Williamsburg

[Anonymous]

I am taking my 7 and 9 year olds to Williamsburg later this summer. Looking for some insight from folks who have been there. What did your kids like? Was Jamestown worth it? How is the parking situation? Any helpful tips or info would be appreciated. I'm not finding a whole lot of helpful information on their website. Thanks in advance

[Anonymous]

What do you want to do while there? That will help provide information.

[Anonymous]

The jamestown settlement (the recreated one) is very interesting. Both my 4 and 8 year olds loved it.

[Anonymous]

Boys or girls or both?

[Anonymous]

Boy and a girl. Both are really into colonial stuff, the boy is into weapons/battles/making stuff. I'd like to stay in colonial Williamsburg/ Jamestown, and not do Busch gardens or anything like that. Thx for your ideas

[Anonymous]

Just returned with my 5 year old. I thought one day of paid entrance was more than enough. The paid ticket gets you into the houses that are "exhibits" They are interspersed with the houses that are shops. I honestly couldn't imagine needing more than one day of the exhibits.

Are you staying onsite? We stayed in one of the colonial houses which was extremely cute and gave us the amenities of the inn (like access to the swimming pool)

We did a tour of the stables and animal facilities, which was great. It seemed like the only tour that regularly "sold out" (It's complimentary with admission but you have to reserve) So check the tour schedule and reserve spots in any interesting ones.

Only other tip I can think of is to have low expectations of the food. We ate in taverns two nights, and both were really well reviewed on trip advisor. One was acceptable. One was downright nasty. For the price, I might do one tavern meal for fun, but not several.

Two days at Williamsburg was plenty for us. We did go to Busch Gardens! And spent a day in DC. (We are not from there) We are saving Jamestown for a later trip!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Boy and a girl. Both are really into colonial stuff, the boy is into weapons/battles/making stuff. I'd like to stay in colonial Williamsburg/ Jamestown, and not do Busch gardens or anything like that. Thx for your ideas

Busch Gardens is awesome-why wouldn't you want to go there?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Boy and a girl. Both are really into colonial stuff, the boy is into weapons/battles/making stuff. I'd like to stay in colonial Williamsburg/ Jamestown, and not do Busch gardens or anything like that. Thx for your ideas

Busch Gardens is awesome-why wouldn't you want to go there?

Food for Thought restaurant is good.

[Anonymous]

Tavern Ghost tour was great!

Parking is easy. Or you can take a shuttle from the visitors center. My 7 year old was enthralled with both Williamsburg and Jamestown.

[Anonymous]

Check the calendar. There is usually some kind of military demo that the boy would enjoy. They used to have a Felicity tea when my daughter was young. She really enjoyed that.

[Anonymous]

Check the calendar. There is usually some kind of military demo that the boy would enjoy. They used to have a Felicity tea when my daughter was young. She really enjoyed that. Don't think they have that anymore--but be sure and read the Felicity book first.

[Anonymous]

Thanks all for the great suggestions! In regards to Busch gardens- I would love to do it, but I am flying solo on this trip. My kids have very different interest levels in the amusement park type things- older one will want to go on every roller coaster, younger one won't, so I'm afraid it will be too challenging with only one adult. For those of you who have been there, is it doable with one adult and two kids? What about the water park?

[Anonymous]

We did the three day pass, and felt like that was the perfect amount of time- I'm not sure how you can see everything in just one day. We parked at the visitor's center and relied on the shuttle bus service- it was pretty efficient.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks all for the great suggestions! In regards to Busch gardens- I would love to do it, but I am flying solo on this trip. My kids have very different interest levels in the amusement park type things- older one will want to go on every roller coaster, younger one won't, so I'm afraid it will be too challenging with only one adult. For those of you who have been there, is it doable with one adult and two kids? What about the water park?

I did a day at Busch Gardens with 2 kids last year (ages 5 and 8). Different interests, different ability to ride rides and all that. I think that they have a set-up where you can take both kids in line for a coaster and then the younger one can wait while you ride with the older one, but check that in advance. It wasn't an issue for us, I just made it clear that we could ONLY do activities that the younger one could do, and if they got to a point where they couldn't agree, we would head out. Honestly, it was a blast. Sure, we didn't ride any "big" rides, but we did a bunch of the small rides, saw the animal show, the kids spent a lot of time running around Land of the Dragons. We got ice cream...we weren't rushing around to get everything done, because we were not GOING to get everything done, and that was fine.

I would NOT do Water Country USA with 2 kids and one adult, at least not until the kids are teens. We did it with 2 kids and 4 adults, and that seemed about right.

[Anonymous]

Busch Gardens is awesome and shouldn't be missed.