My family had the privileged to visit Alexandria, VA back in October. It was a cloudy, raining weekend, but despite that we had a wonderful time! We had never been to Alexandria before (I know!). Now we can’t wait to go back. There is so much to see, that it’s almost impossible to get it all done in one weekend. We certainly tried though.

If you’re unfamiliar with Alexandria like we were, I recommend going for a Ghost Tour your first night/day out. Since it was a walking Ghost Tour, it helped us to get the lay of the land before we headed out on our own. Not to mention that it was also very informative and entertaining.

My absolute favorite part of all was the Apothecary. Almost everything in the museum was from the original store that used to be there and it was awesome and so full of history. We also visited the Carlyle House , The Black History Museum, Gadsby’s Tavern Restaurant and Museum, the farmers market, we shopped and visited the waterfront. We walked, we took the free trolley and just had a great whirlwind weekend. On our way home, we stopped by Mount Vernon, home of George Washington.

Here are some of the pictures from our trip. Below the pictures you’ll find some of my tips if this is your first time navigating Alexandria.

If you’ve never been to Alexandria, here are some tips.

1. Street parking on King St and about 3 streets back from King are all metered parking with credit card/cash machines to pay. If I’m remembering correctly I think the max meter time is 2 hours?? However, the further you go away from King Street, the parking is not metered. For instance we walked several miles to the Black History Museum b/c we were already parked and we realized that the parking was free by the Black History Museum b/c it was further out.
2. Highly recommend the “Key To The City” pass. It will get you into 8 local historical places plus a discount for Mount Vernon for $15. Totally worth it.
3. If you stay at a hotel close to Downtown Alexandria it may have valet parking so don’t forget to tip your valet!
4. If you’re there on a Saturday, you can park in the parking garage located right under the farmers market and across from the Visitors Center, for $5 all day! That is Saturday’s only and I think you have to be parked in the garage by 12 noon to get that price.

Here are more pictures of our trip…

If you have any questions about my visit to Alexandria, please email me sherry@z95.net and I’ll do my best to help. If you’re curious about all of things to do in Alexandria, check out the visitalexandriava.com website.