One of the vacation hotspots for many in Northern Virginia is right down the road (OK, three-and-a-half hours) in Virginia Beach. And this year, the resort has a few new offerings, along with your old favorites.
Getting Around Virginia Beach
While you may just want to kick back at a beachfront hotel, enjoy the boardwalk, and not go anywhere, you will likely want to go somewhere and may not want to drive. Freebee, a free ride service in all-electric Tesla Model X vehicles, doubled its service fleet this year. This will be Freebee’s second summer in Virginia Beach. You and four others can use the “Ride Freebee” mobile app to get a ride from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. every day.
You will see Virginia Beach becoming a little more pedestrian-friendly. The city is spending $26 million to upgrade of the eastern end of Virginia Beach Boulevard, also known as 17th Street. Utilities are being moved underground, sidewalks widened, and a bicycle lane will be added
Staying in Virginia Beach
You’ll have new options for where to stay in Virginia Beach. The 157-suite Embassy Suites by Hilton Virginia Beach Oceanfront Resort opened February 16 and sits on the beach across Atlantic Avenue from the historic Cavalier Hotel. It completes the $458 million renovation of the Cavalier Resort Virginia Beach. The hotel has indoor and outdoor pools and two eateries, Arbuckle’s Bar & Grill and the Taco & Tequila Shack. The Embassy Suites is one of a only a dozen Embassy Suites properties in the U.S. to receive the Hilton’s “resort” designation for the “hotel’s first-class caliber, location, and elevated amenities.”
Coming to the oceanfront at 12th Street in June will be the Moxy Virginia Beach Oceanfront. The seven-story hotel will have 134 oceanfront rooms. Its outdoor pool has a slide from the second floor. Sound fun? Even the staffers are expected to bring a little more to the job, at least if how the trendy Marriott-brand hotel went about hiring is an indication. It hosted “auditions” to hire staffers. Prospective employees noshed on snacks and posed for headshots before their interviews.
Less than 10 minutes from the oceanfront, K9 Resorts Luxury Pet Hotel is new. It opened in February and offers luxury stays for dogs, with the staff providing housekeeping, room service with Blue Buffalo meals, and turndown service with bedtime treats.
Entertain Yourself
You’ll want to pack your pickleball paddle. There are 25 new courts open at Pickleball Virginia Beach, with another 20 under renovation. The courts are open from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. Want to play all day? Drop-in rates are $10 a person, and the facility has lessons, leagues, and tournaments, not to mention a place where you can shower after working up a sweat.
Dolphin watching tours are back. The Virginia Aquarium debuted the new boat tours last year. Up to 40 passengers can take the 70-minute excursion on the Atlantic Scout, a rigid inflatable boat. Take the tours into the early fall. Also at the aquarium, make sure you don’t miss (and you won’t) the larger-than-life images of the swimming sea turtle trio.
If you venture to Virginia Beach from June 2–4, you’ll be there when a sports action festival from Canada makes its U.S. debut. The three-day Jackalope Festival at the oceanfront is free. It will feature competitions and demonstrations by world-renowned athletes in skateboarding, BASE jumping, breakdancing, and bouldering. Professional skateboarder Tony Hawk will be there. Long Island skateboarder Chad Caruso, who is on a quest to raise money for addiction awareness, is trying to set a Guinness World Record by traveling more than 3,000 miles across the U.S. to open Jackalope.
Also in June, the Beach It! Country Music Festival will be held from June 23–25. This is the first year for the festival, which will feature Miranda Lambert, Luke Bryan, and Thomas Rhett.
And, if you didn’t see it in DC, Beyond Van Gogh – The Immersive Experience will be at the convention center in Virginia Beach from July 6 to September 2.
New Menus to Check Out
Three new eateries opened this year, as well as an ice cream and coffee shop.
Grab a bite at Legal Sea Foods in the Virginia Beach Town Center. The restaurant opened May 12 after a year-long major renovation
The All Good Craft Granola Café opened in February on the site that used to be the Virginia Beach School of Art Gallery. Here, spent grains from local craft breweries are repurposed into granola bars by All Good Craft Granola Bars, plus you can get breakfast and brunch, soups, grab and go items, and regionally-sourced coffees.
Bring your best four-legged friend and maybe some of your better two-legged ones to Pups and Pints. The two-acre dog park, restaurant, and taphouse opened in April, offering local brews, craft cocktails, and pup-inspired people food, like the Bark Burger or the Boston Terrier, a hot dog with spicy mustard and sauerkraut.
We Scream, Virginia Beach’s newest ice cream and coffee shop, just opened in May. It’s at the Marriott Virginia Beach Oceanfront. Get a sundae for $12. The Sea Turtle sundae, with a chocolate chip brownie and turtle candy, could be a favorite for you and the kiddos. Or try a milkshake for $10. The Tarnished Truth comes with praline pecan ice cream, Virginia Beach-based Tarnished Truth Distilling’s bourbon maple syrup, and candied pecans.
Other fairly new places to check out: Quemar Wood-Fired Cocina, which opened last fall, and Waterman Spirits, which opened last summer. Quemar uses Argentinian-style, wood-fueled Parrilla grill for its housemade Latin American and Mexican cuisine. Waterman Spirits is a new distillery, the first in the nation to to use an organic, coral-filtered process in its vodka production.
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