Busch Gardens Christmas Town and Colonial Williamsburg Group Tour
Three Days/Two Nights
Day 1
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. 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.
7:00pm Italian Buffet dinner.
8:30pm Historical Investigations (candlelight walking tour). Spend an evening walking the historic streets of Colonial Williamsburg and experience the lives and times of 18th century townspeople. Discover the talents of various tradesmen and see and feel several period artifacts, including pieces of eight (colonial money), fool’s gold, a ship’s biscuit, a musket ball, an ear of corn, a building nail, cowry shells, colonial matches (flint), a whirligig, and more!
9:00pm Return to hotel.
Day 2
7:30am Continental breakfast provided by 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-1:00pm Enjoy lunch on your own at the Jamestown Settlement Cafe 1:30pm-3:30pm Tour 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.
4:00pm-9:00pm Visit Christmas Town at Busch Gardens Europe. For the first time in the park's 34 year history, visitors will experience all-new attractions, shows and shopping that will fill them with holiday spirit the month of December. Guests can look forward to an immersive experience amid more than a million twinkling lights while they explore the best holiday traditions from around the world. Santa Claus will visit the park each evening to hear Christmas wishes from the young and young-at-heart. Enjoy dinner on your own in the park.
9:30pm Return to hotel.
Day 3
7:30am Continental breakfast provided by hotel.
8:30am Check out of hotel (luggage handling included).
9:00am Depart hotel.
9:45am-11:45am Guided tour of Shirley Plantation Shirley tells the story of the Hill-Carter family, eye witnesses to 11 generations of American history. To this day, the 11th generation continues to own, operate, and work this grand southern plantation. Shirley Plantation is Virginia’s first plantation (1613) and one of the first economic engines of the New World. The chronicle of Shirley Plantation best exemplifies the period in our nation’s history between the settlement at Jamestown in 1607 and the movement towards American independence from Britain in 1776. Today, Shirley continues to be a working plantation, a private family home, a growing business, a National Historic Landmark and a direct link between the past and the present. 12:00pm Depart for home with great memories. Enjoy a boxed lunch en route (provided).
Adult packages available from $239 per person double, based on a minimum of 40 guests.
Student packages available from $160 per person quad, based on a minimum of 40 guests.
Note: Price does not include ground transportation.
1:00pm