Richmond is one of the oldest cities in the country. Whether you are looking for a charming bed and breakfast with plenty of character or a luxury hotel with modern amenities, there’s something in Richmond for everyone. Certain attractions may be temporarily closed or require advance reservations. Hours/availability may have changed.
10 Best Romantic Getaways in Richmond, VA
- Linden Row Inn, Photo: Linden Row Inn
- The Jefferson Hotel, Photo: The Jefferson Hotel
- Quirk Hotel, Photo: Quirk Hotel
- Museum District B&B, Photo: Museum District B&B
- The Berkeley Hotel, Photo: The Berkeley Hotel
- Hilton Richmond Hotel and Spa, Photo: Hilton Richmond Hotel and Spa
- Westin Richmond, Photo: Westin Richmond
- Hilton Richmond Downtown, Photo: Hilton Richmond Downtown
- Omni Richmond Hotel, Photo: Omni Richmond Hotel
- Richmond Marriott, Photo: Richmond Marriott
- The Inn at Patrick Henry’s, Photo: The Inn at Patrick Henry’s
- Cover Photo: Courtesy of BeeRu - Fotolia.com
More Ideas: Science Museum of Virginia
Located in Richmond, Virginia, the Science Museum of Virginia is dedicated to enriching the lives of Virginians through science, serving as a catalyst for curiosity and exploration of the STEM fields. The museum's roots date back to the turn of the 20th century, when the Virginia General Assembly approved the construction of an exhibit center for scientific and industrial exhibits as part of the 1907 Jamestown Exposition.
History
At the end of the exposition, the items were moved to the city's Capitol Square as part of the State Museum, opened in 1910, which also featured natural historical specimens. The history of the State Museum, reopened in 1964 and disassembled shortly thereafter, is closely tied to the city's desire to create an official state science museum, which was approved in 1943 but never completed due to World War II. After the second closing of the State Museum, Virginia's scientific community revisited its lobbying for the state science museum project, and on July 1, 1970, the General Assembly officially established the Science Museum of Virginia.
Museum staff struggled to find a permanent location over the next few years, but were eventually granted use of the Broad Street Station building, the former home of the Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac Railroad. On January 6, 1977, the museum was dedicated and opened its first exhibit to the public in conjunction with the 58th anniversary of the Broad Street Station facility.
Permanent Exhibits and Attractions
The museum is home to a number of interactive exhibits tailored to the Virginia Standards of Learning, along with a planetarium showing giant-screen films and hosting astronomy presentations.
Speed, the museum's newest permanent area, features over 50 exhibits exploring the power of motion across a variety of sciences and disciplines. Five major sections include Speed of Sound and Light, which focuses on high-speed interstellar travel and technology; Sports Speed Matters, which features notable athlete memorabilia as it highlights the science behind popular sports; Too Fast To See, which slows down the processes behind motion and perception; Too Slow To See, which highlights the evolution of the area's natural history; and Machines Fast and Slow, examining the development of a variety of common technologies. Other features include an SR-71 Blackbird supersonic jet and an interactive light race traveling along the exhibit's ceiling.
Health and wellness are the focus of Boost!, which features a Kitchen Stadium area, where visitors can sample health recipes made by museum staff. The Idea Factory integrates art and science concepts in a variety of exhibit areas, including the foam block playspace Imagination Playground and a teen-only graphic arts area, The MiX. The museum's youngest visitors can enjoy LightPlace, an exploratory space for ages 5 and under. Question Power explores ecosystems spanning four billion years of Earth's history, teaching conservation and ecology principles. Rat basketball games are on display at Creatures, which also features a live animal lab and an observational honeybee hive, while the Out of this World exhibit features giant kugel balls, including a display of the museum's former Grand Kugel, which was the world's largest kugel ball until it cracked in 2003, leaving it unable to float.
For its 2017 season, the museum hosts the internationally renowned Da Vinci Alive: The Experience, the most comprehensive exhibit ever produced on legendary artist, scientist, and inventor Leonardo da Vinci. Developed by Australia's Grande Exhibitions, the exhibit encompasses the scope of da Vinci's work across the fields of mathematics, engineering, natural sciences, and the arts, allowing visitors to explore notable works and documents in touchscreen form. The gallery uses SENSORY4™ technology to immerse visitors in lighting and sound displays, forming a walkthrough cinematic experience highlighting his greatest inventions.
Standalone exhibits hosted in the station's former loading area include the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Kanawha class locomotive #2732, the RF&P Railroad business car Car One, and Aluminaut, the Richmond-designed aluminum submarine responsible for the recovery of an atomic bomb in 1966. A cafe, The Periodic Table, and the Shop4Science gift store are also located inside the museum.
Ongoing Programs and Education
Opened in 1983, the Dome, formerly known as the Universe Planetarium and Space Theater, is the most technologically advanced theater of its kind in the world. Movies are shown daily on its giant NanoSeam™ screen, focusing on a variety of astronomy and nature topics. A variety of live science labs and demonstrations are also hosted throughout the museum daily, and special technology and graphic arts programming is held periodically at The MiX.
The museum's Climate Connections program connects visitors with climate change experts, focusing on resiliency-themed discussions. A lecture series brings in researchers focusing on climate change in Virginia, and an Extreme Event Challenge series teaches about community-scale disaster planning.
2500 W Broad St, Richmond, VA 23220, Phone: 804-864-1400
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More Ideas: Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden
The grounds that Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Richmond, VA now sit on were once owned by Patrick Henry, and before that the land was Powhatan Indian hunting ground. The Garden provide beauty on historic property throughout the year with over fifty acres of stunning gardens, shopping, and dining. A number of themed gardens can be viewed across the property, including the Rose Garden, Children's Garden, and an Edible Display Garden.
The "Jewel of the Garden" is the classical domed Conservatory, the only one like it in the mid-Atlantic. Housed in the 11,000 square foot complex are unusual and exotic plants found throughout the world, as well as spectacular seasonal displays. At the center is a Palm House featuring the cycad and palm collection, tropical plants and a collection of orchids can be found in the East Wing, and in the West Wing are succulents and cacti. Seasonal displays are housed in the North Wing.
The Children's Garden at the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden is designed for kids to be able to experience the outdoors by digging in dirt, climbing a mulberry tree, observing wildlife, and more. Children can "climb" the accessible Tree House to get an aerial view of the surrounding gardens and lake. The area also features an activity center, the Jane Quinn Saunders Farm Garden, Adventure Pathway, and WaterPlay among other activities.
Visitors are welcomed by a fountain of glazed tiles that represent magnolia leaves as they step into the courtyard of the North Terrace Garden. Pleasant fragrances and the sound of splashing water begin guests' transition into the garden environment. Further into the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden is the hillside Cochrane Rose Garden which contains more than 1,300 rose bushes. The garden features pavilions, stone arches, and arbors draped in over seventy rose varieties from nurseries in England, Germany, Italy, and France.
The Cherry Tree Walk provides a tranquil walk along Lake Sydnor. The lake's perimeter now boasts several flowering cherry trees that become full of cherry blossoms during the spring. The walk also features several other plants, such as flowering shrubs, daffodils, and daylilies in the Lucy Payne Minor Garden. With edible landscaping playing such a key role in sustainable urban horticulture, the Botanical Garden includes an Edible Display Garden to demonstrate practices and plants suitable for landscaping at home. Located adjacent to the Children's Garden, this garden enhances the ornamental landscaping of the area with food producing plants. The garden serves as an educational resource for classes and demonstrates how a food producing urban landscape can be beautiful, sustainable, and functional.
The Flagler Garden showcases a collection of blooming shrubs, woody plants, bulbs, and perennials that create a constantly changing display of seasonal beauty. Ornamentals, crape myrtles, rhododendrons, and azaleas line a grassy glen and cover the landscape with blooms of multiple colors. Tree canopies provide shade during the summer, while a small stream winds along the edge of the garden. The 3-acre garden also features a quiet woodland and a giant sculpture Slow Dance.
1800 Lakeside Avenue, Richmond, Virginia, Phone: 804-262-9887
More Things to Do in Richmond, VA
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More Ideas: Branch Museum of Architecture and Design
The Branch Museum of Architecture and Design in Richmond, Virginia is located in a historic, 27,000 square foot home built in 1919 by the famed architect, John Russell Pope. The home was built in the Tudor Revival style for bank owner and financier John Kerr Branch (1865-1930), and offered the Branch family ample space to house their collection of European textiles, tapestries and furnishings.
It is the only example of Tudor revival style architecture in the United States in which the interior has remained intact. The House that Pope Built is a permanent exhibit at the museum which uses photographs and other media to interpret the history of the home, including that of the architect, the Branch family, the surrounding neighborhood, and the 16th century English house which inspired the design of the Branch family home. Livable Communities for Virginia is a permanent exhibit that explores the role of architecture in Virginia and the 10 Principals for Livable Communities as outlined by the American Institute of Architects. The Branch family home is located in the Monument Avenue Historic District, a community that has been on the National Register of Historic places since 1967. It is the only singular structure in that neighborhood to have it’s own place on the registry.
History: Architect John Russell Pope was famous for his designs of the National Archives, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, the West Wing of the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, as well as the Broad Street Station in Richmond, now the Science Museum of Virginia. Although those projects were all completed after the Branch House, the Branch House has benefited from standing as the only example of domestic work completed by the 20th century’s most prestigious design firms. In 1953, The Branch Family donated the home to the precursor of the United Way. In 1982 the home changed hands again and became the Richmond headquarters of the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company. In 1984 the home was granted a listing on the National Register of Historic Places. The Virginia Center for Architecture Foundation purchased the house in 2003. The home hosted the VCA Foundation offices as well as the offices for the Virginia Society for the American Institute of Architects, and its magazine, Inform, which is now defunct. The VCA Foundation opened the home to the public as a museum in 2005. The property allowed for the exponential expansion of the programs and collection of the Virginia Architecture Foundation. Thus, 10 years later, in 2015, the Foundation expanded to encompass the broader mission of the Branch Museum of Architecture and Design. Currently, the museum is home to the American Institute of Architects Virginia (AIAVA) as well as a rare book shop and the museum gift shop.
More Richmond ideas: romantic getaways, restaurants
Ongoing Programs and Education: Museum tours take guests through the first and second floors of the museum. The 45-minute tour focuses on the architecture of the house as well as the history of the Branch family. Group tours, which must be scheduled in advance, include “the House that Branch Built,” an architectural tour of the home that focuses on the unique details which make it a classis example of the Tudor revival style, as well as the history of the architect, John Pope. Family Days offer all-ages hands-on activities and programming. The Gingerbread House Workshop takes place each winter season. Children decorate and take home their own gingerbread houses. The Holiday Open House offers scavenger hunts and other activities in the home while it’s decorated for the holiday season the way it would have been when the Branch family lived there. The museum offers internship opportunities to current undergraduate students in the areas of marketing, education, development and curation. Internships are semester based.
Past and Future Exhibits: Visiting exhibitions have included “The National Mall.” This exhibit, made possible by the National Mall Coalition explores design suggestions and the future role of architects for improvements to the landscape and functionality of the National Mall in Washington DC. “History Interpreted: Framing the Historic Event” showcased poster art by graphic design students at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts. “Ballet Pas de Deux: An Exhibition of Dance and Architecture” explored the connection between choreographing motion and designing buildings as two forms of creativity. The exhibit featured over 30 photographs as well as a sound and light installation.
2501 Monument Avenue Richmond, VA 23220, Phone: 804-644-3041
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