Three Eastern Shore of Virginia towns are best 

By Linda Cicoira

Three Eastern Shore locations were listed among the top ten best small towns in Virginia in the most recent edition of the popular Southern Living magazine.

Chincoteague, with its famous herd of wild ponies, is a gateway to the wildlife refuge and a jewel of Accomack County. It was named No. 1.

Cape Charles, the eclectic art gallery and boutique mecca in Northampton County with turn-of-the-century buildings, came in fourth. Wachapreague, another Accomack town and the Flounder Capital of the World was No. 9. There are 190 incorporated towns and 228 municipalities in Virginia.

Details about Chincoteague were spread across two pages of the Birmingham Alabama-based lifestyle magazine that is aimed at readers in the southern states and features recipes, house and garden plans, and information about southern cultures and travel.

“Virginia’s Chincoteague Island seems to glow during the magic hour – that bit of the day just before the sun begins its dramatic descent into the bay and its rays skate across the water like sequins,” the article stated. “This is the time when the spartina grasses that flourish in the brackish marshes glimmer like spun gold and silhouettes of shorebirds glide along the horizon.”

The Eastern Shore’s famous vacation spot “is nestled between Assateague Island and Wallops Island.” it “draws tourists who traverse it by bike, car, kayak, and boat in hopes of encountering the renowned Chincoteague ponies, which reside on Assateague in (the) Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge.”

“They say once you fall in love with our little island, you get the marsh mud between your toes and keep coming back over and over again,” an innkeeper, was quoted as saying in the publication.

The other towns in Virginia’s top ten were Lexington (2), Abington (3), Middleburg (5), Floyd (6), Colonial Beach (7), Williamsburg (8), and Roanoke (10).