Highlights of the tour include:

• Shenandoah Valley
• Belle Grove Plantation
• The Skyline Drive
• Blue Ridge Parkway
• Monticello
• Blue Ridge Parkway National Scenic Byway
• Stonewall Jackson House
• Roanoke, Virginia
• Smithfield Plantation
• The mountains in North Carolina
• Blue Ridge Music Center
• Boone, North Carolina
• Grandfather Mountain
• Blowing Rock
• Asheville, North Carolina
• Biltmore Estate
• Great Smoky Mountain Railroad
• Great Smoky Mountains National Park
• Cherokee Reservation
• Cherohala Skyway National Scenic Byway
• Dolly Parton's Sevierville
  

The Blue Ridge Parkway, an All-American Road as designated by the National Scenic Byways Commission,  marked its 75th Anniversary in 2010.

Today,  take in Abram’s Delight, a true treasure and the oldest house in Winchester.  Built in 1754, Abram’s Delight was home to the Hollingsworth family, Quakers who moved to the region from Britain to avoid religious persecution. The home is now a museum furnished with irreplaceable treasures owned by the original family.

Just outside downtown, the Glen Burnie House Museum is surrounded by six acres of beautiful formal gardens. It is furnished with 18th and 19th century antiques, paintings and decorative art collected by Julian Wood Glass Jr, the last descendent of the original builder to live in the house.  Glen Burnie is also home to the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley dedicated to the history, art, and culture of the Shenandoah Valley.

From Winchester, it’s a short drive to the Belle Grove Plantation, built in 1797 as the seat of a massive 7,000 acre grain and livestock farm. As you approach this house, you’ll understand immediately that it was designed as an ostentatious display of the owner’s wealth and social prestige for a First Family of Virginia that included the sister of President James Madison. Built of limestone quarried on the property, it was sited to have incredible views across the valley. Today, the property includes the main house, formal gardens, the overseer’s house, a slave cemetery, and a heritage apple orchard.

Three of the city’s favourite sons, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe all practised law in downtown Charlottesville before governing the United States for 25 consecutive years, as the country’s 3rd, 4th and 5th Presidents. Thomas Jefferson’s home, Monticello, one of the most intensely interesting homes on the North American continent. Named a World Heritage Treasure by  the United Nations, Monticello is a magnificent mountaintop mansion built of graciously balanced neo-Classical architecture. Jefferson’s fascination with science, art, and many common sense applications of technology are on display inside. Outside, Jefferson created gardens as his “workhouse of nature” and interestingly, was responsible for the entire wine industry in America, having introduced the first grapes from France on his plantation.

Ash Lawn-Highland, the home of President James Monroe was situated so that Monticello could be seen from the front porch. Other views, sharpened by the crisp mountain air, open onto soft  tranquil valleys. Many of the furnishings in Ash Lawn-Highland are priceless artifacts used by President Monroe and his family.

Further along the Virginia Scenic Byways is Montpellier, the 2,700 acre home of President James Madison and his wife Dolley. The property has just completed an astounding restoration to remove recent additions and reduce the house to the 22-room home actually occupied by President Madison’s family. The James Madison Landmark Forest, a National Natural Landmark occupies a portion of the land. If it’s time for an early dinner (or a late lunch, depending on if you opted for Michie Tavern) when leaving Montpelier, Barboursville Vineyards has a fabulous restaurant. You can also stop just to taste the wines.

Distance: 62 miles

There’s a Walking Tour of Roanoke that takes you through Centre in the Square, the bustling renovation that includes three museums, the original Historic City Market, open seven days a week to showcase local produce and Virginia products, the boutiques, shops, and restaurants that surround it. While downtown, you can visit the History Museum of Western Virginia for a look at the history of the town that began as Big Lick.

Between Roanoke and Southern Virginia, you can visit Smithfield Plantation, which predated the American Revolution. A series of illustrious Preston’s who served in the Virginia House of Delegates, the Virginia Assembly, as Governor of Virginia, Secretary of the Navy, and Colonel in the Revolutionary War called the plantation home.

Another drive on the Parkway takes you to the small town of Floyd, famous for its Floyd Country Store where on Saturday nights it’s not unusual to find a jam session in progress. On weekend evenings, there’s always music playing somewhere. And then, finally, you’ll be arriving at your accommodations in far southern Virginia.

Accommodation: Primland Resort or similar

Staying for two nights in the Boone area will let you explore both Boone and Blowing Rock. Closest to Boone, the Moses H. Cone Memorial Park, surrounds a 19th century mansion built with wealth acquired in the Gilded Age. Several decades after they were donated to the Parkway, the Moses Cone Memorial Park and Julian Price Memorial Park make up the largest combined recreation facility owned by the Parkway.

Nearby, Grandfather Mountain was created 740 million years ago when two of the earth’s plates slammed together. It appears to be the highest peak along the Blue Ridge but that’s because of how it juts into the sky. Hugh McRae Morton, who inherited the property from his grandfather, worked with the Nature Conservancy to preserve 4,000 acres of the mountain backcountry wilderness.

Coming down off Grandfather Mountain you can visit Blowing Rock for immersion into the legend of Native American lovers who threw themselves  from its ledge instead of being separated.   Blowing Rock gets its name from the natural currents of air that flow upward, causing snow to fall upside down. The phenomenon is caused by the flume through which the northwest wind sweeps strongly when confined by the rocky walls of the gorge.

The Linn Cove Viaduct Visitors Center explains how this particular section of the Blue Ridge Parkway was completed.  It is the last stretch to be done and considered an engineering marvel.  Any of the several different falls of Linville Falls are well worth the time. Water plunges 411 feet from Upper Whitewater Falls and another 400 feet from Lower Whitewater Falls.

Built by George Washington Vanderbilt in 1895 as a country retreat for friends and family to escape the tensions of everyday life, at 250 rooms the Biltmore Estate is America’s largest home. It’s like stepping back into another world of luxury. The art collection, furniture, and the magnificent mansion itself are worth the visit. It’s as grand as anything you might see in Europe.

Touring this most opulent French Renaissance Chateau, it will be hard to focus on the fact this was once a self-sustaining “working farm.” So many things have been added to the property that you can likely spend most of the day exploring here. The original lakeside vineyards have been revived and now produce grapes made into wines at the state of the art winery. An authentic French winemaker was recruited to produce the real thing.

A visit to the Farm Village illustrates how the workers lived, worked and played in the 1890s. Interpretive exhibits illustrate antique equipment and the traditional farm animals that would have lived on the property. While there, you can also enjoy the bike trails, equestrian paths, a raft or recreational kayak and browse for treasures at the many shops, ranging from Christmas antiques and reproductions of Biltmore Estate items, to a bookbinder and wine shop.

It will be hard to believe that today is your last day of meandering the Blue Ridge Parkway. Get out and about early, in order to have time to explore Native American heritage as well as take the whole scenic drive through Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

The Cherokee and their predecessors were the first people who hunted, fished, and farmed the vast territories in the Smokies. Today about 11,000 of their descendants still carry on these ancient traditions.

There are three locations you can choose to visit, the Cherokee Reservation itself, Oconaluftee Village, and the Cherokee Heritage Museum. Once on the Reservation, the inner life of the people might not be obvious to the casual observer. With guides in native costume to assist you, the life of an eighteenth century Cherokee village will come to life. A tour including the Sweat lodge, the seven sided Council House and the Trail of Tears all illustrate authentic aspects of the Cherokee lifestyle. At Oconaluftee Village, artisans fashion crafts in much the same way as their ancestors did centuries earlier. The Heritage Museum tells the long, bitter history of the Cherokee people.

Leaving the Cherokee, you’ll be off on one of the most beautiful mountain drives anywhere, travelling through the Great Smoky Mountains, Cades Cove, on the Cherohala Skyway National Scenic Byway and more. Cades Cove, a spectacular valley surrounded on all sides with mountains and the most visited location in the Park, is best explored by the 11-mile one-way loop road that takes you past pioneer structures, waterfalls, and fantastic foliage.

Dolly Parton Fan? You may also want to consider visiting nearby Sevierville where Dolly was born and raised..