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Charlottesville, VA

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John Paul Jones Arena

3.3 (48 reviews)

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bball game
Emily B.

JPJ is a great arena to watch games. Lots of events and giveaways at both men's and women's games. Concerts hosted here too. Nice staff

Chicken and cheese quesadilla
Lincoln T.

JPJ is a huge stadium that hosts UVA sporting events as well as music and other events in Charlottesville. The stadium is pretty accessible, parking is normally easy to find if you're willing to pay for it, but the university and city busses also have stops right by the stadium. The venue is clean and there aren't any seat/view obstructing objects, but the main focus of this review is the legendary chicken and cheese quesadilla. Located at certain food stands (mainly behind section 104/5), the chicken and cheese quesadilla is around $7 and gets you half a quesadilla with a small container of sauce. The chicken was a little dry, but the cheese definitely made up for that, especially when dipped in the sauce. I think the sauce was some sort of chipotle aioli that went great with the quesadillas. The tortillas were nicely crisped and buttery-light, and my only complaints were the lackluster amount of chicken in the quesadilla and the outrageous stadium price tag of nearly $2 a slice. Other JPJ food features include the hot dogs (classic, nice glizzys and dry bread), pizza (dominos personal size), and other food like chicken tenders and French fries. Staff is friendly, water fountains are free (although not convenient) and it doesn't get too hot or too cold.

Pravash M.

UVA vs FSU men's basketball game on a Tues pm was my first visit. Security presence was good, facility was clean with lots of signage with people's names on stuff, of course. It's VA's largest indoor arena, with fixed stadium seating and floor chairs totaling over 14,5k. Though in section 307, I could see everything with the feeling of being on top of the action. Noise levels were pretty loud as expected in hopes of providing home court advantages. UVA was sloppy but ended up pulling off the upset, 61-56. Marketing and development teams do a great job of pasting orange and blue themed sponsors, hosting student promos, throwing shirts into the crowds, etc. Production quality is SUPERB, with 4 sided HD color Jumbotron that displays produced videos, on-court game action and contests during stoppage time, not to mention audience theatrics (waving Harris Teeter VIC cards, etc). Live band enhanced the collegial experience. Restrooms, concessions and school branded merch shops were conveniently scattered throughout the complex. Never had an issue accessing or using a men's restroom. Interestingly, I noticed most of the crowd was significantly older than me; a friend with me, whose daughter just graduated from UVA and regularly attends games, said it's the "white hair Hoos."

Walking in
Maria C.

Nice venue! My first time experiencing this venue was for the Cardi B concert back in July 2019. Parking wasn't an issue... police and attendants were on hand to guide the traffic... after the concert seemed like we were on our own getting out. But it wasn't too bad... After the concert let out, we may have spent about 10 minutes at a standstill until traffic began to flow. The venue is beautiful and having seats on the 4th row... center stage... amazing. I didn't use the restroom or visited any of the food vendors, I assume they were on hand. But the sound system was cool... no complaints. Check it out if you are in the area. Have fun and enjoy life :)

300 Level View
David H.

The arena itself is pretty nice with comfortable seats and the view from the 300 level isn't bad at all. The food options are okay and the food seemed fresher than at most arenas. We found free parking by the law school and they walk was about 15 minutes which wasn't too bad. The bad thing here is their ridiculous clear bag "security" policy that caused my wife to have to either throw away her clutch or walk 15 minutes back to the car to put it back in there because it was allegedly a fraction of an inch too large.

Kris S.

Went here for a concert - Reba. The venue isn't that bad, you can see pretty well from all angles. Finding your seat is a little difficult because even though they have sections marked, it's not clear if you should go left to your section or right to your section once you get inside. All the markings are outside the entrance to seating. It would be helpful to have something on the railing inside indicating which section is which. Getting into the place is somewhat of a nightmare. The roads are small, and traffic is horrible. It's in the middle of the college campus, so it's not a large area to take all the traffic. It takes quite some time to get to the parking area. I wouldn't wait until last minute to arrive. Be sure to get there at least two hours ahead of time because you will be in traffice for at least one of those hours. Of course the pricing for food/drink are ridiculous, but that's everywhere these days. Another thing is that you should be told up front that there is a clear bag and/or size on purse rule. They don't tell you this until you are already standing in line. If you aren't in compliance, you are forced to take items back to your car, or throwing them away. This is not always feasible. It also doesn't help that one employee tells you ALL CLEAR bags and another tells you that as long as it fits inside a certain size basket, it is acceptable. Which is it? You can't have it both ways. We did enjoy the concert and would not outrule a return in the future.

New trend - ziploc purse
Brittany A.

Went to see the Trans Siberian Orchestra live here just yesterday. Easy commute to arena as we had a free shuttle service. What they did not inform us was that you could not bring your purse inside, so when we got up to the doors to be security checked the guy was making us LITERALLY dump our contents into a zip lock bag and yes I repeat yes - throw away our purse !!!! Of course we were not going to do that so we called our shuttle service and they kindly picked it up for us, otherwise we would have had to either walk all the way back to the car and or leave it outside like many others did. I wish there was more information about this prior to entering and or they had better solutions to accommodate this issue. Many women endured this problem yesterday and I understand that yes it is a security thing which I don't mind at all but I'm the type of person who's way organized and it threw my whole game plan off !!! I can't imagine what would have happened if we were running late!! I rocked that ziploc purse though

JPJ- Carrie Underwood
Janet L.

Having floor seats to the Carrie Underwood concert (so close we could smell the sweat haha) certainly made the John Paul Jones Arena a great experience. I think sitting in the stands would've made it like any other experience. As far as parking, that was less pleasant... it's $15 and it is cash only... seriously who actually carries cash nowadays... they need to get with the program and get a square for the parking attendants phone so they can scan credit card transactions. FYI if you are like us that never carry cash... if JPJ is on your left and your right is parking make a left at the upcoming stoplight and you will see a bank on the left probably less than a 1/4 mile. My husband was driving but since the traffic was so slow he jumped out and ran to get some cash at the ATM while I jumped into the drivers seat. Picked him at the ATM and we were on our way back to parking. Probably a 10 min delay because of the traffic but it could've been much worse. Not only does parking only take cash the drinks/food sold at JPJ also only takes cash...again not what we expected. I wasn't drinking since I'm pregnant... you would think my husband got some more cash since we stopped at the ATM, but he didn't... we had enough for him to get three beers and I got a water... after scrounging up some quarters. Why they only take cash I definitely don't get. P.S. There is a max of 4 beers and if you get water they take your lid. Also weird that since we got floor seats... they had to "x" out the front and the back of the ticket... so odd what does that actually do? They gave out red wrist bands for those with floor seats as well. It just seems like there is a better more sophisticated way they can handle floor seats, seems kind of archaic if you ask me. Regardless we had a great time being our first time at JPJ. I'd totally go back to another concert there with floor seats, but hopefully they would consider implementing credit card use before our next visit.

DMB
Katie S.

I agree with everyone else, pre-pay your parking for concerts. Also, don't bother sitting on the side sections as you will not get the full effect of whatever visual the artist has since the speakers block most of everything. There is a 4 drink maximum and they mark your wrist band to monitor this. It's also really hot in the venue and the acoustics are just OK. A lot of times I felt like the vocals were drowned out by the instruments, which is kind of a bummer. However, the lines moved efficiently and the staff was polite.

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4 years ago

Fantastic venue and I saw Carrie Underwood but I go here all the time for other concerts

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Scott Stadium

Scott Stadium

3.4(14 reviews)
1.1 mi

This review was for the university of Virginia against liberty University football game on November…read more10, 2018. The game was pretty exciting with Liberty Univ. to a quick lead and UVA coming back to match the score and lead the game and overwhelming the smaller school. To start with the review of the stadium parking can be tricky. There are several options however if you want to get close to the stadium I'd recommend getting there nice and early along with the tailgaters. There will be a charge of $15 for the event which to me seems very reasonable. We did not get there early due to unforeseen circumstances. If you want to go the unconventional route and use people's front yards driveways etc. the cost will go up but we didn't see any parking more than $20. We parked out by John Paul Jones stadium which was free. The caveat was you had to walk. The walk was approximately 1.5 miles and can be tricky in the dark. As for the stadium. We wanted to be near our daughter and got 15 dollar general admission tickets. Shockingly the tickets were close to the field on a corner. No assigned seats, they were near the band. No problem. Students well behaved. The view was great. Only thing here is you really have to stand throughout the game. If you want to sit. I would recommend more expensive tickets with assigned seats. Now the seats are bleacher style, so if your rear end is aged like mine bring a cushion or blanket. The students were into it and like I mentioned well behaved. Cool listening to the school fight song after a score. This is an easy five stars.

The most outrageously unorganized and chaotic place I have ever been. I would not come back here if…read moremy life depended on it. There is ZERO parking and ZERO phone service in the entire vicinity so unless you enjoy being lost, and walking for miles unplanned then I would not come here. The only reason there was even two stars is because of the concert itself was good but that's subjective compared to the venue.

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Scott Stadium
Scott Stadium
Scott Stadium

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Institute For Shipboard Education - Thanks to the moms for making it all possible!

Institute For Shipboard Education

5.0(2 reviews)
0.9 mi

Semester At Sea- Through the Institute for Shipboard Education was the best experience of my life…read more In the summer of 06' I decided I needed a little uprooting. I was severely unhappy in New York because the weather was just too cold for me and I don't think I was ready to head back to LA after only a year in college. So, after watching a video my friend's sister made of her trip around the world with Semester At Sea (SAS), I decided it had to be done. What can I say for it now? Well, with the exception of a few changes I would have made to my trip, I can not think of a more enriching, bubble-breaking, eye-opening experience. SAS is a 108 day program at sea, stopping briefly in 14 countries. Completely on your own, you're set in the middle of places you never knew existed or thought you would visit. From Burma to Egypt, Croatia to India, I couldn't have asked for a better way to spend 108 days of my life. I've kept a pretty extensive blog of my trip, although I do have to look thorugh some moving boxes to find the other, but if you'd like to read some of my anecdotes and memories, visit the travel section of my website at : http://miataylor.com/category/travel/

In 2009 I took a sabbatical/ leave of absence from my job in NYC to be a staff member on Semester…read moreat Sea. It was the most moving experience of my entire life. Here is what sums it up: We embarked in Miami, we boarded a ship We toasted to our journey and we each took a sip For three days we trained and learned all the ropes To ensure student safety and to meet all their hopes The mysteries of the world, they will all unravel As we embark on this journey of international travel On to the Bahamas, were students overwhelmed with emotions They boarded there, to begin our journey crossing three oceans My family flew down to the Bahamas to see me sail away Don't you fret Mom, Dad, Grandma, I'll see you in May My eyes welled up as we said goodbye, Don't worry my loves, this voyage will fly The seas were rocky as we crossed the Atlantic But the ship was stronger and faster than Titantic After 8 days, we docked in Spain and we kissed the ground Happy to be on land and see friendly faces all around We practiced our Spanish and watched Flamenco Dancers, In Global Studies class we learned, and our questions got answers We stopped at Gibralter for some fuel at the dock In a storm we waited between a hard place and a rock Now off to Morocco, where we drank mint tea And went to the Casbah with so much to see We sailed south for awhile and crossed the Equator Now we're all Shellbacks, a few days later Namibia's next, with its desserts and African charm Flamingoes, Dunes, and Germans who came there to farm Now on to Capetown, one of my favorite ports for sure We saw some zebras, some ostrich, and listened to a cheetah purr Was Mauritius even a port? We were only there for a day, that's too short! But Flic-en-Flac Beach was my own paradise, I'd go back in a heartbeat, don't ask me twice Then on to India which melted my heart With beautiful children, their village, their art They lived in the dirt and the heat, and they rarely have rain But I never once heard those beautiful children complain I met Nupur and we had lunch served on a banana leaf Mostly vegetarian, because they don't eat beef Onward we sailed, eastward to Thailand We use Baht here? I still have Rand I exchanged my money and met my best friend Who flew there to meet me, I didn't want it to end We rode an elephant and explored Bangkok We had so much fun and some culture shock Now on to Vietnam and the Mekong Delta Where it was so hot, I thought I might melta The War Remnants museum was somber and sad I wrote a blog about the war with some help from my Dad Hong Kong comes next, a big city, that's right Each night there's a show with a laser light And now on to Shanghai, a futuristic city, Only two days there, so short, such a pity Next is Japan with its pink blossoms of cherry We loved the baseball game, it was joyous and merry We ate Kobe beef and I saw my friend Mo, I needed more time here, I hated to go! Nine long days as we crossed the Pacific, A long time at sea, I can't be more specific Finally we saw land, Pearl Harbor, and Diamond Head We swam in the ocean and saw pretty flowers of red Two days was too short for our time in paradise Back to the ship to eat more pasta and rice In a few days the ship's alongside the dock once more And our eyes will tear up as we walk through the door Guatemala's rich land has ruins of the Mayan After we leave we'll each be cryin' Oh Beautiful for Spacious skies, we sing to the land from which we hail For it's almost May 6 and we've finished our sail We've learned about and we've seen so many nations, And now we head back to our homeland obligations To amber waves of grain we return, as we look over the rail We're almost there, to Fort Lauderdale I'll miss these waves that rock me to sleep Homeward bound, I cheer, yet I weep For Purple Mountain majesties, I will miss my new friends But at some point every Semester at Sea voyage ends Across the fruited plain, we belt out with joyage This is the end of our fantastic voyage.

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Institute For Shipboard Education - Me and the Sphinx go way back....

Me and the Sphinx go way back....

Institute For Shipboard Education - Our ship....in Croatia

Our ship....in Croatia

Institute For Shipboard Education - One of the few pictures that didn't have swarms of people, Taj Mahal

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One of the few pictures that didn't have swarms of people, Taj Mahal

John Paul Jones Arena - stadiumsarenas - Updated October 2026

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