Charlottesville, Round Three!

Hi, friends! I was in Charlottesville the last few days–this was my third time visiting, and it might have been my favorite trip yet! Naturally, I wanted to share about the trip with you (as I did after my first trip to Charlottesville back in 2020).

We (me, Rex, my sister Jiyoung, and her husband Daniel) spent a total of three days and two nights in Charlottesville, and that felt like a good amount of time where we did a ton and didn’t feel rushed or bored. We drove up from Durham Thursday morning and headed straight to Thai ’99. We went there during my sister’s bachelorette trip back in 2022, and going back to Thai’ 99 was her only request for this time around!

After feasting on Thai food, we did some shopping at Heyday Vintage & Antiques (where I spotted the McCoy Strawberry cookie jar I had been eyeing for years) and Poppypointe Needlepoint Store (I picked up a Blue Ridge Mountains canvas to commemorate this trip).

We checked into our Airbnb mid-afternoon and then walked over to the Downtown Historic Mall. Then we spent the rest of the afternoon browsing and strolling around the area until dinnertime.

While researching for this trip, I came across Smyrna which has opened since I last visited Charlottesville. They are a Turkish/Mediterranean restaurant, and everything we had was outstanding! Pictured below is their Meze trio, and we couldn’t get enough of it (ended up ordering extra bread to really make the most of it). Another notable item was the lamb Wellington, which was the special of the evening.

We ended our first evening with a ghost tour with USA Ghost Adventures. Surprisingly, Charlottesville doesn’t seem to have a huge ghost tour scene (in comparison to Asheville or Charleston) so this seemed to be the only option. It leans more towards historical tour (there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of well-known/vengeful ghosts in town) but we actually really appreciated learning about the town’s history.

Friday morning was spent at Monticello (following breakfast bagels at Bodo’s Bagels). It was everyone’s first time at Monticello, and we opted for the Highlights Tour, which gives you a tour inside the building in addition to what is included in all admissions.

Having taken ESL instead of social studies classes in middle school, I didn’t know too much about Jefferson or Monticello so I felt like it was worth the money and time to visit. I would be interested in visiting again in the future and perhaps going on one of the other guided tours like From Slavery to Freedom Tour.

After grabbing a quick lunch (and a cheeseboard for later) from Simeon Market, we split the Friday afternoon between two wineries–Veritas Winery and Pippin Hill Farm & Vineyards. A follower on TikTok recommended Veritas for the views, and I was happy to check off another Charlottesville winery off my list!

Veritas is quite spacious with a large outdoor area so we grabbed one of the fire(?) tables outside and sat around for a while. I stitched my WIP some (the horse Zodiac sign from Audrey Wu). A bottle of white and a bottle of red were consumed during this time period as well.

Pippin Hill is probably the most popular winery in Charlottesville but it does live up to the hype since it really has the best view! You can sit on the lawn without a reservation which is what we had planned to do but it was so cold and windy and they had some spots on the back patio so we ended up sitting out back under a cover and multiple blankets.

There was a private event at Pippin Hill that evening so we had to cut our time short but we still had time to enjoy one of their award-winning white wines and take plenty of cute photos!

We kept things very low-key for our last day in town. The only “plan” we had was to brunch but the restaurant we had planned to go was temporarily closed as of earlier in the week so we pivoted and tried out Brookville Biscuits instead.

I had wanted to check out Magpie Knits (one of those stores that close at 5!) so we checked out of the Airbnb and headed back to Downtown Mall. This ended up being a great idea since there was a pop-up market as well as the farmer’s market that just opened up for the season! After some (window) shopping, we were ready to hit the road!