Things to do in Richmond
And where to stay, the best time to visit, what a day costs, and the traps to skip.
Best time to visit Richmond
• a note or something on ✦ an occasion worth the trip
Best month overall: festivals stack up, humidity breaks and leaves turn late in the month.
Riverrock, peak bloom and patios without summer humidity; graduation compresses hotels.
Garden Week and spring gardens at their peak, with strong whitewater.
Early November keeps the leaves and adds the Marathon; book ahead.
Late September improves; Iron Blossom and the State Fair anchor the calendar.
River season in full, hot and humid with afternoon storms.
Early spring, improving gardens but changeable weather and pollen building.
Quiet and cheap, with GardenFest of Lights and tacky lights tours.
What's on
- Garden Week late April
Historic Garden Week, with Maymont and Lewis Ginter at peak bloom.
- Riverrock Usually mid May
Largest US outdoor sports and music festival, free to watch; check the venue, as it has moved off Brown's Island.
- Iron Blossom Usually a weekend in September
Music festival, usually in September, with tickets from about $100.
- State Fair of Virginia late September
State fair season as the fall festival calendar builds.
- 2nd Street Festival Oct 3-4
Free Jackson Ward festival celebrating the historic 2nd Street corridor.
- Richmond Folk Festival Oct 9-11
Free, 30-plus acts on six stages; the single best weekend to visit Richmond.
- Richmond Marathon November
Marathon weekend compresses hotels; book ahead.
- GardenFest of Lights winter
Lewis Ginter's winter light show; book ahead.
Best things to do in Richmond
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
A free encyclopaedic museum with Faberge eggs, global wings and a sculpture garden locals picnic in.
James River Park System
600 acres of trails, rapids, rocks and islands inside the city, Richmond's defining outdoor asset.
American Civil War Museum - Historic Tredegar
A multi-perspective Civil War museum on the Tredegar Iron Works site, honest and essential.
White House of the Confederacy
The Confederate executive mansion, best paired with Tredegar on a combined history ticket.
Maymont
A 100-acre Gilded Age estate mixing a mansion tour, wildlife exhibits, gardens and river grounds.
Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden
50 acres with a glass conservatory and seasonal shows from butterflies in summer to lights in winter.
Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site
Free ranger tours of the home of the first Black woman to charter and run a US bank.
Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia
The fuller Jackson Ward story, told in the historic Leigh Street Armory two blocks from Walker's home.
Where to stay in Richmond
The Fan / Museum District
best base overall, first trip
Victorian rowhouses between the VMFA and Carytown, with the city's best neighbourhood restaurants.
Downtown - Arts District / Monroe Ward / Capitol
hotels and no car
Full-service hotels walkable to Tredegar, the Capitol and Jackson Ward; the office core empties at night.
Shockoe Slip / Shockoe Bottom
river and nightlife, with caveats
Historic warehouse streets by the Canal Walk and station; stay in the Slip, treat the Bottom late-night strip with care.
Church Hill
character and couples
Oldest streets and best views with Sub Rosa mornings; mostly rentals and small inns, parking is tight.
Scott's Addition
beer and groups
Breweries, cideries and arcades in a walkable industrial grid; you will rideshare to the river and museums.
Think twice about
- Far East End / Creighton and Hillside Court areas
Bottom of local crime tables, no tourist draw and almost no hotels beyond cheap highway motels.
- Broad Rock / Jeff Davis Highway corridor
Among the lowest-graded areas locally for crime, with no reason for a visitor to base there.
- Airport / Williamsburg Road motel strip
Specific motels draw persistent cleanliness and safety complaints and leave you without a walkable neighbourhood.
- North Arthur Ashe Boulevard motel cluster
Locals warn against the cheapest Boulevard motels for the same complaints; pay a little more for downtown or the Fan.
Best restaurants in Richmond
L'Opossum
Playful French-American fine dining with pun dish names and dead-serious cooking underneath.
Longoven
Richmond's tasting-menu flagship, seasonal and precise, with a casual bar side and garden patio.
Heritage
Seasonal, pork-loving neighbourhood dining on Main Street, the place local chefs eat.
Stella's
Modern Greek in an always-full room; the reservation locals make to guarantee guests leave happy.
ZZQ Texas Craft Barbeque
Texas brisket and beef ribs in the pork belt; lines form early and popular cuts sell out.
Mama J's Kitchen
Soul food cornerstone for fried chicken, catfish and candied yams, at some of the best value in town.
Perly's
A modern Jewish deli for matzo ball soup, pastrami and the Benny Goodman latke brunch plate.
Sub Rosa Bakery
Wood-fired Turkish-heritage bakery milling heirloom grains; go in the morning before the case empties.
Best bars in Richmond
The Veil Brewing Co.
Hazy IPA specialist and the first stop on a Scott's Addition brewery crawl.
Triple Crossing Beer
Core stop on the walkable Scott's Addition brewery grid.
Hardywood Park Craft Brewery
Richmond's best-known craft brewery, part of the Scott's Addition crawl.
Strangeways Brewing
Known for sours and experimental pours on the brewery crawl.
Buskey Cider
Cidery pouring Virginia apple ciders, a change of pace on the crawl.
Outdoor things to do in Richmond
RVA Paddlesports
Guided raft trips through downtown Class III-IV rapids, the only such whitewater in a US capital.
Riverside Outfitters
The longer-established river outfitter for rafting, kayak and SUP rentals, tours and lessons.
Huguenot Flatwater
Calm flatwater put-in for kayaks, canoes and paddleboards away from the downtown rapids.
Buttermilk Trail
Genuinely technical singletrack in the free urban trail loop, best half-day hike in the city.
Pony Pasture Rapids
Locals' summer spot for rock sunbathing, wading and fishing when the river is low and safe.
Virginia Capital Trail
A 51.5-mile paved, car-free trail to Jamestown; ride to Charles City for the classic day out.
Belmont Golf Course
A public Tillinghast course that hosted a PGA Championship, reimagined as 12 holes plus a par-3 course.
Independence Golf Club
A Tom Fazio championship 18 ranked among Virginia's best public courses, the splurge round.
Best hotels in Richmond
The Jefferson Hotel
Richmond's grande dame since 1895, with a marble lobby, Lemaire restaurant and famous Sunday brunch.
The Berkeley Hotel
Small, polished, European-feeling hotel on the Slip's cobblestones, quieter than the Jefferson.
Quirk Hotel Richmond
Pink, art-filled boutique hotel in a former department store, with a rooftop bar that draws locals.
Linden Row Inn
Seven Greek Revival rowhouses around a garden courtyard, character at half the Jefferson's price.
Graduate Richmond
Collegiate-themed hotel with a rooftop pool and bar, walkable to the Fan and VCU.
The Commonwealth
All-suite hotel directly across from the Capitol, with large practical rooms.
Hilton Richmond Downtown
Reliable full-service hotel in the old Miller & Rhoads store, good for conventions and families.
Omni Richmond Hotel
Full-service hotel in the Slip with river views, handy for business and the riverfront.
Is Richmond expensive? What a day costs
| Budget | $100 a person |
|---|---|
| Classic | $200 a person |
| Splurge | $325 a person |
A day of food, drink, sights and getting around, before the room
What to book ahead
- Maymont: a few days ahead
- RVA Paddlesports: a few days ahead
- Riverside Outfitters: a few days ahead
- Kings Dominion: a few days ahead
- Colonial Williamsburg: a few days ahead
- Jamestown Settlement: a few days ahead
- Historic Jamestowne: a few days ahead
- Monticello: a few days ahead
- L'Opossum and Longoven need weeks ahead for weekends; Stella's, Heritage and Edo's Squid need days.
- Maymont Mansion, Monticello and Williamsburg timed entries should be booked online in spring and fall.
- Hotels spike and sell out for VCU graduation, Folk Festival, the Marathon and legislature session.
- Reserve raft trips and Capital Trail e-bikes ahead on summer weekends and check river levels that morning.
Is Richmond safe?
- Violent crime concentrates in specific East End and Southside areas, not the Fan, Museum District or visitor riverfront.
- Car break-ins are the most common visitor crime anywhere in Richmond; leave nothing visible in a car.
- The James kills people who ignore high-water warnings; if the river is brown, fast and posted, stay out.
- Treat Shockoe Bottom after midnight like any rough bar strip; it also floods in extreme rain.
Richmond travel tips: tourist traps to skip
- Short Pump Town Center is a suburban mall, not sightseeing; go only for Lehja or a specific store.
- The Tobacco Company is a pretty room with fine, not best-of, food; eat at Lemaire or elsewhere instead.
- Guides sending you to see the Lee statue are pre-2020; the Monument Avenue statues were removed.
- Kings Dominion at gate price is the trap; buy advance tickets online or skip it.
- Brown's Island is closed for renovation through 2026 with only temporary festival reopenings; check before planning a picnic.
Getting around Richmond: public transport and more
- Walk the Fan and downtown; the Pulse BRT runs Broad Street and GRTC has been fare-free in recent years, so check current status.
- Use Main Street Station for walkable Amtrak; Staples Mill has more trains but needs a car or rideshare.
- RIC airport is about 15 minutes from downtown with no rail link; rideshare is straightforward.
- Rent a car for one day for Pocahontas, Williamsburg or Charlottesville rather than the whole trip.
Who Richmond suits
| Solo travellers | Good |
|---|---|
| Groups of friends | Great |
| Couples | Great |
| Bachelor parties | Good |
| Families | Good |
| Bachelorette parties | OK |
Make Richmond your trip
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