Rich in 18th century history, Colonial Williamsburg has much more to offer its visitors than just vast stores of historical knowledge. The lush landscape takes on a nearly tropical feel during the summer months and can make a visit to this lovely, educational vacation destination feel like more of a life experience than a quick vacation getaway. Family members of all ages will be able to find activities and entertainments to suit their desires in and around Colonial Williamsburg Virginia.
Experience Life Before Technology
This may be just the vacation one needs to get away from the hectic day-to-day of city living, and the digital world that often encroaches on those tiny peaceful moments we seek out for ourselves when and where we can. Get back to basics to see how the most menial tasks were completed while learning what it took to be a settler and pioneer in this vast land. This can help to bring a couple or the entire family closer by providing them with unforgettable together time and moments that cannot be recreated anywhere else in the world.
Revolutionary Family Adventure
Upon arrival with your family, visitors should take the Orientation Walking Tour that begins in the Gateway building. This leisurely thirty minute walk will help to familiarize your group with amenities, attractions, and activities in the area. The volunteers and costumed staff that lead these will do so while providing visitors with a bit of a historical background lesson along with helpful information on shopping, dining, and programming options.
Covering the grounds of this 301 acre Virginia resort are 88 of the authentic 18th century buildings. Lining the colonial streets are hundreds of public buildings, shops, and homes that have been reconstructed on their original foundations.
Visitors will be immersed in some of the real history that the United States was built upon.
Political Landmarks
Some of the ideas behind the American Revolution were created on the grounds in the affluent Governor’s Palace. The personification of British order governing over the colonies, the building that is now known as The Capitol, was the structural spectator to America’s vote for independence. A building appropriately named ‘ The Magazine’, housed the colony’s ammunition and weapons supplies, while Raleigh Tavern provided an objective setting that encouraged free and open debates.
Prolific Ornate and Operational Gardening
The flora and fauna indigenous to 18th century Virginia emerges with each season in the Historic Area Gardens. Known for its tidy flower gardens, cool tracts of greenery, fenced-in pastures, and some of the same trees that bore witness to the American Revolution, the decorative and functional gardens at Colonial Williamsburg are an impressive sight for families and couples alike.
Professional horticulturalist and two hundred years of tender cultivation have ensured that Colonial Williamsburg Historic Area Gardens provide historically accurate and native plants. This is a popular location for local photographers so don’t forget to bring your camera. With educational gardening programs provided by these experts, visitors can also take the knowledge to create such masterpiece expanses of gardens home with them.
Organic 18th Century Dining
The taverns at Colonial Williamsburg Virginia supply visitors with year-round comfortable lodgings in addition to providing serving areas for meals, entertainments, and good conversation. Using the freshest ingredients, tavern proprietors properly pride themselves on providing wonderfully filling meals in a warm and informal atmosphere.
Even George Washington had a favorite tavern herein Christina Campbell’s Tavern. Once a faithful customer of this travelers seafood establishment, Washington had a selection of dishes he enjoyed when visiting. These dishes have been passed down through the years so that visitors to this favored tavern can enjoy the same filling meals as our founding father.
Colonial Williamsburg allows visitors to travel the footpaths and sidewalks that our very own nation builders once traversed.
Each and every visitor will be quickly transported back to the age of the American settler and that feel will be constantly enriched by period garb worn by all Colonial Williamsburg staff.
Whether a memorable familial experience or a romantic trip for two, Colonial Williamsburg will leave each and every visitor with a wealth of knowledge on what it took to be an American three hundred years ago.