Lighthouses are a great place to visit for a day, and Virginia has several that you can visit. The Cape Charles Light is one that stands sentinel on Smith Island at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay while the New Point Comfort Lighthouse can be seen as you cross the bridge to Assateague Island from the mainland.
Both are great places to stop and take a photo and they also offer tours of the tower. The New Point Comfort lighthouse is a beautiful and storied lighthouse that was commissioned by Thomas Jefferson, located on an island between the Chesapeake and Mobjack bays. It has survived not only two wars but also two hurricanes. This battered and beaten 58 foot tall sandstone structure is well worth the trip.
Another is the Jones Point Lighthouse in Mathews County, which was a river lighthouse built in the 1800’s and was made of wood. It has an interesting history and is also the only surviving river lighthouse in Virginia. It was built on the tip of the Middle Peninsula at the entrance to the Mobjack Bay and was one of the first lighthouses in the country to be equipped with a first order Fresnel lens.
The Assateague Lighthouse in Northampton County is the best known lighthouse on the Eastern Shore and it is a beauty. It is the third highest lighthouse in the state of Virginia and it’s a magnificent beacon just south of the Virginia/Maryland border on Assateague Island National Seashore. The lighthouse is open for visitors to tour and the tower can be climbed for an additional cost of $14 for adults.