Colonial Williamsburg
The good old days.
Now that I’ve finished with the occasional video series on boot camp, I can devote more of my attention to a series on Colonial Williamsburg.
Unlike the series on Hawaii, which told the story of my visit there more or less chronologically, the Colonial Williamsburg series is going to be thematic.
Themes will include, of course, political history and the ideas that form the foundation of the United States of America.
They will also include matters related to 18th-century life in a colonial capital city,
including work,
seasons and rhythms,
and gathering places like taverns and coffeehouses.
Most of all, I hope to explore the intersections of daily life with the great ideas of the period, e.g. how taverns and coffeehouses provided the venues where ideas were shared, challenged, and refined.
This series will feature lots of photographs and videos. Please let me know if there are any particular themes you’d like to see addressed. I hope you enjoy it.
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Resources to help plan your trip to
Colonial Williamsburg
Find flights. There are three small airports near Williamsburg:
- Newport News | Williamsburg (PHF)
- Norfolk International (ORF)
- Richmond International (RIC)
Search hotel rooms/suites. The best lodging options in Colonial Williamsburg are:
Make dinner reservations. There are four operating taverns in Colonial Williamsburg, and I highly recommend dining in at least one of them:
Buy Air Tags. Always know where your bags are.
Join Rakuten. It’s a program that pays you cash-back for booking through its portal. As of this writing, Rakuten is offering up to 6 percent cash back at Booking and TripAdvisor.
Use the right rewards credit cards. Some good options that pay you cash-back or travel points:
- Bilt pays 3 points/dollar on dining and 2 points/dollar on travel.
- Capital One Quicksilver pays 1.5 percent cash-back on all spending.
- Capital One Savor pays 4 percent cash-back on dining and entertainment.
- Capital One Venture X pays 2 miles/dollar on purchases.
- Discover pays 5 percent cash-back on categories that rotate quarterly and 1 percent cash-back on other spending.
Read reviews. Not sure about something? TripAdvisor has lots of real-people reviews for things to do in Williamsburg.
I fell in love with travel on a trip to Mexico when I was nine years old. Since then, I’ve travelled the globe from Israel to El Salvador. I’ve skied the Swiss Alps and hiked national parks like Acadia, Zion, Shenandoah, and Virgin Islands. I’ve marvelled at masterpieces in the Prado, the Uffizi, the Huntington, and the National Gallery of Art. I’ve stayed in a cabin on a mountaintop in Norway and on a kibbutz along the Sea of Galilee, and been kicked out of the Ritz at the Place Vendôme. I’ve taken cooking classes from New England to the Caribbean, and watched a chef prepare traditional shakshuka in the kitchen of his restaurant in Tel Aviv. I weave historical research and my personal experiences together in writing this blog. I hope you find it helpful. Read more …
Jim, I go to Williamsburg as often as possible and would love to visit next time.
Is this all ex post facto, or are you still working the neighborhood for research – if so, come by and visit. We are 20 minutes away.
Thanks for sharing! Before moving to Arkansas, we lived in Yorktown and loved visiting Colonial Williamsburg often. We would drive up for a dinner and walk in the village.
I love visiting historic exhibits like that. Thanks for sharing the pics.