Historic Garden Week 2008 - Your comments on our plan?

My husband and I attending the Virginia Historic Garden Week this year in April. We have never been before. We got the guide book from the garden tour web site and now have put together a plan. I wonder if anyone has any comments or suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

Sat 4/19 Richmond (ON OWN)

-Arrive late afternoon via JetBlue Richmond Airport.

-Hotel: Fairfield Inn Marriott Richmond

Sun 4/20 Charlottesville (VA GARDEN TOUR)

-Visit nearby Charlottesville (1hr drive west from hotel)

-GREENWOOD COUNTRY HOMES AND GARDENS (5 Gardens) Garden Tour: 1 to 6 p.m.

-Monticello, Thomas Jefferson%26#39;s house (open daily 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.)

possible for morning visit.

-Hotel: Fairfield Inn Marriott Richmond

Mon 4/21 Richmond (ON OWN)

-Visit historic sites of Richmond including Confederate White House and Museum. Other suggestions?

-Drive to Williamsburg late afternoon and check into hotel.

Hotel: Williamsburg Hospitality House

Tue 4/22 Williamsburg (VA GARDEN TOUR)

-Williamsburg Garden Tour: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Hotel: Williamsburg Hospitality House

Wed 4/23 Williamsburg / Jamestown (ON OWN)

-On our own tour of Williamsburg and Jamestown.

-Visit to the Williamsburg Pottery store. Is this

worth it? seen many recent bad reviews.

Hotel: Williamsburg Hospitalility House

Thu 4/24 James River Plantations (ON OWN)

-Visit a couple of the planations and houses

from the list below (3 or 4?)

TUCKAHOE PLANTATION, SHIRLEY PLANTATION, BERKELEY, WESTOVER, BRANDON PLANTATION, WESTON MANOR, etc.

Hotel: Williamsburg Hospitalility House

Fri 4/25 Middlesex County (VA GARDEN TOUR)

MIDDLE PENINSULA “Times and Tides” Middlesex County Garden Tour: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m

Lodging B%26amp;B: Atherston Hall B%26amp;B Urbanna, VA

Sat 4/26 Richmond (ON OWN)

-Visit Brent %26amp; Becky%26#39;s Bulbs Gloucester, VA after

checking out of B%26amp;B in Urbanna, VA.

-Visit Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens Richmond VA.

-Flight home in late afternoon (5:30 PM)

Historic Garden Week 2008 - Your comments on our plan?

That looks like a full week.

When visiting Charlottesville, you might want to reserve your Monticello house tour in advance. A good place to eat nearby is Michie Tavern.

In Richmond, since you%26#39;re here for Garden Week, you may want to visit Maymont. There is an Edgar Allan Poe Museum in Richmond that I enjoyed. The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts has a fine exhibit of Faberge eggs.

On to Williamsburg. I don%26#39;t think the Pottery is worth a visit, but if you enjoy shopping, you may like it.

Probably 3 plantations will fill your day. Although I haven%26#39;t visited it yet, I%26#39;ve heard good things about the Charles City Tavern. Here%26#39;s a link to an article about it: www.styleweekly.com/article.asp… It would be a convenient lunch choice between plantations.

You%26#39;ll have a great time!

Historic Garden Week 2008 - Your comments on our plan?

While in C%26#39;vile, visit IVY GARDENs off Rt. 250,

SKIP Williamsburg Pottery - use your time at the plantations -(I lived in W%26#39;burg, trust me)--

Shirley, Berkely, Westover, great plantations to visit and a lovely drive on Rt. 5. (Tuckahoe is not on Rt. 5, it is on the other side of Richmond in the far west end) Stay on the Rt. 5 plantations unless you have plenty of time.

In Richmond take time to visit LEWIS GINTER GARDENS - you will love it; HUGE gardens, exhibits, much to see, and a lovely oriental tea house for lunch or just tea (North side of Richmond, Lakeside area, just ask for directions)

I now live in Richmond..drive down MONUMNENT AVE. just to see the old brick street of 4 lanes, beautiful grand homes, and lots of flowering cherries, azaleas,etc.

If you have time in Richmond, stroll through CARYTOWN, an 8 block long street full of boutique shops and cafes, great people watching..Richmond%26#39;s version of a New York ';village.';

While in Gloucester (B%26amp;Beckys is great),

eat at RIVERS INN on Saras Creek - full of sailboats, water views and great food. Drive across the bridge to Yorktown - beautiful and historical on the way to Williamsburg. Drive to W%26#39;burg on Colonial Parkway..Beautiful drive

If you have time in Richmond to to the VIRGINIA MUSEUM on the Boulevard...they are having a great Impressionist showing - and the museum itself is worth a tour.

Hope this helps. Have a great time in Virginia!

G.

You will have a wonderful vist; welcome to Virginia and enjoy the beauty.

Thanks Zoey1996!

After looking at the Monticello site,

great suggestion to reserve the house tour in advance. Seems like a popular tour and since

we have limited time in the morning before

the Charlottesville tour is a good idea to get

the time we want.

Also great ideas for Richmond. I hope we have

time for it all... I think we will be back

again to Historic Garden week as there is so much

to see and do and we can%26#39;t possibly fit it in this

week. When we come again most likely will fly into

Richmond. So sure to be another chance to see

Richmond%26#39;s sites.

So I think we will skip the Pottery store. Do you

have a suggestion of where to buy a Christmas ornament? We are not big shoppers but do enjoy

picking up an ornament on all our trips.

Also great suggestions of the Ivy Gardens.

Found the web site. Love to pop into garden centers even though it would be difficult to buy things and

transport home. Fun to window shop!

Yes I did hear that Tuckahoe is out of the way.

Great to hear what plantations people liked. Also thanks for the lunch recommendation. It sounds great!

Thanks Gracieva!

We are definitely looking forward to the Lewis Ginter gardens. How long would you recommend taking to tour the gardens? We basically have the whole day

before our flight leaves (around 5:30PM) other than

stopping at Brent and Beckys on the way to the gardens. I just found out that B%26amp;B%26#39;s doesn%26#39;t open until 10 AM then will have to drive to the Ginter Gardens from B%26amp;B. So not sure if enough time to go to B%26amp;B beforehand? So should we go directly to the Ginter gardens and save B%26amp;B for the previous day?

So Richmond sounds lovely. I%26#39;ve noted your suggestions. How is the driving in Richmond? We saw that the parking is tight over near the Confederate White house and that people recommend parking at a

garage and taking a shuttle bus. Do you have more details about the bus? Is is it a public bus that we take or one of those tourist buses?

So I found the web site for the restaurant. Looks very nice! Love that you can see the menus.

So do you have any recommendations for Richmond

restaurants? Need to do more research

on TripAdvisor on restaurants.

Thanks to both!

Glad to be of help! %26gt;%26gt;%26gt;Do you have a suggestion of where to buy a Christmas ornament?%26lt;%26lt;%26lt;

Yes! The Christmas Shop in Merchants Square, Williamsburg, has a large selection of nice ornaments, including ones localized (says, ';Williamsburg'; on them, or representative of something in Williamsburg). I, too, like to purchase Christmas ornaments as souvenirs when I travel. My ';Boston'; one goes on my tree every year!

Gracieva forgot to mention the monuments on Monument Avenue. Most are Southern War heroes, but there is also one of the tennis great Arthur Ashe.

Another Richmond sight is the church, St. John%26#39;s, in which Patrick Henry gave his famous ';Give me Liberty or give me death'; speech.

You%26#39;ll have a wonderful time. People come from all over the world and all over the country, dedicating their vacation days to Historic Garden Week in Va.

Since it%26#39;s just the two of you, you can amble and spend hours upon hours on just one day%26#39;s tour (Charlottesville%26#39;s is over several days) or you can walk quickly through, where you are able to, those parts you choose to, being polite in true Southern fashion and excusing yourself...because the lines can be long and everyone wants to ooh and aah.

Enjoy!

The owners of Charles City Tavern had a wonderful restaurant in Richmond but lost their lease, so we lost them to Charles City. Their gain and yours, so try to get by.

If you are going to the Hampton gardens, Windsor Farms Tours in RIchmond, there are lots of cafes in Carytown...go east on Cary Street Road and you cannot miss it. Full of shops and also a great Xmas store for an ornament. Going west on Cary street (which is on the route of the garden tour) is River Rd Shopping Center with a good Italian Restaurant (great people watching) and Mosaic Cafe.

I am not sure how you should plan your B%26amp;B with Ginter - its rather large and has a nice shop and teahouse which could consume at least an hour, and an hour of walking through the gardens at least.

Have a great time!

Gracie

PS. I meant to add when you are on the brick Monument avenue, you will indeed see beautiful momements to Civil War leaders (and Arthur Ashe) hence; the name - Monument Avenue.

There really is a lot to see and do in Richmond if you are a history buff and love gardens and homes.

Wow thanks everyone for all the ideas to make a memorable trip! I have copied and pasted the info from this thread into my trip notes and hope we can use all the great ideas here.

And Explorer3 you should know that the local Boston newspaper (';Boston Globe';) frequently runs an article in the travel section on the VA Garden week so it has gotten a lot of press up our way. That is how I found out about the tours so they are getting the word out about it!