Williamsburg's renown springs principally from its history, but don't overlook the fact that there's more to this area than Ye Olde Town Criers in trident hats and costumed milking maids. The Greater Williamsburg area boasts top-notch water parks, the European-themed Busch Gardens, excellent golfing, and outdoor adventures including guided kayaking tours and birding hikes through inland marshes.

But back to that history. Colonial Williamsburg is one of the country’s most famous living history museums, recreating the Virginia colonial capital of the 1770s when it became a laboratory of independent politics and a magnet for revolutionary thinkers such as Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry. The 23-mile Colonial Parkway connects Williamsburg’s historic core to Historic Jamestowne, site of the first colonial settlement in the early 1600s, and Yorktown, site of the last significant battle of the American Revolution in 1781.