In Virginia, they call Jamestown, Williamsburg and Yorktown the “Historic Triangle” because these three iconic colonial towns are within a few miles of each other. If you mapped them, the space between them would form a triangle. This makes them a perfect couple-of-day adventure for anyone interested in American history. Even if you’re not already a history buff, you’re bound to leave with new insight and appreciation you never expected.
I spent two days exploring Jamestown, Williamsburg and Yorktown. History nerd that I am, I was dying to see if these old towns could live up to my imagination and my teachers’ descriptions. They did more than that – they gave me an entirely new perspective.
But there’s so much to see and do in the area, and the National Park Service and private entities manage the sites, so it can be a Bermuda Triangle of confusion if you’ve never been there. Here’s how I navigated Jamestown, Williamsburg and Yorktown.
What you’ll see and do in Jamestown
Do you know the story of Pocahontas, John Smith and the first settlers? Like me, you’re probably most familiar with the Disney version. But there’s another, more accurate version, which took place at Jamestown. This is where the Powhatan Indians lived for centuries before the English arrived in 1607 and established the first British colony. It was with the help of those Indians that they were able to survive at all. It’s also the site of the first documented arrival of Africans and slavery in 1619.
But, upon arriving in Jamestown, you’ll face a confusing option – should you visit Historic Jamestown or Jamestown Settlement? The places are next to each other, but there’s no additional description on the signage to guide you. However, these are two very different places, and your choice will likely be based on who you’re with.
Historic Jamestown
The National Park Service and Preservation Virginia jointly manage Historic Jamestown. It’s the actual archeological site of the original city. Here, you’ll find predominantly outdoor exhibits and spaces. You’ll be able to see archeologists working to uncover the old town and many recreated displays. The archeology takes you through the history of the Virginia colony through 1699.
Luckily, I ended up here first, instead of the other location. You have a 50/50 chance. At Historic Jamestown, you’ll have the opportunity to read signs and talk to hosts who tell stories about the Powhatan Indians, Pocahontas, John Smith and the colonial settlers who arrived that first Jamestown winter. There are epic tales of survival, cannibalism, warfare and death.
Several historic structures have been unearthed, like the old church, graveyard, and houses. There are also various statues, recreations of the fort walls, and an Archaearium museum filled with artifacts. You’ll learn how the Powhatans were instrumental in the survival of those early pilgrims and the cost they paid for their kindness. As a daughter of the chief, Pocahontas was a key player in the relationship building and was imprisoned at the site for a year before converting to Christianity and marrying tobacco grower John Rolfe.
Fun Fact: Pocahontas married Rolfe in the Jamestown church in 1614. The couple later traveled to Europe, where Pocahontas died in Gravesend, England.
There are a few miles of trails and historic sites for spending the day walking around outside. The Dale House Café offers food and drinks when you’re ready for a break.
If you Visit Jamestown
You’ll want to visit Historic Jamestown if you love the real history, looking at artifacts, reading signs, walking outside, and setting your feet on the land the first pilgrims walked.
A visit to the glasshouse, located between Historic Jamestown and the Jamestown Settlement, is included with your ticket to Historic Jamestown. There, they make and sell glassworks just like they would have when the colony began.
Admission includes entrance to the site, church, museum, the glasshouse, Island Loop Drive, and Yorktown Battlefield (see below).
You cannot enter the site without going through the visitor’s center and paying a fee. The cost to enter Historic Jamestown is $30 per person unless you have a National Park Pass; it’s just $15 each.
Find it at 1368 Colonial Pkwy., Jamestown, Virginia.
Jamestown Settlement
You will pass this place on your way to Historic Jamestown. Jamestown Settlement is a privately owned living history museum with actors, reenactments, and recreations of 17th-century Virginia history and culture. While Historic Jamestown is an archeological site, this place is for entertainment and educational purposes. It does not have historical value, though they display some artifacts in the visitor’s center museum.
You’ll enter the Jamestown Settlement via a large, modern visitor’s center with an attached museum. If you arrive here first, it would be difficult to understand that it’s not the original site – unless and until you ask, as I did. Historic Jamestown and Jamestown settlement are not affiliated, and both seek to gain visitors.
At Jamestown Settlement, there are modern kiosks to explore immersive films, gallery exhibits and outdoor living history.
Living History
In the outdoor living history area, costumed actors describe and demonstrate what daily life in early Jamestown was like. The site includes life-size recreations of the fort, town and one of the three ships (Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery) that sailed from England to Virginia in 1607.
Jamestown Settlement is worth visiting if you aren’t big on reading or have kids. It will be a more engaging and lively experience for people with short attention spans or little interest in classic history.
You can expect to spend about two or three hours each visiting Historic Jamestown or Jamestown Settlement. If you do both, you should plan for a full day.
It’s $18 each to enter Jamestown Settlement. Find it at 2110 Jamestown Rd, Williamsburg, Virginia.
Driving the Colonial Parkway
When leaving Jamestown and heading for Yorktown, I faced another confusing decision: to take the highway or the Colonial Parkway. Again, the signage was limited and I had no idea what the Colonial Parkway entailed, but I chose it anyway. I’m glad I did.
The Colonial Parkway is a 10,221-acre, twenty-three-mile Colonial National Historical Park maintained by the National Park Service. This two-lane scenic roadway runs between the James and York Rivers in Virginia and is lined with lush green trees and flowers. Historic arched brick bridges covered the road for much of the way every mile or so. It connects Jamestown, Williamsburg, and Yorktown, and they say several million people use the parkway to travel between Jamestown, Yorktown and Williamsburg while exploring the historic triangle.
What you’ll see and do in Yorktown
Yorktown, Virginia, is famous as the site of the last major battle of the Revolutionary War. It’s where Cornwallis’ British Army surrendered to George Washington, and the American Revolution was won.
If you’re a Lin Manuel Miranda “Hamilton” fan, you’ll want to visit Yorktown. There you’ll see the battlements, surrender field, the ramparts where the boy waved the white flag, and the Moore house where they agreed to the conditions of freedom. The area has so much history of the battles conducted by George Washington, Marquise de Lafayette, Alexander Hamilton, and others. Fans of the Hamilton play will recognize the names, places and events, and it’s fun to see them detailed in real life.
But Yorktown, like Jamestown, is a bit confusing too. The signage again gives you two choices, Historic Yorktown or the Yorktown Battlefield. But which to choose?
Yorktown Battlefield
Again, I made a random choice and ended up at the Yorktown National Park Service visitor center. The $15 I paid in Historic Jamestown included the visitor’s center and the Yorktown Battlefield Tour Roads.
The Battlefield Tour Roads are 16 miles of roads and sites open to pedestrians, bicycles and cars. The app-based guided, scenic, historic drive includes eight stops at the battlefields and 26 interpretive panels to help visitors understand what happened in each place.
Rangers at the visitor’s center provide maps for the route that takes you through the “Siege of Yorktown” and highlights the most important spots where the last battles of the Revolution were fought. Red arrows and signage provide additional guidance to get you from one location to the next. Stops include the British Inner Defense Line, Redoubts 9 and 10, and the Moore House, where Washington negotiated the terms of British surrender, among others.
You can pull up at the stops, press play on the appropriate selection in the app, and listen as a narrator describes the location’s history. Some tracks and areas even include patriotic music, and I’ll admit I got a big swell of pride at Surrender Field. You can also get out of your vehicle and walk around the Yorktown Battlefields, enjoying the sights, reading more signage and basking in Virginia’s lush green landscape.
Visiting Jamestown and Yorktown on the same day was an interesting juxtaposition – the site of the first landing on American soil to the place where we established freedom from British rule, just a few miles away.
Find Yorktown Battlefield Visitor Center, 1000 Colonial Parkway, Yorktown, Virginia 23690.
Historic Yorktown
The road slopes up from the Yorktown harbor, and flowers line the roads in this small, historic town. Everything is neat and quiet; ironically, it resembles and reminds me of an English country town.
After the Revolution, Yorktown became a vital tobacco port. At its peak, it was a bustling community with a few hundred buildings and nearly 2,000 people. Now, though, its main economy is tourism, and people are few and far between. At least they were when I visited late on a weekday.
If you go during a more popular time, the Yorktown Trolley will take you around the village and along the mile-long Riverwalk Landing, but it’s easy to walk too if you don’t mind hills.
I found a few humble restaurants and local small businesses open, but other than that, the main attraction in the village is the historic homes. Signs mark the historical significance of each location, and there are many, including the home of Thomas Nelson, Jr., a signer of the Declaration of Independence, the custom house which was a barracks during the war, and Dr. Corbin Griffin’s medical shop, which is now a small museum.
Yorktown Victory Monument
The Yorktown Victory Monument is the most obvious sign that the Revolution ended there. The monument is a 100-foot white granite pillar with various symbols of the victory and Lady Liberty at the top, arms outstretched.
The American Revolution Museum
The museum wasn’t open when I arrived, but it’s said to hold indoor and outdoor exhibits from the time of the Revolution. There are artifacts, films, and experiential reenactments, including a Continental Army encampment with demonstrations on revolutionary medical treatment, musket firing, and colonial farming.
The American Revolution Museum costs $18 per person. Find it at 200 Water St, Yorktown, Virginia.
Yorktown Battlefield and Historic Yorktown are worth visiting if you’re a history lover like me. This one had the least to see and do of the three locations. Battlefields, after all, are mostly just open land. However, this land still holds the energy of victory and death, making it unique.
What you’ll see and do in Colonial Williamsburg
So, if Jamestown is where the first pilgrims landed, and Yorktown is where we fought for freedom from British rule, what happened at Williamsburg? Well, everything else. It is, essentially, where the American idea was born. Williamsburg is famous as being the first capital of the Virginia Colony in 1699 and was home to many notable people in early American history.
I’m originally from Detroit, where we have Henry Ford’s Greenfield Village. It’s a historical recreation town with several historic buildings that Ford collected. He set it up like a colonial American town where actors recreate a way of life. It’s fabulous. Colonial Williamsburg is similar, except for one thing – it is and was a real town that still exists just as it ever was. Now, the colonial craftsman and townspeople are actors, but the city itself is very real.
In Colonial Williamsburg, most businesses and houses are original, restored or recreated to look still as the town would have looked hundreds of years ago. As Virginia’s capital until 1780, it was the center of education and culture. All the famous people of the day, such as George Washington, Patrick Henry, James Madison, George Wythe, Peyton Randolph, and others, have walked these streets.
It wouldn’t be the Historic Triangle without some confusing elements. When I arrived, I wasn’t sure what to do in the town, so I walked around with people dressed in colonial garb, retirees and students until I found a ticket office. The clerk told me I could walk around the town for free, looking at the old houses, buildings and outdoor elements, or buy a ticket for the demonstrations. Dozens of the buildings and sites offer reenactments and demonstrations from the many actors throughout the town.
Historic Demonstrations in Williamsburg
These demonstrations include showings of various colonial arts such as tin and brick making or silver smiths. They showcase an apothecary, bookbinding, coopers, engravers, seamstresses, historic gardening, and various other tools, trades and skills that were part of life in colonial Williamsburg.
There are several shops to buy things like handmade soap, candles, glass, tin, cloth dolls, wood toys, pottery, and silver, all made in Colonial Williamsburg using traditional methods. Further, there are a lot of farms and farm animals on the outskirts of Main Street to observe.
You can spend a few hours walking around the town for free or an entire day watching all the demonstrations, which is your best bet if you want the full experience. You should plan to arrive in the morning to ensure you can see as much as possible.
Architecture in Jamestown, Williamsburg and Yorktown
Bruton Parish Church
This Episcopal church is three centuries old and has hosted many famous patriots. At the time of the Revolution, the Church of England was the official church, and all Virginians attended. Sunday services are still hosted there!
Magazine Yard
The Magazine Yard symbolizes British commitment to defend and expand its empire. Ironically, this military storehouse was critical in supporting the new nation.
Presbyterian Meeting House
Meetinghouses like this one were community centers and places for non-Protestants to worship.
First Baptist Church Archaeology Site
Visitors can see archaeologists excavating the foundation of First Baptist Church and the Baptist Meetinghouse.
The College of William and Mary in Virginia
Aside from being a complete historic town, Williamsburg is also a college town with one of the oldest educational facilities in the country. William & Mary was a royal institution from 1693 until the American Revolution. It’s the second-oldest institution of higher education in the United States. It’s notable for educating American Presidents Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, John Tyler and many other historically well-known men.
Fun Fact: The oldest college in the US was New College in Massachusetts (1636), but you probably know it by its modern (1639) name, Harvard University.
Williamsburg is worth visiting, even if you have only a minor interest in history. There’s a lot to see, do and learn about colonial America. There are also several blocks of commercial businesses where you can shop and eat.
Entry into the houses and sites with demonstrations costs $47 each for a pass that you must visibly wear. The DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum has an additional cost of $15 per person.
How Much Time You Need to Visit the Historic Triangle
I spent two days exploring Jamestown, Williamsburg and Yorktown and it wasn’t enough time. There is a lot to see and do in the three towns and it takes some figuring out. Two days was enough to see each place and do moderate exploring. I’d have liked to have seen and done more in Jamestown and Williamsburg if I had it to do over again. While you could feasibly drive to each town in a day, there’s no way you’d be able to tour them all.
If you visit Jamestown, Williamsburg and Yorktown
You should plan to have at least two days to visit Jamestown, Williamsburg and Yorktown. It takes nearly an hour to drive between the locations, but you’ll need plenty of time to see the sites, reenactments, museums and tours. Colonial Williamsburg, which has the most to see, should get one entire day.
Read other stories about Virginia here.
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