What to do and see in Surry, Virginia (VA): The Best Things to do

The visitor's portal to all things Surry County! Friendly staff are available daily to provide information, directions and recommendations for your experiences at all of our local and regional attractions. The Surry County Visitors Center is open Monday-Saturday from 10:00am - 12:00noon and 1:00pm - 3:00pm; Sundays from 1:00pm - 5:00pm.

The Castle provides Guided Tours, Gift Shopping, & Tourist Information on Mondays, Fridays, and Saturdays between 10 a.M. And 5 p.M. And Sundays between 12 and 5 p.M. Grounds are open 365 days a year between dawn and dusk. Built in 1665, Bacon's Castle, originally known as the Arthur Allen Brick House, is British North America's oldest brick structure, North America's only surviving example of Jacobean Architecture, and has North America's oldest, preserved 17th-century English Formal Garden. Since 1973, Preservation Virginia restores, preserves, and presents the 40-acre historic site as a museum. The Site has a gift shop, restrooms, tourist information desk, guided house tours, Oldest Tidewater Virginia Barn (early-18th-century), 1850s Smokehouse, 1829/1849 Slave Quarters, and self-guided grounds and garden tours. Preservation Virginia's Bacon's Castle is proud to announce it is a Virginia Green certified Attraction and encourages others to participate in responsible practices. The grounds are accessible 364 days of the year between dawn and dusk.

Located only 6 miles from Surry Courthouse and 15 miles from Colonial Williamsburg and Victorian Smithfield, the 1,947-acre Chippokes Plantation State Park invites visitors to explore thousands of years of natural and Native American and over 394 years of African and European American histories while basking on James River sun-kissed beaches, relaxing amidst nature and a roaring campfire, and visiting other regional attractions. In the same year Africans were first brought to Jamestown, in 1619 Captain William Powell was granted his patent for Chippokes Plantation. By 1626 Chippokes Plantation became a working farm and to this day remains an operational agricultural enterprise. Between April and October visitors may tour the 1854 Jones-Stewart Victorian Mansion and eight, beautifully-appointed exhibit rooms showcase how people decorated and lived in the years before the American Civil War. The Mansion hosts periodic Hearth Cooking Demonstrations at its detached Summer Kitchen. Please check for program details. During Summer months take guided walking tours of "Quarter Lane". Located adjacent to the 1816 Antebellum Riverhouse visitors follow in the footsteps of enslaved African Americans and their contributions to building America during this informative African-American Heritage Program. Please check for program details. Overnight guests may choose between four cabins and fifty water and electric campsites. Reservations are recommended.

Smith's Fort Plantation is nestled on the south side of the James River, located on the site of Captain John Smith's planned "New Fort", on the land given by Chief Powhatan as a dowry for his daughter Pocahontas upon her marriage to John Rolfe. The 18th century manor house retains much of its original woodwork and provides examples of early American and English period furnishings from the late 16th through the early 18th centuries. Built sometime between 1751 and 1765, this story-and-a-half Flemish bond brick house was home to Jacob Faulcon and his family. The name "Smith's Fort Plantation" comes from the fact that John Smith began construction of a second fort on this site in 1608. Smith's Fort offered a strategic location for a retreat fort away from the original settlement, but construction was abandoned early due to starving conditions at the first fort and conflicts with the local Native American tribe. A few years later after the successful union of Pocahontas and John Rolfe, the bride's father, Wahunsenacawh, was the paramount chief of Tsenacommacah (In 1607, the English colonists were introduced to Wahunsenacawh as Powhatan and understood this latter name to come from Powhatan's hometown near the falls of the James River near present-day Richmond, Virginia.), Gave his new son-in-law a grant of this land as a dowry gift. Although the couple never lived on site, their only son, Thomas Rolfe, later returned to Virginia and opened a tobacco plantation on over 400 acres of the property.

Hampton Roads Winery is a family owned farm winery located in historic Surry County, Virginia. Opened in late 2015, Hampton Roads Winery is located on a 40 acre estate featuring a beautiful 1898 Victorian home, a visitor's center with tasting bar, gift shop, and outdoor patio, and also home to the world's tallest goat tower. Come out to the country and relax, Surryside!