Eighteen miles of paved river trail, four waterfront parks inside the historic district, and a mile of King Street retail — with the drive, the trail and the walk to each.
Our Old Town Alexandria community guide covers the rules: the Board of Architectural Review, the FEMA flood map, the permit-parking districts. This page is the other half — what is here to use. Every venue below was checked against the operator's own source in August 2026, and anything that could not be confirmed open was left out rather than guessed at. Public land carries most of the weight here for a reason: parks, trails and shoreline do not change hands or close, and the acreage and the mileage stay true long after a restaurant list has gone stale.
Old Town's river edge is a chain of parks, all free and open sunrise to sunset. Founders Park at 351 North Union Street holds the open lawn, a volleyball court and an unfenced dog area at Oronoco and North Union, with the Alexandria City Marina on its southeastern edge. Oronoco Bay Park at 100 Madison Street is the event lawn. South of the pedestrian blocks, Windmill Hill Park at 501 South Union Street has basketball and volleyball courts, a playground and a running trail, on a stretch where the city swapped the original bulkhead for a natural shoreline under a 2003 master plan. The southern anchor is Jones Point Park at 1 Jones Point Drive, run by the National Park Service: two playgrounds separated by age group, two basketball courts, multi-use fields, two fishing piers and a canoe and kayak launch, open 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. year-round. Its 1855 lighthouse is the last remaining riverine lighthouse in Virginia and is not open to the public.
The Mount Vernon Trail is the spine: eighteen paved miles built by the National Park Service in the 1970s and 1980s, running from Theodore Roosevelt Island south to Mount Vernon and carrying more than a million users a year straight along the Old Town waterfront. Ride south about two miles and you reach Belle Haven Park and Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve, 485 acres of tidal marsh, floodplain and swamp forest entered on the flat three-quarter-mile Haul Road Trail of pea gravel and boardwalk; motorised boats are restricted there May 15 to August 25 for nesting marsh wrens and least bitterns. The trail ends at the Mount Vernon estate roughly eight miles south, where the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association maintains about 500 of Washington's original 8,000 acres. Northbound it meets the Four Mile Run Trail, seven paved miles inland to Falls Church. And from Jones Point you can cross the river on foot: the Woodrow Wilson Bridge shared-use path, 12 feet wide and 1.1 miles long, opened June 6, 2009 and lands at National Harbor.
Not everything worth walking is on the water. Fort Ward Park, about 45 acres at 4301 West Braddock Road, preserves the fifth-largest of the Civil War defences of Washington; 90 to 95 percent of the earthworks survive, with a rebuilt northwest bastion, ceremonial gateway and a museum on site. Chinquapin Park Recreation Center & Aquatics at 3210 King Street is the indoor athletic anchor: a year-round 25-metre pool with a separate diving well, lighted tennis courts, racquetball, saunas and sand volleyball, its Phase 1 accessibility work having run July 8, 2025 to January 31, 2026. Cameron Run Regional Park at 4001 Eisenhower Avenue is 26 NOVA Parks acres holding Great Waves Waterpark, a wave pool and seven slides, 2026 season May 23 to September 7, day tickets on site only. Furthest out, Huntley Meadows Park at 3701 Lockheed Boulevard is the largest in the Fairfax County Park Authority system at 1,452 acres, with two miles of paved trail and a half-mile marsh boardwalk rebuilt in 1994 as Northern Virginia's first fully ADA-compliant one.
King Street is the specialty district: roughly a mile of independent shops in the ground floors of two-century-old buildings, thinning as you climb west from the river. Red Barn Mercantile at 1117 King Street fixes what that retail actually is, selling home goods, linens, stationery, candles and gifts, open 10 to 6 Monday to Saturday and noon to 5 Sunday as of August 2026. Old Town Books sits a block off King at 130 South Royal Street. For what King Street does not sell, the big-format shopping is close. Potomac Yard Center at 3671 Richmond Highway, two and a half miles north on Route 1 with its own Metro station, listed Target, Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, TJ Maxx, HomeGoods, Old Navy, Michaels, PetSmart, Staples and Five Guys in its own directory in August 2026. Five stops north on the Blue or Yellow line, the Fashion Centre at Pentagon City opened in fall 1989 with 860,000 square feet on 25 acres and still anchors on Nordstrom and Macy's.
The water access is the draw. The city runs the Alexandria City Marina at 0 Cameron Street: leased berths to 40 feet, transient docking at $20 for up to four hours first-come, 9 to 9 April through October and 9 to 5 the rest of the year, with the leases full and a waitlist open in August 2026. Belle Haven Marina beside Dyke Marsh hires Flying Scot sailboats, kayaks, canoes, jon boats and paddleboards, noon to 5 Wednesday to Friday and 9 to 4 weekends. Two of them are private. The Old Dominion Boat Club at 200 The Strand, founded 1880 and the oldest boating club in the Commonwealth, requires sponsorship by two current members plus application and initiation fees and admits guests only from reciprocating yacht clubs. Belle Haven Country Club at 6023 Fort Hunt Road is members-only, visitors by invitation: 18 holes, par 72, a Leonard Macomber course dating to 1924. Public golf is Pinecrest, 6600 Little River Turnpike, a Fairfax County nine-hole par-35 executive course of 2,462 yards. For horses, the BLM's 800-acre Meadowood area at 10406 Gunston Road, Lorton, has seven miles of equestrian trail, 13.4 of hiking and 6.6 of single-track, no fee.
Dining and museums are the perishable part of any guide, so this list is short and every entry was checked on its own site in August 2026. Landini Brothers, 115 King Street, Tuscan, in business since 1979. Ada's on the River, 3 Pioneer Mill Way, live-fire hearth cooking. Vola's Dockside Grill and its Hi-Tide Lounge, 101 North Union Street. Chart House, 1 Cameron Street. For culture: Carlyle House Historic Park, 121 North Fairfax Street, John Carlyle's 1753 stone mansion, $8 adults, tours on the hour, closed Wednesdays; Gadsby's Tavern Museum, 134 North Royal Street, a ca. 1785 tavern plus the 1792 City Tavern and Hotel; and The Little Theatre of Alexandria, 600 Wolfe Street, with Blithe Spirit on stage in late August 2026. Getting to the rest: Washington Street through Old Town is the George Washington Memorial Parkway, the drive south to Belle Haven, Dyke Marsh and Mount Vernon, with the trail on the same corridor. Route 1 north, or the Blue and Yellow lines, reach Potomac Yard and Pentagon City; King Street west reaches Chinquapin and Eisenhower Avenue reaches Cameron Run. The Beltway over the Wilson Bridge reaches National Harbor, though on foot the bridge path from Jones Point is often the faster mile. Traffic swings hard by hour and by bridge, so drive it yourself first.
Openings, hours and tenants were confirmed as of August 2026. Businesses change — check before you make the trip.
More on the area in the Old Town Alexandria guide, and on schools in schools serving Old Town Alexandria.
Artur lives and works this market. Ask what a specific street is actually like to live on, not just what is near it.
