I am going with my sister to Virginia during the Memorial Day weekend for 5 days. Our favorite is strolling on streets with cute shops and restaurants. Please give us an idea about which cities (and in what order) we should visit and in which cities we should stay for the 5 days. We are not as interested in the historical sites as we are in browsing on cute streets and restaurants. We live in Los Angeles, so huge shopping malls do not interest us when vacationing in Virginia. We are flying into DC Reagan & leaving from Baltimore. Thanks. Paula

Williamsburg, Leesburg or Fredericksburg.

I'm sure there are more but that's the 3 we visited.

Alexandria

Richmond is not a cute town but has fabulous shops including unbelievable consignment shops.

Carytown is a very walkable area with dozens of interesting places to shop and eat, either a meal or goodies. Clothes, slices, jewelry, crafts, you name it.

Grove and Libbie, about two miles away, has a dozen or so women's shop, mostly upscale, and one very colorful men's shop, plus good places to eat at all price levels.

Short Pump is strip mall city, but in a two mike area, you can find everything from REI to Nordstroms.

Alexandria

Alexandria, Richmond (Carytown District) and Culpeper (yes, I said Culpeper).

Janet beat me on Culpeper--I agree.

Winchester, Charlottesville, Staunton (these are smaller than Alexandria or Richmond, though).

I love, love, love Culpeper. We are staying one night there in September before heading to The Inn at Little Washington.

Leesburg, VA, Winchester, VA, Middleburg, VA, Frederick, MD, and Shepherdstown, WV. They're all within an hour and a half or so of each other and are lovely to shop and dine at. Shepherdstown has the Bavarian Inn which would be a nice "base".

I love Staunton, and Leesburg and Mddleburg both qualify as " cute" towns, indeed.

Just wondering if there's any good shopping at Williamsburg....

Boutique or other? I like to stop here for serious shopping:
http://www.premiumoutlets.com/outlets/outlet.asp?id=89

But that isn't cute or boutique.

^^^ Agree, not the sort of shopping the OP was asking about but might fit the bill for Italophile. One of Wmburg's municipal buses stops there so it is accessible w/o a car. Also in Wmbrg is Merchant Square which anchors one end of the restored area -- a nice little collection of mostly one off shops & restaurants.

Thanks both - I like both outlets and boutique shopping

Janet, are you staying overnight at the Inn or elsewhere in town? We had dinner there for our fiftieth anniversary and were so glad we did. Lodging was a bit out of our price range so we stayed at the Gay Street Inn, a pleasant five minute walk away.

We are staying there

Occoquan is also nice -fun shops and restaurants on the water for lunch. Its just south of Alexandria off of route 95.

Downtown Charlottesville was really fun. The street is pedestrian-only and it's just gorgeous in the evenings. There are also a number of cute wineries in the area. My favorite was Barboursville, with Jefferson a close second.

We stayed here: http://www.va-guesthouses.com/cottag...r+Hill+Cottage
It was a 10-minute drive into town. The house was just perfect!

ChristieP, that looks very nice. I'll keep it in mind since we often go up to Cville's for weekend visits. I agree with you about The Jefferson winery.