America gets lucky - but only if I get help!

This is a personal post to my few American readers and any of my much-travelled British readers, too. Next year is an auspicious one for me and the little 'Memsahib'.  We shall both, fingers crossed, reach 70 and it will be our 45th wedding anniversary!  The last time such an important anniversary occurred was when we both reach 50 and celebrated our 25th anniversary with a trip to Boston and New England in the Autumn which was glorious.  Anyway, I am minded to repeat something like it next year and as I am determined to see 'Noo Yawk' before I die, I have a cunning plan.  It seems fairly easy and cheap to fly from here into Newark.  There, I thought I would hire a car and go south aiming for Virginia which looks good from a map, and where I would like to have a two base holiday, first in the mountains, and then down on the coast.

So, my question is, can anyone, by any chance, recommend an area or a specific location which is easy on the eye, comfortable accommodation, a few good bars and restaurants around but not too busy.  I'm not really expecting much in the way of responses but it would be silly not to ask.  I can, and have, looked on Google, but you can't beat a personal recommendation.

After that, I plan to drive back into 'Noo Yawk', and try and soak up what I can in three days!

Any personal friends who read this, please do not mention it to the little 'Memsahib' because I want it to be a surprise - she doesn't know it but I plan to sell her into the white slave trade!

Comments

[dearieme]

Just don't forget, David, that in the States everything is further than you think.

[Tatyana]

David, I'd be honored to be your guide in NY. But I'd never been more to the South than Atlantic-City...

[Tatyana]

Oh, and another thought - are you sure you're up to our right-way driving? (yes, ours IS the right way!)

[David Duff]

'DM', yes, you're quite right but I am hoping I can afford to make this a slightly extended stay to give me the time needed to get from A to B. One of the good things about New England was the plethora of good motels, hotels and B&Bs which made an unplanned 'mooch around' quite easy. Mind you, the whole thing depends on the exchange rate remaining in our favour!

Tatyana, a Russian guide to New York - delightful - only in America! And don't worry about right-hand driving, those silly Europeans still insist on driving on the wrong side, so I am very used to it.

[Tatyana]

Hurry, David - the city is full of opportunist Irish buying everything and their mother in 3 days of stay! Soon they'll leave the shelves glaringly nekkid!

There was an episode in the news, where they showed few Oyrish tourists buying XXX-large luggage on their last pennies: "everything is so cheap heer"!

Write to me at creakypavillion at geee mail, when you decide to talk particulars.

[fallenmonk]

Sounds like a real adventure David. Being born and partially raised in Virginia. I know a little about it. The area around Charlottesville is quite nice and some things to see. Williamsburg and surrounds are nice as well though a bit touristy. If I were driving that far I might consider going a bit further into Western North Carolina and Asheville which is a lovely city with plenty to see and do. Asheville is also right on the Skyline Drive which you could take back North towards Roanoke and get to see some very beautiful parts of the Appalachian mountains. Virgina is not quite as cosmopolitan as the Boston/Northeast corridor so the population of B&Bs and bars is somewhat wanting. To be honest it hasn't been that many years since they legalized liquor by the drink. You are on the border of the "Bible Belt" down there. We'll talk more as your plans firm.

[fallenmonk]

Sounds like a real adventure David. Being born and partially raised in Virginia. I know a little about it. The area around Charlottesville is quite nice and some things to see. Williamsburg and surrounds are nice as well though a bit touristy. If I were driving that far I might consider going a bit further into Western North Carolina and Asheville which is a lovely city with plenty to see and do. Asheville is also right on the Skyline Drive which you could take back North towards Roanoke and get to see some very beautiful parts of the Appalachian mountains. Virgina is not quite as cosmopolitan as the Boston/Northeast corridor so the population of B&Bs and bars is somewhat wanting. To be honest it hasn't been that many years since they legalized liquor by the drink. You are on the border of the "Bible Belt" down there. We'll talk more as your plans firm.

[David Duff]

Thanks, Tatyana, I have your e-mail noted but we won't get there until next year and then only if the pound/dollar rate is still good. Funnily enough our oldest friends have just returned from two weeks in Naples, Florida, and normally she is famous for her luggage being overweight at Heathrow because she just empties her entire wardrobe into the suitcases. This time I suggested to her that with the exchange rate so favourable to us Brits she should take an almost empty suitcase and fill it up over there. I gather she did just that but I don't have the details yet because her husband looked somewhat pissed off when the subject was raised!

[David Duff]

Thanks, 'FM', that's exactly the sort of 'intelligence-recce report' I need! When we visited New England we did do a lot of driving around which was terrific because the countryside and the towns and villages were beautiful. Twenty years later I'm not quite so keen to be constantly on the move, hence my idea that we drive to a specific location (the mountains) and stay there for 4/5 nights to use it as a base for looking around; and then moving somewhere else (the coast) to do the same thing. Just from my atlas, Virginia looks as though it has the geography to be a lovely place to visit and I guess we would have to keep to the north end of the State simply to reach it and return from it in reasonable time.

One thing I did find in New England is that eating was for sustenance not pleasure! My friends said it was much the same in Florida. I mean, the food was perfectly alright, but not really done with much flair. Is that unfair? Did I just not go to the right places, perhaps?

Anyway, it all depends on the exchange rate staying sweet - er, sweet for me, sour for you, I'm afraid!

[pissed off patricia]

If you were going a bit more to the south to Florida I could give you lots of ideas but Virginia is pretty much unknown to me.

[David Duff]

Thanks, Patricia, my friends who just came back from Naples, Fl., raved about it, in fact they're even considering buying out there! But if I go, I want to be within reach of New York - a sort of dream of mine - and also suffer minimum flying time.

By the way, any blog that calls itself 'Morning Martini' has to be a favourite of mine, er, despite the appalling political opinions that one has to read over at your place!

[Tatyana]

Exchange rate is very sweet for us, too - provided lots of tourists come and spend here, rather than on your own "soggy island"! (not my description).

Just realised I forgot the password for my gee string, oops sorry, geemail. I'll supply you with the working one later.

If you want food, NY is your place. Definitely.

[David Duff]

No, "soggy" is about right.

On the exchange rate, glad to see you understand economics!

Don't worry about the password, my, er, 'royal' visit is still at the ideas stage.

[fallenmonk]

Sorry for the double post David. Don't know how that happens but I have done it before on typepad sites. Please feel free to delete one of them.
And Northern Virginia pretty much means metro Washington, DC which in my opinion sucks if you are not going to DC proper for the museums and such otherwise it is just urban sprawl of the worst kind.

[David Duff]

'FM', don't worry about the double entry, I do it all the time and it's a complete mystery to me - like so much else in life!

You have made me look a bit closer, and at first glance Charlottesville looks promising, not least because it appears to be in the middle with both the coast and the mountains within reach. The city itself looks attractive, big enough but not too big, and that might suit us as a one-stop base for operations! Also, I can fly from London to Washington. It means missing New York but we could always do that some other time on an 'in and out shopping' trip which they're always advertising over here.

Hmmmn! Early days but I must investigate further. "Time spent in recconnaisance is never wasted" as the little Corsican bandit put it! Thanks for the tips and hints.

[Hank]

David

I will second the Skyline drive suggestion. Bring a camera and binoculars. And a full tank of gas, the road distance is three or four times the straight line distance. (I rolled into the gas station at the end on fumes and gravity.)

I haven’t been there a lot; your idea of a base in the mountains for few days is good.

And do have fun.

[David Duff]

Good tip, Hank, thanks. I'm getting quite excited about the idea but whether or not it happens is another thing.

[Tatyana]

DD, I even found you a place to stay in West Virginia. Golf for you, spa for regal Memsahib.

[David Duff]

Tatyana, you are a treasure! Unfortunately I fell out with golf some years ago. Not that I didn't give it a really good try, you understand, but on the 7th hole of my very first game I retired! You may have picked up a slight hint here and there on Duff & Nonsense that I am of a somewhat irrascible nature and quite simply my blood pressure could not stand golf. A ridiculous game, I tell my fanatical golfing friends, and anyway I'm not old enough for it yet!

I have saved your link for future reference. I see that it is fairly well up in the north west of the state which might be useful. Anyway, thanks.

[Tatyana]

...of irascible nature...and not old enough for golf: I see we have a more and more in common.

[David Duff]

Except that your spelling is better than mine - "irrascible" - duh!