Williamsburg sits at the heart of Virginia's Historic Triangle, a small city whose main street doubles as a time machine. Colonial Williamsburg — 301 acres of restored and reconstructed 18th-century buildings — is one of America's most ambitious living-history projects, and the reason most visitors come. Costumed interpreters work the trades, the taverns serve colonial-era recipes, and the Capitol and Governor's Palace have been rebuilt to their 1770s appearance.
But Williamsburg is more than its colonial district. The College of William & Mary, founded in 1693, makes it one of America's oldest college towns, and the Wren Building at its heart is the oldest academic building in continuous use in the country. Just east along the Colonial Parkway lie Jamestown and Yorktown, completing a triangle that covers the founding, revolution, and independence of the United States in a single afternoon's drive.
Busch Gardens, a few miles east of the historic area, adds a theme-park dimension that families appreciate. The surrounding countryside — plantation houses, the James River, quiet back roads through pine forest — rewards anyone willing to explore beyond the cobblestones.