Chincoteague Island to Atlantic, Virginia Day Trip Directions
Follow VA-175 7 miles west to Atlantic Rd. turn left and continue to miles into Atlantic. The drive should take about 20 minutes.
Chincoteague Island to Atlantic, Virginia Day Trip
The communities of Virginia’s Eastern Shore are as much states of mind as they are geographical locations. The Eastern Shore communities off the “beaten track” of Route 13, in particular, provide the perfect state of mind for someone wanting to get away from it all, enjoying the Eastern Shore’s quieter side.
If you come to Atlantic, Virginia, you will be leaving the amenities of city life behind. Cell phone service isn’t guaranteed here, and the nearest gas station is nine miles away on Chincoteague’s Main Street. You’ll have to rely on old-fashioned neighborliness to help you find your way around Atlantic, but that’s not a problem. Just ask one of the locals and a legendary Eastern Shore helping hand will be extended in your direction before you finish your question!
Atlantic is a wide spot in the road on Virginia between the Eastern Sore’s main artery, Route 13, and a series of three small bays. Powell’s, Watts, and Bogue’s Bays separate the town from Wallops Island, and Atlantic Road (aka VA 798/VA 679) actually runs right up to the Wallops Island Flight Facility. Nearby is the NASA Visitor Center, where the new Science on a Sphere theater will entertain you with close-up visuals of the goings-on all-around our solar system!
Traveling from Chincoteague, you’ll pick up Atlantic Road by heading west over the causeway and turning left on Virginia 798 just after you pass the NASA Visitor Center and air base. The entire route is over flat farmland and marshes. In the summer, you'll travel by shoulder-high fields of corn. Both tomatoes and cotton also thrive here.
Poultry processing has long been a major industry on Virginia's Eastern Shore, with over 30 million broilers, including those from Atlantic’s Benjamin B. Thomas Farms, produced here each year! Atlantic, in the years before World War II, had its own poultry processing plant on Watts Bay. During the postwar years, this plant was transformed into, of all things, a button factory!
Since 1971, it’s been the home of Wright’s Restaurant and Crab Gallery, one of the best seafood restaurants in an area known for its seafood restaurants. Wright’s crab-stuffed flounder with imperial sauce gets rave reviews, as do the bayside views of Chincoteague Island and the Wallops Island rocket launch site.
Another local favorite eatery is Ron Wolf’s. Wolf’s is one of the cleanest, friendliest and busiest lunch spots on the entire Eastern Shore of Virginia, well worth the short jaunt from Chincoteague Island. Stop in for breakfast and politics any day of the week.
Seafood processing has long been one of the Eastern Shore’s commercial mainstays, and Wright’s Restaurant is located next door to the Sea King seafood exporting company. For more than two centuries, the waters off Virginia’s Eastern Shore were to shellfish what French Bordeaux country is to grapes. Area oysters were particularly valued for their plump texture and sweet taste.
Fresh lobsters now draw visitors to Atlantic from all around the Eastern Shore. Lobsters live in the deep ocean canyons off Chincoteague, and many of those ones which aren’t dinner for mahi mahi make their way to Nocks Landing road and Seaside Lobsters. Bring a cooler full of ice, and choose your fresh dinner lobster fresh right the holding tank.
Friendly locals, peaceful, tree-lined streets, a community dock which invites fishing and crabbing and great seafood are all waiting your arrival in Atlantic!