Road trip to Virginia! - Day 5 & 6

November 11, 2013

Colonial Williamsburg, VA

Colonial Williamsburg’s Revolutionary City was our destination for the day. Tickets for adults were $41.95. There is free parking at the welcome center and a free shuttle service that drops you off at different parts of the city. Admission to the city also includes entrance to three art museums. The program guide changes weekly and only certain buildings are open each day so be sure to get the map and program guide when getting your ticket. We opted to walk to the city, which was not more than 10 minutes from the visitor center. There was a 40 minute video at the visitor center. It was a decent video, but dragged on a little.

We took the guided tours of the Governor’s Palace, Wetherburn’s Tavern, and the Capitol. Each tour lasted about 30 minutes. There were very short waits at each. Large groups go in at once. I would imagine in peak season the wait would have been much longer. We checked out the other buildings that were open as well as the art museums. The art museums are open after the other buildings close, so we checked them out last. Personally, in my option, the cost of admission is not really worth what you get to see.  It should be noted that multi-day passes are only about $8 more than single day passes, so that might be a good option if you wanted to check out the buildings that are closed one day but, open the next. 

Antietam National Battlefield

November 12, 2013

We packed up and headed out early to get home before it was too late in the evening, but I had planned one last site visit for the return trip -Antietam National Battlefield – the bloodiest one-day battle of the American Civil War.  Fees are charged ($4/person age 16 and over, or $6/family, or free with the America the Beautiful pass). There is a 26-minute orientation film for viewing- it played on the hour and half hour. Also available is an 8.5 mile driving tour with 11 stops. We checked out the video and the displays at the visitor center before venturing out to the driving tour. It was a really chilly and windy day; luckily, we could read the site signs from the car at most stops. Allow 2-3 hours for the visit.