and no room to see the beach w/o paying to park.

Virginia Beach doesn't charge people to park at Town Center but they do anywhere near the beach, the greatest draw for tourists. And if you don't pay or if you park where you shouldn't, you get your car towed in a heart beat. The city needs to be more people friendly and NOT charge for parking even at the beach. Another thing that would help a lot would be to build more multi-story parking garages. Get the hotels to help fund them. More easier parking means more people would come to the resort area and spend MONEY. If there were no parking fees, even MORE people would come to spend even MORE money. The more people friendly a place is, the more attractive it is to all people, including the locals.

As for the beaches, I'll stick with those on the bay or at Sandbridge: fewer people go to those places.

I'll go to Nags Head or OBX, it's a lot cleaner and you don't have to pay to park. And you can park on the side of the roads, amazing Va. Beach. I've been to VA Beach maybe 10 times in 40 years, and the OBX over a thousand times, the people are a lot nicer & friendlier than VB , you can park, drive on the beach, fish, they act like they want you to come back. The crime rate is a lot lower. I go to the OBX to enjoy myself, I just drive through VB because I have to for work. Amazing that over 50 % of the cottages in OBX are owned by Virginian's. I get the impression from VB that us locals are not welcome, I'll take that 45 min to VB and drive to OBX in 90 mins and enjoy my stay.

I live on the Bay, and we don't have a tourst problem here, and that's the way I like it. I haven't been to the ocean front in decades, and no desire to go. I grew up on the York River, so I've always been near or on the water. I like being able to see the Bay, and some evenings we will go for walks. My beach days are long gone, but my grand kids like it here when they are in town.
My advise.....stay out of the sun!

Virginia beach is a lot like Las Vegas, it's beautiful but it's not that friendly. Quite simply, it's like a magnet for your those with loose money. Locals enjoy it more without all the touristy hoopla.

"No I like the beach but not this one"
The other beaches are more user friendly - and you can actually see the ocean from the roadway instead of nothing but hotels which also block the sun.....the citizens of VB are treated as second class....I'd rather go elsewhere (Nags Head, Myrtle Beach, etc) where the beaches are nicer.