. I know several folks who go there and LOVE it, check it out.

UVA - my neighbor's son goes there and loves it. He likes political science and has taken classes with Larry Sabato (he comments for CNN). LOTS of history, you might think Mr. Jefferson himself will come walking around the corner. Also big new arena, football and basketball are really big.

Hope this helps some. Have a fun trip!

One more thing - considering where you want to go, maybe stay in Richmond one night, then Charlottesville or further west, then Lexington and then down to NC. Depends on how far and how fast you are going every day. There is plenty of availability right now, I recommend you check out area, pick up one of those hotel travel discount mags at visitor center or airport, and just stop as you go. Linden Row Inn near VCU in Richmond, The Jefferson is excellent but expensive (who knows you might get a deal!), Embassy Suites and Sheraton are fine. West of Charlottesville the Inn at Afton is older but great view, Holiday Inn Express at Waynesboro is fairly new and nice.

My sister and her family live in Richmond and we stay at the Jefferson whenever we visit (about 8 times a year). If you call and ask what specials they are running, we have gotten beautiful rooms for as low as $135 a night, depending on the availability. I think the most we've paid is $235 at Christmas. We tried the Berkeley recently, which is another boutique hotel downtown, and hated it. The rooms got damaged in the flood a year or two ago and they are very musty and dark.

Carytown is wonderful for shopping and dining and people watching. We love Shockoe Slip as well. Some of our favorite restaurants: La Grotta; Bookbinders; 3 Monkeys; Osaka. The Jefferson offers complimentary transportation within a certain radius, so we usually park our car and just let them take us to the restaurant.

You can't miss VCU, it's campus is all over downtown Richmond and beyond. Very impressive new building program.

Richmond has great restaurants...what food, price range, etc., atmosphere, etc. are you looking for and what time of day and time of the week are you hoping to be here. I have a food blog that covers many of the good places in Richmond to eat. It's richmondfoodforthought.blogspot.com

I also recommend staying at The Jefferson if at all possible. And one of Richmond's better restaurants, Comfort, is only a couple of blocks away.

Others have given great advice on how to plan the driving portion of the trip. In NC, Durham (Duke) and Chapel Hill (UNC) are not that far apart so I'd schedule those schools in order. If you are going to visit schools in Raleigh, I do those on a different day.

The NC schools are pretty spread out so you need at least 1/2 day to see them.

When you head back to Newport News be warned Emporia, VA (where 58 and I-95 meet) is a big speed trap.