Attractions

Children’s Museum of Virginia

Located in the Olde Towne Historic District, this incredible attraction provides serious fun for kids of all ages. Two full floors are packed with activities designed to engage young minds and stimulate imaginations! Some museum favorites include a planetarium, a rock-climbing wall, a giant bubble-making station, a real fire engine and half of a city bus. The Lancaster Antique Toy and Train Collection is not to be missed as it is one of the most amazing model train collections in the world. This wonderful place is a center where kids learn about science, nature, art and lots of other things – although they may be having too much fun to realize it!

Naval Shipyard Museum

America’s oldest and largest naval shipyard is located on the Portsmouth waterfront and waiting for you to come aboard! The shipyard was once described as “the most considerable one in America” by the British during the Revolutionary War. The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Museum offers a unique perspective on U.S. history, from Colonial to Civil War times and beyond which visitors can relive through beautiful ship models, uniforms, military artifacts and exhibits portraying life in 18th, 19th and 20th century Portsmouth.

Lightship Museum

The U.S. Lightship Service was started in 1820 to build ships as navigational aids like lighthouses for seafaring vessels. The lights atop the ships’ masts were similar to those in lighthouses, but their portability made them much more versatile. In 1964, this ship was retired to Portsmouth and renamed according to the custom of naming lightships after the site where they are stationed. In 1989, the Lightship Portsmouth was designated a National Historic Landmark in which sits a museum with a realistically fitted out captain’s quarters as well as other fascinating artifacts, uniforms, photographs, models, and more.

Virginia Sports Hall of Fame and Museum

The Virginia Sports Hall of Fame and Museum invites you to dribble a basketball, toss a football, pitch a baseball, drive a stock car on a professional track, watch a game in luxury from a Washington Redskins skybox and even announce the play-by-play of a historic game from a broadcast booth. The interactive exhibits and hands-on activities will make champions of the whole family. The Hall also honors great champions and celebrates the great characters of America’s rich sports history.

Colonial Williamsburg

Colonial Williamsburg is the world’s largest living history museum located in Williamsburg, Virginia as the restored 18th-century capital of Britain’s largest, wealthiest, and most populous outpost of empire in the New World. Here the origins of the idea of America, conceived decades before the American Revolution are interpreted and communicated. The Colonial Williamsburg story, “Becoming Americans,” tells how diverse peoples, having different and sometimes conflicting ambitions, evolved into a society that valued liberty and equality. The 300-acre living history museum houses hundreds of restored, reconstructed, and historically furnished buildings while costumed interpreters tell the stories of the men and women of the 18th-century city and the challenges they faced.

Portsmouth Fast Facts