Where to Stay in Roanoke, Virginia

What is Roanoke known for?

Roanoke answers to the Star City of the South because of it, and the lit marker above the Roanoke Valley is the first thing most arrivals look for from the road below. Downtown carries the museums. The Virginia Museum of Transportation, the Taubman Museum of Art and the Science Museum of Western Virginia stand in the city below, while Mill Mountain Zoo shares the height with the star.

What are the main landmarks in Roanoke?

The star is the landmark that travels. Mill Mountain carries it above the Roanoke Valley, and Mill Mountain Zoo shares the same height, which makes the climb the one fixed item on most visits to Roanoke. Three museums hold the floor.

The Virginia Museum of Transportation, the Taubman Museum of Art and the Science Museum of Western Virginia are the city's collections, and Belmont Methodist-Episcopal Church and the Boxley-Sprinkle House are the older buildings on the list.

What is the history of Roanoke?

Roanoke dates from 1852. The settlement took hold along the Roanoke River inside the Blue Ridge range of the Appalachian Mountains, and the valley it occupies has shaped everything the city has done since. Roanoke's churches went up first.

Belmont Methodist-Episcopal Church and the Boxley-Sprinkle House survive from the decades when Roanoke was still a valley town rather than the largest Virginia city west of Richmond. The star came later. A lit star was raised on Mill Mountain over the Roanoke Valley, and the city answers to the Star City of the South, a name that has done more for its reputation than anything else on the map.

Transport followed the valley. Interstate 81 runs the length of the country Roanoke sits in, and the Virginia Museum of Transportation gathers what moved through the valley before the road did. Museums arrived last.

The Taubman Museum of Art and the Science Museum of Western Virginia belong to the modern city, Mill Mountain Zoo to the height above it, and Smith Mountain Lake and Virginia Tech mark the two ends of the country Roanoke sits between.

Where is Roanoke?

The valley holds the city. Roanoke lies along the Roanoke River inside the Blue Ridge range of the Appalachian Mountains, with Mill Mountain rising directly over the built-up ground and the Roanoke Valley opening around it. Relief is the constant.

Smith Mountain Lake lies on one side of the city and Virginia Tech on the other, which puts Roanoke in the middle of the country between the water and the mountains.

What is the climate of Roanoke?

The Blue Ridge does the work. Roanoke sits in a valley inside the range, and the mountains around it hold the summer heat of the temperate band in check more than the open country beyond the Blue Ridge manages. Height changes everything here.

The air on Mill Mountain runs cooler than the valley floor of Roanoke, and the same relief that gives the Roanoke Valley its views gives it its weather.

How do you get to Roanoke?

Interstate 81 brings most arrivals. The road runs through the valley Roanoke occupies, roughly two hundred and fifty miles from Washington and about fifty north of the North Carolina line, which makes the city a long but simple drive from either end. Richmond lies east.

Roanoke is the largest Virginia city west of Richmond, and the drive in from the capital runs west until the Blue Ridge closes around the road. Smith Mountain Lake lies within reach.