Top 20 places to go in Hampton Roads

Though there are dozens and dozens of fun things to do in Hampton Roads, we narrowed the list down to our favorite 20. From history museums to roller coasters, we've got you covered.

Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge
A birdwatcher's delight, the Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge, south of Sandbridge in Virginia Beach, is a temporary home for about 10,000 snow geese and a wide variety of ducks during fall migrations.

4005 Sandpiper Road
Virginia Beach
(757) 721-2412
Web site

Busch Gardens Europe and Water Country USA
Busch Gardens Europe in Williamsburg has hair-raising rides and some of the nation's best roller coasters. Nearby Water Country USA has water fun and a new Rock 'n' Roll Island with three body slides emptying into a large pool.

Busch Gardens
1 Busch Gardens Blvd.
Williamsburg
(800) 343-7946
Web site

Water Country USA
176 Water Country Parkway
Williamsburg
(800)343-7946
Web site

Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel
Designated one of the "Seven Engineering Wonders of the Modern World" in 1995, the 17.6-mil-long Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel crosses over and under the waters where the Chesapeake Bay meets the Atlantic Ocean, connecting Hampton Roads with the Eastern Shore. Stopping points include a restaurant, gift shop and fishing pier on the bridge-tunnel's southernmost island, Sea Gull Island.

U.S. 13 North
from Virginia Beach
Web site

Children's Museum of Virginia
Nearly everything at the Children's Museum in downtown Portsmouth is hands-on, from a city bus to a collection of giant musical instruments. Young and old alike can experience the slippery delights of the bubble room, shop in a play market, delve into the science of light and sound and explore the stars at a planetarium show.

221 High St.
Portsmouth
(757)393-5258
Web site

Chrysler Museum of Art
The Chrysler Museum in Norfolk has more than 30,000 works of art, some dating back 5,000 years. The collections include pre-Columbian, African, Asian, Egyptian and Islamic art, sculpture, furniture, photography and paintings in a vast array of styles. The museum may be best known for its glass collection and includes a world-class array of Tiffany pieces.

245 W. Olney Road
Norfolk
(757) 664-6200
Web site

Colonial Williamsburg
The world's largest living history museum, Colonial Williamsburg has hundreds of restored and reconstructed colonial-era period buildings and a vast field of costumed interpreters. This year, Colonial Williamsburg's celebrates 75 years at the Governor's Palace, where both Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson once lived. They will be hosting special tours of the building.

Visitor Center
101A Visitor Center Drive
Williamsburg
(800) HISTORY
Web site

First Landing State Park
Virginia's most-visited state park is named, fittingly, for some of its most famous visitors: English settlers with the Virginia Company, who stopped here in 1607, before moving on to settle in Jamestown. The park offers programs on both history and nature, and has cabins, campsites and 19 miles of hiking and biking trails.

2500 Shore Drive
Virginia Beach
(757)412-2320
Web site

Great Dismal Swam National Wildlife Refuge
This wildlife refuge consists of about 111,000 acres of forested wetlands that stretch across Southeastern Virginia and Northeastern North Carolina. It's home to one of the East Coast's largest black bear populations, as well as bobcats, white-tailed deer and more than 200 species of birds. Numerous trails for biking and hiking are available.

Visitor Center
3100 Desert Road
Suffolk
(757) 986-3705
Web site

Historic Jamestowne & Jamestown Settlement
Visitors to Jamestown Settlement can board replicas of the three ships that brought colonists to Virginia in 1607. Next door is Historic Jamestown, with the ruins of many of the settlement's buildings.

Jamestown Settlement
2218 Jamestown Road
(off Va. 31 S.)
(757)253-4838
Web site

Historic Jamestowne
Colonial Parkway Jamestown
(757) 229-1733
Web site

Lighthouses
Among the many noteworthy lighthouses in the region are the old and new Cape Henry lighthouses at Fort Story in Virginia Beach. The old lighthouse, built in 1792, is the oldest government-built lighthouse in America. The new one, which began operating in 1881, is painted in a distinctive black-and-white checkerboard patterns.

In the Outer Banks, you'll find the Cape Hatteras, Currituk Beach, Bodie Island and Ocracoke lighthouses. On the Eastern Shore, the red-and-white-striped Assateague Lighthouses is still active.

The Mariners' Museum
The Mariners' Museum in Newport News tells the story of 3,000 years of maritime history through artifacts, ship models and paintings. The new USS Monitor Center houses a full-scale replica and artifacts of the historic ironclad ship, and visitors have a chance to maneuver a sailing frigate in battle and look inside the Monitor's real turret.

100 Museum Drive
Newport News
(757) 596-2222
Web site

Nauticus & The Battleship Wisconsin
Nauticus in Norfolk includes exhibits on science and the area's rich maritime history, and is home to a shark-petting lagoon, touch tanks and IMAX movies. Visitors can try such hands-on activities as designing their own battleship, then tour a real one - the Battleship Wisconsin, docked just outside. Nauticus is also home to the Hampton Roads Naval Museum.

1 Waterside Drive
Norfolk
(757) 664-1000
Web site

Norfolk Botanical Garden
It's not just flowers that grow at the Norfolk Botanical Garden. Bald eagles make a home there, too, and birdwatchers can check the online Eagle Cam to see eaglets grow up on the garden's 155 acres. Also among the garden's attractions is the 3-acre World of Wonders, a children's garden full of sprinklers, trails, habitats from around the world and more than 20 themed gardens.

6700 Azalea Garden Road
Norfolk
(757) 441-5830
Web site

Ocean Breeze Waterpark
The enormous gorilla who looms over the entrance to Ocean Breeze Waterpark welcomes visitors to a day of soaking fun at the park. Last year the park debuted two new pirate-themed slides, one of which is a dark 200-foot tunnel with a 50-foot drop. The park, near the Virginia Beach Oceanfront, also has a million-gallon wave pool, more than a dozen slides and private cabanas.

849 General Booth Blvd.
Virginia Beach
(757) 422-4444
Web site

Virginia Air & Space Center
The Virginia Air & Space Center in Hampton, which serves as the visitor center for NASA Langley Research Center and Langley Air Force Base, is packed with aeronautical wonders and hands-on exhibits. Visitors can see the Apollo 12 Command Module and a DC-9 passenger jet, peer into the nose of an F-16 jet, try their hands at flying with a Boeing 717 Simulator and climb into the cockpit of an F/A-22 Raptor.

600 Settlers Landing Road
Virginia Beach
(757)727-0900
Web site

Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center
Visitors to this Virginia Beach aquarium can try to evade a simulated snakebite, find out how it feels to be ankle-high to a heron in a larger-than-life slat marsh and give stingrays a pat on the back. (Interpreters say they feel like wet bologna.) The facility combines hands-on activities, including touch tanks, with aquariums that offer views of sharks, sea turtles, jellyfish and a stunning array of other creatures.

717 General Booth Blvd.
Virginia Beach
(757) 385-FISH
Web site

The Virginia Living Museum
Focused on the state's natural wonders, this museum in Newport News has exhibits featuring more than 245 different species of animals. The site combines elements of a native wildlife park, science museum, aquarium, botanical preserve and planetarium. It includes a walkway that meanders through animal habitats and an underground gallery that takes visitors into a limestone cave.

524 J. Clyde Morris Blvd.
Newport News
(757) 595-1900
Web site

Virginia Sports Hall of Fame and Museum
Visitors had better bring their "A" game, because this Portsmouth museum has games that let players test their skills in basketball, baseball, football, soccer and auto racing. The museums' displays cover high school athletics, college athletics, Virginian Olympians, Virginia's greatest sports moments and more. Athletes honored here include more then 45 national Hall of Famers.

206 High St.
Portsmouth
(757) 393-8031
Web site

Virginia Zoo
The zoo has a long list of new additions, from "the Norfolk Southern Express," a train that winds through the park, to four new lion cubs, born this spring. The zoo also has recently welcomed an escape-prone red panda, a camel named Hercules and a kudu named Eli. In the repitle house, snakes and lizards lounge, and armadillos burrow through their habitat. The zoo offers a peek at nightlife in the jungle.

3500 Granby St.
Norfolk
(757) 441-2374
Web site

Wright Brothers National Memorial
In 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright made aviation history by building their plant, then - with Orville as pilot - soaring through 12 seconds of powered flight on the Outer Banks. On display at the visitor center are full-scale reproductions of the Wright brothers' 1902 glider and 1903 flying machine, and engine block from the original 1903 plane and a reproduction of the Wrights' first wind tunnel.

Milepost 7.5 on U.S. 158
Kill Devil Hills, N.C.
(252) 441-7430
Web site