Tours & Visitor Programs

	Jesse Davis, a 3-week visitor to Twin Oaks, breathing fire at a visitor party, January 1999. Photo: Andy Bodie

About Twin Oaks. Twin Oaks is a communal living group in rural central Virginia, made up of around 85 adult members and 15 children. Established in 1967, we are self-supporting, self-governing, and partly self-sufficient. No one has to work outside the community. We earn our communal income by various cottage industries, especially rope hammocks. We grow a lot of our own food, heat with wood from our own forests (and many of our buildings have solar features), and do most of our own construction.

Each member has a private room, and we all share in the numerous public rooms, shops, and other facilities. All of the work of the community - business, domestic, maintenance, childcare, administration, farming, etc. - is divided equally among the members and distributed according to personal choice. We work about 42 hours a week, including all domestic chores.

Our beliefs are diverse, but we all practice cooperation, nonviolence, and equality. We govern ourselves by a form of democracy with responsibility shared among various managers, planners, and committees.

Our money is spent according to a yearly economic plan which we all help to make. We allow ourselves a small amount of private spending money. All necessities (food, shelter, clothing, childcare and healthcare) and many amenities are provided by the community for all members.

In addition to our income areas, we offer a wide variety of work options to our members, including gardening, food processing, cooking, office work, accounting, construction, woodworking, equipment maintenance, childcare, forestry, domestic work, and the list goes on. The 42 hour workweek at Twin Oaks is different from the standard 40 hour workweek in mainstream society. At Twin Oaks, "work" includes such activities as washing dishes, shopping, doing laundry, etc. Traditional "women's work" and "men's work" is performed by both women and men. There is a high degree of flexibility in our labor system, with members maintaining a lot of control over when they work and which jobs they do.

Twin Oaks is a busy place, and there are plenty of activities for people to participate in. Visitors are welcome at many of these: Rental videos several nights a week, community meetings, Women's Tea, various and support groups, co-counseling sessions, rituals, sweats, volleyball, aerobics, yoga, and meditation, crafts, swimming in our pond and river (and skating in winter), dances and parties, games, amateur dramatic productions, talent shows, canoeing, woodland walks, bird watching, skies, sunsets and stars. We also house an extensive library, including children's books, a large music collection of records, tapes and CDs, and various musical instruments including pianos, guitars, recorders, drums, etc. We celebrate the Solstices and Equinoxes, and various other Twin Oaks holidays.

The Twin Oaks diet is as diverse as the membership. There are vegans, vegetarians, meat and potato-eaters, weight watchers, no onion, no egg, no dairy food preferences and several people with food allergies. All are accommodated by the Twin Oaks cooks. We produce a significant amount of our food in the community - fruits, vegetables, dairy products, soyfoods, beef, and herbs. We also make a lot of homemade salad dressings, jams, jellies, and salsas. Nutritious snacks and herb teas are always available.

Twin Oaks culture places a much higher value on cooperation than mainstream culture. Sometimes, this can mean we need to learn new skills, and we strive to "raise the cultural bar" around communication skills. To a large extent, the expectation at Twin Oaks is that if conflict does arise, members be willing to engage in working it out, and to use respectful communication in doing so. The ability to see and understand (although not always agree on) more than one perspective of "the truth", and each of us being able to take responsibility for our own behavior in partially creating the conflict are two such skills, and will go a long way in integrating well and manifesting our value of cooperation. We're still learning. Conflict resolution exists here along a spectrum; different members have different opinions. We find common ground in our hope that ultimately we can find a way to work out our differences and work together.

Each summer, Twin Oaks hosts a Women's Gathering and a Communities Conference, both of which are attended by upwards of 250 people from the East Coast and nearby regions. We also offer day-long herb workshops several times throughout the summer. Please write us for further information about any of these events.

For more information about Twin Oaks community. Additional community resources to be accessed through the Communities Directory or through the Intentional Communities Web Page and these UseNet groups: alt.community.intentional or alt.co-ops.

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Visiting Twin Oaks

There are two ways to visit Twin Oaks. You can come for a three hour tour on Saturday or a three week visit. Unfortunately, we don't have any options for any other length of time. We encourage you to contact other communities in the Federation of Egalitarian Communities (especially Acorn, which is 7 miles up the road)

The Saturday Tour

We give tours of Twin Oaks almost every Saturday afternoon from March through October and on alternating Saturdays from November through February. The tour guide will tell you about the history, culture and philosophy of the community and is available to answer any questions you may have.

The tour is from 2 - 5 pm, and much of this time is spent walking around the community. Please dress appropriately for the weather (it's very hot in summer and there's no air-conditioning, and can be cold in winter), wear comfortable walking shoes, and let us know if you have particular mobility needs. It can be a long tour for children--please consider the limits of their attention span when considering bringing them or not. Do not bring pets.

Phone or write ahead to double-check that a tour is being offered on the date you want. (Sometimes we don't offer scheduled tours for various reasons). and to reserve a place on the tour. The fee is $5.00 per person for the tour.

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The Three Week Visitor Program

The three week visit is a structured program designed to give the visitor some general education and experience in living at Twin Oaks. It is an opportunity for the visitor to consider membership and for the community to consider prospective new members. The visit is a prerequisite to applying for membership (although anyone is welcome to do a 3-week visit whether or not they are applying for membership), and visitors need to spend at least one month away from Twin Oaks at the end of their visitor period. The fee for the three-week visit is on a sliding scale of $50-$250. This is used to pay for outreach and to offset expenses of the visitor program. We strongly encourage people with significant financial resources to pay at/towards the high end of the scale. If you can't afford to pay at the low end of the scale, we can make arrangements for a reduced fee.

The visitor program includes meetings, tours and conversations with members, through which the visitor learns about what it's like to live at Twin Oaks, including the financial, legal, health, labor and governmental structures at Twin Oaks.

Work The visitor takes part in the work of the community and is required to work 42 hours a week, just as members do. Visitors are assigned some work, and have some choice in the types of work they do. Members often invite visitors to work with them on specific projects in a variety of work areas, and interested and/or qualified visitors can often pick up jobs by speaking with the manager of the work area. There are some jobs requiring familiarity with Twin Oaks or specialized skills that visitors do not take part in.

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Accommodations Visitors are housed in our 6-bedroom, 2-bathroom visitor building. Depending on the size of the visitor group, you may be asked to share a room with one other visitor. Smoking is not allowed in the visitor building.  Your visitor group will meet together to determine quiet hours and cleanliness standards for your group.

What To Bring The visitor building is well-stocked with bed linens, towels, and toiletries. There will be laundry facilities available for you to use during your visit.

Please bring with you:

• clothing and footwear for outdoor work
• raincoat and/or umbrella
• in winter: heavy jacket, warm shoes and/or boots
• in summer: lightweight clothing (we have a humid climate and no air conditioning!)
• flashlight
• comfy pillow (if you're picky)

Although it is possible to do your entire visitor period without spending any money, you may wish to bring some money to buy things not ordinarily provided by the community (eg. junk food, coffee, etc). We ask that you not spend more than $75 during this time, as this would exceed the amount of personal spending money available to members, and will give you an idea of this aspect of living at Twin Oaks. Similarly, we also ask that you not drive your car during the visitor group, to experience not having a personal vehicle while living here.

Please Note Visitors are not allowed to bring pets with them. We have a certain number of dogs and cats here. If someone wishes to bring their pet after becoming a member, the pet makes a formal visit after the person has become a member, and will have a separate membership poll. There are also 3-week and 6-month polls for pets to make sure they are fitting in alright. You may have to wait months before your pet can visit--please expect to make arrangements for your pet's care during that time. We currently have no dog vacancies and several people on the Dog List waiting to have dogs; for this reason, it is highly unlikely that a new member would be able to bring a dog for a visit at any time in the next several years. There are no exceptions to our Pet Waiting Lists. When a cat or dog is accepted, the community pays for vet bills and food.

Members of Twin Oaks may invite friends or relatives as guests, but we ask that visitors not invite guests.

Although Twin Oaks commits to providing for the basic needs of our members, we are only able to provide a limited amount of care related to mental health needs. Basically you need to be able to function well within the work and interpersonal structures of Twin Oaks in order to be accepted for membership. Someone with a history of recent suicidal tendencies, serious substance abuse problems or major, unresolved emotional trauma may have difficulty adjusting to communal life here. In extreme cases, an individual may choose or be asked to leave.

Children Twin Oaks does accept new members with children, but only when there is child space available, and unfortunately we rarely have child space available. Families visit longer than the standard three weeks, and must make arrangements with the Child Board. If you are a family interested in community living, we maintain a list of communities we are in contact with who are interested in having more children living at their communities.

For more information please contact us by email with "Visiting Family" in the subject line or click on the email address below and put "Visiting Family" in the comments area of the webform.

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Arranging A Visit

A visit is arranged through correspondence rather than over the phone. Write us a letter of introduction according to the instructions below. Indicate your first, second, and third choices of visitor sessions. The best way to get the visitor session you want is to write well in advance. If you are coming with another person, each of you should write individual letters, rather than a joint letter.

You can send your Letter of Introduction by email or postal mail. Please do not send email attachments. Send only plain text email, not HTML formatted mail! Send letter of introduction in body of email message. To email your Letter, please send it to

After we receive your letter and preference of dates, we will contact you and confirm your visit. Please let us know as soon as possible if you decide to cancel so we can offer your place to someone else.

If you are under the age of 18, Twin Oaks requires legal consent from a parent or guardian in order for you to visit. Please contact us for further information.

You can phone the community to make inquiries about the community or the visitor program, or to get directions, but don't try to schedule your visit over the phone. The best time to phone is during regular office hours (9:00 to noon and 12:30 to 5:30 weekdays, 9:00 to 3:00 Saturday.)

The Letter Of Introduction

This is the community's opportunity to get to know you a little before we invite you into our home. The letter (1-2 pages, typewritten) should tell us:

• your age
• your gender
• the work or studies in which you are presently involved
• your work history
• your hobbies and interests
• how you heard about Twin Oaks
• why you are interested in visiting community, and why Twin Oaks in particular
• any physical ailments or limitations (e.g. back problems) which would prevent you from doing certain kinds of work
• any special skills you have or work you like or dislike, e.g. indoor work vs. outdoor work
• if you have any children, and their ages, even if you are not planning on visiting with them.
• your first, second, and third choices of visitor sessions
• your permanent postal address (or "most permanent")
• a phone number where you can be reached previous to your visit
• emergency contact information in the form of the address and phone number of a relative or friend whom we could contact in case of an emergency during your visit (if you're from outside of North America, please include a US or Canadian contact as well, if possible.)

The letter of introduction greatly helps to pave the way for a newcomer to Twin Oaks, and will be posted for the membership to read. Someone in our diverse population is likely to share some of your interests.

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Please address all correspondence to:

Visitor Program
Twin Oaks Community
138-W Twin Oaks Road
Louisa, VA 23093

Please send no email attachments.
Please send only plain text email, not HTML formatted mail!
Send letter of introduction in body of email message.
When you write, please tell us how/where you heard about Twin Oaks.
If it was through another website, we'd like to know which one, and the URL if possible.

Phone (540) 894-5126
Fax (540) 894-4112

Please plan on arriving before 5:00 pm on the first day of your visitor period. Phone us if you are going to be delayed. Please plan to leave on the day after the end of the visitor period.

Do not just drop in. We are not able to deal with people who just show up. The person to contact to arrange a three-week visit is Valerie. Please contact her at

Now you're ready to read our Once You've Arrived.