Virginia is one of the USA's original colonies and is home to amazing history and travel as well as extensive retirement options for long term residents or new prospective retirees.   Virginia's "Historic Triangle" has attractions from before the time of the American Revolution to more recent history.   Here you find Jamestown, the first permanent English colonial settlement in America; Colonial Williamsburg, the capital of Virginia from 1699 to 1779; and Yorktown, the site of the British surrender in 1781.

Virginia is also home to the estates of George Washington at Mount Vernon and Thomas Jefferson at Monticello. (Four out of the first five US presidents came from Virginia: Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, collectively known as the Virginia Dynasty.) Pressing forward, Virginia has well-preserved Civil War battlegrounds at Manassas National Battlefield Park, Fredericksburg National Military Park, and Richmond National Battlefield Park, all administered by the National Park Service. A visit to Arlington National Cemetery brings us to the present -- the most prestigious US military cemetery serves as a resting place for veterans of all armed conflicts from the Civil War onward. The most famous soldier buried there is President John F. Kennedy.

Government is the business of the "beltway" region adjacent to Washington DC, which lies sandwiched between Virginia's northeastern edge and the state of Maryland. The shipyards at Newport News are where aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines are built in addition to major liners for the cruise ship industry.