8 Virginia Summer Trips That Let Tourists Down
Have you ever driven three hours for a view that took four minutes?
Virginia tourists do it every summer.
Some of the Commonwealth’s most famous stops earn their hype. A few don’t.
These are the Virginia summer trips that let tourists down.
1. Busch Gardens Williamsburg
Busch Gardens wins awards for its landscaping, and the gardens deserve them.
The July experience is a different story.
Even the current sale price runs $59.99 for a single day before taxes and fees, and parking costs extra.
Summer crowds can stretch the popular coaster lines past an hour, and skipping those lines costs extra through the park’s Quick Queue pass.
Water Country USA next door runs on the same summer math.
So a family of four spends a few hundred dollars to stand on hot pavement between rides.
Locals ride the same coasters in October, when the lines shrink and the pavement cools off.
2. Natural Bridge
The rock arch is grand, no argument there.
But the whole show is one view.
Adults pay $9 each, kids 3 to 12 pay $6, and everyone walks down a path, looks up, takes the photo, and checks their watches.
Twenty minutes covers it for most visitors.
Tourists who build a whole day around Natural Bridge end up browsing the gift shop for the second time by noon.
Treat the arch as a stretch break off I-81, not a destination, and it earns its spot on your itinerary.
Psst! Think you know Virginia better than tourists do? Take our quiz and see how many you can get right.
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Old Dominion Trivia
Answer these questions on Virginia history and landmarks. We bet at least two will trip you up. Prove us wrong?
3. Historic Jamestowne
There are two Jamestowns, and tourists mix them up every single day.
Historic Jamestowne is the real 1607 site, an active archaeological dig with original foundations.
Jamestown Settlement, just down the road, is a separate living-history museum with recreated ships and a fort, and National Park passes aren't honored there.
Families park at one expecting the other, pay twice, or leave grumbling.
Kids who came for ships get shade-free ruins in July heat.
Know which Jamestown you want before you drive, and the day works.
Combination tickets also bundle Jamestown Settlement with the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown, which softens the double-entry sting.
4. Mount Vernon
George Washington's estate deserves every visitor it gets.
It just doesn't deserve them all at once.
Tour buses roll in from the whole D.C. area all summer, and the mansion tour moves as a slow, timed line through small rooms.
Wait on the lawn long enough, and the Potomac breeze stops feeling like a perk.
Tourists who show up at midday in July spend more time in lines than in history.
Book the earliest tour of the morning, walk the gardens before the heat builds, and save the museum galleries for the hot hours.
Buying tickets online a few days ahead also trims $2 off admission.
5. Devil's Bathtub
Social media turned this Scott County swimming hole into a bucket-list stop, and the photos do look unreal.
Here's what the photos skip.
The pool itself is small, the hike in crosses the same creek over and over, and the water stays mountain-cold in July.
Years of overflow parking problems pushed the county to build the main parking area about a mile from the trailhead, which adds a road walk before the trail even starts.
The new county parking area at least has restrooms and room for about 60 cars.
Arrive on a summer Saturday, and a line of strangers waits to take the same photo you came for.
Go on a weekday morning or don't go at all.
6. Smith Mountain Lake
Smith Mountain Lake looks enormous on the map, and it is.
What the map doesn't show: Most of the shoreline sits behind private docks and vacation homes.
Day-trippers without a boat funnel into the state park's public beach on the Bedford County side, a community park in Franklin County, and a handful of boat ramps.
On a July Saturday, that beach fills early.
The state park has offered the lake's public swimming beach since it opened in 1983, and demand has only grown since.
Tourists expecting a wide-open public playground find a lake best enjoyed by people who rented a pontoon boat or a dock of their own.
Reserve the boat first, then come.
7. Crabtree Falls
Crabtree Falls draws crowds with a series of cascades tumbling down the Blue Ridge in Nelson County.
The cascades deliver.
The surprise is the trip itself because many tourists arrive expecting an easy roadside splash stop.
The trail is a steep, sweaty climb, and the wet rocks near the water are far more dangerous than they look.
Trailhead signs note that more than 20 people have died after leaving the path to climb on them.
Stay behind the railings, treat the hike as a hike, and the falls reward the effort.
Come in flip-flops expecting a swimming hole, and Crabtree Falls disappoints you at best.
8. Great Dismal Swamp
Curious road-trippers pull off Route 17 all summer just to see whether the swamp earns its name.
July is the wrong month to answer the call.
Summer in the refuge means heavy heat, thick humidity, mosquitoes, and biting yellow flies that ignore most repellent.
Visit in spring or fall instead, when migrating birds fill the trees around Lake Drummond and the bugs back off.
In July, the Great Dismal Swamp lives up to the second half of its name.
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