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Looking for the best things to do in Front Royal, VA? This small Virginia town offers a memorable combination of mountain scenery, river adventures, historic streets, and easy access to Shenandoah National Park. Whether you're planning a weekend escape from Washington, DC, or building a longer Shenandoah Valley road trip, Front Royal makes a convenient starting point.
The town's biggest...
Lexington has a strange kind of gravity for a town of just over 7,000 people. Two nationally significant institutions, Virginia Military Institute and Washington and Lee University, sit directly across the street from each other at its center, and the history layered into both runs deeper than almost anywhere else in the Shenandoah Valley.
Stonewall Jackson taught here before...
The Bavarian village of Leavenworth gets the most attention for its architecture, its Oktoberfest, and its Christmas lights. What gets discussed less, but what draws a significant portion of Leavenworth's visitor base, is the hiking. The Icicle Creek Canyon behind town is one of the finest trail corridors in Washington State, and the Alpine Lakes Wilderness accessible from that...
Leavenworth Oktoberfest is not a casual fall festival. It is Washington State's most committed German celebration, three consecutive weekends in October, held in the Festhalle (a purpose-built festival hall), with German beer by the liter, traditional Bavarian food, oompah bands, and a crowd that genuinely comes prepared to participate.
The Bavarian village setting of Leavenworth makes Oktoberfest feel earned rather...
Leavenworth gets the most attention in December, when the Village of Lights draws visitors from across Washington State and the Bavarian-themed buildings glow under half a million lights. It earns significant attention in October for Oktoberfest. But summer, June through August, may actually be Leavenworth's best-kept seasonal secret.
The winter crowds thin out. The surrounding Cascade Mountains turn green. The...