On most of our family vacations, I find us a house or apartment to rent. In Williamsburg, Virginia, I was thrilled to find an authentic 1698 colonial house to rent — until we started to see that it wasn’t quite the comfortable retreat we were used to retiring to at night.
Oh, it had modern bathrooms and kitchens and electricity, but no WiFi. No TV. And no comfortable chairs.
The beds were nice.
The low ceilings, not so much,
Especially after climbing the steep, narrow stairs. I quickly learned to walk in my toes.
Still, comfortable or not, I loved all the period touches: the desks and dishes. The furniture, quill pens and wigs.
It wasn’t the most relaxing place we’ve ever stayed, but it definitely provided a unique insight into life in Colonial times during our trip.
Do you ever choose ambiance over creature comforts?
Browsing The Atlas 
I could handle the lack of TV and Wi-Fi, Juliann, but no comfortable chairs! Travesty! 🙂 –Curt
Sitting in all straight-backed wooden chairs was harder than I expected it to be. Lesson learned.
I personally enjoy this kind of experience. I would choose the ambiance over the Creature Comforts LOL. It looks very interesting, and I’m sure it was a fun time.
It definitely added a different dimension as we wandered through Colonial Williamsburg. As we viewed their home life in different settings, we knew what it felt like to sleep in 4-poster beds and sit on hard wooden chairs all the time. It was fun.
The ideal is to have both together of course. Not that I go many places but I do like to stay somewhere with a history.
I’m a sucker for staying in a place that lends itself to the trip experience. I’ve never felt like I needed much luxury, but a soft chair makes a bigger difference than I realized after walking around all day.
I would love to stay at a place like this. Looks like lots of fun, however, I love comfort and luxury as well so if I ever get the opportunity it may just be a one-night thing to get in the experience. We are headed to Charleston next month for vacation and I wanted to stay at one of the plantations, however, we are traveling with the kiddos and another family so we are definitely taking comfort and luxury into account on this trip to make everyone happy. Maybe someday when the kids are out of the house, my husband and I can give this type of experience a try.
I hope you do! This was definitely not a place to stay with children. Comfort and luxury in that case is a must.
I’m outnumbered at my house. I want ambiance while everyone else seeks comfort. 🙂
I hope you find compromises along the way!