Start from 53 curated places around Virginia Beach, VA, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
Coastal Grill
A no-nonsense seafood room on Great Neck Road, three miles inland from the strip, that locals have brought visiting family to since 1989. The menu is short and the daily blackboard specials, especially soft-shell crab and whatever fish came in, are the whole point.
Aldo's Ristorante
The fine-dining Italian room at La Promenade that locals treat as the special-occasion default, open since 1988 with a wine list that has won awards for decades. It leans regional Italian with local seafood and produce worked in.
Trails & outdoors
Bald Cypress Trail
A flat, well-marked loop through First Landing's cypress swamp on boardwalks and packed sand, with observation platforms over black water and Spanish-moss-draped trees. It is the trail that shows you why people forget this is a beach city.
Osmanthus Trail
A secluded, well-marked First Landing trail of about three miles through marsh and forest that sees far fewer people than the Bald Cypress boardwalk. It is the longer, quieter walk for people who want distance without elevation.
Things to do
Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center
The city's major aquarium near Owls Creek with touch pools, sharks, sea turtles, Komodo dragons, and a marsh trail across the road. It is the reliable family anchor and the obvious rainy-day fallback.
Military Aviation Museum
A 130-acre Pungo airfield holding one of the world's largest collections of flyable World War I and World War II aircraft, many kept in airworthy condition. It is a serious, unusual museum well off the tourist track.
Landmarks & sights
Cape Henry Lighthouse
The 1792 sandstone tower on the Fort Story dunes was the first lighthouse the federal government ever funded, and you can still climb its 191 steps to a 360-degree view over the Chesapeake-Atlantic confluence. It sits inside an active military base, so getting in is more involved than the typical attraction.
Thoroughgood House
A small brick colonial cottage from around 1719 on a few acres of lawn above the Lynnhaven River, run as a free museum with guided tours every 45 minutes. The newer education center gives the visit context beyond the house itself, and the docents go deep if you ask.