Virginia Beach is a wonderful resort destination all the year round, featuring white-sand beaches and blue waters to swim, a variety of sporting amenities, vibrant nightlife, beautiful parks and unparallel natural and historic attractions.
In the southeastern corner of Virginia Beach there is the Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge, established in 1938 to provide the habitat for migrating and wintering waterfall. A unique geographic position of Back Bay determines a high biodiversity, including both southern and northern species, as well as a landscape variability with such habitats as barrier island beaches and dunes, woodlands and farmlands, shrub-shrub, fresh and brackish marsh. More than three hundred species of birds inhabit Back Bay and it is also home to many threatened species as Piping plover, Loggerhead sea turtle, Bald eagle and Peregrine falcon.
Virginia Beach boasts of Nauticus, almost a unique interactive science and technology center, the exploring marine life. Nauticus provides original exhibits, comprising computer and video interactivities, movies, exotic aquaria, touch pools, shark petting and other interesting displays, recommended for both kids and adults. There is also the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center with more than eight hundred thousand gallons of aquariums, an indoor coastal river room where turtles and birds roam free, a fifty thousand gallon aquarium with the largest collection of Chesapeake Bay fish in the world. The aquarium also features interactive exhibits and movies on a giant screen. Seasonally, there are boats for dolphin watching, whale watching and ocean collections.
With so much dedication to the power of the sea, Virginia Beach is also home to the environmentally focused, interactive Chesapeake Bay Center. The Center highlights a historical exhibition of the first landing of settlers in 1607, resident wood carvers demonstrations of fine art, as well as aquariums, environmental exhibits, classroom space, a wet lab and a touch tank, developed by the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center.
A new in-water, interactive educational offer of Virginia Beach is Harbor Seal Splash. A two-hour educational program permits visitors to learn the natural history of harbor seals and investigate needs and efforts for preservation and protection.
The Virginia Living Museum is a new observatory, devoted to different species of animals, native to Virginia. Alligators, snapping turtles, cypress swam and many other enigmatic creatures can be found here in their natural habitats.
In winter, Virginia Beach guarantees breathtaking experiences of whale watching and watching the annual Polar Plunge Winter Festival. Whale watching packages are available from December through March in the period, when magnificent humpback and fin whales sail to warmer waters of the Atlantic Ocean for their annual retreat. The Polar Plunge Winter Festival is a grandiose competition, when the bravest swimmers plunge in the chilly Atlantic Ocean. The Polar Plunge Winter Festival has a record number of plungers in the world, approximately two thousand and five hundred.
The Virginia Beach Visitor Information Center is settled at 2100 Parks Avenue. You can visit the Visitor's Center for directions and information about lodging and dining, as well as attractions and events, while you are in Virginia Beach. Additionally, the state of Virginia is not only famous for Virginia Beach, committed to captivating nature and marine experiences; if you take a Staunton vacation, you will find yourself in an old fashioned Americana city with five National Historic Districts, transporting you through two hundred and fifty-year-old history buffs.