Monticello

About

Monticello was the home of Thomas Jefferson, on a mountaintop just southeast of Charlottesville in central Virginia, about two hours from both Washington, DC, and Williamsburg. Jefferson designed the house himself, and the plantation around it was worked by hundreds of enslaved people, whose lives are a central part of how the site is told today.

Visits start at the David M. Rubenstein Visitor Center at the foot of the mountain, which has exhibits and the Thomas Jefferson's World film. From there a free shuttle bus climbs to the house, three quarters of a mile away. Tours of the house are guided and scheduled for a set time; the Highlights Tour is the standard one, and there are also behind-the-scenes and From Slavery to Freedom tours. Every ticket includes two guided outdoor tours: the Slavery at Monticello Tour and, in season, the Gardens and Grounds Tour. On the mountaintop you can walk Mulberry Row, where enslaved people lived and worked, and the flower and vegetable gardens. A Gardens and Grounds Ticket skips the house tour but includes the outdoor spaces and the rooms beneath the house. Most Tuesdays through Saturdays, an actor-interpreter portrays Jefferson.

Tickets are timed, and Monticello asks you to reach the visitor center at least 30 minutes before your tour for parking, the shuttle and security screening. Monticello posts current hours and ticket prices on its website. You can leave and come back the same day with your ticket. Much of the visit is outdoors, so bring water and sun protection in summer.

To get there, leave Interstate 64 at Exit 121A onto Route 20 South, then turn left onto Route 53, the Thomas Jefferson Parkway. All parking is at the visitor center. The Saunders-Monticello Trail runs from the bottom of Route 53 up to the mountaintop for walkers and cyclists, and downtown Charlottesville and the University of Virginia, which Jefferson founded, are a short drive away.

Accessibility

Monticello is partly wheelchair accessible. The visitor center is fully equipped, and the first floor of the house can be reached by ramps, but the upper floors of the house are not ADA accessible and some mountaintop paths are steeper than ADA standards allow.

The David M. Rubenstein Visitor Center has accessible parking, restrooms, family restrooms and elevators, and lends wheelchairs free, first come, first served. Wheelchairs, rollators and powered scooters are welcome, but two-wheeled scooters and Segways are not.

The house is three quarters of a mile away on the mountaintop. Take the shuttle bus, which is equipped with a wheelchair lift. The walking route, the Cemetery Trail, is steeper than ADA standards with mixed brick, asphalt and gravel. On top, an ADA-accessible path runs from the East Walk, where house tours meet, up to the house, and other accessible paths connect the house to the South Kitchen Yard, basement exhibits, Mulberry Row and the shuttle stop. Other mountaintop paths are steep, with surfaces from brick to crushed gravel.

Ramps lead to the first floor of the house and the West Lawn. The cellar and the wings are reachable by wheelchair. Some doorways are narrow, so if your device is wider than 30 inches, staff may suggest another route or a transport wheelchair. Accessible restrooms are in the North Wing.

The film and the audio-visual exhibits have open captions, and the Otter transcription service is available for tours inside the house. ASL interpretation needs two weeks' notice at (434) 984-9800 or accessibility@monticello.org. Visually descriptive tours and a touch basket with a tactile floor plan are available on request when you arrive. Noise levels vary with crowds, and headphones are welcome. Service dogs and miniature horses may go everywhere, including inside and on shuttles. Call ahead if you plan to take one of the specialty tours.

Checked by Accessible America, September 2026. Report a change

More accessible places in Virginia

• Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (Richmond)
• Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park (Fredericksburg)
• Appomattox Court House National Historical Park (Appomattox)
• Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial (Arlington)
• Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park (Middletown)
• Colonial National Historical Park (Yorktown)

Photo credits

• The domed brick house at Monticello seen across the wide green West Lawn.: YF12s, CC BY-SA 3.0 (source)
• Monticello's west front with its white columns and dome, beyond a bed of red and yellow tulips.: T G Hess, CC BY-SA 4.0 (source)
• A parlor inside Monticello with period chairs, a fireplace and tall windows letting in daylight.: C Watts, CC BY 2.0 (source)