"Bulbs, Blooms & Blossoms" - Adult Tour
Destinations:
America's Historic Triangle, Norfolk, Charles City County, Busch Gardens and Richmond
Five Days/Four Nights
Call us today at 800.378.1571 or request information.
Day 1 - Jamestown
2:00pm
Meet your Colonial Connections Tour Manager at Jamestown Settlement
2:30pm-5:00pm
Guided tour of Jamestown Settlement focusing on native to the Americas flora and fauna
Connect with the experiences of the 17th-century colonists as you explore Jamestown Settlement, the recreation of the first permanent English settlement in America. Tour indoor galleries, talk with costumed interpreters, and visit the re-created James Fort and Powhatan Indian village. Board full-size replicas of the Susan Constant, Discovery and Godspeed - the three ships that brought settlers to Virginia in 1607.
5:30pm
Check-in to your Williamsburg hotel (includes round-trip baggage handling)
Choose from limited to full-service properties with exterior or interior corridors, indoor or outdoor pools, with deluxe continental breakfast or full breakfast buffet, priced from budget and moderate to deluxe.
7:00pm
Dinner provided at Food for Thought
Food for Thought offer classic American favorites such as fork tender pot roast, Grandma’s meatloaf, and fall-off-the-bones ribs. To complement these American favorites, they also offer more contemporary flavors and ideas like Pad Thai, Jamaican Jerk chicken, flavored butters and original vegetarian dishes.
8:30pm
Return to the hotel. Colonial Connections Tour Manager departs.
Day 2 - Williamsburg
8:00am
Deluxe Continental breakfast at your Williamsburg hotel
8:45am
Depart for Colonial Williamsburg with your Colonial Connections Tour Manager
9:00am-12:00pm
Guided tour of Colonial Williamsburg, the Revolutionary City including Gardens of Gentility
Explore the nation's largest living history museum. From 1699 to 1780, Williamsburg was the political and cultural center of Britain's largest colony in the New World. In the shops, taverns, government buildings, homes and streets, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, George Mason and other Virginia Patriots debated the ideas of liberty, independence, and personal freedoms that led to the founding of American democracy and inspired generations of Americans and others from around the world.
This tour of Colonial Williamsburg’s gardens highlights how gardens reflected the lifestyles and ideals of people living in 18th century Williamsburg. Topics include the influences on Williamsburg’s gardens prior to 1750, the signifiers of wealth and status in gardens and the continuing development of horticulture from 1750 – 1800.
12:00pm-2:00pm
Lunch in Merchants Square and free time for shopping (on own)
Located adjacent to Colonial Williamsburg’s Historic Area, Merchants Square is an 18th-century style retail village with more than 40 shops and restaurants. The shops at Merchants Square offer everything from traditional and designer clothing to handmade candies, antique quilts, folk art and a variety of exclusive Williamsburg reproductions. The restaurants on Merchants Square offer choices from a quick sandwich to the freshest seafood, steaks or contemporary American regional cooking.
2:00pm-5:00pm
Continue guided garden tours and “Meet the Gardener”
This afternoon, a Williamsburg/James City County Master Gardener will familiarize the group with their efforts to maintain and preserve the George Reid garden and guests will have an opportunity to ask questions.
5:30pm
Dinner provided in a Colonial Tavern
Taverns were not only an integral part of colonial life in America, but were also a necessity. The modes of travel and transportation of the day mandated the location of a tavern every few miles on the main thoroughfares. Each of the operating taverns located in Colonial Williamsburg’s Historic Area is inspired by a different style of colonial-era cooking.
7:15pm
Return to the hotel or optional shopping. Colonial Connections Tour Manager departs.
Optional shopping available at New Town, Premium Outlets, Yankee Candle Village or the Williamsburg Pottery.
Day 3 - Norfolk, Yorktown
8:00am
Deluxe Continental breakfast at your Williamsburg hotel
8:45am
Depart for Norfolk with your Colonial Connections Tour Manager
10:00am-12:00pm
Visit the Norfolk Botanical Garden
A 155-acre garden filled with thousands of plants and more than thirty themed gardens. Some gardens focus on a single plant while others look at a plant from a specific region.
12:00pm-1:00pm
Lunch at the Botanical Garden Café (on own)
1:00pm
Depart for Yorktown
1:45pm-3:45pm
Guided tour of the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown
This tour focuses on Heirloom Vegetables and Herbs from the Europeans, Africans and the Americas. Gain a new appreciation and understanding of our nation's beginnings at the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown where America's evolution from Colonial status to nationhood is chronicled. Outdoor living history areas include a re-created Continental Army encampment and 1780s farm.
4:00pm-6:00pm
Sunset Cruise aboard the Schooner Alliance
Named for the French and American Alliance that was instrumental in winning the war of Independence in 1781, the Alliance sails the majestic York River and Chesapeake Bay. Captains and owners, Greg and Laura Lohse, have been sailing tall ships together since 1988. Their chief desire on every cruise is to help each guest feel welcome and relaxed. Their vast experience in teaching tall ship seamanship and navigation enables them to provide a rich learning adventure to all guests who wish to participate in the operation of their craft.
6:30pm
Dinner provided at The Riverwalk Restaurant
The Riverwalk Restaurant offers waterfront dining on the shores of the York River in historic Yorktown. The menus offered take full advantage of the wide variety of seafood available in the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean. Lamb, poultry and beef are also well-represented and are prepared with both traditional and contemporary recipes.
8:30pm
Return to the hotel. Colonial Connections Tour Manager departs.
Day 4 - Charles City County, Busch Gardens Williamsburg
7:30am
Deluxe Continental breakfast at your Williamsburg hotel
8:30am
Depart for Charles City County with your Colonial Connections Tour Manager
9:30am-11:30am
Visit Berkeley Plantation (guided house tour, self-guided grounds tour)
Berkeley is Virginia’s most historic plantation. Five terraced gardens leading from the house to the James River were dug by hand before the Revolutionary War. Flowers bloom Spring through Fall and many hundred-year old trees grace the restored boxwood garden offering breathtaking vistas of the James River. On December 4, 1619, early settlers from England came ashore at Berkeley Plantation and observed the first official Thanksgiving in America. See the birthplace of Benjamin Harrison, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and President William Henry Harrison, “Old Tippecanoe.” “Taps” was composed at Berkeley when General McClellan headquartered 140,000 Union troops in 1862.
11:30am
Depart for Williamsburg
12:30pm-Until
Visit Busch Gardens Williamsburg and enjoy a Behind-the-Scenes Garden Tour (lunch and dinner on own)
Busch Gardens Williamsburg is an action-packed, European-themed adventure park combining 17th-century charm with 21st-century technology to create the ultimate adventure park experience. Situated on the James River minutes from Colonial Williamsburg, Busch Gardens Williamsburg boasts more than 50 thrilling rides and attractions, Broadway-style main stage shows, a wide variety of award-winning cuisine and world-class shops. Voted the "World's Most Beautiful Park" every year since 1990.
At Busch Gardens Williamsburg, you’ll learn a little about the 120+ varieties of plants that reside in the park and how these plants provide the basic needs for the insects and wildlife at Busch Gardens Williamsburg. You’ll also learn how you can help in the conservation efforts of our planet by creating your own certified wildlife habitat garden.
8:00pm
Return to the hotel. Colonial Connections Tour Manager departs.
Day 5 - Richmond
7:00am
Deluxe Continental breakfast at your Williamsburg hotel. Colonial Connections Tour Manager rejoins group and facilities check-out and baggage handling.
8:00am
Depart for Richmond
9:15am-11:30pm
Visit Tuckahoe Plantation – Thomas Jefferson’s Boyhood Home (guided house tour, self-guided grounds tour)
Situated on the James River, just seven miles west of Richmond, this extraordinary colonial plantation is considered one of the most complete existing 18th century plantation layouts in North America. From 1745 until 1752, Tuckahoe was the boyhood home of America’s third president and founding father, Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson began his studies as a young boy in the one-room schoolhouse that still stands today. Tuckahoe is truly a horticultural treasure. The gardens never quite go to sleep as there is something blooming nearly year-round.
11:30pm
Depart for Maymont Park
12:00pm-3:00pm
Visit Maymont Park and Mansion (lunch on own at the Maymont Café)
Maymont was the 100-acre Victorian country estate of James Henry and Sallie May Dooley. In 1886, the Dooley’s first viewed and purchased the rough pasture and field that would become Maymont. At the age of 40, with no children and the resources of her husband's prosperity at her disposal, Sallie Dooley led the effort to transform the landscape into a showplace that would rival the lavish estates that were springing up throughout the country. The Romanesque-style mansion was completed in 1893 and the Dooley’s spent the next three decades filling its sumptuous interiors with treasures from around the world and establishing Maymont's magnificent gardens, landscapes and architectural complex.
3:00pm
Depart for Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden
3:15pm-5:00pm
Visit the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden
Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden blooms year-round and includes more than 40 acres of spectacular plants and a 63-foot-tall domed conservatory housing orchids, exotic plants and changing displays.
5:00pm
Depart for home. Colonial Connections Tour Manager departs.
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