Points of interest include the Hampton University Museum, the Syms-Eaton Museum, and the Kecoughtan Indian History Center. The city is served by mass bus transportation, and passenger rail is 10 miles away. There are airports 10 to 13 miles away in Norfolk and Newport News. The campus is close to Norfolk, Richmond, and Virginia Beach.
Students have access to water sports, fishing, and hiking.
Hampton University is a four-year, private, coed liberal arts institution that was founded in 1868 as Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute to educate former slaves who had gathered behind the Union line on the Virginia Peninsula. Its original purpose was to train selected blacks who would then teach and lead their people. Postsecondary-level programs were instituted in 1922 and the first bachelor's degree was awarded in 1926, graduate school began in 1928. In the early years, residence quarters were a problem, the men lived in army tents and the women lived in barracks until the completion of Virginia Hall. The Hampton Singers, a group that toured communities in the north, raised some of the money for this building.