Williamsburg VA area

[Deffenm]

Has anyone taken a family vacation to Williamsburg, VA area? I have 3 kids
(8,7,4). Is there enough for them to do? Do you recommend a place to stay, eat? We are trying to think of a fun summer place to take the kids that is not too far from OHIO and does not cost over $2000. I would love to hear your thoughts.

TYIA!!

 

[jjnv]

Williamsburg is fun. My kids' favorite is the water country USA. There are many timeshares there. You might want to look into rent at one of the resorts.

 

[TaraPA]

We went over the 4th of July 2 years ago & it was HOT HOT HOT and oppressively humid too. My boys, ages 5 & 8 then, did not enjoy any of the historical things. It's free to walk around, but you have to buy passes or tickets to actually go inside some of the buildings, and to see the demos & reinactments. Tickets weren't cheap, I want to say $80 per person. We did not get them. Our group went to Great Adventure (wait - is that the amusement park down there - I'm drawing a blank all of a sudden!) but we skipped it since my little one doesn't like rides & the older one get motion sick. They liked the pool & the mini golf at the timeshare (Greensprings Plantation) the best! I liked the outlet shopping nearby. We drove to VA Beach for a day too, that was nice, but it was crowded.

Gee after reading this it sounds like we were miserable. We weren't! It just wasn't a great spot for our family to pick.

 

[ldo]

I also recommend renting a timeshare (try tug2.net for their ads form timeshare owners). Busch Gardens and Water Country are there. Also, sometimes you can get a decent rate at Great Wolf Lodge--look online--really fun, but it's sort of a waste for the summer given Water Country.
IF you have not been, Wllmbg is a great week-long summer destination, esp. if you throw in BG and/or WC. Elaine

 

[JoanneNC]

Have a timeshare there so have spent a few weeks over the summers

Busch Gardens
Water Country
VA beach
Norfolk is great

Outlets are ok
Lots of little stuff like minuture golf, etc
Colonial Willlamsburg is fun to walk "free" through.
Lots of coupon books for local resturants.
Can definitely stay fairly cheap at a timeshare rental - we actually own Greensprings. Powhatan is another nice one - probably even cheaper.
WolfLodge is pricy but you can stay there and never leave..

Have fun

 

[Lisa11130]

I am so glad you posted this question. We have been looking into Williamsburg also. We have a timeshare week we have to use and we have to go somewhere for a whole week. I wondered if there was enough to do in this area to keep us busy for a week. We have a teenage son who I thought would learn alot, not to thrilled about the heat though, anyone with any other suggestions?
Lisa in Indiana

 

[rkandmjsmommy]

We went July 2006, kids were 4 and 7 and we had a GREAT time, we LOVED Water country USA and Busch Gardens!!!!!!!!! Dh wanted to do the historic stuff and noone but him liked it!

It was a fun long weekend trip for us, I would like to go back

 

[virginiamama]

Williamsburg is just one part of the "Historic Triangle" that also includes Yorktown and Jamestown. There is tons more stuff to see at each of those places. (Okay - maybe I'm a little partial...) Riverwalk Landing in Yorktown is nice, check out riverwalklanding.com There are also nice parks, New Quarter Park, Newport News Park. In Norfolk, there is the maritime museum Nauticus, in Newport News there is the VA Living Museum, and in VA Beach there is an aquatic life museum (can't think of the name now - maybe VA Marine something). Williamsburg is right next to interstate 64, and you can get to any of these places in less than an hour (okay - VA Beach might take a little longer).

Edited to add: We have Platinum passes to BG/WC and we LOVE them! We can't wait to BG to open back up in March! (The platinum pass is a two year pass for BG/WC, Sea World, Aquaticus, and Sesame Place.)

 

[Lightyear]

Do not miss the National Park Jamestown. It is beautiful and a lovely way to spend the day.

 

[mylilnikita]

There is also Mariner's musuem in Newport News that is just down the street from the LIving Museum.
Nauticus in Norfolk also has a zoo in Norfolk and Botanical Gardens
Va. Beach has the Va. Marine Science Museum
Va Beach also has the beach, I personally don't go to the beach as I don't get into water that I can't see through.
Yorktown, battlefields, Cornwalis' cave, there is a house that is usually openfor tours, Nelson house, if you look on the left side towards the top, there is still a cannonball stuck in the side of it.
Jamestown there is a somewhat new part that has recreations of the Powhatan Indians longhouses and guides who tell you about how life was back then as well as a fort.
If you want to go north from WIliamsburg, not sure of how long it takes, but not too long is Doswell and there is Paramounts' kings dominion and inside of that is also a water park.
In the summer it is nasty humid hot
As for timeshares there are a few to choose fromowhatan Plantation, Greensprings Plantation sister timeshares. Wyndam Kingsgate, Patriot's place and Governer's green, sister timeshares. Kingscreek plantation, Colonial Crossings is a newer one that is expanding. I actually used to work at Kingsgate and also Kings Creek also expanding and Powhatan Plantation an older timeshare but I know they remodeled the 3 story units a couple years ago and there was a fire and a section had to be rebuilt.
Have a great time!

 

[WDWMagicNic]

My family (DH, DS-17, DD-13 and my nephew-16) went to Williamsburg in August of 2006. We didn't go to Disney because DH said it was too hot to go to Florida in August. Wrong. We had heatwaves that year through the Virginia area and the temps were at least 15-20 degrees hotter than Florida. The area was beautiful though, and we stayed at a very nice rented condo (Kingsgate). Fortunately, the timeshare had a free gameroom for the kids which was great since we couldn't go out until late afternoon or evening because of the temps.

We bought weeklong passes for Busch Gardens/Water Country and enjoyed them as much as we could. At least the pass costs were reasonable so we didn't feel like we were just throwing money away if we couldn't be there all the time. BG was very nice, but be warned - there is a ton of walking involved as the rides and attractions are spaced far apart. We also went to Jamestown and historic Williamsburg. Very interesting. We walked around without paying for tours. One of the highlights of our trip was driving to Virginia Beach. The beach was wonderful, although we found we couldn't change in the bathrooms, so had to make do changing into our swimsuits one by one in the back of the van. Easier for the teens, not for the adults! There was only the cost to park, and there were some reasonable places to eat, like Subway, that made this a pretty inexpensive sidetrip.

I think Williamsburg would have been an even more enjoyable vacation had we not had 100 degree heat every day. Please, unless you want to spend a lot of your vacation in the room in front of the AC, try not to go in August!

 

[Girldreamer02]

i'm going to be moving near va so this is helpful to me too...thanks for posting

 

[grlpwrd]

There is also Mariner's musuem in Newport News that is just down the street from the LIving Museum.
Nauticus in Norfolk also has a zoo in Norfolk and Botanical Gardens
Va. Beach has the Va. Marine Science Museum
Va Beach also has the beach, I personally don't go to the beach as I don't get into water that I can't see through.
Yorktown, battlefields, Cornwalis' cave, there is a house that is usually openfor tours, Nelson house, if you look on the left side towards the top, there is still a cannonball stuck in the side of it.
Jamestown there is a somewhat new part that has recreations of the Powhatan Indians longhouses and guides who tell you about how life was back then as well as a fort.
If you want to go north from WIliamsburg, not sure of how long it takes, but not too long is Doswell and there is Paramounts' kings dominion and inside of that is also a water park.
In the summer it is nasty humid hot
As for timeshares there are a few to choose fromowhatan Plantation, Greensprings Plantation sister timeshares. Wyndam Kingsgate, Patriot's place and Governer's green, sister timeshares. Kingscreek plantation, Colonial Crossings is a newer one that is expanding. I actually used to work at Kingsgate and also Kings Creek also expanding and Powhatan Plantation an older timeshare but I know they remodeled the 3 story units a couple years ago and there was a fire and a section had to be rebuilt.
Have a great time!

Me, too... and I think VBeach has only one public bathroom on the boardwalk. ugh.. It's near the Dairy Queen. I have public bathroom issues lol, but, of course, you can always slip into a fast food place like Wendy's.

Don't forget about Mount Trashmore in Virginia Beach. It's basically a huge hill and playground built on a landfill. It's amazing.

Besides the usual and the outlet mall, there's also a Target on Monticello Avenue and there's also a Ripley's Believe It Or Not.

Have fun in the beautiful state of Virginia!

 

[Mellie2162]

We went in July and I agree with the PP who said it was hot and humid. We stayed at Great Wolf Lodge and the kids had one of the best times of their lives. We also visited Jamestown. DS9 LOVED Jamestown..DD13 was ok with it, could take it or leave it, BUT it was so unbearably hot that I think she was miserable. We did a few other small things but Jamestown was the biggest. Mostly we stayed at the lodge and kept cool in teh water park. Very good time and in fact the kids are asking to go back for a combined birthday trip this year instead of parties.

 

[Lisa11130]

Doea anyone know if we went in June if the heat and humid weather would be more bearable? We are wondering if maybe staying at Virginia Beach would be better? Any advice? Thanks! Lisa in Indiana

 

[swimgalsmom]

June is not usually as hot/humid as July and August. I personally would rather stay in Williamsburg than Va. Beach. I think there is a lot more to do in the Williamsburg area and Va. Beach has a tendency to get very crowded.

 

[Lisa11130]

Good! Maybe we will look for a place for the first part of June. Maybe we will beat the heat! Thanks for your help!

 

[Va-bear]

June is not usually as hot/humid as July and August. I personally would rather stay in Williamsburg than Va. Beach. I think there is a lot more to do in the Williamsburg area and Va. Beach has a tendency to get very crowded.

The heat is much better in June, but the ocean isnt usually warm enough to swim in yet in june, or not for long. It is warm enough by July though and like bath water in August. Only of interest if swimming is part of the plan.

 

[MichelleinMaine]

When we went, we opted to go to these two vs Colonial Williamsburg (the cost turned us away.) We didn't expect it to be anywhere near as good (I'd been to CW before)... well it was WONDERFUL. We had 5 kids, not all mine, ranging 1-8 and they all found something to do. Lots of hands on activities - colonial costumes, traditional games in the Native American village, climbing onto the ships, peeking into the soldiers tents... It is very well done.

I forget the exact cost, but as a Nat'l Park, it definitely was reasonably priced. Check out the Jr Ranger program too. We didn't do it there, but have since found out most parks have a free/very inexpensive program for kids to follow and get some sort of prize forcompletion....

 

[Lisa11130]

Thanks all - Great info, we have a lot of planning yet to do.