Comtemplating a trip there this year, is it worth a 6 hour drive? Is it overrun like some "Great Adventure" type amusement parks with rowdy teenagers/shady characters? I'd hate to drive all day to see a welfare mob running all over the place if you catch my meaning.

Are there other attractions in the area?

How long could I spend at this place with the family - One day? Two? More?

Looking forward to your reviews.

DOW & family.

It's not really a theme park. It's more a historical tourist trap. However, you do have Busch Gardens, Williamsburg; Water Country USA; Paramount's King's Dominion; Virginia Beach all within driving distance. If you really want to stretch it out the Outer Banks of North Carolina are about a two hour drive.

One more thing, I'm not calling dupe, but there was a great thread with some good info covering this subject a while ago. I think it was in the VA Hometown Forum.

Yorktown battlefield and Jamestown are both within 15 mins of Wmsbg.

Colonial Wmsbg draws a tame crowd:  retirees or young families with kids under 10 make up most of the tourists.  VERY few gangbangers.

Quoted: Yorktown battlefield and Jamestown are both within 15 mins of Wmsbg. Colonial Wmsbg draws a tame crowd:  retirees or young families with kids under 10 make up most of the tourists.  VERY few gangbangers.

+1.   I took field trips there in High School.  I really enjoyed it, but I'm a dork like that.  Busch Gardens is in Williamsburg.

Very good Family oriented place for history nerds.  You will get the party line history, but on the other hand they have taken on the occasional radical topic like adressing slavery and such.  

If you go in the next 2 months you will avoid alot of the crowds.

I spent a year at the College of William and Mary which is at the end of Duke of Glouchester (dog) street, the main street of colonial williamsburg. Take a quick walk through old campus, very beautiful.

My family and I went drove 14 hours to go to Colonial Williamsburg last summer.  It is a very historic spot...not a lot of rowdies would care to hang out there.
We saw Jamestown and the recreated fort.
Busch gardens is right there along with WaterCountry USA.
Yorktown battlefield was a real dissappointment.
Its worth the trip. (but, avoid D.C. traffic!!!!)

You could spend a full week in the area and not do and see everything.

Don’t miss the gunsmith shop in Colonial Williamsburg.

Quoted: Very good Family oriented place for history nerds.  You will get the party line history, but on the other hand they have taken on the occasional radical topic like adressing slavery and such.   If you go in the next 2 months you will avoid alot of the crowds.

Prolly not gonna get there until the summer. Oh well.

Do they have hot actress babes playing indian women at Colonial Williamsburg?

Here's another thread that might help you out


www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=427816

It is a badass place.
I go there almost every year.
Beware: the atmosphere will give you the spirit of 76...if you follow me.

Go for the history and the guns they have there.

Richmond is excellent and you want to tour Monument Blvd.  In Richmond, you may want to see the Virginia Historical Society (Battle Abbey), Museum of the Confederacy, Thurgood Marshall's home, Tredegar Iron Works (now a National Park Site and there's plenty of Civil War things there), Chimbarazo Medical Museum (another Civil War National Park site), Hollywood Cemetary (where many famous Confederates are buried).

There's numerous battlefields on the Yorktown Peninsula (where Williamsburg is) including Williamsburg, Malvern Hill, Gaines Mill, Dam No. 1 (part of the Civil War Yorktown siege but a state park), Cold Harbor, Chickahominy Creek, Savage Station and two others which escape my memory.
Nearby is the Mariner Museum with the turret and engine and propellor for the famous Monitor.  Don't forget Drewry's Bluff, Petersburg (where the Crater was fought), the Bermuda Hundred, City Point (where Grant had his HQ).

Williamsburg is one of many historic sites within an hour of each other. Its not a draw of the great unwashed because its not really fun, its more educational with some interesting history thrown in.

I Like the Jamestown reproduction not the historic dig, they are located right next to each other so dont waste time going to the wrong one.
Bush Gardens Amusement park and a large water park is also close by for fun.
Summer is prime season, if you wait until schools out the crowds double.

6 hour drive mmmmmm not for me but for kids it is one of the things that will help they connect to the things they will learn in school.

You could spend a 5 day week in the area.

Quoted: Williamsburg is one of many historic sites within an hour of each other. Its not a draw of the great unwashed because its not really fun, its more educational with some interesting history thrown in. I Like the Jamestown reproduction not the historic dig, they are located right next to each other so dont waste time going to the wrong one. Bush Gardens Amusement park and a large water park is also close by for fun. Summer is prime season, if you wait until schools out the crowds double. 6 hour drive mmmmmm not for me but for kids it is one of the things that will help they connect to the things they will learn in school. You could spend a 5 day week in the area.

If you don't find Williamsburg fun that is just sad...

If you are not tickled just to walk in the places Washington and Jefferson walked… Stand where spectators would have watched and heard Patrick Henry speak… Wade through the gunsmiths shop… ect., ect., ect….

I drive 10+ hours to get there and don't even think about it.

2 words:

Homemade muskets.

Just watch out for this man.  



He'll get all pissy if you ask him if you can take his picture.

"Take my picture sir?  Why, I have no pictures to give!"

Cool, affordable clay tavern pipes and old school blacksmiths pounding away all day... what is not to love?

- BG

Quoted: Do they have hot actress babes playing indian women at Colonial Williamsburg?

Dont get me started about Indians and Williamsburg.  While their year 2000 interpretive plan adressed the fur trade and many of the tradesmen in the town were producing items used in the trade, you never saw any indians there.  Its a combination of things mostly a fear of protesting indians in the streets and other such nonsense

It's a good vacation area. Colonial Williamsburg has many things to see. Give the colonial village two days at a minimum. Make reservations for meal in one of the Taverns. There is a visitors center where you can park, buy tickets, learn about the village and take transportation to the villiage. See, the Jamestown settlement and The Yorktown battlefield. At Yorktown, take a guided walking tour with one of the park rangers. They really make it a worthwhile experience. There are some restored plantation museums along the James river that are worth seeing as well.

The Kids will also enjoy Busch Gardens and a local water park. Virginia Beach is a short drive.

I've been there three times and will go again when the kids are a little older.

If you are in the area, check this place out: http://www.valivingmuseum.org/

It is just a short drive down the road.

Williamsburg is a great place! Go during the right time of year and you won't be disappointed.

Go see the colonial governor's mansion and you will get to see guns. Lots of em:







If you can look at that and not get instant wood, then you belong on a knitting forum.

Beautiful flintlock muskets, pistols, and swords arranged beautifully along the walls. It will give you a sudden and intense interest in redecorating your house.

There are lots of things within driving distance of Williamsburg that are lots of fun. King's Dominion is a pretty nice place, and you also have Jamestown and Yorktown nearby, which are both great places to visit.

The MacArthur memorial is around there too.

Lots of good history stuff to keep you busy for several days.

Just watch out for the guys shooting off canons in colonial Williamsburg....

Virginia beach is also pretty close, which can be a real blast at certain times of the year. Try night fishing on the Virginia Beach pier when the blue are running.

There is a marine biology museum in Norfolk called Nauticus, and there are some Naval museums as well.

You could spend two weeks vacation in the area and still not see everything there is to see.

Quoted: Cool, affordable clay tavern pipes

They still sell them?!  Do they still sell them to fourteen-year-olds??  I bought one on my eighth-grade class trip there.  It's hard to believe nowadays that at one time, they'd sell smoking supplies to grade-schoolers.

Quoted: Go see the colonial governor's mansion and you will get to see guns. Lots of em: If you can look at that and not get instant wood, then you belong on a knitting forum. Beautiful flintlock muskets, pistols, and swords arranged beautifully along the walls. It will give you a sudden and intense interest in redecorating your house.

+87

When I first walked into the Gov's mansion, my wife said it looked like my dream come true!!

gat

If you go to Williamsburg, make sure you eat (gorge) here:

http://www.visitwilliamsburg.com/captain_georges_seafood_website.htm

this place is SO good, my wife and I constantly debate taking another trip back from Northern Virginia just to eat their buffet again, sleep it off in a hotel room, and then make the run back - it's THAT good