I am originally from the area and lived there the last time in the late 80's. I am currently in VA, about 3 hrs. away.
I just visited there 2 weeks ago ironically, for a quick spring break camping trip with our RV.
The area truly offers a wide array of opportunities but, it does depend on what you are looking for. It has grown and continues to grow at a fast pace. Geographically, it is large...it will continue to grow.
The area offers high recreational and historical opportunities. On the other hand, it is a fairly large metropolitan area (Hampton Roads)...34th largest in the US with about 1.6 M people.
It can seem that there are more people than that though because of the road situation. There is a lot of water in the area that plays in to the travel grid. For example, there are more tunnels in this area than any area in the U.S. With weekend beach traffic, you don't want to try and use the tunnels - or at least you have to travel at odd hours.
Norfolk is the largest Naval base in the US. It influences much of what goes on there...both the good and the bad.
Chesapeake and Suffolk are somewhat adjacent to VB. They too are growing and geographically large and give easy access to the area's amenities.
Any questions, feel free to PM me.