TDudette

I'm with you then, obxgirl... make Luray a day trip from Charlottesville and skip Fredericksburg.

shelemm

Luray is a big show cave, so it depends on how much you like the idea. I would spend more time just about anywhere else you've listed.

charsuzan

I really enjoyed taking the Jamestown ferry across the river and then exploring a bit in Smithfield or just enjoying the drive..
Colonial Williamsburg is one of my favorite places to visit. I could spend days just wondering the streets and thinking about life there in the past. I enjoyed the ghost/lantern tour-I don't know if myk would be old enough to enjoy the stories but I seem to remember kids in our group.
I think you are going to have a wonderful trip.

yk

Yes, it is Luray Caverns. my son has never seen anything like that so I would imagine it will be quite interesting to him. And I see they have a car and carriage museum and he loves antique cars as well.

yk

Focusing back on the Williamsburg area, from what I gather, there are 5 different sites to visit on my list:

Colonial Williamsburg
Historic Jamestowne / Colonial National Historical Park NPS
Jamestown Settlement
Yorktown Battlefield NPS
American Revolution Museum at Yorktown

I've been reading their websites but it's still rather difficult to figure out what's at each location (besides CW). All these places have their own admission tickets, or various different combo tickets. Some are 3-day, some are 4-day and some are 7-day. Some sites are free for youth, some are not

If we plan on visiting all of them (I'm allocating 4 full days), it seems to make sense to just get the 7-day America's Historic Triangle ticket for both of us? The ticket includes admissions to all of the sites listed above. Does that make sense to you? Unless you think one (or more) of the above sites are not worthwhile at all.

https://www.colonialwilliamsburg.org...iangle-ticket/

shelemm

The original Jamestown Settlement and Yorktown Battlefield are part of the Colonial National Historic Park:

https://www.nps.gov/colo/index.htm

Since they are National Park Service sites, they aim for preservation rather than reconstruction or entertainment. The cost to enter is pretty low.

One could easily spend a week at CW alone, so it depends on you. All the sites are rewarding, certainly.

k_marie

The College of William and Mary is in Williamsburg, not far from CW. (I know you are thinking of visiting UVA in Charlottesville.j Established in 1693, William and Mary has historic significance too and architectural interest, and the campus should be beautiful in April.

lcuy

Hi yk!
We did a trip to that area (Charlottesville, Williamsburg, etc) when our girls were 7 & 9 (or 8 & 10?) years old, so this was probably in 1994 or 95. We were just talking about that trip recently, and their favorites from that trip were the CW lantern tour at night, tour on horses around CW, Luray Caverns, Yorktown, and the Jamestown site where a dig was taking place at the time. We spent several days in CW, and slept in the town. Fireflies and squirrels were also a big hit, as we have neither in Hawaii!
Jamestown & Yorktown had a lot of meaning, as my ancestors were the early settlers and we had studied their stories a bit before going there. In Yorktown, we saw the church records with the birth record for Lucy Virginia, whon I am named after! The "church ladies" treated our girls like royalty, plus let them play with some adorable puppies on site. We also visited Monticello, Beverly Plantation (another former home of ancestors), and various other mostly Rev War sites on that trip.
It was a fun time, and even being on a road trip was a fun memory for them and sparked an interest in history and geography that I was happy to see carried through to their studies in school. I'm sure you'll have a great time there!

yk

Please forgive me if this is a dumb question. Initially I had thought CW is kind of a circumscribed area, where you pay admission to enter the area and then you roam around (I'm imagining Old Sturbridge Village or Plimoth plantation). But Looking at the map, the buildings are scattered all over town. So does that mean anybody can walk around town, but certain CW buildings you cannot enter unless you have a paid ticket? I also understand that certain tours/activities require additional ticketing.

I am looking at various lodging and I think the most affordable one would be the CW Woodlands hotel, which is located next to the CW visitors center (but north of the historic streets). I checked on google map and it appears there is some walking path from the Visitors center to the historic center (about 1 mile), though I know there are also complimentary shuttles. I'm just thinking of that location ... say if my son and I want to have dinner out in the historic center, would it be an issue to either walk or take a shuttle back to the hotel in the evenings? (the website says shuttles run 9am-10pm)

Vttraveler

You are right about the way CW buildings are integrated into the historic area.
You could certainly get back and forth easily from the hotel to the area with historic taverns and to the Merchants Square area with restaurants and shops. The CW website has a map showing the shuttle stops

shelemm

CW is not like Sturbridge. At Sturbridge (and many other open-air museums) buildings have been moved from other places throughout New England to group them together in a recreation. CW is not a recreation. It is on the actual streets of Williamsburg and has the actual buildings of the time located in the same spot, though some have been pain-stakingly reconstructed using materials of the period. It is not unusual to come upon a site where they are in the middle of a reconstruction and it is interesting to see them use the saws, other tools, and nails of the period. No lumber deliveries from Home Depot!

As it is on the public streets of Williamsburg, anyone is free to come and go as they please. However, if you are visiting, you definitely want to enter the structures for which you certainly should have on you proof of paid admission. If you just want to traipse around and take some exterior photos, you'll be fine. That's the kind of thing I might do on my last morning there before leaving if I've already seen everything.

Some people really get hooked on Williamsburg and visit regularly. I think it's a thrill. There is nothing quite like it. Eating dinner at one of the colonial period restaurants is a terrific experience. I know folks who go for a week at a time.

Vttraveler

You might also enjoy renting bicycles for part of a day in CW
the visitors center should have maps highlighting the location of different gardens around the historic area

tom_mn

I visited last October. Trying to use up United miles I took what was available for the miles I had so I flew into Norfolk and home from RIC. Norfolk is a little closer to the colonial sites and about the same size airport. There was no drop charge and the rental car was actually cheaper that way. Either airport is newish and very easy to use. If starting or ending in Norfolk you can stop at Ft Monroe, interesting, and the Emancipation Oak on the grounds of Hampton University. Norfolk/Hampton Roads is one of those larger American cities a bit forgotten to most unless you have military ties.

I have visited Williamsburg many times and am not as thrilled with it as most, there's an artificiality as to how it works and is laid out, somewhat like a Disney property, and the access can be disorienting, however it can be quite the experience if you just can go with it. The Marriott property onsite would mean not dealing with the weird parking/shuttle that I find so disorienting.

The capitol in Richmond designed by Jefferson is very much worth a stop, especially if you have visited the Maison-Carrée in Nîmes, France, which it imitates, and reflects Jefferson's France period. The Civil war Museum is excellent, and the slave trade walk has been recommended. https://www.virginia.org/listing/ric...ave-trail/226/ Watch for toll roads in the Richmond area when headed to Charlottesville.

Jamestown and Yorktown are NP properties so the NP pass can be helpful if you already have it, but there is still the $10 State of Virginia fee at Jamestown even if you do.

Don't go to Fredericksburg, I-95 is just terrible in that vicitity.