Who’s been?

We’re off to the US this summer to visit family, and we’re torn between going somewhere cool for our roadtrip (Colorado) or visiting another family member in Virginia, which seems to be significantly less cool of a place.

I’ve been. Its ok. Richmond OK for an American city. Got family there. I’d rather go to colorado. Appalacians are pretty. Did a nice canoe trip once. Its too hot for me i the summer

Blue Ridge Mountains are good, some of the coast is very small town America, only drove through delivering a car to Miami but it was ok.

there’s better places to go to be honest

Oh sorry i misread that 🙂

I’ve done some walking in the Appalachians further north. It was good walking, but really – just tree after tree. Once during a three day hike I got to a high outcrop and looked out over.. lots and lots of trees.

I mean it’s cool, but it’s not Boulder cool.

I had family in Richmond also so have been a few times – it’s fine but pretty unremarkable. A lot of civil war history. Out to the Shenandoah, Charlottesville way is really nice but wouldn’t stand comparison to the Rockies. Family is family, though – so I guess it depends on who you’re seeing.

Yeah, most of my family are great – we spend thousands and most of our holiday time going to Wisconsin for that reason – but I can’t tell if this particular person even cares. She’s coming back to WI to see the family before we arrive – I can’t quite figure out why she wouldn’t book her trip to coincide with our visit…? If she’s got some other thing she needs to be back for in June you’d have thought she’d have told us and apologised for not seeing us…

I live in Richmond.

As with everything in the USA, it depends on what you want but mostly on where you are. If you were in CA I’d say too far, but if you were in PA I’d say go for it.

VA is a big place. It depends where in VA your relative is and where you’d be wanting to go on to. Just looking at the map, Green Bay to Richmond would be 1000 miles and the first 700 of them would not be very exciting at all. Green Bay to Bounder CO would be 1100 miles through some of the least interesting parts of the USA.
Why do you want to do these trips?

We are visiting family in WI but there is also a family member in Richmond. We usually make time for a road trip whilst we are over, so we get an adventure as well as seeing family. However we have not seen this person in Richmond for a long time. So the question is, can we make a trip to the Appalachians as interesting as one to the Rockies?

I don’t know what your interests as a family are. Richmond was voted Best River City in the USA last year for it’s river sports. It’s got a hip edge to it, a great state park on the edge. I think it’s the most tattooed city in the USA as well!

Do take the weather into your plans. The East coast gets hot and humid in the summer and that sticky heat can be unbearable and just saps your energy. I’m not a fan of the heat but the other 3 seasons make up for it here. There are plenty things to do in Richmond (mountain biking, white water rafting, SUP, kayaking etc) and that’s all downtown! There are festivals every weekend, Virginia Beach is 100 miles away, DC is 100 miles North of here (with viable trains as an option) and the mountains are 100 miles away.

http://www.visitrichmondva.com/

In summary – a great city to visit, loads to see and do, but I would not recommend that visit in the middle of summer.

Kids are 5 and 2 so most sports are out, plus we are on a severe budget. What we’d normally aim for is a state park with some camping and some walks in the woods. Last time we went we did a forest by a lake, so something slightly different perhaps…

I think state parks are forests with lakes by law! Pocahontas SP is only a few miles from Richmond.

http://www.dcr.virginia.gov/state-parks/pocahontas.shtml

The camping cabins are OK – bunks are narrow but they have electricity and ceiling fans to keep the air moving. The pool complex in the park is great, especially for little kids – my then 3 year old loved it last year and will love it again this year.
Douthat SP would be on your route to Richmond. We’ve not been yet but it is very well rated by all who have been. You are out in the hills there and it is far more remote than the likes of Pocahontas.

Im slightly disappointed 🙁

Shenandoah looks interesting. Probably insanely busy though, would have to try and organise some backcountry camping if possible.