John Tyler Memorial Highway (Virginia Route 5)

A designated Virginia Byway running roughly 50 km east from Richmond through Charles City County, and one of the quietest historic drives in the state — two lanes of woodland and field with almost nothing commercial on it.

This is the spine of the James River Plantations. Long private drives peel off to the south toward estates strung along the river up to 3 km away, several of them 18th-century houses still standing on their original land. Charles City County has barely grown in two centuries; the landscape is closer to what the road looked like a hundred years ago than to anything around Richmond.

The paved Virginia Capital Trail runs alongside for the full length, 84 km from Richmond to Jamestown, which makes this equally a cycling route. Allow extra time — the interest is in the turnoffs, not the through-drive.