Best Williamsburg Hotels

The whole idea behind staying at the Williamsburg Inn is experiencing all the luxury of living in a landed Virginia estate, in the midst of a bunch of landed Virginia estates. It’s an impeccably posh experience put through an 18th-century wringer with modern amenities for a cherry on top. Regency-style furniture, marble fixtures and rooms you could feasibly get lost in—not really, but they are pretty big—all in the heart of the historic area. If you need to be spoiled on your Williamsburg vacation, come here.

This B&B is the epitome of Williamsburg’s history-heavy, tweedy tastes: rooms named for presidents and their first ladies (it is the White House, after all); furnishings that reference various romantic images of historical eras, from colonial days (the John and Abigail Adams suite) to World War II (the FDR suite); a "diplomatic" reception room; a JFK library replete with snapshots of John and Jackie, and a common dining area fit for a state dinner. Or breakfast, as the case may be—and they serve up a very lovely breakfast here indeed.

Williamsburg is all about history, and the most interesting places to stay are its actual historical homes. There are 26 properties in the Historic Area where you can feel like you’ve been frozen in history—although not that frozen, as all of these spots come with modern amenities. Some of the homes are one-room boxes of coziness; some are larger "taverns" with up to 16 rooms. Our favorite, especially if it’s snowing, is the technically two-room Orlando Jones Kitchen, with a period daybed with trundle and fireplace on the first floor, and a lovely double bedroom up top.

The family home of A. Webster Hitchens sits smack between the Historic District and William & Mary, as prime as real estate gets in this town. The property, still owned by the Hitchens family, now houses the Fife & Drum, one of the larger B&Bs in town. The nice thing about the Fife is that the owners offer a great variety of rooms and suites (10 in all, including a lovely little separate brick cottage) without sacrificing the individual attention that makes B&B visits so endearing. Be picky if you can, as each room has its own flavor; we prefer the Conservancy Room, with a raised, footed tub and full-curtained canopy bed that oozes (we never thought we’d type this) colonial sex appeal.

We offer up the Hospitality House not for any outstanding qualities, other than the fact that it’s low luxury—better than a Holiday Inn—and high volume. It can be tough getting a room here in the season, especially in the smaller B&B-style places. The Hospitality House (really a big hotel; there’s nothing very "house-y" about it) avoids this issue by offering a ton of above average, but not spectacular, rooms. Said rooms, for the record, are not particularly history-themed, which may be refreshing if you’re getting sick of the restored colonial scene.

As befits a B&B located in a snug brick house in rural Yorktown, the York River feels less like a stately manor house and more like a homey 18th-century chalet. We’re not saying this in any kind of pejorative way; the rustic edges of this place are a bit more inviting than the lacey affectations at Colonial Williamsburg spots. There’s a genuine feel of escape here, complimented by the excellent meals whipped up by the owners (a little more corn pudding, please. And some crab cakes. And the fantastically named "clam-alama-ding-dong"—that's clam pudding, by the way).

The Governor’s is by far your cheapest option within Colonial Williamsburg proper. The rooms aren’t much—what you would find within a roadside hotel, to be honest—but they’re comfy and clean, and you have access to a pool and can lounge around the posher, overpriced Williamsburg Woodlands Hotel next door. It’s fantastically located within a nicely restored building, within walking distance of the Historic Area’s main sites.