Virginia Beach Oceanfront
Virginia Beach, VA
Virginia Beach's oceanfront runs three miles along a wide boardwalk, the resort strip that gives the city its name and its biggest crowd of the year every summer. Free parking garages and metered street spots serve the beach directly, a rarity for a boardwalk this developed.
The boardwalk and three miles of flat, easy sand make this a genuinely convenient beach day, but the resort strip is as crowded and touristy as this coast gets in July.
How we score beachesDogs are banned from the sand between Rudee Loop and 42nd Street, the resort strip itself, but allowed before 10am on the beaches just north and south of it. Walk a few blocks either direction if you're bringing one.
Parking garages and metered street spots serve the oceanfront directly. Access to the beach itself is free.
The boardwalk is flat and paved for its full three mile length, with ramps down to the sand at regular intervals.
Dogs are banned from the sand and water on the resort strip between Rudee Loop and 42nd Street. On the beaches north of 42nd and south of Rudee Loop, leashed dogs are allowed before 10am. Outside the Memorial Day to Labor Day season, dogs are welcome on the beach and boardwalk anytime.
Water reaches the mid to upper 70s by August, inside Atlantic hurricane season, which runs June through November. Shoulder season, May or September, trades a few degrees of water temperature for a much thinner boardwalk crowd.
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