After the Shamrock Marathon: Colonial Williamsburg

The Route: Virginia Beach → Williamsburg → Virginia Beach Logistics: Around an hour each way on I-64 through the Hampton Roads tunnels. A car is required: there is no practical public transport for this journey. Allow four to five hours on site. Marathon Month: March Duration: Half day

Virginia Beach ──(≈1 hr, I-64 west)──> Williamsburg Historic Area
                                              │
                          Capitol ◄──(Duke of Gloucester St, ≈1.5 km)──► Governor's Palace

Williamsburg was the capital of the Virginia colony from 1699 until 1780, and when the government moved to Richmond the town stopped growing, which is why so much of the eighteenth-century fabric was still standing in the 1920s when John D. Rockefeller Jr. began paying to restore it. What exists now is 85 original or reconstructed buildings on the original street grid, run by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation as a working museum.

The tunnels under Hampton Roads on I-64 are the variable in the journey. They back up badly and without much warning, so check before you set off and again before you come back.

The historic area

Duke of Gloucester Street runs about 1.5 km through the middle of it, closed to traffic, unpaved in the colonial manner, with the reconstructed Capitol at one end and the Wren Building of the College of William and Mary at the other. The Governor's Palace sits at the top of its own green off the middle of the street.

The walking is flat and the surfaces are gravel and packed earth, which is easier than cobbles the day after a marathon but not as easy as pavement. The distances add up: most people cover 6 to 8 km without noticing.

The trades are the part worth prioritising. Working shops staffed by trained craftspeople produce things by eighteenth-century method: a blacksmith, a cabinetmaker, a printer and bookbinder, a wigmaker, a gunsmith, a silversmith. These are not demonstrations on a loop; they are people making objects the Foundation then uses, and they will talk to you for as long as you stay interested.

Practicalities

A ticket is needed for entry to the buildings, though the streets themselves can be walked without one. Buy online in advance. March is shoulder season, so the site is quiet and some buildings and trades run reduced hours or open only on certain days, which is worth checking against what you actually want to see.

The Foundation runs a shuttle bus loop from the visitor centre around the historic area, which saves the walk in and out.

Jamestown and Yorktown

The Colonial Parkway connects Williamsburg to Jamestown, the 1607 settlement site, and to Yorktown, where the 1781 siege ended the Revolutionary War. Each is about twenty minutes away, and the parkway itself is a pleasant unsigned road along the river. Adding one of the two makes a full day; adding both makes a long one.

Where to Stay and Eat

Where to stay: This is a half day from Virginia Beach and needs no overnight. Williamsburg has plenty of hotels if you would rather split the drive.

Where to eat: The Foundation runs four colonial taverns inside the historic area serving period-inspired food, and they book up: reserve before you travel. Merchants Square, at the western end of Duke of Gloucester Street, has ordinary restaurants and cafés at ordinary prices.

Getting Back