Things to Do in Richmond in December

The RVATukTuk Sightseeing Tour of Richmond puts you in an open-air, three-wheeled tuk-tuk that threads through neighborhoods a tour bus could never reach. You'll roll from the narrow colonial-era streets of Church Hill to the muraled corridors of the Arts District. Your guide narrates Richmond's layered history: Civil War capital, civil rights battleground, craft beer boomtown. The December air carries the scent of roasting coffee from nearby Lamplighter. The faint sweetness of fermenting grain drifts from the Scott's Addition breweries. The compact vehicle lets you feel the city's texture up close. The rumble of cobblestones underfoot. The shift from quiet residential blocks to the industrial hum along the riverfront.

The Church Hill Food Tour with Discover Richmond Tours walks you through one of the oldest residential neighborhoods in the Americas. 18th-century clapboard houses give way to corner restaurants run by James Beard semifinalists. Each stop is an argument for why Richmond became a serious food city. You might taste slow-smoked pulled pork with a vinegar tang that cuts through the cold air. Or a wedge of cornbread still radiating heat from a cast-iron skillet, its crust shattering with an audible crack. Between tastings, your guide traces the neighborhood's arc from colonial settlement to postwar decline to its current creative revival. The story is written in the architecture around you.

The Historic Trolley Tour rolls through Richmond in a replica streetcar. It covers a sweep of the city's history from the colonial capitol designed by Thomas Jefferson to the industrial bones of Tredegar Iron Works on the riverbank. The guide's narration is dense with specifics. Not just that Richmond was the Confederate capital. But how its flour mills and iron foundries made it a logistical prize. How those same industrial roots fed the city's postwar reinvention. In December, the trolley's enclosed cabin keeps the chill at bay. Large windows frame block after block of Federal-style rowhouses, their red brick darkened by age. Streetlamps already glow in the late-afternoon gloom.

The Richmond Ghost Tour through Shockoe Bottom leads you on foot through the oldest commercial district in Richmond after dark. The uneven brick sidewalks and gas-style lamps set a mood no special effects could match. The guide draws on documented history rather than invented spookery. The 1811 Richmond Theatre fire that killed 72 people. The stories embedded in Lumpkin's Jail site. The strange acoustics of the tunnel beneath the old rail depot, where your own footsteps echo back at you a half-second late. December's early nightfall means even a 7 p.m. departure feels like the deep hours. Cold mist rising off the canal. The smell of damp stone. Bare tree branches scratching against warehouse walls.

Hiking the James River in Richmond with Discover Richmond Tours takes you along the trails that thread the granite boulders and exposed bedrock of the Fall Line. This is the geological boundary where the Piedmont drops into the Coastal Plain, right through the middle of the city. In December, the river runs higher and faster from autumn rain. Its surface churns white over the rocks at Belle Isle and Pony Pasture. The sound of rushing water fills the leafless hardwood corridor. The cold air carries a mineral sharpness off the exposed stone. Without summer's dense canopy, you can see clear across to the downtown skyline: glass towers and church steeples rising above a fringe of bare oaks.

The Arts District Food Tour in Richmond with Discover Richmond Tours navigates the creative corridor between Broad Street and the Fan. Converted warehouses house some of the city's most inventive kitchens. The tastings lean contemporary. Smoked duck with a tart cherry glaze. Hand-pulled noodles fragrant with star anise and chili oil. Artisan cheese aged in caves beneath a repurposed tobacco warehouse. Between stops, murals by local and international street artists cover entire building facades in color that pops even harder against December's grey skies. The guide connects Richmond's art scene to its food scene. Cheap rent in the early 2000s drew both chefs and painters to the same blocks. A convergence you can still taste and see.