
Note: Due to COVID-19, many businesses have alternate hours and safety restrictions. Please check their websites and Facebook pages before traveling to ensure you have the most up-to-date information.
—TRIP PLANNING OVERVIEW—
Stay at: Lansdowne Resort & Spa, starting around $149 per night
—FRIDAY—





—SATURDAY—
If you’re a morning person, Lansdowne’s Fitness Center offers several Saturday classes to start your day, like guided meditation, yoga, and cardio strength training. Don’t favor those early hours? Sleep in! Vacations are all about relaxing and resting up, and in our opinion, Saturday mornings are a perfect time to hit the snooze button. For breakfast, the buffet at Riverside Hearth in the hotel has everything you could possibly want, from a custom omelet bar to smoked salmon and cream cheese bagels.


Photo Credit: Visit Loudoun
Drive back to Leesburg for lunch at King Street Oyster Bar, a seafood restaurant that has an outstanding selection of fresh oysters (the best sourced from Virginia, of course). Impressed by our first visit to King Street, we actually went back the following day for lunch at the restaurant’s second location in Middleburg; the fish & chips platter and crab cake sandwich were both exceptional.

Photo Credit: Kyle Schmitz
Make reservations at The Conche ahead of time, as Saturdays are always busy. This Leesburg restaurant is a chocolate-lovers dream, serving creative cocoa-infused cocktails, desserts, and even entrees. Start with one of the cocktails, like the Autumn Breeze, made with vodka and fig rosemary honey syrup, then topped with Brut Rose and served in a glass rimmed with a rosemary and sugar mixture. If you’re dining with company, think about ordering an appetizer, such as the Crispy Calamari made with a chocolate stout beer batter and pickled Fresno peppers, then follow up with one of the delectable entrees, like the Spiced Lamb Flatbread (Chermoula-spiced ground leg of lamb, shaved fennel, arugula, labneh, walnuts, Kalamata olives, and feta cheese on a rosemary flatbread) or the cocoa-nib crusted Seared Scallops. During the meal, you can watch chocolatiers through a glass wall as they make beautiful chocolate bon bons as well as other cocoa treats.
Photo Credit: Kyle Schmitz
Seeing as you are at a chocolate-themed restaurant, make sure to leave room for dessert. Groups of two to four people should order the ConcheEntremet, a dark chocolate sphere that encompasses a rich sour cream chocolate cake and Guanaja chocolate cremeux with salted caramel ice cream. The dish is served tableside, where the waiter pours a hot chocolate sauce over the sphere to reveal the incredible dessert inside. While the experience is a bit pricey at $45, it is worth it for the memorable spectacle of the entire performance (plus a little less painful when splitting with others!). Before leaving, order a box or two of the chocolate bon bons to go; if you don’t eat them all before you get home, they make excellent gifts for friends and family.—SUNDAY—

