April 14-19, 2019. Drove down from the Hudson Valley with Henry, 7, and Elias, 6. Five nights at the Williamsburg Lodge.
The most important thing I can tell you about Colonial Williamsburg with kids in this age range is the muskets. Every single child in the historic district is carrying one — wooden replica long arms, sold at gift shops scattered along the route. Your kids will see them within about three minutes of arriving and from that moment on you are negotiating. Not when you’re trying to watch the blacksmith. Not during the colonial cooking demo. Not for the family photo in front of the Governor’s Palace. We held out for a day and a half before folding. After that, the first half of the trip turned out to be about acquiring the musket and the second half was about playing with it. It was fine. Pick your battles.
The Williamsburg Lodge was the right call. It’s inside the historic district, walkable to everything, and the heated outdoor pool was used every single day, sometimes twice. April in coastal Virginia is warm enough to swim if the pool is heated, and a hotel pool you can walk to from anywhere in the historic area is the kind of amenity that buys you another half-day of patience from a six-year-old. We’d do a morning out, retreat to the pool when the legs gave out, regroup, go back out.
Colonial Williamsburg itself is genuinely impressive. The skilled trades people in the 18th-century shops are knowledgeable and patient — the blacksmith working a real forge, the printer running a real press, the baker explaining how bread happens without a Whirlpool. The kids stayed engaged longer than I expected. The cannon and musket firing demonstrations were the headline events. Both are louder than you think, both are crowd-pleasers, both will get asked for again ten minutes after they end. The town is very walkable but plan for breaks; small legs hit a wall and there’s no good shortcut around that.
We dedicated a day to Busch Gardens. In hindsight, skip it at this age. The kids were too scared for most of the rides, did maybe two or three of the kiddie ones, and the main thing they got out of the day was cotton candy. Not a disaster, but a day we could have spent doing something better.
We made the classic rookie mistake on Jamestown, which I’ll save you. There are two Jamestowns, about six miles apart, and they are different products. Historic Jamestowne is the actual original settlement site — an active archaeological dig, a museum, real history. Fascinating for adults. Dry for six- and seven-year-olds. We went there first because the name sounded more important. Jamestown Settlement, the one we should have done, is a living-history museum with reconstructed buildings of the original settlers, full-scale replicas of the three ships that brought them, a recreated Powhatan village, and another loud musket demo. That’s the one for kids this age. If you’re tight on time, skip Historic Jamestowne and just do the Settlement.
The town of Williamsburg around the historic area is a William & Mary college town and worth walking. Good restaurants, decent shops, a different kind of break from the colonial reenactment. Nobody puked, nobody ended up in the hospital, so by my standards a win.
The Reference Version
The trip. April 14-19, 2019. Five nights in Williamsburg, Virginia. Two adults, two kids (6 and 7). Drove down from the Hudson Valley.
Where we stayed. Williamsburg Lodge, Autograph Collection. Inside the historic district, walkable to all of Colonial Williamsburg. Heated outdoor pool used daily. Easy to break the day between sightseeing and pool time. The walkability is the whole point — staying somewhere you’d have to drive in and out of each day is a different (worse) trip.
The driving. ~7 hours from the Hudson Valley each way. Easy interstate run.
Day 1 (Sun, April 14). Arrived late afternoon. Walked from the hotel into Colonial Williamsburg to scout and get the lay of the land.
Day 2 (Mon, April 15). Full day in Colonial Williamsburg. Trades demonstrations — blacksmith, printer, baker. Cannon and musket firing demos. Prime musket-begging day.
Day 3 (Tue, April 16). Busch Gardens. Cotton candy was the headline. (See below — skip this.)
Day 4 (Wed, April 17). Back in Colonial Williamsburg. More historical tours and demos. Walked the gardens and grounds around the Governor’s Palace.
Day 5 (Thu, April 18). Morning at Historic Jamestowne / Colonial National Historical Park. Pool afternoon at the hotel.
Day 6 (Fri, April 19). Drove home.
What worked. The Williamsburg Lodge as a base — heated pool plus walkability did most of the heavy lifting. Colonial Williamsburg trades demos genuinely engage kids in this age band. Building short out-and-back days with pool breaks instead of trying to power through. Folding on the musket purchase.
What we’d do differently. Skip Busch Gardens at 6 and 7. Most of the rides will be too intimidating; come back when they’re a few years older. Do Jamestown Settlement (the living-history museum with the reconstructed ships and Powhatan village) instead of Historic Jamestowne (the archaeological site). They are two different places about six miles apart with confusingly similar names — the kid version is Jamestown Settlement.
Things to know. The trades demonstrations and the cannon and musket firings are the real attractions inside Colonial Williamsburg — work backward from their schedule when planning the day. The town is walkable but plan for breaks. The town of Williamsburg around the historic area (William & Mary, restaurants, shops) is its own thing worth wandering. April weather was warm enough to swim with a heated pool but cool enough to be comfortable walking. Budget realities: yes, you’ll buy the musket; yes, the gift shops will add up.
Booking links recap. Williamsburg Lodge, Autograph Collection. Colonial Williamsburg. Jamestown Settlement. Historic Jamestowne. Busch Gardens Williamsburg.
Even that's Odd 
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