East coast/mid Atlantic winter weekend destinations?

[wildrice]

I'm thinking about how we are going to be sitting at home all winter, not traveling for the holidays, etc, and I'm wondering if we should try to plan a couple of other weekend trips for a change of scenery. We are still not doing close contact with other people, but I assume there are pretty places we could go stay for a couple of days and do some hiking, get takeout, and IDK what else? I'd prefer to avoid cities since most of the stuff we'd enjoy doing will be closed and/or not within our personal comfort level.

Any ideas or suggestions? We are in the Baltimore/DC area and the limit would probably be around 3 hours of driving for a weekend visit. 

[orval]

Williamsburg? - most of the historic district is open outside. Some inside are open. Jamestown, Yorktown are national parks with mostly outside areas to walk around are nearby. www.nps.gov/colo/index.htm

Charlottesville, Va - many historic homes of Jefferson, Monroe, Madison in the area. Walk around UVA campus. We went in Jan a couple years ago and they were not crowsded at all. You would have to check on openings. Hikes in the area.
www.alltrails.com/us/virginia/charlottesville

[georgeglass]

Agree Williamsburg, Charlottesville

Do you want a resort?

primland.com/

[gardengal]

We've done Chincoteague for a long weekend in the winter. See ponies, get good seafood (check times, the seafood seller had limited hours/openings), some easy walks. More relaxing than exciting vacation.

We've also done Virginia Beach in winter (to see whales, not sure that I'd get on a boat with people now tho).

Generally, I prefer beaches in off season, I guess!

We've also been to Lancaster, PA area pre-COVID. It's similarly a lowkey kinda place. If you like cycling, there's some lovely roads if you go when it's not icy or snowy. Also, we went this January to the Laurel Highlands/Ohiophyle area of PA. It was so, so lovely & seems like such an underrated kinda place. We didn't do take out because we were just there for an overnight but it's definitely a place we'd like to return!

[georgeglass]

Oct 21, 2020 10:50:04 GMT -5 georgeglass said:

Agree Williamsburg, Charlottesville

Do you want a resort?

primland.com/

Quoting myself to say that friends just went to Primland and stayed in one of their outbuildings and had room service and loved it.

[erbear]

Rehoboth Beach

[msmerymac]

National parks are currently popular, but ripe for social distancing. Shenandoah is fairly close to you. Harper's Ferry, WV, is another place I've been meaning to go and definitely has a lot of outdoor stuff, like hiking opportunities and historic sites. What about a cabin in the Poconos? Jim Thorpe is very cute.

[glw]

I just got back from 3 days at Savage River Lodge. We stayed in a forest view cabin and it was so nice. Really clean, contact-free check in, takeout dining. The cabins have fireplaces, nice soaking tubs, comfy beds. Great hiking, too, and you can do a day trip to Grantsville or Frostburg.

ETA: it's a 2 1/2 hour drive from Baltimore

[ssmjlm]

Williamsburg is a good suggestion. I'm local to it and would say you can do it within a weekend. We tend to run warm though, it's almost 80 here today. So if you're looking for a more "winter" getaway, we don't see winter temps until Jan/Feb and rarely have snow.

We like heading west toward Luray and Lexington. House Mountain Inn is beautiful, we got engaged there back in 2007. I think they've expanded a bit, but not room wise. I think they got more into the wedding industry.

[mags]

Cape May NJ
Gettysburg
Virginia Beach

[tacokick]

Cape May

Williamsburg

Historic/downtown Alexandria (we did this every year for a long time because it’s where my husband’s work’s holiday party was and it was always fun) it’s close to a lot of parks!

[marvine]

Deep Creek Lake, MD

[litskispeciality]

Geographically challenged... are any of the Delaware beaches close by? A beach day/weekend sounds amaaaazing right now.

[candreco]

Oct 21, 2020 13:29:16 GMT -5 tacokick said:

Historic/downtown Alexandria (we did this every year for a long time because it’s where my husband’s work’s holiday party was and it was always fun) it’s close to a lot of parks!

If you do Alexandria, George Washington's Mount Vernon is a 15-minute drive from alx and I can tell you that they're doing a really good job on making the estate safe to visit.  Even if you don't do the indoor museum/interpretive center, there's still a ton to see outdoors.  We live nearby and have visited often in the last few months.

[Deleted]

What about the Pocono's? If you didn't want to do a hotel, there are plenty of AirBNB types of places as well.

[litskispeciality]

Oct 21, 2020 14:02:29 GMT -5 @sameoldstory said:

What about the Pocono's? If you didn't want to do a hotel, there are plenty of AirBNB types of places as well.

That should still be pretty with the foliage. I think there's a lot of hiking.

[wildrice]

Oct 21, 2020 11:18:39 GMT -5 erbear said:

Rehoboth Beach

I was just there last month! It was lovely and I'd love to go back!

[wildrice]

Oct 21, 2020 12:38:33 GMT -5 msmerymac said:

National parks are currently popular, but ripe for social distancing. Shenandoah is fairly close to you. Harper's Ferry, WV, is another place I've been meaning to go and definitely has a lot of outdoor stuff, like hiking opportunities and historic sites. What about a cabin in the Poconos? Jim Thorpe is very cute.

We are going to Shenandoah this coming weekend! Which i am very much looking forward to, but I also just realized it's the last thing I have to look forward to until... next June? Lol. So it's inspiring me to think of other places.

I've been meaning to go to Harper's Ferry too. I think it's only an hour or so away so a great idea.

[wildrice]

Oct 21, 2020 12:51:08 GMT -5 ssmjlm said:

Williamsburg is a good suggestion. I'm local to it and would say you can do it within a weekend. We tend to run warm though, it's almost 80 here today. So if you're looking for a more "winter" getaway, we don't see winter temps until Jan/Feb and rarely have snow.

We like heading west toward Luray and Lexington. House Mountain Inn is beautiful, we got engaged there back in 2007. I think they've expanded a bit, but not room wise. I think they got more into the wedding industry.

I don't know anything about Williamsburg, so thanks to the couple of you who have suggested it, I will check it out!

I honestly don't even like cold weather or snow so I'm totally fine with mild weather! I'm thinking more winter calendar so probably would need to be stuff that would be doable in December-February. I'm from the midwest, so I'm not scared of cold temps, but since we aren't doing indoor stuff, I do want to be able to leave our hotel/airBNB and do some exploring at least.

[wildrice]

Oct 21, 2020 13:42:18 GMT -5 litskispeciality said:

Geographically challenged... are any of the Delaware beaches close by? A beach day/weekend sounds amaaaazing right now.

Not quite close, but probably no more than 3 hours or so away!

We did a beach weekend last month and it was wonderful! It's past season for swimming, but it's nice to just be by the water.

[wildrice]

Oct 21, 2020 14:02:29 GMT -5 @sameoldstory said:

What about the Pocono's? If you didn't want to do a hotel, there are plenty of AirBNB types of places as well.

I've always wanted to go to the Poconos but have actually done NO research at all about that, so maybe I should consider that now!  I think it might be a little further away than I was hoping, but I'm always willing to be flexible for something really cool.

[thelurkylulu]

I really want to do Niagara Falls but have no idea what that would look like in a COVID world in December.

[rubytue]

Deep creek lake/Wisp if you want a wintery trip with snow. Same with Cannon Valley WV - you could try cross country skiing. Massanuten or Wintergeen in VA.

[Deleted]

Oct 21, 2020 14:23:33 GMT -5 wildrice said:

Oct 21, 2020 14:02:29 GMT -5 @sameoldstory said:

What about the Pocono's? If you didn't want to do a hotel, there are plenty of AirBNB types of places as well.

I've always wanted to go to the Poconos but have actually done NO research at all about that, so maybe I should consider that now!  I think it might be a little further away than I was hoping, but I'm always willing to be flexible for something really cool.

The Jim Thorpe area is great, and is also a super cute quaint town. I'm actually going up for the day on 11/1. H is going to be doing a bike ride and I'm just going to hang around town. Lake Wallenpaupack is also a nice area, but I've only ever been there in the summer when watersports and activities are in full swing. I'm sure there are other great areas as well, those are just the two that I am most familiar with. 

[mambo123]

We are headed to Ocean City for Thanksgiving, a little house right on the water, with a private dock to fish off of, we almost picked a house in the OBX but too far of a drive. This summer we hit Charlottesville which was lovely, thinking about a trip in Feb/Jan back to the region. Did Deep Creek over the summer as well, it was nice, but I prefer Charlottesville and wineries. We just do Airbnb and bring everything with us, sometimes we go mid week and work with a new view!

[msmerymac]

Oct 21, 2020 14:42:33 GMT -5 @sameoldstory said:

Oct 21, 2020 14:23:33 GMT -5 wildrice said:

I've always wanted to go to the Poconos but have actually done NO research at all about that, so maybe I should consider that now!  I think it might be a little further away than I was hoping, but I'm always willing to be flexible for something really cool.

The Jim Thorpe area is great, and is also a super cute quaint town. I'm actually going up for the day on 11/1. H is going to be doing a bike ride and I'm just going to hang around town. Lake Wallenpaupack is also a nice area, but I've only ever been there in the summer when watersports and activities are in full swing. I'm sure there are other great areas as well, those are just the two that I am most familiar with. 

The biking around Jim Thorpe is a combination of rail trails/canal towpaths and it's quite flat and lovely. I've done day trips there several times. So cute. 

[beerlover]

Bedford, PA is about 2 hours and 20 min from Baltimore. It's also a super cute, quaint little town. I'm partial to it because my dad grew up there. Lots of beautiful old houses, some really nice restaurants, a winery and brewery, coffee shop, etc. You could stay in a historic bed/breakfast downtown and everything you need would be right there. There's also the Bedford Springs Resort if you are looking for a little fancier! I don't know much about the hiking but I know it exists. There's a state park, and the abandoned PA turnpike, the historic Lincoln highway, definitely some stuff to explore.

[litskispeciality]

You're making me want to travel! I went to Great Falls MD (but it also has a VA side...?) when I was 14. I wish I appreciated it more as now it seems like it would be pretty and fun to see.

My Godmother also took us to Old Town Alexandria when we were teenagers and there was so much to do.

[tiptoetulips]

I would recommend snow shoe wayyyy over wintergreen or massanutten

[tacokick]

Harper’s Ferry or Berkeley Springs might be fun too.