Family travel destinations attractions and things to do with kids in virginia

Posted: 02/09/2007--25/11/2008 || Rate this Article: 3 || Views|| Sign In || Register ||Hello Guest

The next time youre planning a vacation for your family, consider visiting Virginia, with its beautiful beaches and numerous tourist attractions. Adults and children alike will be thrilled by the atmosphere, friendliness and diversity that The Old Dominion State has to offer. Here are some suggestions for fun-filled sites to see and activities to enjoy when you and your family partake of the Virginia experience.

Busch Gardens, located in Williamsburg, is an exciting theme park which offers full family entertainment. If twisting around through the air at a height of 195 feet while going 67 miles per hour appeals to you, then youll want to ride Alpengeist C the worlds tallest inverted rollercoaster. Boasting a 170-foot drop, this is truly a thrilling ride. Other rides include Escape from Pompeii, Corkscrew Hill, the Big Bad Wolf and Roman Rapids, as well as many other amusements that will be sure to offer mind-bending experiences to those who dare to ride them. There are also numerous villages located within the park that are devoted to foreign countries, such as Scotland, Ireland, Germany, France and Italy. To top it all off, there are spectacular shows and animal attractions.

Virginia Beach is home to Ocean Beach Waterpark, a delightful attraction that offers plenty of fun in the sun. Youll enjoy riding Largo Loop C a water tube ride with a Caribbean theme, Jungle Falls C a white water tubing attraction, complete with waterfalls, Runaway Bay C a wave pool, featuring eight different patterns from diamond waves to 6-foot breakers and Bahama Mamma - the largest and fastest waterslide that the park has to offer. The children will enjoy Buccaneer Bay, Little Amazon, South Seas Silly Slides, the Kiddie Caverns and Grape Escape. The park also offers Shipwreck Island Arcade, the Island Trader Gift Shop and the West Indies BBQ.

Motor World C also in Virginia Beach C provides racing fun for family members from the age of 3 and up. Boasting over 250 race carts, this high-energy family attraction will provide a thrilling day for visitors and their children. Fourteen different styles of carts and eight tracks are available for older children and their parents. For the kiddies, there are Sprint Karts, Jr. Stock Karts, Bullits and Two Seaters, to name a few. Also available are bumper boats, kiddie rides and miniature golf courses. Spend a couple of hours or all day, if you prefer. Since youngsters love fast movement and the idea of being able to drive a car, this is definitely an attraction with kids in mind!

The Childrens Museum of Virginia, located in Portsmouth, has over 90 interactive exhibits for kids. Your kids will be thrilled by the Bubble Room, where theyll be given the necessary tools to make bubbles C huge ones, tiny ones and even one that they can build around themselves! At the Art Moves exhibit, children can use the harmonograph to try their hand at drawing poster-size pictures, while Block Buster invites them to put on a hard hat and pilot a crane that will assist them in constructing various structures with building blocks. Other exhibits include Hocus Focus, Science Circus, The Sounds Around and The Eyes Have it, as well as a number of others. You wont want to leave before visiting the Planetarium and catching one of the daily performances.

Natural Bridge, Virginia is the site of a most unusual C and exciting C tourist attraction: Virginia Safari Park. What makes it so unusual? Its the only drive-through zoo in Virginia (not to mention, the largest)! Join your family on a thrilling 3-mile safari wagon ride, where theyll see creatures such as camels, bison, giraffes and ostriches C all in all, there are inhabitants from six continents. Feel free to interact with the animals C the children can even feed them! In addition, theres also an area which features domestic animals, which is offered as a petting zoo for the youngsters. Picnic areas are available for those who wish to enjoy lunch out in the open. Dont forget to visit the gift shop before you leave!

While youre in Natural Bridge, you wont want to miss The Haunted Monster Museum C a delightfully bizarre Victorian style house, complete with a huge stone skull built into the structures face. After entering the main gate C which resembles the mouth of a huge gargoyle, you and your family will be treated to a scary, yet funny, tour of the house, which was built by Professor Cline C whose work has been seen at a large number of haunted attractions all over America. This is one vacation spot that the children wont soon forget! When youre finished with the haunted tour, be sure to pay a visit to The Wax Museum and the Toy Museum, also located in Natural Bridge.

Virginia Air and Space Center, located in Hampton, offers an Adventures in Flight Gallery C an interactive space-related area for children. In the gallery, kids will experience the thrill of being an air traffic controller, working with the flight controls, doing wing walking and much more. Also on exhibit are the Apollo 12 Command Module C which flew to the moon - and a meteorite from Mars. The whole family will enjoy the IMAX Theater, where youll be treated to a 3D film on a giant screen. This attraction is both fun and educational C a definite must see for the kids.

Twin Creeks Llamas, in Browntown, Virginia offers llama accompanied hikes for all members of the family C from age 6 to adult. A typical excursion is expected to last for approximately five hours, with a break at the halfway point for a picnic lunch. Individuals who take the tour are expected to be in good health and be able to hike, since the trails range from two to five miles in length, depending upon the level of difficulty for your particular tour. Levels range from easy to fairly difficult, so you can pick your own level, and kids who are ages 8 and up will be allowed to lead one of the pack llamas. It should be noted that these llamas are not trained to carry riders C theyre for hauling packs of provisions only. Still, this glorious trek through nature will provide a fun-filled day of healthy exercise for the family.

In Blowing Rock, North Carolina, youll find Mystery Hill C a complex of four attractions providing a variety of activities and entertainment for visitors and their families. Mystery House, which defies the usual laws of physics due to an inordinately strong northern pull, will allow you to watch as bizarre experiments are performed, such as both a ball and water rolling uphill. Oh, and youll also find yourself standing at a 45 degree angle! The Hall of Mystery is dedicated to optical illusions and interactive experiments. While touring exhibits which are based on a variety of mathematical theories, tourists can do amazing things at The Flying Mirror, Bubble-Rama, Magic Lightbulb, Hologram and The Spooky Spigot. Heritage Museum is the former home of the Dougherty Brothers, founders of Appalachian State University. The first house in the county to have running water and electricity, the brothers house was originally donated by their father with the hope of providing a school for mountain children. The Artifacts Museum houses over 50,000 pieces of Native American artifacts. Representing nearly every period in the history of the American Indian, the exhibits here took nearly ? of a century to collect. Vacationers can spend hours here at Mystery Hill C and every building offers something completely different from the last!

From one end of the state to the other, your family will find delightful vacation spots, full of excitement and fun C and will learn a bit along the way, as well. For further vacation information, contact the Department of Tourism or your local travel agent.