Back in December my mom and I shared a Colonial Williamsburg Colonial House while visiting for the holidays. Today, I am going to share my thoughts on that experience.
Colonial Williamsburg Colonial House
My mom and I initially booked a Tavern Room for this trip. However, we received a call a few weeks out from our trip that they had overbooked our room. So, they upgraded us to a house. While normally you can book a specific house, we had no idea which house we were staying in until we were handed the keys. We ended up spending two nights in the Orrell Kitchen. FYI: Kitchens used to be a separate building from the house back in colonial times. So, while you may book or be placed in a “kitchen”, it’s still a whole separate home.
The House
At first glance, this is an adorable little home. There was a little sign on the wall detailing some of the rich history of this home when you first enter it. We were tickled to have our own spaces, with my mom taking the downstairs bedroom and I took the upstairs. However, as we spent sometime getting familiar with our home, we started to notice lots of little issues.
For starters, while there was two bathrooms, only the upstairs one had a shower. So, my mom took only one shower while we were here because she didn’t want to navigate the stairs. The stairs were a whole issue onto themselves. They totally couldn’t be built like that today. You can view them in my Instagram post to see for yourself how bad they were.
By the time I went to bed, I discovered another glaring issue: the lack of working heat. I was freezing the whole night. We went back to check in to inquire about switching to a room someplace but we were told everything was booked up. They sent maintenance out to look at the house. Apparently, they couldn’t get the heat to work either. So, they put a small portable heater in the upstairs room and called it a day. Thankfully, it was a small space so the heater was able to heat the bedroom. Unfortunately, the one bathroom with a shower was still a little chilly.
We also had issues with the lock on the back of the house. When we checked out, we couldn’t even get it to lock back. Upon returning the key to the front desk, we told them about the issue and they didn’t seem surprised. In fact they told us not to worry about it.
Pros
- Location – The houses are located right in Colonial Williamsburg! It’s so easy to walk to everything. Plus, we loved not having to deal with parking during the fireworks.
- Tickets included – Staying at any of the official CW resorts (including the houses) gives you length of stay passes to Colonial Williamsburg.
- Unique – It’s truly a unique experience to stay in a house that old. I don’t know anywhere else you can do that.
- Early access to booking dining reservations – This was especially useful since we were staying during one of their busiest weekends: the holiday season. We were able to book the Holiday Tea prior to the general public since we stayed on property.
Cons
- Stairs – They didn’t have standards for building stairs back then. So, anytime you get a house with stairs, you run the risk of them being really bad.
- Run down – I know these are old houses, that’s the whole point of staying in them. However, they really need some love and attention. They need to update the electrical system and put in more outlets. Also, the heat didn’t work in our house.
- Weird bathrooms – The bathrooms also need to be updated. Once again, just like when I stayed in the Deluxe Suite last year, the bathroom ceiling cut in at an angle in the shower.
Is a Colonial Williamsburg Colonial House worth it?
Suffice it to say, that while it’s mighty convenient and neat to stay in colonial lodging, I probably won’t do it again. I’ll be looking at hotels the next time I visit Colonial Williamsburg, unless they do some major updates to these houses.
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