skyline hwy northern virginia

Easy nice drive, it is winding in spots, I have driven it on a motorcycle, VERY beautiful to drive. Motor homes are also on it mostly on Fridays and Sundays, those can make it interesting every so often. But you will never forget the ride.. It is awesome..

It is a beautiful drive as ouki stated.Fall is a good time to make the drive.Have your camera ready.

The camera is ready, right now I'm rigging a make believe route in MapSource to fool my Nuvi 260 to follow my route from FL through NC and VA, I’m planning on picking up the Blue Ridge Pkwy. near Cherokee NC and going up into VA and getting off from the Skyline at Front Royal and picking up I81 to Pennsylvania, down the PA Tpk. to Philly.

Everything is packed and just waiting for the fall colors to get closer to peak around VA, following the color change on the Weather Channel web page.

Any plans around Cherokee?You are close to the Casino,Great Smokey Mtn NP,Maggie Valley and Pigeon Forge.Also not to far from Biltmore House in Ashville NC.

Nice ride, but it takes more time than you think. Watch out in the winter with all the curves. More snow and ice at higher elevations.

dobs108

Plan your time on the Parkway carefully. It sounds as if you will be on vacation and not tied to a hard schedule when you plan on traveling. I would shoot for traveling the Parkway during the week, the parkway will be less crowded and there will be more opportunities to use the scenic pull-offs.

Speed limit on the Parkway is about 35 MPH, so it will take time to drive the entire route. There are at least one or two POI lists here on POI-Factory, take a look at them and see if they would be useful.

My experience with the Blue Ridge Parkway is that it is sometimes the quicker route between two points, especially when travelling through NW North Carolina. The curves are not as bad as the US and state highways. Also, there's little to no cross-traffic since most intersections are grade-separated.

Dave

Beautiful drive, to say the least. Did it last year in July, and enjoyed it very much. It is much curvier and slower in NC, with 25 of the 26 tunnels located there (believe I've got that right...) Speed limit is much slower than the interstate, so you need to plan your time accordingly. We took 2 1/2 days on our trip, just to enjoy the Parkway. Gets a bit straighter in VA. Also plan on seeing various wildlife on the road, so the lower speed limit makes sense (besides, you'd be hard pressed to drive much over the speed limit in a car anyway) Never been over it on a bike, but be prepared to see a bunch of them. Very, very scenic, so enjoy your ride and stop to see some of the side overlooks. You'll enjoy it very much...

Box Car, it is not a vacation since I’m on a permanent one, the wife and I will go at our own pace, no hurry to get there wherever there is, we just need to get back before it starts snowing.

Right now I’m tracking the color progress down south, the plan is to arrive at Cherokee on a Sunday afternoon to be ready and hit the Parkway early on Monday, it could be next weekend or the one after that it all the depend on the trees.

Charlesd45, no casino plans, we have those here in Tampa and we never go, we lived in Philly when AC opened and only went a couple times, no gamblers.

Just going for a Sunday drive…

My son and I did the parkway 2 years ago with a car on vacation. A lot of great scenic overlooks. Just be leery that it is slow (as already stated). There are a lot of curves and hills. The main thing is to not do a lot of braking (go slow). I found myself having to monitor my speed for the curves and hills and going even slower because my brakes were starting to heat up.
Stop at the overlooks and read the signs that are there. Enjoy it.

Sounds like you two will have a great drive. Enjoy!

Too bad we can't figure you out a better option across to Philly than the Turnpike, but I guess it's nice enough & will be pleasant to do some driving at hwy speed after the Parkway & Skyline.

Same thing here no big gamblers.Only went one time here in FL.Did spend some time at Las Vegas though on last trip.Mostly for the shows.We do go the horse races once in a while here in FL.We look to explore new areas since we are on no time schedule any more.

It's only a short detour to visit Grandfather Mountain from the Skyline Drive. Worth the short drive!

As one who has driven the Blue Ridge Parkway many times and the Skyline Drive a few times, I can say that it is an absolutely beautiful drive. A few years ago, I decided to drive from the northern end at Front Royal, VA, all the way to the southern end at Cherokee, NC. We did it in about four days with an overnite stay thrown in at my sister-in-laws in Roanoke. Points of interest that you may want to take in are the Peaks of Otter. If you take a hike to the top you will be rewarded with a great view. Also, the restaurant is pretty good. You might want to give that a try. Mabry Mill is another nice place to visit. You can spend a good 2 hours there checking out the various things that are there. This is a great photo spot. And, don't miss the Linn Cove Viaduct. This is an engineering masterpiece. Actually the Blue Ridge Parkway was not completed until the mid 1980's due to the fact that the engineers could not find a way around Grandfather Mountain. Upon completion of the Linn Cove Viaduct the Parkway was finally completed. There is a nice trail that leads under the viaduct so one can see how it is constructed. The only warning I would give is to watch out for fog. It can become extremely foggy on the mountaintops. On one occasion I was driving and it was so foggy you could not see 20 feet in front of you. If you run into a situation such as that, the best bet is to jump off at the next exit and find a place to stay. Sometimes the fog will stay on the mountains well into the afternoon. Enjoy the drive!!!