Chesapeake Bay Driving Tour

Chesapeake Bay Driving Tour — A Water-Lover's Dream

Take a driving tour of the Chesapeake Bay region, which boasts more than 6,500 acres of natural areas and 1,100 miles of shoreline — full of open space to bike, hike, fish and bird-watch to your heart's content.

Potomac River

Don't miss Caledon Natural Area in the northern King George County on the Potomac River, home to one of the largest summering concentrations of bald eagles on the East Coast.

Travel south to Colonial Beach Yacht Center, a resort mecca during the Steamboat era. Today, enjoy a seafood lunch and some beautiful views of the Potomac River.

Down the Potomac River is Westmoreland State Park in Montross, known for the fossil shells, shark's teeth and whale bones found along its beaches. See eagles flying over the towering cliffs, too!

Southeast of the park is the Potomac River birthplaces of George Washington — George Washington's Birthplace National Monument — and Robert E. Lee — Stratford Hall Plantation.

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Virginia's Northern Neck

If your passion turns to old boats and Chesapeake Bay heritage, visit the Port Kinsale Maritime Museum at the Port Kinsale Marina and Resort, and tour one
of the oldest remaining Virginia-built skip jacks, the 1904 Virginia W.

At the mouth of the Potomac River in Reedville in Northumberland County, the Reedville Fishermen's Museum will fill your head with fishing lore. Here, you can charter a boat to fish for the mighty striped bass of the Chesapeake Bay, jump aboard a Smith Island & Chesapeake Bay Cruise or take a cruise to Tangier Island! (Allow another day on your tour for Tangier.)

Glimpse into the life of George Washington's mother at the Mary Ball Washington Museum in Lancaster.

Take a well-deserved respite at a grand dame of resorts, The Tides Inn at Irvington; try out their championship golf course, or take a cruise on the 127-foot, classic 1926 yacht, the Miss Ann, and see the beautiful homes along Millionaire's Mile.

Stop in historic Irvington or Kilmarnock in Lancaster County and browse through the quaint shops and enjoy a meal.

If you enjoy the slow pace of river travel, take the ferry across Corrotoman River to Ottoman; follow the Rappahannock River northwest; then cross it to arrive at Tappahannock on the Middle Peninsula. Rappahannock River Cruises provides narrated eagle-views out of Hoskins Creek, with a stopover at the famous Ingleside Plantation Vineyards in Oak Grove.

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Marine Life and Wildlife

 

Don't miss the New Point Comfort Lighthouse on Mobjack Bay in Mathews County.

Travel up the York River to its confluence with the Mattaponi River, one of the East Coast's last remaining pristine rivers and rent a canoe or kayak at the Mattaponi Canoe & Kayak Co. and take a leisurely half-day float trip down the Mattaponi River from Zoar State Forest to Aylett.

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