Experience the best of Roanoke

Roanoke grew as a railroad hub, and the Virginia Museum of Transportation fills the old Norfolk and Western freight station, with locomotives parked beside it. A huge illuminated star on Mill Mountain, lit since 1949, looks over the valley from above the city, and the City Market, in use since the 1880s, still sells produce and flowers.

The Blue Ridge Parkway passes just outside the city, and McAfee Knob, a rock ledge on the Appalachian Trail high above the Catawba Valley, lies to the north-west and is among the best-known viewpoints on the whole trail. Smith Mountain Lake, a large reservoir for boating, is to the south-east, and the Peaks of Otter are an easy drive north-east.

Southern Appalachian cooking sets the tone, with biscuits and country ham, barbecue and pimento cheese, and the valley's breweries and farm stands fill in the rest. The redbuds bloom in April, the ridges turn red and orange in October, and the city sits comfortably between the two.