10 Best Things to Do in Virginia Beach

The Virginia Beach Boardwalk is a beachside marvel that stretches across 3 miles (5 km) from 2nd to 40th Street. It features a bike path, a

variety of maritime activities, museums, and an amusement park.
Start the day here with a brisk walk and take in the sights. There is a wide variety of cafes and restaurants to enjoy as well as vendors offering bike rentals. If you’re a fan of art, you’ll find nautical sculptures dotted along many of the side streets which lead to Atlantic Avenue. Visit the enormous King Neptune bronze statue that guards the gateway to Neptune Festival Park on 31st Street, 1 of the most popular photo opportunities on the boardwalk.

One of the first lighthouses in Virginia, Cape Henry Lighthouse marks the southern entrance to Chesapeake Bay. The Lighthouse is situated near the “First Landing” site, where English settlers first set foot on American soil before making their way inland to settle in Jamestown.

Today, there are 2 lighthouse structures here: the 90-ft-tall (27 metres) original and a newer, taller lighthouse 350 ft (107 metres) to the northeast, which was built in 1881. Cape Henry Memorial, a national park, is adjacent to the lighthouses. Visitors to Cape Henry Lighthouse can climb 191 steep steps to the top of the tower. This intense workout will be rewarded with breathtaking views of Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.

The ViBe Creative District is Virginia Beach’s own cultural arts enclave. Vibrant and eclectic, the oceanfront neighbourhood functions as a hub for artists and creatives to share their passions while inspiring a sense of discovery in locals and visitors to Virginia Beach alike. There is always something going on in the ViBe Creative District, with weekly and monthly events a regular occurrence.

ViBe Creative District is made up of quaint shops and coffeehouses. The district has artisanal shops, vintage boutiques, art studios, antique furnishing shops, culinary arts offerings and even the Chesapeake Bay Distillery. For art lovers, the district features bold, colorful, unique murals all done by local artists, perfect for photographs.

The First Landing State Park features miles of both beach and hiking trails through a protected salt marsh habitat. It also features freshwater ponds, dunes, forests, a tidal marsh and a cypress swamp. It’s home to 1 of the most endangered habitat types in the world, the maritime forest community. It’s where the first English colonists arrived in America in 1607.

The park is a favorite spot with those who enjoy the great outdoors. Swimming, boating and biking are all readily available in the park, while hiking and taking part in a nature program are also popular with visitors. If you’d like to stay overnight, the park has over 200 campgrounds and 20 cabins to choose from.

The Military Aviation Museum commands its own small private grass airfield located at the Virginia Beach Airport. The museum is home to one of the world’s largest collections of warbirds still in flying condition. The complex includes 2 display hangars as well as a replica World War I-era wooden hangar and a maintenance hangar. Aircraft on display include samples from Germany, France, Russia, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The collection of warbirds on display features aircraft from both World War I and World War II. While the complete collection ranges from 1910 to the early 1950s, some noteworthy warbirds include the Douglas AD-4 Skyraider, the Curtiss P-40E Kittyhawk, the Stinson L-5 Sentinel and the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3.

For those interested in marine life, the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center is well worth a visit. The aquarium and marine science museum, located south of Rudee Inlet, is home to 12,000 animals representing over 700 species. The exhibits in the museum are contained in over 800,000 US gallons (3,000,000 liters) of fresh and saltwater displays.

A visit to the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center is a fun-filled day, as the venue is home to water pavilions, 3 different aquariums, a marsh pavilion, an aviary and a Restless Planet exhibit. The latter features 5 immersive displays and is home to such exotic wildlife as the Komodo dragon and Egyptian Cobra.

Enjoy a boat-based tour of an oyster farm while visiting Virginia Beach. These tours celebrate Virginia Beach’s local food culture and are a pleasant way to spend the day. An oyster farming boat tour often allows guests time to get out of the boat and explore the sand bars, which are home to a diverse marine ecology and a variety of interesting living creatures, and oysters, obviously.

The oyster farming boat tours offer a variety of itineraries. You’ll be able to shuck and sample oysters fresh out of the water. If you’re feeling adventurous, you can pull other types of gear right out of the cages. Most tours present the opportunity to sort oysters right from the reef.

A visit to Virginia Beach wouldn’t be complete without dining on the famous Chesapeake Bay blue crab. There are many fine-dining establishments and local crab shacks which serve this popular sweet meat. As the Chesapeake Bay blue crab is small and delicate, eating them can often take a lot of work and a whole lot of patience.

Before digging into a Chesapeake Bay blue crab, make sure you have lots of napkins ready. Start with the legs, flip the crab belly-side up and then pull it in half along its lateral lines. Good luck and enjoy your meal! Remember that figuring out how to eat Chesapeake Bay blue crab, no matter how messy it might be, is half the fun.

The seafood in Virginia Beach is super fresh, and there is a wide variety of choices to choose from when it comes to dining. Award-winning Terrapin Restaurant, located just a few blocks from the boardwalk, is Virginia Beach’s premiere fine dining establishment serving fresh seafood and signature cocktails in a lively setting.

If you’re looking for a more family-friendly venue, head to Bubba’s Seafood Restaurant and Crabhouse on Shore Drive for its famous she-crab soup and crab cakes. Located at 5th & Atlantic on the boardwalk, Waterman’s Surfside Grille is a Virginia Beach icon which has been around since the ‘60s. Head here for local seafood, juicy steaks and exceptional boardwalk views.

A popular way to end the day in Virginia Beach is to go ghost crabbing on any one of its beaches. For this fun, after-dark activity, you’ll need a torch, a sense of adventure and a love of the great outdoors. They are iridescent, sand-colored crabs that are approximately 2 inches (5 cm) in diameter and that come out in droves at night.

Once a ghost crab is captured in the beam of a flashlight, it will stand motionless for a moment until it collects its bearings. This is the best time to get up close and personal with the tiny critter. Be careful when picking up a ghost crab as their pinch can pack a painful punch.