Blacksburg and VT are great! (and I don’t even have any kids at Tech). I have a kid who spends lots of weekend there with a BF, and another kid who lives in town and commutes to another 4 year school.
The student body is diverse and very welcoming and down to earth. As others have said: NoVA (DC suburbs) is obviously not the South, and neither is Hampton Roads (the 757 ie Va Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake etc).
The closest city with a decent amount of students is Richmond, and that is 3 hrs away. NoVA and Hampton Roads are 4-5+. All the many, many dozens of kids I know generally come home only once a term other than Holiday breaks.