Colonial Williamsburg

[chemenger]

Anyone been? Any hints and tips? How long did you spend there? What else is worth doing nearby?

We're going this weekend, no children just the two of us empty nesters.

Fantastic place! At least a full day, but i would recommend 2 days to have time to really take in everything.

See if you can book an evening meal in one of the historic restaurants.

Chrmenger! We have just left! We stayed at the Fife and Drum Inn near William and Mary College, which you must go and see!

Colonial Williamsburg is excellent. Some buildings are original but others are reconstructions. There are people in period costume in many of the buildings and we found the wig maker was excellent! Various historic figures give talks and the visitors centre tells you about these.

In the area there is also Yorktown. There are Revolution battle sites and we found seeing exactly where the British lost America and where the surrender was signed very moving. You need a car to do the trail. Also go to the excellent Yorktown Revolution Museum. It’s very good. Yorktown is a small village but worth a walk around.

Jamestown has a reconstructed settlers village plus a museum of archaeology at Jamestowne. We enjoyed both. If time is limited, decide which matters more to you. We also visited Berkeley and Shirley plantation houses. We enjoyed this too but they are not like stately homes in the uk so don’t expect too much.

Have fun!

It's wonderful. Take at least 2 days and go to Busch Gardens as well. It's such a gorgeous theme park.

Thanks for all the advice, we’re in Norfolk airport now so our Williamsburg adventure is about to start. I’m glad everyone has enjoyed it! We’re staying in a B&B that looks pretty so hopefully it will be a fun weekend.

We are doing B and Bs everywhere. Currently at Waynesboro, Virginia and driving down the Blue Ridge Mountains. Hopefully our great experiences will continue!

(Ps: don’t go to the theme park). There’s so much in Williamsburg that’s original and authentic and there is even a former owner of a house in Williamsburg who studied law the Middle Temple in London. A Mr Carter. His house is still standing. He didn’t qualify though. Spent too much time having fun in London.

Bubbles! Didn’t notice it was you. Currently we’re in a wildlife refuge just across the Chesapeake bridge, because DH is on a work call. Hopefully the weather will clear up. Thanks for the advice. We won’t be going to the theme park, no teenagers with us. We would love to do a longer road trip down here, it’s already beautiful.

Hi! We have had very mixed weather today. We are going further down the Blue Ridge Mountains tomorrow. Hoping for some sun!

BubblesBuddy are you driving through Shenandoah? We've just got back and it was absolutely beautiful. I love that part of the world ( especially the music, not so much the biscuits and gravy!). We had the most phenomenal storm on Sunday, but the weather was fabulous for hiking by Wednesday. Hope you see a bear 🙂

Yes. We have driven down the Skyline Drive (or part of it as the southern end was closed due to storm damage) and we are setting out on the Blue Ridge Parkway today. We have been around lots of small towns such as Staunton and Lexington too. The area around Charlottesville was also fantastic. We have loved everything about Virginia so far. Great places to stay, local produce to try and very helpful people. Home made biscuits everywhere we have stayed. Gravy nowhere! I would recommend this part of the USA to anyone.

The weather has been very changeable but it’s April! I’d rather that than 85 degree heat every day. Mostly we have had around 70 degrees with sun and cloud.

Just waiting to see a bear! If not, we are going to Canada for a bear/wildlife holiday in September.

We went with children and enjoyed it very much but I think it would be interesting for just adults as well. It was very hot when we were there and I really felt for the enactors in their heavy costumes - which then made me think about how hot the original inhabitants must have been in those clothes in the steamy summers and they didn’t have the chance to go home to nice cool houses and fridges !

So far we are enjoying Williamsburg immensely. The costumed people are incredibly knowledgeable, we’ve learned so much about the war of independence and about how things were done in the colonial times. We’re enjoying it because we’re both happy to spend ages talking to people without the restraint of teenagers’ attention span of dislike of parents talking to strangers! The wig maker is very entertaining.

We went to Yorktown yesterday which was also excellent. We may fit Jamestown in tomorrow but I suspect we might just stay in Williamsburg.

We’re also staying in a B&B opposite the College of William and Mary,