Buckroe Beach and Park

A wide public beach on Chesapeake Bay with calm, shallow water and a 3.9 km promenade — established as a resort in 1884, which makes it one of the oldest recreation areas in Virginia.

For most of the last century it also carried the state's segregation in plain sight: the amusement park and hotel here served white visitors, while Black families used a separate stretch of the same shoreline that became one of the significant Black resort beaches on the East Coast. The amusement park closed in 1985 and its 1920 carousel now turns in downtown Hampton; what remains is a straightforward city beach with lifeguards, a playground, picnic shelters, kayak rentals and a fishing pier.

Practical: free parking, free entry, open 7 a.m. to dusk. Outdoor films and concerts run through summer evenings. Quieter and considerably cheaper than Virginia Beach an hour south.