My cousins live in Roanoke. It is a great place. Go to the Mountain Cafe (there may be more to the name but Mountain is in it)they have very good coffee, scones, etc. and you can sit for hours. There is one downtown, across from the museum. I went up this year for the polo matches sponsored by the symphony, great funny and lots to see. Roanoke is the 'Star City of Virginia (or maybe the South) with an huge lighted star one of the mountains. It was a young town people town with lots of 'stuff' going on, farmers market, symphonies, art shows very up town stuff I thought. Check out the Ram's Head book store really unique.