Sponsor: The Garden Club of the Eastern Shore

Tickets: $30; single-site, $10; ages 6-12, half-price

Info: (757) 787-1514; www.esgardentour.com or www.VAGardenweek.org

Lunches: Boxed, $9; by The Eastville Inn; available at Barrier Islands Center, near Machipongo

The Chesapeake Bay-Bridge Tunnel connects the Eastern Shore peninsula to the main part of the state. This man-made wonder stretches 17.6 miles and is the longest bridge-tunnel in the world.

Tour highlights:

Grapeland, Belle Haven (Mrs. K. Ray Johnson Jr., owner), an 1825 Federal-period house, has been fully restored. The interior has a large collection of antiques, including period furniture, painting and decorative accessories. The grounds slope down to the waterside and include several garden areas.

Woodville, Nassawadox (Mrs. James N. Rogers, Miss Margaret Rogers and Dr. Elizabeth Rogers, owners), completed in 2005, is a 4,400-square-foot home that has two master suites on the first floor, with a third master suite and two guest rooms on the second floor. Garden plots and seating areas grace the grounds.

Ware Point, Franktown (Ms. Caramine Kellam and Mr. Fred Greenway, owners), is a contemporary home inspired by Coast Guard stations with more than 100 windows and skylights. Décor includes owner's paintings, Inuit sculptures and a soapstone Alaskan Eskimo. The residence is framed by Warehouse Creek.

Sea View, Eastville (Mr. and Mrs. John E. Tankard III, owners), is a historic 200-acre farm whose main residence represents an 18th-century country manor, flanked by stables, pastures and planting fields. A nearby barn complex, built around a former railroad station, houses numerous horses and ponies.

100 Creekside Lane, Bay Creek, Cape Charles (Mr. and Mrs. Steven Bennett, owners), is a brick and clapboard farmhouse-style home near landscaped roadways with views of golf courses designed by Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus. The house's European touches reflect the owners' prior residence in Belgium.

Eyre Hall, 3215 Eyrehall Drive, Cheriton (H. Furlong Baldwin, owner), is an 18th-century manor house with distinguished antiques, wallpaper and period furnishings. Old, billowy boxwood gardens and gnarled crape myrtles tower over swept paths next to English-style mixed borders of spring blooms.

*At Eyre Hall, note the rare piercedbrass door hardware.