What to Do

For most destinations, the activity is clear. If you're at the Grand Canyon, or Glacier National Park, you spend most of your time visiting the park. You can visit the park service's visitor center and pretty much get your plan going the moment you arrive. Your experience will be about as complete as it can get without much preplanning.

Visiting the Williamsburg area is different, and a little understanding of those differences can make a trip completely worthwhile. For those of us that spend most of our travel time in the west, Williamsburg can be a little disorienting. Compared to the arid southwest, where buying a loaf of bread is a hour's drive, everything is close together. Remember that in colonial times, when most of this area was established, fifty miles was a long trip. It stands to reason then, that many places of interest here will be relatively close together in our more mobile society.

When visiting Virginia, there are basically three areas to visit: Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Yorktown. Of course, there are many other attractions, and to mention them all is certainly beyond the scope of a limited article. Rather, it should be in the range of a very large book, or series of books that cover the subject. Our advice then, is to preplan your visit. Either obtain one of the tour books that are on the market about seeing Virginia, or visit the web sites covering each attraction. In our research for this month's presentation about the Williamsburg area, we've found that the existing web sites are a great source to learn about the attractions. Normally, we assume that there will be some web presence on just about anything we want to research, but the folks here have done an outstanding job of organizing their web presence, and provide web content that can be used very effectively for planning your trip. Check out our links pages here.

Also, remember that the Williamsburg is a final destination trip. It's not a side trip, or an our of the way destination. It's a major attraction that can keep you busy for literally as much time as you care to spend. That's another reason we strongly suggest that you spend a little time to look over the attractions and features of this area and arrange your stay according to your interests. Whether your interest is wine, battle fields, or roller coasters, there's something here  that will keep your interest.