4 Best Sights in Williamsburg and Hampton Roads, Virginia

Voted the world's most beautiful theme park for 26 consecutive years and counting, Busch Gardens features more than 50 rides and attractions, including some of the world's best roller coasters. Six beautifully landscaped European "countries" re-create the look and feel of France, Germany, England, Scotland, Ireland, and Italy. Sesame Street Forest of Fun brings Elmo and his Sesame Street friends to life. Grover's Alpine Express is designed for children and parents to enjoy together, and is among Busch Gardens' most popular kids' attractions. Tempesto, the latest roller coaster, offers a thrill ride with a full inversion. Busch Gardens also hosts popular song-and-dance shows (country, Americana, Irish, German folk) in several theaters.

Adjacent to but distinct from Historic Jamestowne is a mainland living-history museum called Jamestown Settlement. The site marries 40,000 square feet of indoor facilities with outdoor replicas of the early James Fort, the three ships that brought the founding colonists from England, and a Powhatan Indian village. The introductory film 1607: A Nation Takes Root is shown in the theater. The handsome Tudor-style Great Hall is arranged by decades from 1607 to 1699, when the capital was moved to Williamsburg. Gallery exhibits examine the lives of the Powhatans and their English-born neighbors, their interaction, and world conditions that encouraged colonization. Outdoors within James Fort, interpreters in costume cook, forge metal, and describe what life was like living under thatch roofs and between walls of wattle and daub (stick framework covered with mud plaster). In the Powhatan Indian village you can enter a yehakin (house) and see buckskin-costumed interpreters cultivate crops and make tools. At the pier are full-scale reproductions of the ships in which the settlers arrived: Godspeed, Discovery, and Susan Constant. All the vessels are seaworthy; you may climb aboard the Susan Constant and find out more from the sailor-interpreters. A riverfront discovery area provides information about 17th-century water travel, commerce, and cultural exchange, reflecting Powhatan Indian, European, and African traditions. Dugout-canoe making takes place in this area. Spring and fall bring lots of school groups, so it's best to arrive after 2 pm.

A world history of seagoing vessels and the people who sailed them occupies the outstanding Mariners' Museum, inside a 550-acre park. An alliance between the museum and the South Street Seaport Museum in New York City allows the two institutions to share collections, exhibitions, and educational programs. Among the more than 50 full-size craft on display are a Native American bark canoe, a sailing yacht, a speedboat, a gondola, a Coast Guard cutter, and a Chinese sampan. In separate galleries you can often watch the progress of a boat under construction; view ornate and sometimes huge figureheads; examine the watermen's culture of the Chesapeake Bay; and learn about the history of the U.S. Navy. The museum also holds artifacts from the RMS Titanic and remains of the ironclad USS Monitor, which served in the 1862 Peninsula Campaign and was recovered from the coast of North Carolina. A 63,500-square-foot addition, the USS Monitor Center, houses the ironclad ship and Civil War exhibits. One of the highlights is the August Crabtree exhibit, authentic scale models hand carved by August Crabtree that portray historic shipbuilding accomplishments in miniature from ancient Egypt to 19th-century Britain. They are so tiny that you must view them through magnifying glasses (built into the display).

The Virginia Air and Space Center traces the history of flight and space exploration. The nine-story, futuristic, $30 million center is the visitor center for NASA Langley Research Center and Langley Air Force Base. Its space artifacts include a 3-billion-year-old moon rock, the Apollo 12 command capsule, a lunar lander, and NASA's new Orion space craft. The center also holds a dozen full-size aircraft, a 3-D IMAX theater that is five stories high, a variety of flight simulators, and hands-on exhibits that let you see yourself as an astronaut or launch a rocket.