A Family Vacation on Chincoteague Island

The Refuge Inn has been in our family since 1973, tucked among the loblolly pines at the entrance to Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. Don Leonard, who built it, kept ponies here because he’d loved them since he was twelve years old, and his family keeps them still. They’re the first thing most children see when the car doors open, and it’s usually a while before anyone makes it to the front desk.

Three generations of our family have run this place, and a good many of the families who stay with us were first brought here by their own parents. We’d suggest three or four days. There’s more here than a weekend holds.

This is usually the first question, so here it is first.

Connecting rooms are our Deluxe Queens. Give us a call to book them, or put it in your reservation notes and we’ll get in touch if we can’t make it work.

Ask for a downstairs room if you’re traveling with a baby or a toddler. It’s easier to haul everything in from the car, and nobody has to worry about small feet at six in the morning waking whoever’s underneath. The upstairs rooms have the balconies, and those come into their own once children are old enough to carry their own bags up the steps.

Small cribs and rollaways are $10 a night and you can add them right on the booking page.

Take a downstairs room. Cribs are $10 a night, there’s a fridge in every room, and microwaves are a few steps away in the breezeway for bottles. The shady end of the pool is the shallow end, which is the right way round. And you can see the ponies from the patio, so nobody needs strapping into anything.

The ponies are the whole trip at this age. Twenty steps from the car, behind a fence, there every single day, and you can go back four times before dinner without anyone getting bored or asking for money. When they’ve had enough of ponies, Brianna’s Kindness Park at Smith and School Street has a sensory playground built to be usable by every child, along with a pavilion, chess tables and public restrooms.

The Island Nature Trail on Hallie Whealton Smith Drive, here on Chincoteague, has a paved seven-tenths-of-a-mile loop with benches, which is about right for legs that might quit halfway. Veterans Memorial Park has a playground, and a pier for crabbing right beside it.

This is the Misty age, and it’s the reason to come now rather than later.

Beyond that: crabbing off the boardwalks with a line and a chicken neck. The Birding Bingo card. A hundred and seventy-five steps up the Assateague Lighthouse. Pony rides at the Pony Centre. And a bike from the Bike Depot, because the Wildlife Loop is 3.2 paved miles with no cars on it until three in the afternoon, which is about as safe as riding gets.

Give them a bike and somewhere to be. It’s three and a half miles from here to the beach by bike through the refuge, and they’ll bird the whole way whether they mean to or not.

Chincoteague Island Outfitters rents kayaks and paddleboards, delivers anywhere on the island free, and has their own dock with a route they’ll pick for you based on the tide that day. Cowboy Cruise Company will take a family out to dig their own clams and shuck oysters on the water. The Pony Centre runs day camps. And NASA Wallops is just off the island, and free.

The island’s small enough to hand them a bike and a time to be home.

The beach is theirs. Surf fishing is better at dawn and after dark, and you can pick up an overnight permit at the Herbert H. Bateman Center to stay out past sunset. Alley Oops Express stays open late on weekends. And if you’ve got one who’s taken up a camera, the marsh at sunset will keep them occupied for a week.

The trips that work best here have three generations in them, and the island is unusually good at that.

The Wildlife Loop opens to cars at three in the afternoon. That’s what keeps it safe for children on bicycles all morning, and it’s what lets great-grandparents see the same refuge from the passenger seat with a thermos in the afternoon.

The pool has a ramp onto the deck and a lift into the water, and the shallow end is shaded. Brianna’s Kindness Park was built to be used by everyone, with adult fitness equipment and a pavilion beside the playground. The south loop of the Island Nature Trail is paved and level with benches along it. And the ponies are twenty steps from the parking lot on flat ground.

Best of all, Misty works in both directions. A grandmother who read that book in 1955 can take a grandchild to the barn where the pony actually lived, a few minutes across the island.

Connecting rooms are Deluxe Queens, and breakfast comes to the room, which spares everyone getting six people fed and dressed by the same hour.

There are picnic tables under the pines and hibachi grills outside, and you are welcome to use them. Bring a cooler, or pick up crabs or a pizza on the way back from the beach and eat here rather than getting everyone into the car again. There is a microwave in the breezeway for whatever needs warming.

Nearly everything you’ll need is on Maddox Boulevard, the road we’re on.

Famous Pizza and Sub Shop, 6689 Maddox. Homemade pizza and Philadelphia-style cheesesteaks, plus seafood, pasta, salads and gyros, so nobody has to compromise. They deliver free, which is worth knowing on the evening somebody falls asleep at five o’clock.

The Village Restaurant, 6576 Maddox, looking out over Eel Creek. The family behind it has been in the seafood business for decades. This is where to go for fresh Chincoteague oysters, and there’s steak and chicken for the ones who won’t touch them. They keep coloring books and a box of crayons at the hostess stand.

Ropewalk on Main Street, next door to Alley Oops, if you’re making an evening of the arcade. There is a small playground outside.

Island Creamery, 6243 Maddox. Locally owned since 1975, thirty-two flavors, made with local fruit. The signature is Marsh Mud, which is triple chocolate. Our favorite is half Marsh Mud and half strawberry. They do kid sizes, and if you ask they’ll put a kid-size scoop in a full-size waffle cone, which spares everyone a good deal of trouble.

Yes, in our Deluxe Queens — see Getting everyone into rooms above.

Both. They’re $10 a night and you can add them right on the booking page. The cribs are on the small side, so if you’ve got a tall toddler it’s worth a call first.

There isn’t. We’ll ask when you book whether you’re comfortable with stairs. If you’d rather be downstairs, or you need to be downstairs, just say so and we’ll sort it out.

Very. Parking is at your door, the grounds are flat, and the pony fence is a level walk across the lot. Here on Chincoteague, the Island Nature Trail on Hallie Whealton Smith Drive has a paved south loop with benches along it. Over in the refuge, every trail is paved except the Bivalve Trail, so a stroller will go just about anywhere you want to take it.

Honestly, they can be bad in high summer, particularly when it’s hot and humid and there’s been rain about a week before. They don’t usually hatch until late spring, so spring and fall trips rarely have a problem. We treat the grounds with cedar oil to keep the numbers down, we sell bug spray at the front desk, and we’re happy to tell you which spots to avoid at dusk and which are fine.

More than you’d expect. Bikes and a small enough island to let them out on their own, surf fishing at dawn or after dark, kayaks and paddleboards, Alley Oops open late on weekends, rocket launches, and a marsh that photographs beautifully at sunset.

Once you’re here, yes — we rent bikes on the property and nearly everything is on Maddox Boulevard. Getting here is another matter. You’ll want a car for the drive, because rideshare on the island is very sparse.

Have a look at our pony swim guide for where to stand, when to arrive and how the week runs. One trick worth knowing: there’s a jumbotron with a live feed at the Veterans Memorial Park playground, so you can watch the swim while the children play. Book early, whatever you decide.

In the summer season. The National Park Service posts the current guarded dates and hours.

For check-in times, refuge passes, parking and everything else, see our full FAQ.

• Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge

• Museum of Chincoteague Island and the Beebe Ranch

• Chincoteague Pony Centre

• Chincoteague Island Outfitters

• Alley Oops Express

• Assateague Lighthouse

• NASA Wallops Flight Facility

• Town of Chincoteague parks and recreation