Published: August, 2025
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College Tour: Charlottesville & UVA, Virginia

— Courtney Leary
  • More about your Oliver Guide:
  • Trip type: Adult, Family, Group getaway, Solo
  • Activity level: easy
  • Ideal length of trip: Two to four days.

to & from

Charlottesville is not easy to get to — from most places you will need to take a connecting flight or drive from Richmond or Dulles. Richmond is about 1 hr 20 minutes and Dulles is 2 to 3 hours depending on traffic.

Where to Stay

  • The Forum Hotel by Kimpton on campus is our favorite hotel so far for visiting UVA. It’s a newer hotel with great beds, a bar, two restaurants and is right on campus. It is about 1.5 miles from central campus but within walking distance to John Paul Jones Arena and a majority of the athletic facilities as well as the business and law schools. We have stayed twice and are very impressed with the service and the morning coffee bar!
  • The Draftsman  is closer to restaurants, bars and the lively side of campus but rooms and amenities are not quite as nice (or new) as the Kimpton. If location and walking are important, this is your best bet.
  • Keswick Hall is beautiful and full of amenities but far from campus (at least 20min), would consider for an extended stay.
  • The Boars Head Resort has amazing amenities, the bar and restaurant look great (we only had drinks here) and it is only about 8 minutes from campus– so a happy medium if you are looking for a resort experience but still want to be close to the action. We have not heard great things about the rooms though.

Where to Eat and Drink

So far our favorites:

  • Oakhart Social— Casual fun atmosphere, shareable plates, great food and drinks.
  • Public Fish and Oyster— GREAT seafood and great fun atmosphere.
  • The Fitzroy— For a simple easy meal on the pedestrian mall. Good for groups, easy to get reservation.
  • Marigold at Keswick Hall   (note, 20 minutes from central Charlottesville). Absolutely wonderful. I was worried it would feel too fancy but no, the atmosphere is warm and inviting and the food is upscale, beautiful and delicious. The service was great as well. Definitely a treat, especially for a college student!

Lunch

  • Roots— When on campus this is a short walk and has already become a go-to. It is a make your own bowl/ salad place frequented by students … and now us too.
  • Trinity on the Corner and The Virginian are go to spots– not for the food or the service but for the location on “The Corner” and to feel like you are in college again. On the weekends pitchers are ever present.
  • Feast- This is an order at the counter, half health food store, half restaurant type of place but the food is yummy. Extremely casual, a little on the hippy-dippy side.
  • Ivy Provisions– Awesome salads and sandwiches, soup too, order at the counter and sit at outside tables.

Coffee

  • Grit— its great, multiple locations but the location on Elliewood is where the students go

Bars

  • Coupes (college bar)
  • Ellie’s (college bar)
  • Trinity (college bar)

On our list because we have heard good things:

What to Do

  • Visit UVA or your student there!
  • Attend a show or sporting event and John Paul Jones Arena
  • Shop —  Scarpa is my new favorite — incredible assortment and surprisingly large. Allow for more than 10 minutes here… I could have stayed all day! Eloise is a close second, always seem to find something here.
  • Visit Monticello- so much history and so pretty! Many tours/ experiences to choose from. (We did the 45minute intro tour at 4:15pm and ended up with a private tour.)
  • Hike or run the Ravena trail
  • Go wine tasting

Inside Scoop

  • For Bay Area people–There is a direct flight from SFO to Richmond on Breeze airlines that runs on Mondays and Wednesdays. (I was told seasonal but currently looks like it runs through the rest of the year.)
  • When we initially looked at UVA we flew into Richmond and looked at University of Richmond and then UVA in the same day, spent the night at UVA and then drove to Wake Forest University and toured, spent the night near Wake and then drove to Elon and Duke the next day. Could also be combined with Washington and Lee, High Point University and UNC.
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