Practical Information for visiting Virginia

A car is necessary for everything outside the northern suburbs and the old city centres.

The Washington Metro reaches into the northern counties, and Amtrak serves the main cities along the eastern corridor with reasonable frequency.

Interstate 95 through the north is among the most congested roads in the country and is genuinely to be avoided at peak hours; Interstate 81 down the Shenandoah Valley is the scenic alternative but carries heavy lorry traffic.

The Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway run over 400 miles along the crest with low speed limits and no commercial traffic — they are destinations rather than routes, and they close in winter ice.

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, 17.6 miles across the mouth of the bay, is the only direct link to the Eastern Shore, and it is tolled.

Coverage is excellent in the north and along the corridor, and good in the main cities.

It drops substantially in the mountains, the valleys of the southwest and on the Eastern Shore — expect no signal on the ridge drives and in the national park.

Free Wi-Fi is standard in cafés, libraries and hotels. Rural broadband remains patchy in the southwest.

English is universal. Spanish is the main second language, and the northern counties have very large Korean, Vietnamese, Amharic and Urdu-speaking communities.

Accents vary more than in most states: the Tidewater has a distinct older coastal accent, the southwest is Appalachian, and the north has essentially no regional accent at all.

Local usage worth knowing: the eastern coastal region is Tidewater or Hampton Roads, the northern suburbs are NoVa, and the ridge road through the national park is the Skyline Drive — a different road from the Parkway that continues south from it.

Virginia is a safe state for visitors. The larger cities have neighbourhoods with higher crime, and they are not areas a visitor would have reason to enter.

Ordinary precautions apply: lock the car and leave nothing visible at a trailhead.

Mountain driving is the real hazard — fog on the ridge can reduce visibility to a few metres within minutes, and the scenic roads have no barriers in many places. Deer collisions are common at dawn and dusk, particularly in autumn.

Flash flooding in the mountain valleys after heavy rain kills people most years. Never drive into water across a road.

No vaccinations are needed and tap water is safe.

Ticks are widespread from spring to late autumn, and Virginia has both Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Check thoroughly after any time in grass or woodland.

Summer heat and humidity in the east are genuinely taxing, and are the most common reason visitors need help.

Copperheads are present statewide and rattlesnakes in the mountains; both are avoidable by watching where you put hands and feet. Major hospitals are in the cities, and the southwest is a long way from one.

Tipping is expected: 18-20% in restaurants and bars.

Spirits are sold only in state-run ABC stores; wine and beer are available in supermarkets.

Radar detectors are illegal in Virginia — one of the very few states where that is true — and speeding is enforced seriously, with reckless driving charged as a criminal offence above certain speeds.

Right turns on red are permitted after stopping unless signed. The drinking age is 21 and identification is checked routinely.

911 reaches police, fire and ambulance statewide.

Major trauma centres are in the main cities and in the northern suburbs. The mountains and the Eastern Shore rely on air ambulance, and transport times there are long.

211 is the statewide information and assistance line.

The national park and the Parkway have their own rangers; on the Appalachian Trail, expect no signal and long response times. Hurricane and flood warnings come through the state emergency management agency.