Things to Do

I think that when you are from a town, it is hard for you to find good tourist things to do there. You see the same things every day so nothing really jumps out as a great thing to do. One local attraction is Dixie Caverns. Dixie Caverns is located right off of Interstate 81. There are tours available year round. You get to walk around and hear the legends of how the caverns were discovered and learn about stalactites and stalagmites. Dixie Caverns is an especially popular place to visit around Halloween. The cavern gets a nice little Halloween makeover and changes its name to "The Haunted Cave."

There are a lot of nice trails in the immediate area for the people who love the outdoors. A particularly nice trail is right down the road in Giles County called the Cascades. The Cascades are open year round, but I suggest that you only go between mid-spring through the first winter snow. I have gotten near the top before and had to slide down huge plates of ice to get back down. The trail runs on either side of a beautiful river. Another nice hiking trail is located on the parkway in Floyd. This is the best choice if you just want to see mountains.

Christiansburg also features a lot of not so great shopping areas. We have a Target, Wal Mart, American Eagle, Aeropostale, and a few other not so exciting places like that. There is no great abundance of indoor things to do in Christiansburg. Nightlife is almost non-existent. If you like to go out, the nearest club would be located in Blacksburg, which, since it is a college town, only has smoky bars packed to the door with a college coeds.

Food

A personal favorite local restaurant of mine is Macados. Their menu consists of a variety of sandwiches accompanied by rippled chips and a pickle, a limited few Italian entrees, a few Ben and Jerry's desserts, and pretty nice selection from the bar. There is a smoking and a non-smoking section, but as we all know there is no real point in having a non-smoking section in a restaurant that has a smoking section. The smell carries, but the food is great. Their cuisine is very addictive, in fact, I spent two hours looking for one on the way to the beach (it's a long irrelevant story). I suggest the Dietrich Delight (bacon, a lot of turkey, and muenster cheese on a buttery bagel), and a Julius Caesar (chicken parmesan on a Kaiser roll). I also suggest that you try the French Onion dip which they make there, it will give you horrible bad breath for a week, but it is truly worth it. Christiansburg's other restaurants are mostly national chains: Fazoli's, Red Lobster, IHOP, O'Charlies, Pizza Hut, Papa Johns, and the other average fast food chains. There is a fairly good selection of Mexican restaurants in the area. A personal favorite of mine is Cinco de Mayo (which I ever so affectionately call it five of mayonnaise). I must say that I have not tried much from their menu. I tried the chicken quesadilla, and I could never try anything else. Chips are complementary, but I suggest you pay the extra $3 for the cheese dip because it is wonderful. The service there is great and extremely fast. This is a nice sit down restaurant and I can be in and out in 30 minutes flat paying under $10 a meal.

Traffic

I am not sure who picked out the contractor to design the roads in this area, but I certainly hope that their three year old got a hold of their designs and drew a new route with a crayon because it is a mess. I have lived here my entire life and I even have a hard time getting around. There are many exits off of Interstate 81 to get into Christiansburg, if you can manage to get into the town, you have just made a great accomplishment. When it comes to Christiansburg's citizens driving around, I swear I think that Wal Mart had a special on driver’s licensees because you should always be prepared to go 20 under the speed limit in the passing lane. That is just how it is. Do not even plan on trying to do anything on a day when there is a Virginia Tech football game. Do not go out unless you are going to the game, you will sit in traffic for hours only to get to your destination to stand in line for another hour.

Accommodations

Since I am from this area, I have no real need to stay in a hotel, but I can give you a general idea of what is available. If you are looking for the Ritz, you are not going to find anything over three stars here, turn around, get back on the interstate, and try Roanoke. The nicest accommodations you will find here is a bed and breakfast by the name of The Oaks Victorian Inn (see link below). There is a pretty good amount of places to stay, unless, once again, you come in on a football weekend, then you need to make reservations about a month in advance.

This Epinion is an entry in the Hometown Write Off hosted by proxam

Oaks Victoria Inn: http://www.bbonline.com/va/theoaks/index.html


Recommended:
No

Best Suited For: Families
Best Time to Travel Here: Anytime