Riverwalk Landing

Yorktown's waterfront, rebuilt in 2005 to give a town of 200 people something to do besides history. Shops and restaurants face the York River along Water Street, a wooden riverwalk runs the length of it, and the whole thing is backed by the bluff with colonial Main Street above.

The swimming beach next to it has calm, shallow water protected by man-made coves — unusually good for small children by Chesapeake standards — plus a long fishing pier. Across the water, the George P. Coleman Memorial Bridge dominates the view: at nearly 1.2 km it is the largest double-swing-span bridge in the United States, and it opens to let warships through to the Naval Weapons Station upriver.

Practical: free parking lots at either end, a free trolley in season, and regular waterfront concerts and markets in summer. This is where you eat in Yorktown; the alternative is driving back to Williamsburg.