Where it is and How to get there:

The region known as Hampton Roads is located in the southeast of Virginia, on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay , the Atlantic Ocean, and the James River. The region is home to 1.6 million people and is the 27th largest metropolitan marketplace in the United States.


Hampton Roads is served by 2 major airports: Norfolk International Airport, located on the south side of the James River and Newport News-Williamsburg International Airport located on the north side of the James River. Richmond International Airport is also nearby, being only 1 hour from the general Hampton Roads area.

History:

The name Southampton was bestowed upon the area in the early 1600s by Lord Delaware, the royal governor to the colony of Virginia. It was selected in honor of the third Lord of Southampton, a supporter of Virginia colonization and a sponsor of many expeditions to the New World. The word roadstead, a nautical term for a place where ships could ride safely at anchor, described the important waterways that surrounded the developing colonial cities. Originally called the Earl of Southampton's Roadstead, the name of the area was gradually shortened to Hampton Roads.

Ripe for Adventure!!!

Virginia has over forty thousand square acres of beaches, mountains, rivers, lakes, bays, swamps, reservoirs, and caverns! A natural wonderland with two million acres of public land and several MAJOR mountain ranges offering over a thousand miles of trails . Then we have the Chesapeake Bay, which is the largest coastal estuary in the United States. Plus, four thousand caverns and several reservoirs that have been formed by flooding complete towns. You want stunning wilderness? Virginia has stunning wilderness! You want adventure? Virginia is RIPE FOR ADVENTURE! And Hampton Roads is the apex of it all!   

Kudos...

`According to Mens Health, Virginia Beach is the 3rd fittest city in America for 2005

`A few years back, Hampton Roads was ranked by Money Magazine as the "No. 1 Large City in the South" in its Best Places to Live in America review