Road trips by city

Road trips from Virginia Beach

13 back-roads routes start within a 4.5-hour drive of Virginia Beach, including 4 day trips and 8 weekend drives; 3 ready-made itineraries begin nearby.

Drive times are estimates to the nearer end of each route (straight-line miles plus a quarter, at 50 mph); the atlas itself never routes you onto an interstate once the drive begins.

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Day trips from Virginia Beach

• US 13: The Eastern Shore
  About 45 min to Cape Charles
  Cape Charles → Chincoteague · ~90 mi · 1–2 days · skips I-95 (by an entire bay)
• VA 5 & the Colonial Parkway
  About 1 h to Yorktown
  Richmond → Yorktown · ~90 mi · 1–2 days · skips I-64
• The Northern Neck
  About 1 h 30 min to Irvington
  Fredericksburg → Irvington · ~110 mi · 1–2 days · skips I-95
• Lee's Retreat
  About 2 h 5 min to Petersburg
  Petersburg → Appomattox · ~110 mi · 1–2 days · skips I-85

Weekend road trips from Virginia Beach

• US 58: The Last Capital Road
  About 50 min to Suffolk
  Martinsville → Suffolk · ~230 mi · 2 days · skips I-85
• US 301: The Ghost Road
  About 2 h 10 min to Emporia
  Emporia → Santee · ~290 mi · 2–3 days · skips I-95 (that's the point)
• The Inner Banks
  About 2 h 40 min to Washington
  Washington → Ocracoke (via Swan Quarter ferry) · ~120 mi · 1–2 days · skips US 64 bypass
• The Booth Escape Route
  About 2 h 50 min to Port Royal
  Washington → Port Royal · ~95 mi · 1 days · skips I-95
• Bull Run to the Bloody Angle
  About 3 h 40 min to Loop from Alexandria
  Loop from Alexandria · ~240 mi · 2–3 days · skips I-95 / I-66
• The Constitution Route & 231
  About 4 h to Charlottesville
  Charlottesville → Sperryville · ~75 mi · 1–2 days · skips US 29
• Gold, Clay & Longleaf
  About 4 h 10 min to Raleigh
  Raleigh → Columbia · ~250 mi · 2–3 days · skips I-85 / I-77
• Sherman's Carolinas Campaign
  About 4 h 25 min to Durham
  Columbia → Durham · ~280 mi · 2–3 days · skips I-95 / I-40

Named parkways and scenic byways within reach

• VA 5 & the Colonial Parkway
  About 1 h to Yorktown
  Richmond → Yorktown · ~90 mi · 1–2 days · skips I-64

Longer itineraries starting near Virginia Beach

• Sounds & Banks
  7 days · ~560 mi · from Norfolk
  Two ferries, four lighthouses, one lost colony and the slow handoff from sound country to the Lowcountry's front porch.
• US 17: Outer Banks to Florida
  8 days · ~820 mi · from Norfolk
  The Atlantic coast road end to end: NC 12 and two ferries across the sounds, then the Kings Highway from Wilmington to Savannah and the Golden Isles…
• Cradle & Surrender: Jamestown to Appomattox
  3 days · ~260 mi · from Williamsburg
  The bookends of American history in one Virginia weekend: the first permanent English colony and the Yorktown victory that won independence, then…

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