Jamestown Settlement
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7 Reviews for Jamestown Settlement
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70 families found this helpful
"Good to know"
We took our boys here when they were 6 and 3. Both enjoyed the hands-on experience. The movie was a bit long for children, but interesting for older children and adults. It was easy terrain to push a stroller, minus the stairs on the boat. Such good history for anyone to know.
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0 families found this helpful
"Well worth the visit"
Jamestown is fun for all ages. There is a large visitor's center and plenty of activities outdoors to explore. There are a few ships in the water that you can check out, an Indian camp and a fort where you can try on gear, watch a gun be fired, etc. It's really a great place and the views on your drive out to the Settlement are incredible!
0 families found this helpful
"Great experience!"
I enjoyed Jamestown but not as much as Colonial Williamsburg. Just like Williamsburg this was a very educational experience. My favorite part was the reenactments that took place.There were many things the kids could do that included dressing up in uniform attire. Other than that is was mostly walking around and viewing.
0 families found this helpful
"Much to do"
This one is not the official site. An entire fort, indian village, and 3 ships were rebuilt to explore. You'll spend an entire day checking everything out. The kids can even learn how the Native Americans carved out canoes and join in. One of our favorite things to do in Virginia! Make sure to check this one out!!
1 family found this helpful
"jamestown"
we did not paticurlary enjoy jamestown settlement it would be education and interseting for an adult only trip or for older children maybe even a fun field trip but definitly isn't for the 5 and under crowd, the kids would be bored, not much to hold their interest.
0 families found this helpful
"Great"
It is a great place to take the family and have a lot of fun while experiencing a great part of Virginia's history every school in Richmond and other surrounding areas go to Jamestown for field trips. If you love history definately check it out even if you are just passing through the area!!!
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"Fun with the Family"
At Jamestown Settlement, a state-operated living-history museum near the historic site, the 1600s come alive. You meet interpreters (not actual characters who lived at Jamestown) attired in period clothing but speaking contemporary English.
At the Powhatan Indian Village, families can explore the Powhatan houses, called yehakins, and watch and even help prepare food, tan animal hides, and make pottery or tools from bones. Watching an interpreter dressed in buckskin weave storage bags from plant fibers, we wonder if Pocahontas, a Powhatan maiden, ever wove a similar sack.
The path from the village leads to the pier on the James River, where full-size replicas of the three ships that sailed to Jamestown are docked. Interpreters in period attire recount the four-and-a-half-month voyage, demonstrating piloting and navigational skills. Onboard the Susan Constant, visitors can steer with a whipstaff, explore a sailor’s bunk, and try deducing latitude with an astrolabe, an early navigational tool. At the triangular James Fort, kids can defend the re-created seventeenth-century settlement of homes, church, storehouse, and guardhouse as well as try on armor and, at times, watch blacksmithing demonstrations and musket drills.
As part of the 400th anniversary, along with enhancing the living-history areas, Jamestown Settlement opened a 30,000-square-foot exhibition space whose new film, 1607: A Nation Takes Root, chronicles 20 years of Jamestown’s development. The galleries depict the interweaving in the New World soil of three cultures: Native American, English, and African. The first documented Africans arrived in Virginia in 1619. To compare the cultures, kids view a seventeenth-century London streetscape, a Native Indian village, and an Angolan settlement. Kids can also walk through a life size planter’s house, slave quarters, and a native home covered in bark.
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