Virginia Beach

A seaside resort city at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, with a long boardwalk and beaches and the colonists' First Landing site, close to Norfolk's battleship and the world's largest naval base.

Virginia Beach occupies the southeastern corner of Virginia, bordered by the mouth of Chesapeake Bay to the north and the Atlantic to the east. It is the state's most populous city and one of the most popular beach destinations on the U.S. East Coast, forming the Hampton Roads metro area along with Norfolk, Hampton, Chesapeake, and other cities. The area breaks down into four zones: the Oceanfront, centered on a roughly 4.8 km boardwalk and a wide sandy beach lined with hotels and restaurants, with lots of outdoor performances in summer; Cape Henry and First Landing State Park at the northern end, where English colonists first landed in 1607, with a lighthouse, cypress swamp trails, and bay beaches; Sandbridge, Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge, and False Cape State Park in the south, which preserve pristine coastal dunes and wetlands; and Norfolk and Hampton, about 30–40 km to the west, with the battleship USS Wisconsin, Naval Station Norfolk (the world's largest naval base), the Chrysler Museum of Art, and Fort Monroe. The climate is mild. June–August is peak beach season, with comfortable water temperatures but the highest lodging prices; May and September–October bring fewer crowds and lower prices, good for hiking and dolphin watching; winter offers whale-watching cruises; June–November is Atlantic hurricane season, so keep an eye on forecasts. Getting there: Norfolk International Airport is about 25 km from the Oceanfront; Amtrak trains serve Norfolk station, with a shuttle bus to the Oceanfront; local public transit is limited, so driving is recommended for exploring the area, while in summer the VB Wave trolley runs along the Oceanfront. Plan to stay 2–4 days. The colonial Historic Triangle of Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Yorktown, about 70–80 km to the northwest, is covered as a separate destination and makes an easy day trip by car from here.

Top sights

• Virginia Beach Boardwalk & Oceanfront – A seaside promenade about 4.8 km long along the Atlantic, with a wide beach on one side and hotels and restaurants on the other. It is the…
• Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center – The most popular aquarium in Virginia, showing the ecosystems of Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic. Highlights include sea turtles, seals, sh…
• First Landing State Park – The site where English colonists first landed in 1607. Cypress swamps, coastal dunes and bayside beaches sit side by side. It is Virginia's…
• King Neptune Statue – A bronze statue of the sea god, about 10 m tall, in Neptune Park at 31st Street. He holds a trident and stands on a sea turtle and dolphins…
• Virginia Beach Fishing Pier – A wooden pier reaching into the Atlantic from 15th Street, open for a fee to walk out or fish, with a seafood restaurant at its base and a…
• Cape Henry Lighthouse – The original Cape Henry lighthouse, completed in 1792, was the first lighthouse funded by the US federal government. Climb to the top for v…
• Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge – A coastal wetland reserve on a long sand barrier south of the city, where dunes, beaches and freshwater marsh alternate. Migratory birds ga…
• False Cape State Park – The most pristine stretch of barrier beach on the Virginia coast. It is closed to cars, so you must cycle or hike through Back Bay Refuge t…
• Sandbridge Beach – A quiet beach community about 25 km south of the city, known for holiday houses and wide sands. It is less crowded than the main seafront a…
• Rudee Inlet Dolphin Watching – Boat trips to watch dolphins depart from Rudee Inlet at the southern end of the boardwalk. In summer almost every trip sees bottlenose dolp…
• Military Aviation Museum – Houses many propeller warplanes from the First and Second World Wars, most of which can still fly. Hangars and reconstructed WWII British a…
• Adam Thoroughgood House – A late-17th-century brick farmhouse, one of Virginia's oldest surviving colonial-era homes, with a restored colonial-style garden and inter…
• Mount Trashmore Park – A city park built on a former landfill, where people fly kites and skateboard on the little hill. It is an early example of landfill reuse…
• Chesapeake Bay Bridge–Tunnel – A bridge-and-tunnel complex about 28 km long across the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, hailed as a modern engineering marvel, where drivers c…
• Norfolk Botanical Garden – A botanical garden covering about 70 hectares, with more than 60 themed gardens. Visitors explore by boat or little train, and the azalea a…
• Fort Monroe National Monument – A hexagonal stone fortress on Old Point Comfort in Hampton, the largest moated stone fort in the United States. It bears witness to the fir…
• Virginia Air & Space Science Center – The official visitor centre of NASA's Langley Research Center, displaying the Apollo 12 command module, aircraft and rockets. It is well su…

Where to eat

• Waterman’s Surfside Grille – Family-run boardwalk landmark since 1981 that claims to be the birthplace of the Orange Crush cocktail; the crab cakes…
• Margie & Ray’s Crabhouse – Old-school crab house in Sandbridge with butcher-paper tables and mallets for cracking blue crabs; its she-crab soup is…
• 1608 Crafthouse – Farm-direct Southern food and craft beer house ranked No. 68 on Yelp’s 2025 list of the top 100 U.S. restaurants, known…
• Bay Local Eatery – Casual Southern seafood spot on Shore Drive, popular with locals for all-day brunch and creative tacos.

Itineraries

• Virginia Mountains & Founding History – Travel east from Shenandoah through Charlottesville, Richmond, and the Historic Triangle to the coast.