As I mentioned on Friday, Michael and I took a quick road trip to Charlottesville this weekend to visit a few vineyards and check out what C’ville has to offer.  Charlottesville is an easy 2.5 drive from the district so we headed out early Friday morning in our Getaround car (more on that tomorrow!) and made it to our Airbnb by 10am!

Before I get into the nitty gritty, I do have to give a shout out to a few of my UVA friends that let me in on all of the “must dos” of Charlottesville.  Katie, Charlotte, and Heather gave me SO many recommendations for the weekend!  I think we were able to squeeze a lot in, so with that said, here’s my Charlottesville, Virginia Weekend Guide!

On our way into town we stopped at Take It Away to pick up sandwiches for later in the day.  Insider tip (now that I know!), DO THIS – Most of the vineyards don’t offer many food options, and even if they do, they’re much more pricey than the sandwiches at Take It Away.  Also, you can bring your sandwiches into most of the vineyards with no problem.  I learned that getting salad dressing on your sandwich is Take It Away’s “thing,” and let me tell you, it did not disappoint!

We hired a driver to pick us up in Charlottesville and take us to a few vineyards.  If you’re interested in doing the same, just let me know, and I’m more than happy to share our driver’s contact information!  Our first stop was Pippin Hill Farm and Vineyard.  The views at Pippin are incredible!  And the atmosphere made me never want to leave.  We did a tasting here, but my favorite wine ended up being the flat rosè on their regular wine menu!

We hadn’t planned to go to the next stop, but our driver recommended it, so we took him up on it.  We stopped by Afton Mountain Vineyards and did a tasting there and shared a glass of wine on their back patio while enjoying our Take It Away sandwiches.  I enjoyed Afton, but I probably wouldn’t go back there again.  Nothing against it, it just didn’t compare to the other two that we went to, and I learned that there are over 30 vineyards on the Monticello Wine Trail, so there are SO many others to choose from!

We ended our afternoon at King Family Vineyards where the views were just as stunning as at Pippin Hill.  We did a tasting here as well, and the staff at King Family definitely won us over.  They were by far the friendliest and most knowledgable staff that we encountered all day.  We enjoyed one last glass of wine on their breathtaking patio, which happens to overlook a polo field, although apparently it’s not polo season right now so there was no match that day.

The vineyards that we visited (on the west side of Charlottesville) are only 15/20 minutes from C’ville so it’s a super easy drive! After making our way back to town, we freshened up and headed to The Local for dinner, which came highly recommended!  It was fantastic.  The restaurant itself is situated in an old home – it’s so charming, and the food was down right delicious!  After dinner we ventured to the Downtown Mall where there are tons of shops, bars, and restaurants.  We hit up Whisky Jar and Miller’s before calling it a night.

We woke up early on Saturday morning to hit up the world renowned 😉 Bodo’s Bagels.  Before our trip, I had heard SO much about this bagel place.  UVA folks rave about it.  It lived up to the hype!

Before heading back to DC, we stopped at Carter Mountain Orchard to do a little apple picking.  This has been on my to-do list since I moved to DC.  Note – It’s pretty hard to find an apple orchard in Louisiana or Mississippi or Alabama … It was so much fun!  We picked a few apples, tried to avoid getting run over by the hayride, and ended the morning with hot apple cider and apple cider donuts.

And just like that our Charlottesville weekend came to an end.  I highly recommend visiting the C’ville area and checking out the vineyards.  We had an absolute blast, and I’m already looking forward to heading back, like I said, there are over THIRTY vineyards to explore!  Let me know if you have any specific questions about our trip or what to do in the area – I’m more than happy to answer!

WHAT I’M WEARING DAY 1

WHAT I’M WEARING DAY 2

click the image to shop