Roanoke, VA turned out to be the perfect weeklong stop between our time in Northern Virginia and Tennessee. Nestled in the Blue Ridge Parkway, Roanoke offers a mix of outdoor adventures, local history, and unique attractions. During our stay, we explored iconic spots like Mill Mountain and the Roanoke Star, wandered through Dixie Caverns, sipped coffee at Sweet Donkey, and even played vintage games at the Roanoke Pinball Museum. Of course, we also spent plenty of time taking in the views along the Parkway and visiting other nearby gems.
Our home base for the week was Don’s Cab-Inns Campground at Explore Park. This is a small private campground inside a county park. We loved the peaceful vibe and amazing amenities- and the location was super convenient for exploring Roanoke. In this post, we’re sharing tips for visiting all the places we enjoyed, a peek at our favorite moments, and plenty of ideas for even more things to do in Roanoke!
Saturday: Mill Mountain
Mill Mountain in Roanoke, Virginia, is like the crown jewel of the city—literally, since it’s perched on a mountaintop! Home to the famous Roanoke Star (aka the world’s largest freestanding illuminated star), it’s the go-to spot for epic views of the city and surrounding Blue Ridge Mountains.
Besides the Star, there’s also a zoo, nature center, wildflower garden, and trails. We skipped the zoo, since we try to only visit AZA accredited zoos. The nature center was great, though! They had some really fun hands-on activities and it just had a great vibe. We also checked out the wildflower garden, even though most wasn’t in bloom. Then we did a short hike to try out some of the trails. We actually saw the Star itself twice- when we first got there, but then came back around right as it lit up for the night. Everyone we met from Roanoke asked us if we had visited the Star yet- so it’s definitely THE destination of the city.
How to Visit the Roanoke Star at Mill Mountain
2000 JB Fishburn Pkwy, Roanoke, VA 24013
https://www.playroanoke.com/parks-facilities/mill-mountain-park/
Discovery Center Hours: April-Thanksgiving Thur-Sun 12-6pm; Thanksgiving-March Thur-Sun 12-4pm
Sunday: Booker T Washington National Monument & Blue Ridge Parkway
Booker T. Washington National Monument is located in Hardy, Virginia, on the site where Booker T. Washington was born into slavery in 1856. The park preserves the farm where he spent the first nine years of his life and includes a reconstructed cabin and farm buildings that reflect what life might have been like at the time.
While we visited, the visitor center was closed for renovations, but they had one room of the building open with passport stamps, brochures, and a table of gift shop items. Most of what there is to see here is outdoors.
How to Visit Booker T. Washington National Monument
12130 Booker T. Washington Highway, Hardy, VA 24101
https://www.nps.gov/bowa
Grounds & restrooms open daily 9am-5pm
Temporary visitor center hours Wed-Sun 10am-40pm
Fee free site
Our campground at Explore Park was right on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The Blue Ridge Parkway is a scenic highway in the United States, often referred to as “America’s Favorite Drive.” It stretches for 469 miles, connecting Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina to Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. The parkway follows the Blue Ridge Mountains, which are part of the larger Appalachian Mountain range.
The National Park Service owns and manages the Parkway and it’s full of scenic views, hiking trails, access to historic sites, picnic spots, and more.
We stopped at a few of the scenic overlooks and short hiking trails near Roanoke. The two most notable spots were Buck Mountain and Roanoke River. We hiked the 1 mile trail up to the top of Buck Mountain from the overlook parking lot and then from the Roanoke River Overlook we hiked down to the river itself.
Tips for Visiting the Blue Ridge Parkway
https://www.nps.gov/blri
https://www.blueridgeparkway.org/
Explore Park Visitor Center (has NPS passport stamp) Sat/Sun 9am-7pm
Check road conditions- some roads close for winter
There are no gas stations on the Parkway, so fill up in a nearby town
Use the mileposts to plan and navigate
Have an offline map in case you lose cell signal
Monday: Dixie Caverns
Dixie Caverns is a small show cave just outside of Roanoke, Virginia. It’s been open to visitors since 1923 and features guided tours that take you through rooms filled with stalactites, stalagmites, and other cool rock formations. The cave itself isn’t huge, but it’s got a lot of character- plus, there’s a campground and an antique mall on the property, so it’s a bit of an all-in-one roadside stop.
We actually almost camped at Dixie Caverns, and while the campground did look nice, Explore Park ended up being better for us location-wise. We still had to get out for a tour, though, since we love caves. They only have walking tours, but our guide told good stories about the different names of formations and info about the cave and it was overall a really good tour. It was also really interesting to us since unlike other caves we’ve been to, this cave is almost totally above ground level inside a big hill.
How to Visit Dixie Caverns
5753 W Main St, Salem , VA 24153
https://www.dixiecaverns.com/
Tours: Weekdays 11am-4pm except Tuesdays, (tours every 60 minutes); Sat/Sun 10:30am-4pm (tours every 30 minutes)
Adults $18, Kids age 5-12 $8, Kids under 5 Free
Gift shop & antique mall open every day but Tuesdays 10am-5pm
Tuesday: Roanoke Pinball Museum
The Roanoke Pinball Museum is a hands-on museum that’s all about—you guessed it—pinball. It’s tucked inside Center in the Square in downtown Roanoke, Virginia, and features over 60 pinball machines spanning decades, from vintage models to modern ones. The best part? You can actually play them.
I didn’t even know I liked pinball this much until 3 hours had passed and it felt like we had only been there for minutes. We ended up making it a challenge to play every working game they had (and some we repeated), and we could have stayed longer if it wasn’t already past dinner time. This ended up being one of my favorite things we did this year, since it was such an unexpectedly great time.
How to Visit the Roanoke Pinball Museum
1 Market Square SE, Roanoke, VA 24011- located on the second floor of Center In The Square
https://roanokepinball.org/
Tue-Sat 11am-8pm, Sun 1-6pm
$15, Kids under 2 Free
Check online for special events like adults-only nights, tournaments, etc.
Wednesday: Sweet Donkey Coffee
Wednesday we had a coffee meeting with the local Wild Ones chapter leader. Josh always has the local members choose where we meet up with them, which always brings us somewhere new we probably wouldn’t have known to pick ourselves. For this meet up, we went to Sweet Donkey Coffee in Roanoke. It’s in an old 1920’s house and is a really great cozy space. I had their seasonal cinnamon bun latte and it was delicious- and they definitely did not skimp on the cinnamon! I would definitely come here again if we’re ever back in the area.
How to Visit Sweet Donkey Coffee
2108 Broadway Ave SW, Roanoke, VA 24014
https://sweetdonkeycoffee.com/
Mon-Fri 6am-7pm, Sat/Sun 7am-7pm
Thursday: Wild Ones Roanoke Region Annual Meeting
Thursday evening we headed to a local church’s meeting room the annual meeting of the Wild Ones Roanoke Region Seedling. We got to meet a bunch more members and chat during a potluck, then during the meeting we got to be there when they voted to officially start the process of chartering to become a full chapter- very exciting! I know I’ve said it before, but Wild Ones members anywhere we go are some of the nicest people we’ve met.
Friday: Twin Creeks Brewpub in the Historic Brugh Tavern
For our last night in Roanoke we finally made it out to the Historic Brugh Tavern- now Twin Creeks Brewpub- inside the park we were staying at. It’s only open weekends, so we had to wait to visit, even though we drove by it a ton. The original tavern was built in 1792-1800 and was relocated to Explore Park in 1998 to be a restaurant. The main part of building that you see driving by is the original construction and they added an extension to the back. The lease changed hands a few times over the years, but now it’s owned by Twin Creeks, which also has another location in town too.
We got burgers and beers and it was great food and we really loved the atmosphere of the historic building. A lot of the original building is still visible and it has great vibes.
How to Visit Twin Creeks Brewpub
1 Old Salem Tpke Rd, Roanoke, VA 24014
https://www.twincreeksbrewing.com/BrewPub.php
Fridays 6-9pm, Saturdays 12-9pm, Sundays 12-7pm
Even More Things to Do in Roanoke, Virginia
Bonus Quick Stop: Miniature Graceland
We drove by the mini Graceland right outside of the Mill Mountain entrance road. Besides Graceland, the owners have also added replicas of other Elvis-related buildings.
More Roanoke Museums
- Taubman Museum of Art: Thurs-Sat 10am-5pm, Sunday 12-5pm. Free admission
- Kids Square: Roanoke’s children’s museum. Tues/Wed 10am-2pm, Thurs-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun 1-5pm. Adults & Kids $11, Kids under 1 Free
- The Harrison Museum of African American Culture: Wed-Sat 10am-3pm. Free admission
- O. Winston Link Museum: Roanoke History Museum. Tues-Sat 10am-4:30pm. Adults $6, Seniors/Military/Students $5, Kids 12-17 $3, Kids under 12 Free
- Roanoke Starcarde Video Game Museum: Similar to the Pinball Museum, but with other types of arcade games. Tues-Sat 11am-8pm, Sunday 1-6pm. $15 admission for unlimited free play
- Science Museum of Western Virginia: Also has a planetarium with shows. Tues-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun 1-5pm. Adults $17.50, Kids 3-17 $13.50, Seniors/Students/Military $14
- Virginia Museum of Transportation: Tues-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun 1-5pm. Adults $12.66, Seniors/Students/Kids 3-17 $10.55, Kids 3-12 $8.44, Kids 2 & under Free
