Williamsburg is a very small town, it will only take you 5 minutes to get from your hotel on the outskirts of town to the historic/colonial area. The specialty tours we've done in C.W. have been very well done.

You don't have to stay at one of the expensive hotels in the colonial district; the others are close by and very nice. You know William and Mary college is in that vacinity and you should drive by and see that. I took my then 10 year old daughter to see it and see never forget it. We live it Calif now and its her dream to go to college; not there necessarily but back East. As for the tours we took the candlelit tour of the book binding store and of one of the houses where we watched a meal get cooked the old fashioned way, in a kettle over a fire. Whichever you choose will be fantastic I am sure!!

I went to C.W. a few (well, maybe more than a few) years ago, so my memory's a little fuzzy, but I recall seeing a hotel that had a really "cool pool", a large indoor one with a big clear dome. As I remember it was across the street from Fairfield's Patriot's Place resort, so if you have a C.W. guidebook you may be able to find the name of it. We took the tours of C.W., and were even there for the 4th of July festivities (with fife and drum parades and fireworks on the green), but as a thirteen-year-old my fondest memories were of...Busch Gardens! A really great theme park, and the brewery tour is really interesting for kids (and the adults get two free samples afterwards). The Colonial Williamsburg experience is interesting and unique, but if you have kids I wouldn't plan on spending more than a couple days in that one place. Trust me, they'll get bored! Have fun on your trip to Williamsburg!

I have been to Williamsburg many times over the years. I've stayed in all types of accomadations. There's nothing like the colonial houses. The atmosphere is wonderful.

My recommendation is to decide if you want the luxury of walking around CW at night when things are a little quieter. The Merchants Square area between William and Mary and the historic area is nice to browse. Then, stay in a colonial house (pricey) or the Williamsburg Lodge. Either way, I believe you get to use the athletic facilities which include a pool. We've stayed in a colonial house (tiny) but with beautiful white picket fence with 2 bedrooms, 2 baths and a living room. It was great to drop in and rest or unload our purchases. We also did a 5 for 1 package that included Busch Gardens, Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown, Yorktown, the water park, and breakfast and dinner. Or you can go the other route and stay at Kingsmill and be close to Busch Gardens.

My family stayed at Williamsburg Woodlands in May of '97. The pool looked very inviting, but it was too cool for us to use it. It was very convenient to be able to ride the shuttle to Colonial Williamsburg, but the room itself was a little run down and left something to be desired. It was fairly roomy however. If I had to do it over again I would probably stay in one of the colonial houses right on the premises to soak up all the atmosphere.