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Around Town

The country’s largest living history museum is located inside a real town of just 12,000 people, and is intended to appear as Virginia’s colonial capital did in the 18th century.

It’s truly a remarkable arrangement in which costumed interpreters perpetuate a fantasy of time travel by stubbornly staying in character. Yet these are city-owned streets, and many homes on museum ground are private dwellings whose residents not only witness millions of visitors annually, but adhere to strict rules on renovation, upkeep and even holiday decorating, in which any materials they use must have been available in Colonial times.

We like to go in the off-season, either before or after the summer hordes have passed. I confess we usually don’t purchase a ticket which, while not necessary to walk around the streets or visit stores and taverns, does allow entrance to the Governor’s Palace, courthouse, artisan’s shops and dozens of other buildings where costumed interpreters give tours and demonstrations of Colonial life.

I’ll never forget a Christmas dinner at Christiana Campbell’s, one of the authentic Colonial taverns. We dined by candlelight, the Colonial fare not gourmet by today’s standards, but interesting and authentic nonetheless. We were invited to join in the Christmas caroling on the courthouse steps, and strolled down the street past elaborate door decorations made of odd assortments cotton bolls, apples, lemons, and of course, tiny pineapples (they were imported back then, but were not as big as today’s variety).

Attractions

Colonial Williamsburg is open every day of the year, 9 am-5 pm (9:30-4:30 from January 2 to mid-March). Admission tickets range from one day ($33 for adults, $16.50 for children ages six-17) to annual passes. Numerous vacation and holiday packages (including lodging and admission to other area attractions) are available.

Also part of Colonial Williamsburg are the Abby Aldrich Rocke­feller Folk Art Museum, the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Gallery, and Carter’s Grove slave quarter and mansion including the Winthrop Rockefeller Archaeology Museum. (tel. 800-HISTORY, www.colonialwilliamsburg.com)

Even without Colonial Williamsburg, the twin theme parks of Busch Gardens and Water Country USA make Williamsburg an intensely popular family destination. Water Country is the mid-Atlantic’s largest water theme park with 30 thrillingly wet rides and adventures, plus restaurants, entertainment and shopping, all with a 1950s and ’60s surf theme. It’s open daily, May through September; a single-day ticket is about $32 for adults and $25 for children ages three to six (tel. 800-343-SWIM, www.watercountryusa.com). Busch Gardens Wil­liams­burg is a European-themed park where six “villages” represent different countries, like Ireland, Germany and Italy. Each features food authentic to its region, as well as entertainment and shops. Of course, the real attraction is the spectacularly thrilling – or frightening – rides (depending on your tolerance for speed and heights.) Alpengeist is the world’s tallest and fasted inverted roller coaster. Open daily at 10 am March through October, with exact opening and closing dates varying. Single-day tickets are about $43 for adults and $36 for children ages three to six (Route 60, east of Williamsburg, tel. 800-772-8886, www.busch­gar­dens.com).

Ready for more history? From Colonial Williamsburg, the Colonial Parkway can take you back in time to the first settlement at Jamestown, or forward to the ending of the Revolution at Yorktown. The 23-mile parkway, actually a national historical park, has no stoplights, few visible buildings – not even painted lines on the road surface.

There are two attractions at Jamestown: the actual site of the 1607 fort and a re-created one. Historic Jamestowne is a 1,500-acre national park preserving the ruins of the island settlement with active archeological digs. The site is open 8:30 am-4:30 pm daily, year-round, except Christmas and New Year’s days. Admission is $6 for adults; children under age 17 free (tel.