Three Days/Two Nights

1:00pm
Arrive in Williamsburg, VA. (Group should plan on having lunch before meeting your Colonial Connections Escort to start touring.)

1:00-4:00pm
Guided Tour of Colonial Williamsburg
America’s largest living history museum.  From 1699 to 1780, Williamsburg was the political, social and cultural capital of Britain’s largest, wealthiest and most populous colony. Colonial Williamsburg encompasses more than 500 buildings and 90 acres of magnificent gardens.  In the shops, taverns, government buildings, homes and streets George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, George Mason and other Virginia Patriots debated the ideas – liberty, independence, and personal freedoms – that led to the founding of American democracy.  Interaction with costumed interpreters of varied age, race, and social position provides a first-hand view of live when the town was the capitol of the Virginia colony.

4:30pm
Check into your Williamsburg hotel. All selected hotels have an indoor swimming pool and interior corridors for added security (luggage handling included).

5:30pm
Depart for Dinner
Before dinner we'll light up your holidays with the award-winning Celebration in Lights, a two mile drive through Newport News Park that includes spectacular animated scenes.  View whimsical toys, elegant swans, leaping reindeer, multi-colored snowflakes and scenes from Virginia’s past portrayed in a kaleidoscope of dazzling color.

7:30pm
“Dinnertainment” at The Boxwood Inn
Formerly the home of Simon Curtis, the Inn is located in Historic Lee Hall Village.  Tonight we'll experience a Dickens Christmas Dinner. Envision a British manor house in December 1870. Christmas is celebrated in the finest traditional sense, complete with "The Holly and the Ivy," "Deck the Halls," "Gloucester shire Wassail" and "Good King Wenceslas."
 
9:30pm
Return to hotel

7:30am
Breakfast at the hotel
 
9:00am-12:00pm
Guided tour of Jamestown Settlement
This interactive living history museum commemorates America’s first permanent English settlement established 13 years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth.  Learn about the land and lifestyle of Algonquian-speaking tribes in coastal Virginia under the powerful leader Powhatan and about the culture of the first documented Africans in Virginia.  Outdoor living-history areas bring the 17th century to life – the re-created Powhatan Indian Village, re-created James Fort, Riverfront Discovery Area, and full-size replicas of the three ships - Susan Constant, Discovery and Godspeed - that transported the original Jamestown colonists to Virginia in 1607 are ready to board.

12:00pm
Enjoy lunch on your own at the Jamestown Settlement Cafe followed by a brief stop in the Settlement's gift shop 

1:30pm
Depart for holiday shopping stop at the Yankee Candle Factory and Williamsburg General Store before returning to the hotel to relax before tonight’s grand event

4:00pm
Depart hotel for the Grand Illumination
 
4:30pm
Grand Illumination Festivities Begin
Grand Illumination is an adaptation of a common practice during the 18th century when ordinary citizens celebrated extraordinary events - major military victories, the arrival of a new colonial governor or the birthday of the monarch - by firing guns and using fireworks.  The festivities begin with a variety of traditional holiday entertainment - Fifes and Drums provide 18th-century holiday music, balladeers and musicians perform, church choirs sing Christmas carols and costumed performers present entertainment found in Williamsburg 200 years ago.

6:15pm
Grand Illumination Fireworks
A magnificent fireworks display will take place simultaneously at three locations in the Historic Area - Palace Green, the Magazine, and the Capitol. Candles are then lit in the public buildings, shops and homes, through out Colonial Williamsburg's Historic Area. 
    
8:00pm
Dinner at The Whaling Company
Long recognized as Williamsburg’s seafood specialist, the Whaling Company is reminiscent of a charming New England boathouse and prides itself on the freshest fish in town and melt-in-your-mouth hand cut steaks. Since everything is made-to-order, every item is a “special!”

9:30pm
Return to hotel

Monday, December 7, 2009

7:15am
Breakfast at the hotel 
 
8:00am              
Check out of hotel (luggage handling included) 
 
8:30am
Depart hotel
 
9:00am
Guided tour of the Yorktown Victory Center
Gain a new appreciation and understanding of our nation’s beginnings at the Yorktown Victory Center where America’s evolution from colonial status to nationhood is chronicled through a unique blend of timeline, thematic exhibits and outdoor living history areas that emphasizes the experiences of ordinary people.  In an outdoor re-created Continental Army encampment, historical interpreters depict the daily life of a soldier and a re-created 1780s farm provides a look at how many Americans lived in the early years of our nation. 
 
11:30am
Depart for home with great memories of their Grand Illumination adventures 
 
Package available from $275 per person double, based on a minimum of 40 guests.

Note:  Price does not include ground transportation.

Call us today or click here to request information for your connection!