Just minutes outside Charlottesville and surrounded by a rich array of cultural offerings, dining options, and outdoor activities, Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello is the perfect centerpiece for your family visit to Virginia. Spend quality time with your loved ones as you learn about important American history from our trusted tours and guides. Be inspired by the beautiful landscape. You’ll find something for the whole family. And the best part: Now through Labor Day, save 40% on teen tickets (ages 12 - 18) to Monticello, when you purchase online!
To help you make the most of your visit, here are just a few of our favorite family activities:
1. The Family Friendly Tour
Clock weights that go into the floor, mastodon bones, and double-acting doors… there are lots of things at Monticello to discover! These special guided 40-minute tours of Thomas Jefferson’s house are designed for families with children ages 5 to 12. Featuring hands-on opportunities, these tours give you a glimpse of life at Monticello and highlight Jefferson’s accomplishments and wide-ranging interests, all in a family friendly format.
2. Family picnic with a view
With beautiful vistas of both the house and gardens, Monticello’s West Lawn offers a picturesque spot for a family picnic. Best of all? We’ll prepare the picnic for you! Monticello’s Farm Table café offers sustainably-raised, locally-sourced, seasonal food that you and your family will love. Visit Monticello’s Farm Table to get your family’s lunch and enjoy a relaxing picnic on the mountaintop!
3. Ice cream with a historical twist
Did you know that Thomas Jefferson loved ice-cream? It’s true! Visit our ice cream cart near the North Pavilion all summer long to get your cup of chocolate ice cream made with American Heritage Chocolate©. We pair this special chocolate—made from 18th-century recipes and sold exclusively at museums like Monticello—with local ice cream to create a tasty (and historical!) treat that you won’t find elsewhere. Don’t miss out!
4. The Gardens
Explore our gardens to see, smell, and touch plants from around the world! Thanks to Thomas Jefferson’s lifelong passion of exchanging seeds with people in other countries, our gardens are filled with interesting and rare flowers and plants that you won’t find elsewhere. Have a kid who asks lots of questions? Not to worry. You’ll find garden ambassadors and guides around the mountaintop who are happy to answer questions from young curious minds.
Your ticket to Monticello provides access to all of our gardens and grounds, including the unique 1,000-foot vegetable garden. A lush, green garden overlooking the blue, sprawling Virginia Piedmont is a unique and wonderful experience for your family.
5. The Griffin Discovery Room
Monticello visitors—especially those ages 6 to 12—can literally get in touch with American history in the Griffin Discovery Room. The space offers hands-on activities through reproduced elements from both the Monticello house and the plantation, including Jefferson’s desk, the nail-making shop, a polygraph machine, and secret codes on a wheel cipher based on Jefferson’s designs. This educational environment provides a variety of ways for young people to learn what life was like for children in the early 1800s.
Don’t forget to take the whole family through the Griffin Discovery Room either before or after your tour, located at the David M. Rubenstein Visitor Center.
Whether it’s a day trip or a week-long vacation to Charlottesville or the Blue Ridge Mountains, be sure to add Monticello to your family’s to-do list.
And don't miss your chance to save 40% on teen tickets through Labor Day!