2 Best Sights in Williamsburg and Hampton Roads, Virginia

The largest children's museum in the state, the Children's Museum of Virginia has so many hands-on exhibits that teach through activities that kids learn while they "play" with all aspects of life; they can take classes and workshops, participate in interactive story times, race on an obstacle course, do giant floor bowling, rediscover old carnival games, and so much more. You can also book a party, which includes a private room and all-day admission to the museum.

If you're not a nature lover, hiker, or biker, don't take the time to visit the Great Dismal Swamp. If you are, do take mosquito repellant. The forbidding name was possibly assigned to the area by William Byrd on one of his early-18th-century surveying expeditions. George Washington once hoped to drain it. Today the swamp is a 106,000-acre refuge that harbors bobcats, black bears, and more than 220 varieties of birds. A remarkably shallow lake—3,000 acres, 6 feet deep—is surrounded by skinny cypress trees that lend the scene a primeval quality. One hundred miles of hiking and biking trails, including a wheelchair-accessible boardwalk, stand in stark contrast to nearby downtown Portsmouth and Norfolk.