Jaunted

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Take a Trip Down Virginia's 'Lincoln' Movie Trial

This week Lincoln was released on DVD giving cities across Virginia a second chance to lure spring and summer tourists to their new Lincoln Movie Trail.

The trail gives visitors a chance to take a self-guided tour of locations used in the Steven Spielberg movie, including landmarks, hotels, and restaurants in Richmond and Petersburg.

Highlights of the tour include Millie's Diner, Arcadia, and The Jefferson Hotel.

The trail map and location details can be downloaded for free at www.virginia.org/lincoln.

[Photo: virginia.org]

Travel Contests / Travel Photography / Lomography / Virginia Travel / Valentine's Day Travel / → All Tags

Virginia is for Lovers and Lomographers: Win a Trip with a Single Photo

Raise your hand if you occasionally get a little nostalgic for actual film cameras and the days of tangible prints. See, that's the thing about the internet though, is we can't see you raising your hand or physically join in because while we love us some iPhoneography and DSLR fun, every so often we're still reaching for our throwback Lomography camera. And apparently so is the entire state of Virginia, since their freshest tourism endeavor involves pitting real photos from Lomo cameras against each other for chances to win all-expenses-paid, experiential trips to the state that is famously "for Lovers."

Contest

Here's the deal: the Lomographic Society has turned out a "Virginia is for Lovers" special edition of their newish 35mm La Sardina camera, and to celebrate, anyone with a Lomo camera is welcome to submit a photo to the contests to win a Virginia trip. There'll be a contest every month, starting now through December 2012, and each has a specific theme for your photo. Right now, it's "Love Surrounds: Show us the people that mean the most to you."

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Movie Travel / Theatre Travel / Beer Travel / Alamo Drafthouse Cinema / Virginia Travel / → All Tags

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema to Bring Their Brews and Views from Texas to Washington DC

The much beloved Alamo Drafthouse Cinema has announced they are expanding their operations next year with a new location on the outskirts of Washington, DC, in Ashburn, VA.

The Alamo Drafthouse isn't your run-of-the-mill movie theater. They serve up gourmet food and drinks every night (there is a bar in every lobby) and host fun pop culture-themed events, like the Dazed and Confused Feast taking place tonight at their Houston location.

Construction on the 34,000 sq. foot theater in Ashburn in a planned community called One Loudoun will begin this spring, with hopes to open in the spring of 2013.

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Food Festivals / Festival Travel / Vermont Travel / Virginia Travel / Michigan Travel / Events / → All Tags

Three More USA Maple Syrup Festivals for Spring 2011

Vermonters are serious about their syrup. When we posted a story last week about a national syrup festival in Indiana, which proclaims itself as the only national, multistate fest of its kind, Vermonters voiced their dismay about being overlooked. They do make some darned good syrup, so to give them love and pay homage to maple-sugaring season, we'll give you the other top syrup fest spots in the country.

Check out three tasty syrup festival destinations after the jump.

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Strange Scuba Spots / Virginia Travel / Scuba / Scuba Dives / Active Travel / → All Tags

Drive an Underwater School Bus at this Virginia Scuba Spot

The weather is getting warmer, and if there’s no room in the budget for a tropical vacation this year, you can always hit up one of our strange scuba spots. Lake Rawlings in Southern Virginia offers a full-service scuba solution—including non-strange diving trips—but they also have a spring-fed lake with crystal clear water. Visibility usually runs between 30 and 60 feet, but in the winter when the algae finally kicks the bucket, it can often exceed 100 feet.

There’s plenty of fish in the lake including large-mouth bass, and there’s even some freshwater clams that call the lake home sweet home. However, this underwater life isn’t worth a trip to the lake. It’s all the sunken junk that makes the lake famous.

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Virginia Travel / Tourism Board Travel / Travel News / Tourism Marketing / → All Tags

'Virginia Is For Lovers' Celebrates 40th Anniversary With Free Trips

Although we’ve never understood what was so lovable about the state, apparently Virginia's motto is something to swoon over. The slogan Virginia is for Lovers is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, which easily makes it the country’s longest running state tourism tagline. It’s so successful that it has the chance to gain a spot on the Madison Avenue Advertising Walk of Fame.

Besides critical acclaim, the slogan also helps attract a lot of cash into the state. Somehow they can quantify the lovers line, as they report that tourism brings in $19 billion per year. It also supports over 200,000 jobs and gets state and local communities some nice stuff with over a billion dollars in tax revenue. We need to figure out how to get a slice of all this tourism cash action; how does "Jaunted is For Lovers" grab you?

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