Blacksburg sits in southwestern Virginia about 30 miles west of Roanoke, just off US 460 and ten miles north of I-81 at exit 118B. Most visitors arrive by road, since the Virginia Tech Montgomery Executive Airport (KBCB) handles only general aviation. The closest commercial flights are in Roanoke. The Smart Way Bus runs directly between Roanoke's airport and the Virginia Tech campus, and Virginia Breeze (via Megabus) connects Blacksburg to Washington, D.C. with stops including Dulles. Once you arrive, the Blacksburg Transit bus system - free for everyone, thanks to a cooperation between town and university - will get you almost anywhere you need to go.

It is hard to miss the Virginia Tech campus when you arrive. Most of its buildings are clad in Hokie Stone, the locally quarried limestone that gives the school its distinctive grey-with-warmth appearance. Burruss Hall presides over the upper edge of the Drillfield, the broad central lawn where students cross between classes and pickup frisbee games unfold on warm days. Lane Stadium and Cassell Coliseum anchor the athletic side. The Pylons rise above the War Memorial Chapel at the Drillfield's edge - eight massive limestone columns engraved with the names of every Virginia Tech student and graduate who, in the Memorial's words, died defending our nation's freedom. The list begins with World War I and continues through every conflict since. The pylons themselves are inscribed with the core values the chapel honors: Brotherhood, Honor, Leadership, Sacrifice, Service, Loyalty, Duty, and Ut Prosim - the Tech motto, That I May Serve.

Outside the campus, southwest Virginia opens up. The Blue Ridge Parkway is an easy drive south, with overlooks every few miles and Chateau Morrisette - the winery and restaurant just off the parkway near Floyd - waiting at the end of one of the prettier routes. The Appalachian Trail passes within a few miles of town. Closer in, the Huckleberry Trail is a paved eight-mile former rail bed that runs from the Blacksburg Library to Christiansburg, gently graded for walkers, runners, and bikers. In summer, students float the New River on rented inner tubes. Every spring, the International Street Fair fills downtown with food, music, and dance from cultures around the world - usually in early to mid-April.

The downtown food and drink scene is what you would expect from a college town wedged into the Appalachian foothills - more pizza and burgers per square foot than the population justifies, plus a few standouts that locals defend with quiet ferocity. Gillie's serves vegetarian and vegan breakfast that students will wait an hour for. Bollo's bakes the biscuits and cinnamon buns. The Cellar runs a Mediterranean-leaning menu downstairs and stays late. PK's slings Polynesian pizza for some reason that works better than it should. Bull and Bones, Top of the Stairs (universally known as TOTS), Sharkey's, and Hokie House anchor the bar scene. A coffee shop sits on essentially every block.

Every first weekend in August, downtown Blacksburg closes its streets and turns itself over to Steppin' Out - an arts festival with food vendors, live music, handcrafts from the surrounding counties, and a one-mile road race called the Draper Mile that has run annually since 1982. It is the kind of small-town festival that Appalachian towns do unusually well: bonsai sellers next to bluegrass stages, kids getting their faces painted in front of a bonsai stall, the smell of fryer oil and the sound of fiddles in the air at the same time. The college students have mostly gone home by then. For one weekend a year, the town belongs to itself.