Years ago, the reason people came to Williamsburg was the extraordinary restoration of colonial life on the eve of the American Revolution. These days, there are many more magnets: the roller coasters at Busch Gardens, the cool pull of the Hubba Hubba Highway at Water Country USA, the shopping at Prime Outlets.
So we’ve broken down the things to do in Williamsburg into two camps. The first is historic attractions, including plantations for those who want to further immerse themselves in the past, and the excellent programs and sights to see at Jamestown and Yorktown.
The second half is modern diversions—those for the young, the young at heart, and a few adult-only pleasures, like an afternoon at the Williamsburg winery or a tour of Williamsburg’s only microbrewery.
We begin with the project that put Williamsburg back on the map.
In a sense, America was born twice on this narrow peninsula bordered by the James and York rivers—once, in 1607, when Capt. Christopher Newport and his men stepped ashore on the banks of the river they named for their king and founded James Towne; again, in 1781, when the Continental Army defeated the British at Yorktown in the decisive battle of the American Revolution. That’s a lot of history to pack into one 23-mile stretch. Thanks to forward-thinking preservationists who marked these sites as off-limits to development centuries ago, you can get a real sense of what happened here in a one- or two-day visit.
Jamestown marked its quadricentennial in 2007—400 years since English colonists first debarked from their three wooden ships after a four-month journey across the Atlantic and struggled, mightily, to establish a life here. Though largely abandoned as a settlement by 1750, this marshy island is thoroughly enmeshed in the American historical imagination, entangled with the legend of Pocahontas and John Smith, two figures who have come to represent the meeting of minds and clash of cultures between the colonists and the Virginia Indians who inhabited this region first that followed.
To mark the anniversary, both of Jamestown’s major attractions—the Jamestown Settlement, which re-creates life in 17th-century America, and the Jamestown National Historic Site, run by the U.S. Park Service, experienced major makeovers. Even Yorktown, where the National Park Service maintains the battlefields, got an overhaul, in anticipation of the surge of visitors. The result is that both areas look better than ever and, though devoted to the past, bring it to life in thoroughly modern ways. In Yorktown, new county administration buildings, including an eye-grabbing courthouse, have spruced up Ballard Street near the waterfront, which itself has been thoroughly spiffed up and renamed the Riverwalk, with a brick-paved path that connects the Yorktown Victory Center to the restaurants and shops along Water Street. (See our close-up on Riverwalk.)
Jamestown and Yorktown—two of the Historic Triangle’s crown jewels—continue to reinvent themselves while making strides to enhance the authenticity of each visitor’s journey back in time. Read on and learn all the details in this tale of two towns that are such an integral part of American heritage.
With Busch Gardens and Water Country USA in your backyard, it’s hard to imagine that there isn’t enough for kids to do in Williamsburg, but some like less overwhelming diversions. (Some kids might like this, too.) It’s also tough to justify the entrance fee at some attractions if you have less than a whole day to spend there. Here are some alternatives when have just a few hours to spare, or want a more unusual experience out of your time in Williamsburg.
In the early 17th century, the wilds of the mid-Atlantic coast represented a “New World” to English colonists but had been home to another population for generations: the Virginia Indians.
Nomadic hunters had occupied the region from as early as 17,000 bc. Around 1500 bc, Woodland Indians established more permanent settlements and began cultivating land. When European settlers came, they found Algonquian-speaking Indians, living in longhouses, hunting, fishing, and growing crops, notably corn. Some 32 different tribes, some of whom paid tribute to Powhatan, inhabited the area in the early 1600s.
Those tribes could not withstand the military and social forces that came with colonization. As the English settlers continued to arrive, the indigenous people were deprived of more of their ancestral land. Within 100 years of the English’s arrival, the number of Virginia Indians had dropped by an estimated 85 percent.
Nonetheless, the influence of native tribes is present in the Historic Triangle today. The stories, some true and some legend, of Powhatan and his daughter Pocahontas are part of the region’s lore. Place-names derived from the Indians are omnipresent; throughout southeastern Virginia, there are parkways, motels, condominiums, and stores named with Virginia Algonquian words. While the Virginia Algonquian language, never written, is no longer in active use, a number of its words—squash, succotash, opossum, moccasin—are now part of everyday American English.
Artifacts uncovered during archaeological digs have provided a mother lode of information about the lives of Virginia’s earliest inhabitants. A dig at Governor’s Land at Two Rivers, for instance, produced new data about the Paspahegh Indians, whose main town was one of the first to be destroyed by Jamestown settlers. Finds at the site, which may date from 1500, include ceramics and a burial pit containing copper beads. At Jamestown Island and Jamestown Settlement, there are statues, displays, and living-history programs that focus on the role of Virginia Indians in the settlement of the New World. Across the York River in Gloucester County, archaeologists from the College of William and Mary and other institutions have found what was likely the principal residence of Powhatan in 1607, along with evidence of a town that had been a place of leadership for hundreds of years before Powhatan was born. The owners of a farm on the York River found artifacts and notified archaeologists, who after extensive digging discovered a massive concentration of material that indicates the site was a substantial settlement dating from around ad 1200.
But what about the descendants of these tribes who met, traded, fought, and were ultimately overpowered by the European settlers? In Virginia, eight different tribes dating from the time of European contact are recognized by the state. Data from the 2000 U.S. Census shows about 21,172 people living in Virginia call themselves American Indians. Several of the tribes descended from those who paid tribute to or were allies with Powhatan live within an hour or so of Williamsburg. Until very recently the lives of Virginia’s contemporary Indians often seemed obscured by our fascination with history and myth, not to mention Hollywood stereotypes. While Virginia’s Indians, including those living on two of the nation’s oldest reservations, are largely assimilated into mainstream society, the preservation of heritage is of vital importance to them. The information we’ve listed below about the region’s Indians and their programs, events, and ongoing traditions is proof that their culture is alive and thriving here today. You can call the phone numbers listed below to learn more about each tribe, or contact the Virginia Council on Indians. Call (804) 225-2084, or visit http://indians.vipnet.org.
The Hampton Roads region has been inextricably linked with the military from the moment European settlers landed here.
One of the Jamestown settlers’ first activities was to build a fort. They weren’t just worried about the Native Americans—the British rightly feared what the Spaniards would do if they found the nascent colony. The area’s waterways and position at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay are what attracted the British—and why the region was critical in three separate wars.
Today, the successors to those battlefield fortifications give the region one of the largest military concentrations in the United States, with major installations for all four military branches (plus the U.S. Coast Guard and—shh!—the CIA to boot). By extension, much of the region’s industry serves the military—including the only place on the planet that builds nuclear aircraft carriers.
Whether it’s artifacts, monuments, bases, or plants, the military presence is almost everywhere.
Want to take in all the rich history and diversity the Virginia Peninsula has to offer while you’re in Williamsburg? Then head southeast on I-64 and check out Newport News and Hampton. If the ocean fascinates you, you can submerge yourself in the sights at the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, one of the largest and most comprehensive maritime museums in the world. If you’re more given to far-flung flights of fancy, the Virginia Air and Space Center in Hampton is a must-see.
Because Hampton and Newport News are next-door neighbors—and you pretty much get to each city the same way—we’ve combined information about them here. For convenience and ease of planning, however, we’ve kept listings of the attractions, restaurants, accommodations, shopping, and recreation in each city separate.
While Williamsburg is one of a kind, other pockets of Hampton Roads have plenty to offer the would-be wanderer. The Old Dominion, after all, is a land of vast diversity.
What we’ve outlined below are some of our favorite adventures, places you can go by simply hopping behind the wheel and heeding our directions. Whether you ferry across the James River, grab some R&R on Tangier or Smith Island, or stroll along the historic streets of downtown Smithfield, all of these favorites are worth a good 8 to 12 hours of your time and most (with the exception of the islands) take well under two hours of driving time. (Although we can’t promise you won’t run into traffic. Sorry.)