Is there another historical vacation spot like Colonial Williamsburg?

[SebastianCat]

Last year we took our vacation in Washington DC and Williamsburg.   We were there when the government shut down, so we had to rearrange our plans at the last minute - at least we had an idea that it might happen before we left, and had a back-up plan.

 

Anyway, we ended up spending more time in Williamsburg than we originally intended, and it was FABULOUS.   It made me think about whether another vacation destination exists, where they re-create history like Williamsburg?    I was very impressed with the re-enactments, the wholesome atmosphere, and the fact that they had enough to do to keep my kids interested and excited the entire time we were there.

 

So if you know of any other places like Williamsburg, could you please share?   My kids will be 12 & 10 and we'd be looking to go in the fall (after Labor Day).   Thanks!

[TechWife]

Old Salem near Winston-Salem is similar, but on a smaller scale. To me, it is more authentic. You can realistically experience everything in a day.

 

[Amira]

I've been to much smaller living history places, but nothing like Colonial Williamsburg where you can stay for days and never run out of things to do.  Old Sturbridge Village might be one option.  If you search online you'll find lots of smaller places.  I've mostly been to This Is the Place Heritage Park in Salt Lake City.

 

I'd love to do a trip where we visited several living history museums and spent a day at each.

 

 

[umsami]

There's a place in Massachusetts called Old Sturbridge Village.  https://www.osv.org

[EndOfOrdinary]

We live near Fort Vancouver once owned by the Hudson's Bay Company when all the trapping was done out here. They keep the Fort period and it is an active archeological site. It is pretty cool. Less than three hours away is Fort Clatsop where Lewis and Clark over wintered before heading home. It is also kept period. Both do demonstrations. It isn't quite as flashy as Williamsburg, since we do not get the money volume that comes with that many visitors, but it is still beautiful in the fall and the summer crowds have diminished.

 

Fort Vancouver is in Vancouver, Washington and Fort Clatsop is straight out the highway to the coast in Astoria, Oregon. There are maritime museums, lost of stuff on the battles when the British were trying to claim the Oregon territory, and many interpretive centers and hikes done by Lewis and Clark.

 

If you really want to go all out, the 100 mile section of the Oregon Trail has been set aside as historical highway to hike, bike, or drive with placards explaining how Lewis and Clark set the trail and wagons followed it. There is quite a bit of overlap between Lewis and Clark, fur trappers, and the Oregon Trail.

 

You can Google it. Our coasts are very different than the Atlantic ones. There is also the nation's largest hydro electric dam which is open for tours. It is an hour (or less depending on how far you drive the highway) up from Vancouver.

[Beth S]

Plymouth Plantation?

Jamestown?

 

We live in the Midwest, and attend reenactments, and smaller living history museums.

But Williamsburg is the best, from my perspective.

[Carol in Cal.]

Sturbridge Village, which has already been mentioned, is probably the closest to Williamsberg in size and scope, and it's still smaller.

 

Others are smaller but very enjoyable for a day or two each:

Plimouth Plantation--http://www.plimoth.org/  (early New England settlement)

Columbia State Historic Park--http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=552  (1859ish in the gold rush area of California)

Old World Wisconsin--http://oldworldwisconsin.wisconsinhistory.org/Explore/ExploreOverview.aspx  (pioneer era in the Midwest)

 

[Mama Geek]

Gettysburg

Fort Sumpter and and Charleston, SC in general

St Augustine

The Alamo in San Antonio

Savannah, GA

[Spryte]

Seconding those who said Plimouth.  We are dying to go.  They even have a program for sleepovers in the houses.  

[Matryoshka]

If you come to MA, you can visit Old Sturbridge Village and Plimoth Plantation both easily.  And Lexington is not a living history museum but does have a few (Rev War) house tours with costumed interpreters.y'know, while you're in the neighborhood...  Concord, Salem and Boston all have individual sites that are great to visit, but do not have a concentrated area.

 

Mystic Seaport is also fun and a few hours away in RI.  It's a living history seaport whaling village.

 

None of these take more than a day each, unlike Williamsburg where you can easily stay a few days, but you can make the rounds. :)

[Plink]

PA was one of our favorite historic vacations. Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, Betsy Ross House, Ben Franklin print shop, Valley Forge, Gettysburg - all fabulous. During peak vacation times there are storytellers at many of the sites and the kids get maps and try to "collect" all of the stories.

 

Boston's freedom trail is great too.

[chicagoshannon]

The Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village in Dearborn, MI

This was going to be my suggestion.

[EmilyGF]

Boston: Old Sturbridge Village, Plimouth Plantation, Freedom Trail and various Boston historical sites. (Though, this is multi-sited.)

 

What is really cool about OSV is that the people are artisans. People who have been to WB have told me that the OSV reenactors are more passionate because they are so invested in their trade.

 

Emily

[PeachyDoodle]

Old Salem near Winston-Salem is similar, but on a smaller scale. To me, it is more authentic. You can realistically experience everything in a day.

 

Seconding Old Salem. We're very near there, and I love it! It's especially fun around Christmastime.

 

(And DEFINITELY do the Winkler Bakery for cookies and sugar cake!!)

[Alessandra]

Plimouth Plantation is my absolute favorite, much, much more than Williamsburg. It looks authentic, with some houses rather ramshackle, linens a bit dirty in winter, etc. They have done animal breeding to go back to some of the domestic animals of Colonial times.

 

Plymouth settlers kept good enough records that we know a lot about them. Reenactors play specific people who actually existed, with accents from the part of England they were native to. If you mention Charles I, they will look very puzzled, since for them there was only one King Charles.

 

The Wampanoag village, there is extremely moving, especially as the staff are descendants of the original Wampanoag.

 

Old Sturbridge is lovely too, with a lot to see, but not on the same level as Plimouth.

 

NJ has several places, such as Batsto, Millbrook, Allaire, Waterloo.

[Alessandra]

Double post

[Rockhopper]

Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill in Kentucky.

 

Some reenactors, mostly artisans (e.g. a broom-maker, weaver). Only a day trip but well worth it. There's a small restaurant/cafe on site that sells Shaker lemon pie. 

 

Homestead Heritage in Waco, TX is not a historical re-creation but a neat place to visit. It is an intentional Christian community, based on an agrarian model. They're Anabaptists but not Amish or Mennonite. Anyway, they have a lot of demonstrations day, a gift shop and restaurant, and a school which teaches carpentry and maybe some other self-sufficiency skills? (It has been a while since we were last there.) 

 

We visited once for their Sorghum Festival and it was great. They talked about harvesting the sorghum, they had horses turning the mill, underground pipes that ran the juice to the syrup shack where a wood fire boiled it down to sorghum.

 

They have their own grist mill and sell the flours they grind -- and breads in the bakery. They also sell their homeschool curriculum and parenting books. (Being a Christian of neither Anabaptist or agrarian/old-fashioned persuasion, they didn't appeal to me personally but might be just the ticket for someone else.) (Lots of selling -- I think they've developed a quite successful business model for being old-fashioned!)

[MotherGoose]

 

Charleston, SC

[AmandaVT]

I love Plimouth Plantation. And Gettysburg is really nice too - I went to college for a year there and loved walking through the battlefields. The town is nice and they have some tasty restaurants there too. 

[Cera]

The Shelburne Museum in Vt is not quite the same (not too many reenactors) but it is a wonderful place.  We usually do two days.

 

https://shelburnemuseum.org/

 

We also usually add a third day for a visit to Shelburne Farms.

 

http://www.shelburnefarms.org/

[Brilliant]

We did Plimouth Plantation and Mystic Seaport and historic Boston on a trip when my kids were a bit younger than yours.  We all loved it.  As some have mentioned already, PP is very historically accurate and dirty.  :tongue_smilie:  Mystic Seaport is a bit more sanitized and theme-park-ish (at least it was 13 years ago).  But both are definitely worth doing.

[Lizzie in Ma]

Old Sturbridge Village is one of our very favorite places.

[Matryoshka]

If you're up here in New England, there's also Hancock Shaker Village in NH.

[Matryoshka]

And this is completely silly and irrelevant, as they've decided to "misspell" Plymouth in the context of the plantation so who really cares how they've misspelled it...

 

but, because I'm anal esp. wtr spelling and seeing it over and over is bugging me... :tongue_smilie:

 

It's Plymouth when you're talking about the modern town, and the historical site is Plimoth Plantation - not only have they swapped the 'y' for an 'i', but they also took out the 'u'. 

 

There, I'm sorry to disturb you all with something so inconsequential and so very Not Important.  I have it off my chest.  Carry on. :D

[Momling]

Not Williamsburg... But we've had fun at other "living history" museums. Staying overnight in a covered wagon on the Ingalls homestead in South Dakota was really fun for my girls (then age 5&7). http://www.ingallshomestead.com

[gardenmom5]

We live near Fort Vancouver once owned by the Hudson's Bay Company when all the trapping was done out here. They keep the Fort period and it is an active archeological site. It is pretty cool. Less than three hours away is Fort Clatsop where Lewis and Clark over wintered before heading home. It is also kept period. Both do demonstrations. It isn't quite as flashy as Williamsburg, since we do not get the money volume that comes with that many visitors, but it is still beautiful in the fall and the summer crowds have diminished.

 

Fort Vancouver is in Vancouver, Washington and Fort Clatsop is straight out the highway to the coast in Astoria, Oregon. There are maritime museums, lost of stuff on the battles when the British were trying to claim the Oregon territory, and many interpretive centers and hikes done by Lewis and Clark.

 

If you really want to go all out, the 100 mile section of the Oregon Trail has been set aside as historical highway to hike, bike, or drive with placards explaining how Lewis and Clark set the trail and wagons followed it. There is quite a bit of overlap between Lewis and Clark, fur trappers, and the Oregon Trail.

 

You can Google it. Our coasts are very different than the Atlantic ones. There is also the nation's largest hydro electric dam which is open for tours. It is an hour (or less depending on how far you drive the highway) up from Vancouver.

 

just north in eatonville is pioneer village.  (and northwest trek is nearby with northwest animals in an open habitat)

in nearby Tacoma, fort nisqually is another HBC site with activities - but check their schedule.  Discovery park, where it is located, also has a zoo and aquarium - and old growth northwest forest.

the dam she is talking about is grand coulee and it is open for tours.  they also have a laser light show at night.  (and moses lake isn't far with a great water park.)

 

[SebastianCat]

Wow, thank you all SO much - these all look wonderful!    Looking in more detail at these links now to see if we can work out vacation plans.... :)

 

[aug17girl]

I don't know how it compares to Williamsburg, but I've always wanted to visit Louisbourg in Nova Scotia.  http://www.novascotia.com/explore/top-25/louisbourg?gclid=CKr2wu_9nL4CFbRxMgod63EABw

 

Also on my bucket list is Le Pays de la sagouine in Bouchtouche, New Brunswick:  http://www.sagouine.com/  It is a creation of a fictitious, prohibition era, Acadien village.

[whitestavern]

If you come to MA, you can visit Old Sturbridge Village and Plimoth Plantation both easily.  And Lexington is not a living history museum but does have a few (Rev War) house tours with costumed interpreters.y'know, while you're in the neighborhood...  Concord, Salem and Boston all have individual sites that are great to visit, but do not have a concentrated area.

 

Mystic Seaport is also fun and a few hours away in RI.  It's a living history seaport whaling village.

 

None of these take more than a day each, unlike Williamsburg where you can easily stay a few days, but you can make the rounds. :)

 

If you end up taking a New England trip, you might want to check out Strawbery Banke in Portsmouth, NH too. 

 

Oh, and Mystic Seaport's in CT, not RI (though it's very close to RI).

 

Ooh, and I just thought of the Mashantucket Pequot Museum, not too far from Mystic.  They have a very cool Indian village.  The whole museum's actually very well done.

 

[hellen]

It's not nearly as big as Colonial Williamsburg but I really enjoyed Connor Prairie outside of Indianapolis. I liked the reenactors better at Connor Prairie because they were friendlier and stayed in character really well.

[twoxcell]

If you came to the Northern Oregon coast you could camp at Fort Stevens State park(or get a hotel) and then visit:

Fort Stevens(there is also a Fort right across the border in Washington state but I don't know its name.)

The Peter Iredale shipwreck on the beach

Fort Clatsop

The Astoria Column

The Columbia River Maritime Museum

Seaside

Cannon Beach

etc.

Probably not exactly like Williamsburg but there is a lot to see and do in that area. :)

 

 

[Stacia]

If you're ever back in the DC area, a few places like you are describing:

 

Mt. Vernon (including the separate site that has the Gristmill & Distillery)

 

Claude Moore Colonial Farm

 

Canal Boat Ride (pulled by mules) through locks -- we did one in Georgetown, but those are not available any more. You now have to go to Potomac, MD, to ride.

[ChristusG]

St Augustine, FL has a lot of historical things to do/see. Bonus is that it's right near the beach!

[Chelli]

I"m familiar with from growing up:

Old Washington State Park in southwest Arkansas

 

Close to where we live now:

 

George Ranch Historical Park southwest of Houston

[J-rap]

This is nothing like the scale you're talking about, but this thread reminded me of it.  Years ago, we did a Laura Ingalls Wilder tour in the Midwest.  We mostly focused on the site in Minnesota, in Walnut Grove.  (Where the book, "On the Banks of Plum Creek" took place.)

 

They have a small museum, some kind of a drama performance based on the life of Laura, and of course the site of the family dugout.

 

We had the most fun though at the sod house.  There is a sod house in the area which is supposed to be a replicate of the type of sod houses the pioneers built and lived in in those days.  (Like the Ingalls.)  It was a bed and breakfast, set up inside just like an original pioneer home.  It's out on a beautiful prairie, and they have pioneer clothes that you can pick out and wear the whole time you're there.  It was such a hoot!  They bring you a "pioneer breakfast" the next morning.  We will never forget that weekend!  (Although unfortunately it was May when all the ticks were out... Ick!)

 

However, the last I heard, it was not being used as a bed and breakfast anymore, just a museum.

[kbutton]

It's smaller, so you'll want to go during the summer-ish months when they have more activities and more staff, but the Landis Valley Museum (roughly near Lititz, PA) is wonderful. I think they ramp things up roughly around Easter/Spring break with summer having the most to offer. They have a blog that might tell you more about the museum. The whole area has a lot to offer, and it's close to Amish country if you like a quieter paced vacation but lots of options.

 

I also loved the Museum of Appalachia in TN (near Oak Ridge, I think). It's not like Williamsburg in the sense that you have actors (but they do have buildings and docents), but it's about the people of Appalachia, famous and not, as told through their artifacts and possessions.

[Waronson]

Old Bethpage Village on Long Island, NY.  

In the late 1950's and early 1960's there was an idea to preserve Long Island's architectural and rural history of the 18th and 19th centuries. With this in mind, the County of Nassau purchased 209 acres of property in Old Bethpage, New York  in 1963, and began setting the ground-work for what would become Long Island's Living History Museum. 

Old Bethpage Village Restoration (OBVR) opened with numerous historic homes, wonderful exhibits, the finest interpreters and tradespeople, farm animals, and interactive activities and demonstrations on June 27, 1970! Since June of that year, OBVR has welcomed hundreds of thousands of visitors from all over the World, and continues to be Long Island's most attended museum!

https://www.oldbethpagevillagerestoration.orgm

[KungFuPanda]

I think everything is smaller than Williamsburg, but we’ve enjoyed Mt Vernon, St Mary’s City, and Harper’s Ferry

 

 

[Terabith]

Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton, VA is very nice. 

[Pawz4me]

Almost ten year old zombie thread.

[KungFuPanda]

Dammit!

[Carol in Cal.]

But still good!  Not all zombie threads are bad!

[QueenCat]

21 hours ago, KungFuPanda said:

I think everything is smaller than Williamsburg, but we’ve enjoyed Mt Vernon, St Mary’s City, and Harper’s Ferry

 

 

Went to college in St. Mary's City. I've heard the Living Village is phenomenal. They were just starting to build it into more of a destination when I was finishing school. 

[Pam in CT]

You could easily do a 3-5 day trip that combined Sturbridge, then up to Plimoth, then on to Strawberry Banke in Portsmouth.  Each one is smaller than Williamsburg, and that sequence makes sense to drive but is not in chronological order; but between the three you get a nice range of both time periods and also types of living. Of the three I am particularly fond of Strawberry Banke -- they do a different thing than any of the others, whereby each house is a different time period / immigrant group / socioeconomic class, so you really get a sense of how the city's population and business changed over time. It's neat.