Hostel Provides Good Base When Visiting Virginia Beach

Virginia Beach offers 28 miles of clean, public, sandy beach and a budget accommodation, and it’s is within a one-hour drive of some of this state’s most popular attractions: Colonial Williamsburg, historic Jamestown and Busch Gardens, a popular theme park.

Angie’s Guest Cottage, a combination bed and breakfast and youth hostel at 302 24th St., a block from the beach, is a good base from which to see the sights.

In Angie’s bed and breakfast section, rooms rent for $42 to $62 per room per night, double occupancy.

In the hostel section are 42 bunks in five rooms. Hostel guests are charged $10 per night between May 24 and Sept. 1, when the rate drops to $7. However, between Oct. 1 and April 1, Angie’s is open only to guests with reservations.

Youths who are planning to enter town by bus can get free transportation to the hostel by calling in advance, (804) 428-4690.

Virginia Beach Trolleys provides inexpensive transportation at 50 cents per ride, or $2 for an all-day ticket. One route runs parallel to the 38-block boardwalk and bike path that overlooks the beach.

Other routes are south to the Marine Science Museum, 717 General Booth Blvd., where for $4 per person, life under the Chesapeake Bay is revealed; north to Seashore State Park, 2500 Shore Drive (which has 27 miles of nature trails), and to the offbeat Assn. for Research and Enlightenment, 67th Street and Atlantic Avenue, headquarters of the late psychic Edgar Cayce.

About a one-hour car drive northwest of Virginia Beach is Jamestown, Colonial Williamsburg and Busch Gardens. Greyhound goes to Williamsburg for $12.50 one way, $23.85 round trip. Day Tripper is a bus service that picks up at Angie’s door for a return trip to Williamsburg and Busch Gardens for $25 per person. Call (804) 463-3991.

It will take a car, taxi or bike (six miles) to get to Jamestown. Visitors can get a feel for the lifestyle of that first colony by viewing an excellent 20-minute documentary and by exploring life-size re-creations of the three ships that brought the settlers to the New World, the original fort and a Powhatan Indian village. Adult admission to Jamestown is $7 per person.

Williamsburg, capital of the Virginia colony between 1699 and 1780, exists today much as it did 200 years ago, operating as a 173-acre outdoor history museum.

Wander down cobblestone streets or buy a ticket and enter many of the buildings. Daily tickets are $21-$28 per person for adults, depending on the buildings visited.

Three miles east of Williamsburg, and connected by public transportation, is Busch Gardens, a combination of fantasy villages, thrill rides and theatrical productions. Free self-guided brewery tours also can be taken, and beer samples are offered to those 21 years and older.

One-day admission costs $22.95, and two-day tickets are $28.95. Busch Gardens is open until Oct. 27, after which it closes and opens again March 30.