Buckroe Beach and Park

Buckroe Beach and Park is a family-friendly facility with eight acres of land and mile-long beachfront on Chesapeake Bay. There are licensed lifeguards on the beach during Memorial Day and Labor Day, as well as Saturday night music for Groovin’ By The Bay and Tuesday night outdoor movies.

The park features plenty of parking, a playground, a beautiful walking or cycling path, and kayak and paddle board rentals. For a modest cost, two picnic pavilions with tables and grills can be rented. There is also a stage for community activities.

Virginia Air Space Center

NASA has teamed with Virginia Air and Space Center to create an amusing and entertaining hands-on science center. Visitors of all ages can land on the moon in a lunar simulator, see the Apollo 12 command module, marvel at the five-story high IMAX theaters, and enjoy a close-up view of the sun and its waves in the solarium, which is filled with radiant photos recorded by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory.

Engineer-It, a playground where kids can use their mind and hands to build larger-than-life structures, is a great place for them to do so. The museum offers core scientific day camps, scouting badge completion facilities, curriculum materials for teachers and homeschooling parents. It also has a café and gift store where visitors can relax. There are also tours offered for school children and community groups.

Fort Monroe National Monument

Established in 1609, Fort Monroe has served as a stronghold that protects the waters found between Hampton Roads and Chesapeake Bay. It is currently the biggest stone fort that can be found in the entire US and has an even bigger, richer history behind it. It operated as a fortress in Confederate Virginia during the American Civil War, as well as a safe haven for slaves under the Contraband Act.

Fort Monroe is now a major tourist destination with a historic museum, miles of nature paths, great fishing off Engineer Wharf, picnic sites, a marina, and a long beachfront, one of which is Outlook Beach, which has a lifeguard during the summer season.

Casemate Museum of Fort Monroe

Fort Monroe’s Casemate Museum highlights the narrative of this important fortress intended to withstand naval attacks. The museum, which was once the jail where Confederate President Jefferson Davis was imprisoned after the American Civil War, is a true gem for people interested in military history or old architecture.

The museum features great antiques and informative displays, as well as a recreation of an officer’s two room family quarters and a self-guided tour of the museum, the moar, and the protective walls, which are six to eight feet high and made to survive cannon fire. A guided tour of the museum and grounds is available for groups of 10 or more persons.

Bluebird Gap Farm

In 1622, an English sea captain used Bluebird Gap Farm as cropland for the first time. It's now a rural educational and family-oriented location with over 150 farm animals, including chickens, horses, pigs, cows, and goats. Peacocks, tortoises, llamas, alpacas, rabbits, and deer are among the farm's more unusual animals.

Birds of prey, as well as water and beach birds, are frequent visitors to the area. The farm offers a picnic pavilion that may be rented for a full or half-day, as well as picnic tables strewn over the site for family use. There are vending machines that sell animal feed as well as vending machines that sell food and drinks to people. Farm and domestic antiques from the last two decades are on showcase in the display barn.

Hampton History Museum

The Hampton History Museum tells the past of Hampton, the United States' oldest continually English-speaking city. The museum takes visitors on a chronological tour of Hampton's 400-year history, including African American and Native American history, the War of 1812, the American Civil War, and the city's contemporary revival as a military and aerospace technological center.

The museum features excellent collections of historical maps and photographs, as well as numerous interesting relics dating back thousands of years, including a nine thousand-year-old arrowhead. In the gift shop, you may get snacks and drinks.