Guide to Alexandria, VA

ALEXANDRIA, VA

Founded 1749

Alexandria was one of the cutest towns I have ever been in. I wish that I got to stay there for more than a few hours, but even in that short amount of time, I fell in love with everything about the town from the history to the cobblestone streets to the shopping to the food. This travel guide is going to be a lot shorter than my Georgetown one, and is maybe more of a review than a guide. Either way, it will have some good information for any tourist like me.

This little guide is going to be set up differently than my Georgetown one because I am just going to tell you what my day in Alexandria consisted of. 

I arrived to Alexandria by Metro from DC. At the King Street Station, I hopped on a little trolley that took me straight into old town Alexandria. It dropped me off at the waterfront (pictured above). My sister and I strolled around a bit and immediately found the cutest store I have EVER been in.

It's called The Lucky Knot and it sold all of my favorite Southern Prep brands like Lilly Pulitzer and Vineyard Vines. It also introduced me to a bunch of similar brands that, being from California, I had never heard of before! I spent over an hour in that little store looking through dresses and jewelry. I left with an adorable pair of earrings that I am currently wearing as I write this post.

After some shopping, my sister and I walked around on some of the side streets which had such old, gorgeous houses on them.

Also, who can resist an actual cobblestone street? I saw some of those in Georgetown, but the ones in Alexandria felt even older and more historic. The houses were all brick with old lanterns hanging on them. I kind of wish that cars weren't allowed on the streets because they just look so out of place, but I guess the modern world has to catch up with us somewhere. My sister and I also stopped at Carlyle House. We were too late to get a real tour of it, so sadly I don't really know the history of the building or what it was used for, but it was very pretty from the outside and the gardens were beautiful.

photocreds

There are tours from 10:00am to 4:00pm and I would strongly recommend doing that. I wish I could have. To complete our little tour of the town, my sister and I had dinner at Gadsby's Tavern. George Washington ate here very often before his presidency, and the restaurant still serves traditional meals from the colonial times.

They seated us at George Washington's personal table (according to this historian that was taking pictures of it before we sat down). Inside it was candlelit, and the sun was still out, so it wasn't too dark. We ordered peanut soup to start us off.

It was a very interesting taste... like a mix of peanut butter, apple cider vinegar, and some other random tastes that I couldn't name. I thought it was pretty good, but my sister didn't like it as much. It was SO filling though, so I would not recommend getting it as an appetizer like we did. For our entrees, I ordered a lamb chop and my sister got some sort of steak if I remember correctly.

There was so much food, but it was all delicious! While we were eating, we found out that the reason that there were so many people in town that day (it was packed!) was because it was Alexandria's birthday! Every year, Alexandria holds off on 4th of July fireworks, and then has a big celebration on July 8th for the anniversary of the founding of the town. This was a wonderful surprise, and so my sister and I decided to wait at the waterfront until 9:00 for the firework show.

It was held on the dock, and there was a pretty big crowd. Getting out of the town proved to be a challenge and Uber was very expensive because so many people were using it at once. But even though the crowd was a pain, the fireworks were so worth it and served as a special end to a fantastic day.

I'm not sure what hotels or lodging are in old town Alexandria, but I would totally recommend staying there for a few nights. It is such an amazing town, and even though I only got to go for a few hours, I miss it like crazy!