I am an experiences mom.  I’d rather give a trip that makes memories than any other gift, and I soak up all the minutes I can on those trips.

Recently we decided to head to Colonial Williamsburg for a family holidays trip between Christmas and New Years.  We went about 3 years ago, and it was time to refresh everyone’s memory on the fun and history there.  Since we Home School this also gets to count as great field trips (aka school days) that fit in perfectly as we study American History.

Where else in the world can you walk down a street and run into Patrick Henry going off on the stamp act and the need for representation in Parliament??  Or chat with Thomas Jefferson as he visits the city to sit in the house of Burgesses?

My mom and one of my older girls made dresses.

This year we took all 7 of us for 4 nights and three days to Williamsburg and spent less than $200 for the entire trip!

Lodging:

Because our goal is to try to make a great fun trip each year, we use a Marriott Credit Card for most of our purchases.  We also stay loyal and tend to stay at Residence Inn (owned by Marriott) hotels anytime we travel during the year.  For this trip we used 120,000 points to stay at their Ford Colony Vacation Club location that is about 10 minutes from Colonial Williamsburg.  Using points, meant we paid nothing for our rooms!!

How do we earn points??
First, we charge almost everything when we are out shopping.  We long ago stopped using debit cards (think Target data breeches).  We also use these to pay for large recurring bills too like car insurance, health etc.  If it can be paid with a credit card… you get the idea.  I know Dave Ramsey is sitting in a corner crying, but don’t worry Dave we pay them off every month.  The goal here is to get something in return for paying our bills!  I pay my electricity bill and get a vacation…   Right now you can earn 5 free night awards when you sign up for a new Marriott card.

Second, each hotel stay throughout the year for business ads up quickly.  We earn 3,000-5,000 points per hotel stay.  Traveling roughly 10 nights a year that is 30,000-50,000 points!

Note: Hotel redemptions start as low as 15,000 depending on where you are going and the hotel available.  So it won’t take long to earn some free trips.

If you don’t want to do points (or you are saving your points for other trips), there are a number of small hotels in the area that are all quite nice.  It really doesn’t have a bad part of town, so head to any hotel deal site and start searching.  You’ll find basic rooms are around $40 that are right near the historical area.

Tickets to Colonial Williamsburg:

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