A block from the Williamsburg Inn, this convention-oriented hotel was ripped apart and emerged in 2007 as a modern incarnation of its origins in 1937, when it was conceived by John D. Rockefeller as a centerpiece of the restored Historic Area.
Uniformed staffers greet guests arriving at the main building via a rectangular driveway and usher them across a long porch with high-back rocking chairs into an expansive lobby with Oriental rugs, soft-pedaled colonial styling, a fireplace, and leather sofas and club chairs. Other porches and covered patios provide even more rocking chairs in which to relieve a load.
Off the lobby, the Williamsburg Lodge Dining Room serves all three meals with an emphasis on Virginia ingredients and cooking. Drinks and snacks are doled out in the adjacent lounge with fireplace. Nearby, the well-stocked gift shop features high-quality work by Virginian
artisans.
Guests here can use the golf courses, tennis club, outdoor pools and array of other recreational facilities at the Williamsburg Inn, and indulge themselves at The Spa of Colonial Williamsburg, a full-service facility across the street.
This property has long been the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation's primary convention and tour group hotel, and it now boasts 45,000 sq ft of state-of-the-art meeting space that can handle up to 1,400 conventioneers. A business center is on hand, and wireless Internet connections pervade the premises.
The spacious, comfortable accommodations are upstairs in the main building, in five two-story "guest houses" laid out campuslike, and in the 1970s vintage Tazewell Wing, the only structure not substantially renovated. 
All outlying buildings are connected to the central structure by covered brick walkways. Units in the main building and the guesthouses show a mix of furniture styles, and their baths feature fixtures and tile work reminiscent of the 1930s. Although not as charming, the Tazewell Wing's units include spacious two-room suites with wet bars and fireplaces, and they are the only rooms here with balconies. All units have well-lighted baths, TVs, desks with lamps, two-line phones with voice mail and dial-up data ports, both wireless and wired high-speed Internet access, coffeemakers, safes, robes, and irons and ironing boards. Room service runs around the clock.
With its Historic Area location and much improved facilities, this is an excellent choice for business travelers, tour groups and individuals who do not require or cannot afford the refinement of the Williamsburg Inn.
