Virginia

The 200-mile Crooked Road—also known as Virginia's Heritage Music Trail—connects venues and heritage sites that highlight the gospel, bluegrass and mountain music that has been passed down for generations. You will come across stage shows, outdoor concerts, festivals, Appalachian crafts and great scenery, but it’s the locals who bring the Crooked Road to life. Be it the banjo maker in Galax or the quilter in Floyd, they all have a story to tell.

As the first, largest and most prosperous of the British colonies in America, Virginia provided four of the first five presidents of the United States, and eight in all (more than any other state): George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor and Woodrow Wilson.

Any souvenir with the ‘Virginia is for Lovers’ slogan, which was introduced in 1969; the most popular option is a bumper sticker.

The Historical Triangle is the site of the first English settlement in the New World, Colonial Williamsburg, and Yorktown, where the American Revolutionary War ended. Also, more major battles of the Civil War were fought in Virginia than in any other state.

Route 11 Potato Chips have been produced for 20 years in Shenandoah Valley. View the process through giant windows, then choose from flavours like Mama Zuma’s Revenge, Sweet Potato, Dill Pickle or Chesapeake Crab.

In 2010, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond reopened its doors after a $150 million (£95 million) expansion, the largest in its 74-year history. The permanent collection encompasses more than 22,000 works of art, including the largest public collection of Fabergé outside Russia and one of the nation’s finest collections of American art.

Completed in 1834 and named in honour of President James Monroe, Fort Monroe in Hampton is the largest stone fort ever built in the U.S. Nicknamed ‘Freedom's Fortress’, it provided a safe haven for hundreds of runaway slaves during the Civil War. Fort Monroe became a part of the National Park System in 2011 after more than 150 years as an active army post.

• Eiffel Tower at King’s Dominion
• Colonial Williamsburg
• King Neptune statue in Virginia Beach
• Mabry Mill on the Blue Ridge Parkway
• Natural Bridge.

Home to more than 200 wineries, Virginia was recently ranked as the fifth largest wine-producing state in the United States.

Luray Caverns are the largest caverns in the eastern USA. Some of the most spectacular creations were formed one drip at a time, such as Giant's Hall, where predominately golden columns that are 10 storeys tall decorate vast chambers. The gold colours come from iron and clay soils seeping from the ground, along with the calcium carbonate ‘drips’. The world's largest musical instrument is also at Luray Caverns: the Stalacpipe Organ is played from a regular-size organ, but its organ pipes are the stalactites themselves, spreading over three-and-a-half underground acres.