Wilmington

Wilmington, Delaware’s largest city, is located on the far north of the State, situated in the magnificent Brandywine Valley, 30 minutes to the south of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania. The city was founded in 1638 as a Swedish colonie, under the name of Fort Christina.

Wilmington is the capital of the chemical industry - Du Pont, the textile company, creator of nylon, is settled in the city.

Here you can find the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, Delaware’s most beautiful residence, a large manor with several hundred rooms, surrounded by a complex of garden larger than 900 acres.

The grand manor shelters the nation’s vastest collection of Old American decorative arts : interior architecture, furniture and domestic accessories.

Within proximity, on the banks of the beautiful Brandywine River, as a next stop we will visit Hagley Museum and its water mills, where the nation’s first paper factory was established in 1817. An atmosphere and lifestyle of a 19th century village live once again in this place.

Thirteen miles up north of Wilmington lie the fabulous Longwood Gardens : a lake surrounded by woods, fountains and outdoor as well as indoor gardens where the rarest ones of plant species bloom.

Dover
Delaware’s capital, located in the heart of the State, is about an hour away driving from Wilmington.

It’s in its historical place that the Delaware Convention was ratified by the Federal U.S. Constitution, on December 17, 1787, making Delaware the first State to join the Union.

There, we will visit the Old State House, a great colonial-styled construction, finished in 1792 and still used until now.

The Dover Heritage Trail leads us to go across the city and discover about twenty historical sites, among them is the American Methodist Church.

Five miles to the south stands the elegant John Dickinson Mansion, built in 1740, still keeping most of its original furnitures.

New Castle

Thanks to its impressive 17th century houses, New Castle, the oldest city in the Delaware valley, has kept its colonial appearance until today.

The Old Dutch House, constructed at the end of the 17th century is nowdays a museum presenting daily life objects of the first Dutch colonies.

Rehoboth Beach

Rehoboth Beach lies next to the Atlantic Ocean, in the southern part of the State. It is very much praised by foreign diplomates and their families as well as members of the Government, thus its nickname is “The Nation’s Summer Capital”.

The Cape Henlopen State Park is located a little bit further up north, in Lewes, and in the south, you can discover the Delaware Seashore State Park.

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge (long of 4,33 miles), connecting Delaware to Maryland’s Baltimore and Annapolis, enables the beaches of Delaware to be visited by a large number of tourists coming from Washington.

Photos : Delaware CVB