It's never too early to plan:
Driving - If you are coming from the DC area US 29 is a speedtrap especially in Madison and Greene counties. Once you get past the gas stations south of Route 33 in Ruckersville you're semi-safe until you go home. Coming from Tidewater/Richmond, I-64 in Goochland County is a notorious speedtrap. The troopers and sheriffs deputies won't bother you if you go about 5 MPH over the limit on either route, more than that is pushing the envelope. Going 80 is considered reckless driving regardless of how close it is to the posted limit.
Parking – Crusty’s tailgate will be in the University Hall parking lot. Parking there and near John Paul Jones Arena is free. All the parking in the immediate stadium area, except for St. Thomas Aquinas Church, is donor parking. If you are there really early, you can pay to park at one of the churches, St. Thomas, Westminster Methodist, and St. Luke's Lutheran. There is more free parking at the Fontaine Research Park, which is on the other side of the stadium from U Hall. You can also pay to park in the University's parking garages near the Bookstore (fills up really early and fast) and on Ivy Road. The walks are about a mile or less and not tremendously strenuous. The highlight of the walk from U Hall is statue in front of St. Thomas. There is non-donor handicapped parking w/free shuttle near the Law School on the North Grounds. You can also park at the C'ville Downtown parking garage. I think you have to pay, but they have shuttle buses to the stadium.
Things to see if you come early -
The Downtown Mall - Main St was closed off to vehicles some years ago and there are all sorts of eating establishments there.
Monticello - Mr. Jefferson's home and one of the most unique houses in America. If he didn't ride down to supervise construction personally he could watch the progress of building the University using a telescope in his bedroom. Monticello Mountain can be seen from the top row of the closed end of the stadium (it's the one to the left without antennas).
The University Grounds - "Q. How many UVA graduates does it take to change a light bulb? A. Three. One to change the bulb and two to tell you how great The Old Bulb was when they were students." Part of our uniqueness is that we do not have a "campus", we have "The Grounds". As I was told when I first arrived back in the day, the area that schools with a "campus" call their "quadrangle", we call "The Lawn". UVa is supposed to be the first school that had a defined campus (what was James Monroe's farm a mile outside C'ville) rather than being located inside the town like Harvard is in Cambridge and Yale is in New Haven. The Jeffersonian buildings are, along with Monticello, a UNESCO World Heritage site, and the only buildings in North America shown on Lord Kenneth Clarke's "Civilisation" series on PBS ("The Smile of Reason" chapter). They were also picked by the AIA as the finest achievement in American architecture as part of the Bicentennial in 1976. The original student rooms surrounding The Lawn (the inner area) are still used today by undergraduate 4th Year Students. The Ranges (the outer area) are for med students (East Range, closest to the hospital) and law students (West Range, closest to the Library). Room #13 (no joke!) on the West Range was used by Edgar Allan Poe while he was a student (after he got thrown out of West Point). It is restored to look as it did while he was the occupant and can be viewed through a plate glass door. The Rotunda is a half-scale copy of the Pantheon and served as the original library. The imaginary sphere inside touches the dome and ground floor (which is below the one at the end of either set of marble steps) rather than the dome and the main floor as in the Pantheon. Many of our buildings are built into hillsides, so you do not enter on the 1st floor. You'll only see a couple of stories above where you're standing, but there's much more below the entrance. The best example is New Cabell Hall, a primary classroom building, where you enter from The Lawn on the 4th Floor. The three buildings surrounding Homer's statue on The Lawn (the one opposite the Rotunda is Old Cabell Hall) and the President's House on Carr's Hill across University Ave. from The Lawn were designed by Stanford White of McKim, Mead, and White. He also supervised the reconstruction of the Rotunda (to a different design from the original) after it caught fire in the 1890s. Normally the stage for Commencement is in front of Old Cabell.
Places to eat for non-tailgaters - The most convenient places are on The Corner which is across from the University Grounds on University Ave. The ultimate U experience is the Gus Burger (w/egg) at the White Spot. I personally recommend the Nuclear Sub (turkey, slaw, Muenster, and BBQ) at Littlejohn's Deli. If you're driving in from DC, there are the usual fast food places along Emmett St. There are 2 Five Guys, one in the shopping center north of town just south of Airport Road and the other is in the Barracks Road (there was a Hessian barracks there during the Revolution) Shopping Center. Any of the Bodo's Bagels shops are really good, too. One is on Emmett, just south of the 29-250 Bypass on the left coming in, and one is on The Corner.