Front-Royal Travel Guide
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20 miles SE of Strasburg; 174 miles NW of Richmond; 70 miles W of Washington, D.C.
At the northern end of the Skyline Drive, Front Royal offers easy access to the Shenandoah National Park's Northern District and is a good place to stay either before or after touring the park. It lacks the charm of Staunton, Lexington, and other valley towns, nor is it as convenient to the park's popular Central District, but this area has the valley's widest array of outdoor activities: golfing, horseback riding, and canoeing, rafting, kayaking, and inner-tubing on the sometimes lazy, sometimes rapid South Fork of the Shenandoah River. And if you didn't disappear into the caverns down in Luray, you can go underground here.
Front Royal was named for a royal oak that stood in the town square during the Revolutionary War. In those days, it was a wild and woolly frontier waystation at the junction of the two trails that later became U.S. 340 and Va. 55. During the Civil War, it was home to the infamous Confederate spy Belle Boyd, whose close contact -- to say the least -- with Union officers led to Stonewall Jackson's surprise victory at the Battle of Front Royal in 1862.
Across the mountains to the east are two fine inns and dining choices, including a nationally famous, five-star inn and restaurant in "Little" Washington.
