Attractions

The visitor centers of the Charlottesville/Albemarle Convention and Visitors Bureau sell a Presidents' Pass, a discount block ticket combining admission to Monticello, Michie Tavern, and Ash Lawn-Highland. It costs $26 for all ages. The attractions validate the tickets when you show up, so there's no time limit on when you must use the pass. They don't advertise the fact, but the three attractions also sell the Presidents' Pass.

Getting the Most Out of Charlottesville -- Monticello, Ash Lawn-Highland, and Michie Tavern are within 2 miles of each other near the Monticello Visitors Center, on Va. 20 just south of I-64, on the southeastern outskirts of town. You'll need a full day to fully take in all three.

Since you must take a guided tour in order to go through the Monticello mansion, plan to arrive there before it opens at 8am, especially on spring and summer weekends and during the October "leaf season," when you can expect long lines.

The Monticello Visitors Center, however, doesn't open until 9am. Accordingly, go there at least a day before you plan to tour Monticello, Ash Lawn-Highland, and Michie Tavern and buy a Presidents' Pass ticket to the three attractions ($26 per adult, not available to children). You should also take in the center's marvelous "Thomas Jefferson at Monticello" exhibit and see a free 30-minute video about Jefferson, which shows at 11am and 2pm daily, more frequently during summer. Both will add to your visit.

If you can't spend that much time at the visitor center, you can buy a Presidents' Pass when you arrive at Monticello.

Timed passes to Monticello are given out to those in line (they are not issued at the ticket office) when the wait exceeds 45 minutes. You can spend the time taking a tour of Monticello's gardens and outbuildings or explore them on your own. Attendants at the ticket office, about halfway up the mountain (vans shuttle from there to the mansion), will tell you how long the wait will be.

Next, head to nearby Michie Tavern, where you can spend 30 minutes touring the tavern and the Virginia Wine Museum, and then have lunch (again, expect a wait on weekends and in Oct). In the afternoon, head for Monroe's Ash Lawn-Highland, 2 1/2 miles away, which will take about an hour to see.

If you have time left over, head for the University of Virginia. Otherwise, plan to tour the campus and see the town's other sights the next day.

The University of Virginia

One of the world's most beautiful college campuses, Jefferson's University of Virginia is graced with spacious lawns, serpentine-walled gardens, colonnaded pavilions, and a classical rotunda inspired by the Pantheon in Rome. Jefferson regarded its creation as one of his three greatest achievements -- all the more remarkable since it was started in his 73rd year. He was, in every sense, the university's father, since he conceived it, wrote its charter, raised money for its construction, drew the plans, selected the site, laid the cornerstone in 1817, supervised construction, served as the first rector, selected the faculty, and created the curriculum. His good friends, Monroe and Madison, sat with him on the first board, and Madison succeeded him as rector, serving for 8 years.

The focal point of the university is the Rotunda (on University Ave. at Rugby Rd.), restored as Jefferson designed it. Enter on the ground level on the "village side" -- that is, the side facing away from University Avenue. A student will be on duty at a desk to give you information, directions, and brochures. If you're up to it, be sure to climb the three stories to Jefferson's magnificent lecture room under the dome on the top floor. The Rotunda is open daily from 9am to 4:45pm except on holidays. Admission is free but donations are suggested.

Some 600 feet of tree-dotted lawn extends from the Rotunda's south portico to what is now Cabell Hall, designed at the turn of the 20th century by Stanford White. Pavilions on either side of the lawn are still used for faculty housing, each of a different architectural style "to serve as specimens for the Architectural lecturer." Behind each are a garden (originally used by faculty members to grow vegetables and keep livestock) and the original student dormitories, used -- and greatly coveted -- by students today. The room Edgar Allan Poe occupied is furnished as it would have been in 1826 and is open to visitors.

Paralleling the lawn are more rows of student rooms called the Ranges. Equally spaced within each of the Ranges are "hotels," originally used to accommodate student dining. Each hotel represented a different country, and students would have to both eat the food and speak the language of that country. Although a wonderful idea on Jefferson's part, it lasted only a short while since everyone wanted to eat French but not German.

When school is in session, students lead 45-minute campus tours daily at 10, 11am, 2, 3, and 4pm from the Rotunda. The tours are first come, first served, but call tel. 434/982-3200 to make sure there will be one when you're here. Self-guided walking tour brochures are available in the Rotunda and from the university's Visitor Information Center (tel. 434/924-7166), which is located not on campus but in the University Police Headquarters, on Ivy Road (U.S. 250 Business) just east of the U.S. 29/U.S. 250 bypass. The visitor center is open 24 hours a day.

Note: The University is closed 3 weeks around Christmas.

The Downtown Mall

After you've spent a morning seeing the university, have lunch and spend the rest of the afternoon strolling along Charlottesville's Downtown Mall, the pedestrian-only section of Main Street between 2nd and 7th streets. Although the strip is the country's oldest pedestrian mall, it lacks historic charm, and it may seem underwhelming during the cold winter months. But the mall changes character completely in warm weather, when restaurant tables line its entire length and it becomes the city's lively focal point. Fountains, park benches, shade trees, a tiny kiosk bar, theaters, and music-making buskers enhance it all.

The mall's 120 boutiques and art galleries make it the best place in Charlottesville to shop. You'll instinctively know the best stores when you pass them, but don't pass up the Yves Delorme Outlet, where you might find French linens at 75% off their regular prices.

I usually walk the entire length in one direction just to take it all in, and then come back to specific shops and restaurants which have drawn my attention. The "Historic Downtown Dining, Entertainment and Shopping" brochure available at the visitor center is an invaluable aid. Call tel. 434/296-8548 for mall events.

Attractions in the Lynchburg Area

When Jefferson wanted to get away from it all, he headed south to Poplar Forest, his country retreat near the James River town of Lynchburg, today best known as home to the fundamentalist Rev. Jerry Falwell and his Liberty University. Lynchburg is a base from which to explore not just Poplar Forest but one of Patrick Henry's plantation homes and the village of Appomattox Court House, where Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant. Also nearby are memorials to the great African American leader Booker T. Washington and to the D-Day invasion during World War II.

Contact the Lynchburg Convention and Visitors Bureau, 2015 Memorial Ave., Lynchburg, VA 24501 (tel. 800/723-5821 or 434/845-5966; www.discoverlynchburg.org), for information about the city.

Note that some of these attractions are closer to Roanoke than to Charlottesville.