Hampton History Museum

A small, well-made city museum covering 400 years in ten galleries — which is a lot of ground, but Hampton has the material for it: Kecoughtan and Powhatan settlement, the 1610 English founding, the port and its pirates, the Civil War burning of the town by its own retreating residents, Fort Monroe and contraband camps, the Black resort beaches of the segregation era, and NASA.

The interpretation is noticeably franker than most municipal museums about slavery and segregation, and the temporary exhibitions are often the best thing in the building. Admission is around $5.

On Old Hampton Lane in the walkable downtown core, a few minutes from the carousel, the air and space center and the Queens Way shops. An hour and a half is about right.