Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge

When Labor Day ticks past, the summer people go home, and the beaches of Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge in Virginia belong to the birds, the wild ponies, and the occasional dolphin swimming along the shore. Fall is the perfect season for visiting—the island's infamous mosquitoes and biting flies are gone, and the weather is usually mild. Fall highlights include beautiful oranges and reds as foliage turns on the dunes—but don't look too closely or you'll come home with a case of poison ivy, which is responsible for providing berries for birds, holding the dunes together, and playing a lead role in the fall foliage show.

Photo Credit: Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge (Stacy Gold)

Richmond—A Guide to Richmond’s Great Monuments and Memorials

Though many East Coast destinations are rich with colonial and early United States history, possibly no city has as many decorative memorials and monuments. Every high school history lesson you ever forgot—the Civil War, the founding fathers, the civil rights movement—can be relearned here.

The obvious starting point is Monument Avenue, where Confederate notables (Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis) and other famous Richmond natives (tennis player Arthur Ashe) each have their own monument. For something more obscure, there’s a rather unconventional Confederate memorial in Hollywood Cemetery—stones are stacked to form a pyramid. Bookend the Civil War tour with a visit to the new Civil Rights Memorial on the State Capitol grounds—and also, a look at the slave reconciliation statue.

Virginia Beach on the Cheap: Trip Ideas That Won't Break the Bank

With 35 miles of beach and 18,600 acres of state park, Virginia Beach is a perfect place to find outdoorsy, inexpensive adventures. There is a resort zone with shops and restaurants, but it’s compact, while the parks and reserves sprawl almost endlessly.

If you’re traveling as a family, take a day to visit the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center. It just completed a $25-million renovation and opened a new permanent installation called The Restless Planet. This brings the exhibit count in the Aquarium up to about 300—most of them interactive in some way. Museum admission is under $20 for adults, slightly discounted for children.

Williamsburg for Less: Trip Ideas for Under Ten Bucks

Name of activity: Colonial Williamsburg Museums
Location: Williamsburg, Virginia
Price: Adults are $9.95, youths (age 6-17) are $4.95; covers admission to all three museums when used on the same day.
Description:
DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum – This museum is home to an extensive collection of American and British antiques. See furniture, metals, ceramics, glass, paintings, prints, firearms, and textiles from the 17th-19th centuries.
Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum – Colonial and contemporary artists and craftspeople work outside the mainstream of academic art to record aspects of everyday life, making novel use of the materials at hand.
Basset Hall – A two-story, 18th-century frame house located on 585 acres of gardens and rolling woodlands, Bassett Hall tells part of the story of the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg.
Dates open/available: Year-round. Check individual websites for museum hours.
Website: www.history.org

Top 4 Nature-Loving Family Road Trips

Spring is in the air, which means it's time to get outside! Scenery and back-to-basics family fun take center stage on these cheap, outdoorsy family road trips:

Skyline Drive, Shenandoah National Park, Virginia
Amid the backdrop of the breathtaking Blue Ridge Mountains, this 105-mile stretch of highway (itself a section of the 469-mile Blue Ridge Parkway) is dotted with exits to kid-friendly hiking trails. Inexpensive campgrounds and cabin-style resorts make for a budget-friendly family vacation.

Asheville, North Carolina, to Gatlinburg, Tennessee
This beautiful two-hour drive passes right through Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Campgrounds are plentiful in the area, as are laid-back lodging options like cabin rentals and motels.

Top 3 Budget-Friendly Beach Cities

Pack your swimsuit and hit the road. There are deals to be found in these sunny cities on the shore:

Destin
Located on a peninsula along the Florida panhandle on the Gulf of Mexico, Destin is within easy reach of an international airport. If fishing is your thing, you’ll appreciate Destin’s moniker as “the luckiest fishing village on the coast.” And the shimmering white-sand beaches with the emerald water in the background is all the free fun you could want.

Washington, D.C., Day Trips: Monticello, Charlottesville

Thomas Jefferson spent over 40 years designing and redesigning his estate of Monticello outside of Charlottesville, Virginia. While considered Jefferson's architectural autobiography, the estate is also a horticultural masterpiece. Jefferson once said of agricultural pursuits, "It is at the same time the most tranquil, healthy, and independent" occupation.

Photo credit: Monticello, Charlottesville, Virginia (Corbis)

Washington, D.C., Weekend Escape: Shenandoah National Park's Skyline Drive

If you like to slow down and enjoy the ride, Skyline Drive is the road for you—and not just because the speed limit holds you to a leisurely 35 miles per hour. Driving this gently graded, sharply winding road lets you explore the beauty of Shenandoah National Park from atop the narrow spine of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Pull off at one of 75 overlooks to take in the view—the gentle, rolling hills of the Virginia Piedmont to the east, and the fertile Shenandoah Valley to the west.

Photo credit: Shenandoah National Park, Virginia (courtesy, NPS)