ATTRACTIONS

Amusements

• Air America
  227 Mediterranean Avenue • Virginia Beach, VA 23451
  757-428-1240
  Enjoy an exciting experience like no other with this company that is located only blocks from the beach and offers one or two person parasailing flights with different heights and dipping available.  map

• Fun Spot Action Park
  Located at Virginia Beach Boulevard & Birdneck
  757-422-1401
  The whole family will have fun at this amusement park that includes four go-kart tracks, bumper boats, children's rides, a ferris wheel, and many other great rides.  map

• Gamemaster USA
  2301 Pacific Avenue • Virginia Beach, VA 23451
  757-422-5606
  An exciting indoor paintball facility that provides fun for the entire family and also includes video games, inline skate rentals, and electric bike and conventional bike rentals.  map

• Jet Observation Parks
  Located on Oceana Boulevard
  757-433-3131
  Watch the Navy's most sophisticated aircraft taking off and landing while at these observation parks which are park of the Oceana Naval Air Station, one of the U.S. Navy's four master jet bases. Oceana is home to 19 aviation squadrons including the F-14 Tomcat fighter planes and A-6 Intruder medium attack bombers.  map

• Ocean Breeze Waterpark
  849 General Booth Boulevard • Virginia Beach, VA 23451
  757-425-1241
  A family friendly, Caribbean paradise, 2 miles south of the Oceanfront! Enjoy 16 water slides, a million gallon wave pool and a water playground. Restaurants on-site. Group rates and private cabanas available. Open May 16 through September 13. more...  map

• Oceana Naval Air Station
  Located on Oceana Boulevard
  757-433-3131
  One of the Navy's four major jet bases, this air station covers 6,000 acres and is home to over 9,700 Navy personnel and around 12,300 of their dependents. Eight F-14 Tomcat fighter squadrons and eleven F/A-18 Hornet squadrons assigned to the Atlantic and Pacific Fleets are based at NAS Oceana.  more...  map

• Old Coast Guard Station
  P.O. Box 24 • Virginia Beach, VALocated at 24th Street & Boardwalk
  757-422-1587
  The former U.S. Life-Saving Coast Guard Station that was built in 1903 and decommissioned in 1969, this station contains two galleries which depict the history of the life-saving service, shipwrecks off the Virginia coast, and an interactive exhibit that helps visitors identify ships off the coast. A gift shop is also on site. more...  map

Historic Homes & Buildings

• Adam Thoroughgood House (circa 1680)
  1636 Parish Road • Virginia Beach, VA 23451
  757-431-4000
  Nestled near the bank of the Lynnhaven River, this historic house is one of the oldest brick homes in America and it features a spectacular collection of late 17th and early 18th century English furniture and beautiful gardens which offer visitors a view of the lifestyle of a wealthy Virginia colonist. Costumed historical interpreters conduct guided tours of the structure and the surrounding grounds.  map

• Cape Henry Lighthouse (circa 1881)
  Located at Fort Story, Off Route 60
  757-422-9421
  The oldest government-built lighthouse in America and the traditional symbol of Virginia Beach, this octagonal stone structure is the tallest cast-iron lighthouse in the country and the first of one of three lighthouses to be built by John McComb, Jr. The lighthouse silently guards the entry way into the Chesapeake Bay and has a gift shop on site. more...  map

• de Witt Cottage (circa 1895)
  1113 Atlantic Avenue • Virginia Beach, VA 23451
  757-437-8432
  Listed in the National Register of Historic Places, this cottage was built by Bernard P. Holland, Virginia City's first postmaster and mayor, for his bride as a year-round home. It is the oldest remaining structure on the city's oceanfront and is currently home to the Atlantic Wildfowl Heritage Museum.  map

• Ferry Plantation House (circa 1642)
  4136 Cheswick Lane • Virginia Beach, VA 23451
  757-473-5182
  Rich in history, this site dates back to 1642 when the ferry service was first started by Adam Thoroughgood to connect plantations by the waterway and the third Princess Anne Courthouse built in 1735, which is the reputed site of imprisonment for Grace Sherwood, the "Witch of Pungo," once stood on this site. The circa 1830 house which now stands on this site is a ten room, central passage plan Federal farm house that faces the Western Branch of the Lynnhaven River.  map

• Francis Land House
  3131 Virginia Beach Boulevard • Virginia Beach, VA 23451
  757-431-4000
  This large, 200-year-old Georgian style plantation home stands as a symbol of the rural affluence enjoyed by the Land family in the 18th and early 19th centuries. The house features period rooms furnished with antiques and reproductions and the grounds include herb, formal, and vegetable gardens, as well as a history park which includes a constructed trail in a wooded wetland with interpretive sign exhibits.  map

• Lynnhaven House (circa 1725)
  4405 Wishart Road • Virginia Beach, VA 23451
  757-460-1688
  Take a short trip back in time by visiting this small medieval, transitional, gable style home of the Thelaballs. The journey back in time begins in "King George's Parking Lot" and continues along a charming, rustic path through a small wooded area. The house is situated on five and a half acres of land which includes a small woods and gardens of herbs, vegetables, flax, cotton, peanuts, and tobacco.  map

• Nimmo United Methodist Church
  2200 Princess Anne Road • Virginia Beach, VA 23451
  757-427-1765
  The oldest surviving Methodist Church in continuous use in Virginia, this Princess Anne church has an extensive pre-Colonial era and features a balcony which was reserved for slaves. The church functioned as a federal hospital during the Civil War.  map

• Old Donation Episcopal Church
  4449 North Witchduck Road • Virginia Beach, VA 23455
  757-497-0563
  This third Lynnhaven parish church dates back to 1736, when a church that was later destroyed by fire was built. The church was rebuilt in 1916 using the remains of walls originally erected in 1736 and tours that highlight its Colonial past are often given to schoolchildren and visitors to the area. more...  map

• Upper Wolfsnare (circa 1759)
  2040 Potters Road • Virginia Beach, VA 23451
  757-491-3490
  Built by Thomas Walke III, a prominent gentryman who was a ratifier of the U.S. Constitution from Virginia and who reportedly came from Barbados and became a prominent Colonial citizen, this brick Georgian style house offers many insights into life in the latter half of the 18th century and is the home of the Princess Anne County-Virginia Beach Historical Society.  map

Historic Sites & Monuments

• Battle off the Capes Monument
  Located at Fort Story
  757-422-9421
  This monument honors the memory of a battle during the Revolutionary War when, in 1781, a French fleet of 24 ships stood off an attack by 19 British ships. The French victory ensured the capture of General Cornwallis and 7,500 troops at Yorktown.  map

• First Landing Cross
  Located at Fort Story
  757-422-9421
  A beautiful monument that marks the approximate site where Jamestown settlers first landed in the New World on April 27, 1607. This granite cross was erected in 1935 and is a National Landmark.  map

• Norwegian Lady Statue
  Located at 25th Street & Oceanfront
  After the fatal wreck of the Norwegian bark "Dictator" on March 28, 1891, its wooden figurehead washed ashore in the ship's wreckage and stood at the oceanfront as a memorial for sixty years. A nine foot bronze replica of the original figurehead was presented as a gift to Virginia Beach in 1962 to commemorate the tragic loss and an exact duplicate was erected in Moss to unite the two sister cities.  map

• Tidewater Veterans Memorial
  1000 Nineteenth Street • Virginia Beach, VA 23451
  This stunning waterfall sculpture symbolizes the elements of war that unify and divide us and is a tribute to the area's military forces.  map

Museums & Galleries

• Atlantic Wildfowl Heritage Museum
  1113 Atlantic Avenue • Virginia Beach, VA 23451
  757-437-8432
  Situated in a historically registered and last remaining Virginia Beach Boardwalk cottage, this museum preserves, promotes, and exhibits wildfowl artifacts and contemporary wildfowl art forms, plus the museum provides an accurate representation of the early history of Virginia Beach captured through pictures, oral reports, and the physical presence of the de Witt Cottage. more...  map

• Contemporary Art Center of Virginia
  2200 Parks Avenue • Virginia Beach, VA 23451
  757-425-0000
  A nonprofit, noncollecting institution which was founded in 1952 to foster awareness, exploration, and understanding of the significant art of our time. Regularly changing exhibitions include paintings, sculptures, photography, glass, video, and other visual media from internationally acclaimed artists, as well as artists of national and regional renown.  more...  map

Science & Technology

• Virginia Air and Space Center
  600 Settlers Landing Road • Virginia Beach, VA 23669
  757-727-0900
  An "out-of-this-world place" that captures Hampton's heritage as the original site of NASA and America's space program. Artifacts on display include a three-billion-year-old moon rock and the scorched Apollo 12 Command Module and a larger-than-life IMAX film and a gift shop are also available. more...  map

• Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center
  717 General Booth Boulevard • Virginia Beach, VA 23451
  757-437-4949
  One of Virginia's most popular museums, this museum contains over 800,000 gallons of aquariums and takes visitors on a journey of water through Virginia. Visitors can stroll through the indoor Coastal River Room where birds and turtles roam free, marvel at a 50,000 gallon aquarium with the largest collection of Chesapeake Bay fish in the world, and touch gentle stingrays, horseshoe crabs, and other marine life while at this museum. more...  map

Tours & Cruises

• Adventure Cruise
  2161 Vista Circle • Virginia Beach, VA 23451
  757-481-7866
  This cruise company offers two cruises daily, the Adventure Cruise on the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean and the Sunset Cruise. Look for dolphins, pelicans, ships, and lighthouses while aboard this boat that includes an upper sun deck and a shaded deck below. Sailing times are 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. more...  map

• Virginia Legends Walk
  484 Viking Drive, #151 • Virginia Beach, VA 23452
  757-463-4500
  This self guided tour honors Virginians, by birth or residence, who have made a significant contribution to the nation and the world. Celebrated Virginians on the tour include Edgar Allen Poe, Arthur Ashe, Patsy Cline, Thomas Jefferson, and Captain John Smith. more...  map