Guide to Natural Bridge, VA

Guide to Natural Bridge, VA

Here's my guide from last year on how to have the perfect weekend in Natural Bridge and Lexington, VA. I still stand by it and thought you might like it! Thanks for all the positive feedback about my guides! I know you come here for style advice, and I like to think that extends to life-style, too! I love the DC-Northern VA area, and I love showing it off!

First, make the easy three hour drive from Northern VA/DC.

Be sure to stay in this adorable restored caboose that sits on a hill next to a horse farm. The train crossing sign lights up when you drive in the driveway!

If you went with more than two people and two dogs or two people and two kids (they can sleep up in the cupola!), you could also rent the cabin that sits adjacent. We'd love to do that with kids who were old enough to send to sleep in the caboose. Who wouldn't want to wake up to this view?

Take a quick nap in the silence of a country afternoon to have plenty of energy for a double feature the non-profit community drive in.

Bring chairs and bug spray but take their advice and buy concessions there. As you can see, time is slower there. Where else can you get popcorn for $1.50 and candy from $0.35-0.75? And where else does a pot-bellied pig on a leash share the family blanket behind your car? Sadly, I was too chicken (polite?) to snap a picture.

Ignore the locals' suggestion for breakfast. Drive by the Pink Cadillac Diner and admire how pink and decorated it is, but do not eat there. It has not been cleaned since the Elvis movies advertized on its walls were in the theaters.

Instead, swim in a swimming hole with your babies, lounge by a lake with your husband, make a desperate Wendy's (baked potato is gluten free) run when you realize that all lunch places are closed by 1PM and save your appetite for dinner at the The Red Hen. We didn't take any pictures, although it was tiny and adorable, because we were just too busy eating herb risotto, perfectly cooked duck, and pork chops over braised cabbage. Peter finished his meal with a black forest cake. Yum.