Nice towns in northern VA (Arlington, Charlottesville: sales, house, school)

[CHIP72]

I'm just curious which towns in northern Virginia in the DC metro area people would consider to be nice towns. By nice, I mean they have walkable downtowns with some commercial and mixed commercial/residential development, have a sense of history (or have been around since before 1900), and generally have nice-looking and/or architecturally interesting housing/building stock in most parts of town. More specifically, I'm curious about the areas that would be outside the Beltway but in Fairfax, Prince William, Loudoun, Fauquier, or Stafford Counties, or within/adjacent to them if the place is an independent city.

I'll moving to the DC area in about a month (though I intend to live in Maryland, in Silver Spring), and I'm curious to find out what towns might be worth checking out as part of a day or half-day trip. When I've visited Virginia previously, I've been impressed by how attractive I felt many of the towns were; many of them IMO looked even nicer than many of the towns in my native Pennsylvania (which also has a number of attractive towns). Mind you, many of these towns I consider attractive are in or near the Shenandoah Valley, like Winchester, Staunton, Lexington, and of course Charlottesville, but a couple of them are in the area I've identified above, such as Leesburg and Fredericksburg. I guess I'm wondering if there are other towns, such as Manassas, that would at a similar level of attractiveness as Leesburg or Fredericksburg. Any constructive comments would be appreciated.

[claremarie]

Waterford Virginia. The entire town has been designated a National Historic Landmark. The Village of Waterford, Virginia - A National Historic Landmark

[5stones]

waterford is cute, but has no real "downtown" it's worth a visit when you are doing the wine circut through Loudoun county. The historic school house is neat and it has a couple of shops. But all in all it is really very small.

Leesburg as you mentioned is great start and end your day there when doing the wine trail or the fall farm tour. During the summer they have concerts on the courthouse lawn and First Fridays where shops stay open later and have sidewalk sales etc...
Balls bluff battlefield is Leesburg right off of rt 15. It's a nice little hike around the woods and goes down to the Potomac.

Purceville is worth a visit when you are out in the Leesburg area as well.

Also take Whites Ferry across the Potomac and drive up 28 to Frederick MD. you'll pass Poolsville and a great old post office. Frederick downtown has really come about the last few years. They are creating a "riverwalk" area and have some very neat old shops and nice architecture. (alot like Leesburg)

Middleburg is a neat little town.

I love Culpepper as well, we always would stop there for lunch on our way to and from Charlottsville. nice shops and some very good resturants.

Winchester too.

[NOVAmtneer82]

If you're willing to drive a little further, Shepherdstown and Harpers Ferry in WV, I've made it to those towns in about an hour and fifteen minutes from Arlington. The distance from Silver Spring would be similar, all you have to do is zip up 270 to Frederick and then take 340 out to WV.

[5stones]

oh forgot Harper Ferry!! very neat town and History to boot! Oh those stairs! (go on a nice warm day in the fall!)

Also Antiem MD is pretty close for a day trip. I take it you've done Gettysburg, if not it's close too.

[CHIP72]

Yeah, I'm familiar with the towns on the US 15 corridor between Harrisburg and Frederick (and to a lesser degree between Frederick and Leesburg). Gettysburg is definitely a nice town, and Frederick is a nice, small city (at least in the "old" area; unfortunately Frederick has an awful lot of sprawl outside its traditional core, but I guess that's a given in a fast-growing area like Frederick). I'm familiar with Martinsburg (and of course Hagerstown and as previously noted, Winchester) too, and although Martinsburg isn't a super nice-looking town, it definitely isn't an unattractive town either.

I had a feeling the towns in the eastern WV panhandle between Martinsburg and the Virginia line were probably worth checking out. I'll probably go out there at some point too.

I've been through Culpeper, and I agree that's a fairly nice looking town as well. It's a little outside the area I've identified, but I'd probably check things out a bit more there whenever I'd make a trip to Charlottesville.

[EuroExpat]

I personally like Middleburg and Harper's Ferry (WV). Leesburg isn't bad either, especially if you happen to go there during a festival or "First Friday".

[karnovaran]

Occoquan has a rather unique old town section on the river.

[DavidS827]

I would check out Haymarket. It doesn't fit your exact description, but should by the time the year is over. They are just about to start a major town face-lift that will restore many of the old buildings and make the town much more walkable. There is also a ton of history in that little town. Make sure to stop by the Haymarket museum, it's pretty interesting to see how important that place was. Just don't speed. Haymarket police are notorious for pulling people over for doing 26 in a 25...and I'm not exaggerating!!! I think they have a Napoleon complex...

[ersatz]

Fredericksburg Virginia is worth a visit. The outer part of town has succumbed to tract housing and big box stores but the downtown area is very popular with tourists - a number of colonial and civil war historical attractions and some nice restaurants. It's along the Rappahanock River and is a pretty stroll in the spring when the pear trees are in bloom.