With the Chesapeake Bay lapping at the shore, pleasure boats swaying in the marina, and 36 championship-caliber golf holes winding through majestic pines, the beauty of the Bay Creek Resort & Club is abundant. The almost 2,000-acre state-of-the-art golf and boating haven nestled along a nature-filled peninsula is just across the bay from Norfolk and Virginia Beach, VA. The six-year-old resort and year-round planned community offers a marina, shopping, beach, and water sports, but is best known for two intersecting golf courses designed by golf legends Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer.

The resort and Nicklaus-Palmer golf courses were the vision of Virginia native and developer, Richard "Dickie" Foster, who has taken great care to preserve the 19th century seaport character and natural beauty of the peninsula. Foster has preserved much of the peninsula's native vegetation and wildlife --which now stretches along 3.3 miles of Chesapeake Bay shoreline on one side of the resort and the Old Plantation Creek on the other. Foxes and sea birds nest along the golf courses, which are lined with old growth woods, magnolias, roses and native beach grasses.

Many of Bay Creek's home styles (left) also preserve the region's unique character with designs inspired by the front porches and Victorian homes of the adjacent and quaint historic seaport town of Cape Charles. Cape Charles City, as the one-square mile town was originally known, was incorporated in 1886. It quickly became a hub of turn of the century activity, offering the largest harbor between Norfolk, Virginia and Maryland, a rail line clear up to NYC and two daily round trip ferry boat rides across the Bay.

By the middle of the 20th century, however, the ferry had relocated, the railway stopped carrying passengers and the bustling little seaport fell on hard times.

With the 1996 purchase of the nearly 2,000 acres surrounding Cape Charles on which Bay Creek now sits, the little town has been reborn with renovations of its Victorian homes, the opening of a beautiful European-style coffee house and a burgeoning eco-tourism industry. The town and the resort can be enjoyed through Bay Creek's long and short-term condominium and privately-owned, single family home rentals.

Boaters can also stay aboard their boats in Bay Creek's 124-slip, protected marina which provides access to the Intra-coastal Waterway, the bay and the Atlantic Ocean. The marina can accommodate boats up to 150-feet long and has a seven-foot deep low tide channel. Marina guests also have full access to the resort's golf course, pools, art gallery and elegant waterfront restaurant.

With relatively non-crowded world-class golf at your door, deserted barrier islands a short boat ride away, and a quaint waterfront town to stroll as the sun goes down, there is plenty to enjoy at Bay Creek!