Jamestown National Historic Site — Attraction in Jamestown Island

I have been going here for many years, since I was a child. For all this time you could pay one fee to get access to the whole area. This year, I went into the visitors center and wanted to buy an annual pass. The individual sold it to me. Then and only then did she tell me that the pass covers a portion of the site that is mostly just land that really has very little on it. The annual pass was $45 for this - it would get in I think 3 adults or maybe 4 (we had 3 adults and it would be $15/person without the annual pass, so $45 either way). Again, I just think the National Park portion of this site is really not worth this price at all, and this is coming from someone who loves history and its preservation. It is embarrassing that they sell this as its own pass, especially when they did not do so for many decades.

After I bought that, and only after I bought it and my credit card had been charged, she told me that to get to the part of the grounds that have the archaeological museum, church structure, and really almost all of the interesting things is $15 per adult ADDITIONAL. I was really baffled and shocked. I paid for that as well, but I should have demanded a refund.

To pay $90 for this is outrageous. I understand that the National Park Service provides access to the large area of grass with signs saying what was there 400 years ago and that another non profit organization (Jamestown Rediscovery I believe) owns or runs the other part that has the church and the archaeological museum. There are a few places where there are some brick ruins in the NPS section, but they are few, far between, and poorly labeled or not labeled at all. There is a small museum with a video in the visitor’s center but A.) it is a meager museum and B) frankly with the lack of clarity I got from the NPS staff I don’t really know which portion of my price of admission it was included in. To be as fair and straightforward as I can be, which is not a luxury which was given to me by the staff here, I think the NPS ticket also gets you access to the glassblower, which we did not have time to visit on this occasion.

In any case the price tag is unbelievably high and the people running the front desk at the visitors center were unbelievably unhelpful and, in my experience, misleading. They acted, it seems to me, as if this double admission should all be so obvious. It was not.

Another disappointing thing to add: where the site is split, there have a really ugly stainless steel gate and a truly hideous pre-fab shed where you have to walk through to prove that you paid for the nonprofit organization’s (non-NPS) portion of the site. It is an eyesore to say the least and takes away from what is a beautiful sight, right in the middle of it all.

BUYER BEWARE: do not waste your money. I am not sure if you can bypass the National Park fee, which gets you access to a laughably small amount of sightseeing. If you can’t (maybe even if you can), I do not think this is worth the price for 3 adults. If they had been straightforward and told me this was $30 per person upfront, not only would I have known from the start what the cost REALLY was but I would have been grateful and may have even decided to pay this even though I think it is too expensive for what you get. My take: There are SO MANY wonderful things to see and do, both history related and otherwise, including related to Jamestown history specifically, in the Williamsburg area. Spend your money on that, not on this.

Please, NPS and Jamestown Rediscovery, be more straightforward and clear. A sign which explains that this is a split admission site clearly placed would go a long way. So would training your staff to make this very clear upfront.

I have been coming here my whole life. After this debacle, I do not plan to come back, except maybe on my next annual visit to the Williamsburg area if for no other reason than to use my National Park annual pass one last time to try to squeeze a little more out of the...

This place is the most overpriced / worst managed / greatest affront to historic preservation in the entire NPS system. And the biggest shocker is that we the American people / NPS do not even own the land of the original settlement. That is correct, HISTORIC JAMESTOWN IS NOT OWNED BY THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. It is in the hands of a private Virginia group. So you have to pay $15 per person ($75 for a family of 5) to walk across a NPS boardwalk to access the privately held site, who will let you in for another $15. $150 for a family of 5. Have they heard of eminent domain?

The actual NPS site includes “new towne” a series of empty fields dotted with occasional reconstructed brick outlines where newer buildings used to sit. It is thoroughly underwhelming and totally not worth $15 per person.

For some reason, NPS has included this major American history site with the totally unrelated Yorktown Battlefield. It is officially titled “Colonial National Historic Patk”. Look at the NPS map closely and “Old Towne” is not colored the same, because we don’t own it. It makes no sense, but they are connected by the lovely Colonial Parkway.

If you want to get the most out of this place, exit the 199 and take Colonial Parkway to the visitor center. Then either get out a kayak and float around, or take the loop car trail “island drive”. Cost = zero. Then head over to Jamestown Settlement where they have a proper museum and historic reenactments and living model fort, village, and ships. NPS has failed the American people...

Let's not even get started on the confusion with the two different entities over the two halfs of the same location of historic Jamestown, one an older nonprofit and the other the national government, but ok ok I get it now, and then add in the confusion with the so called Jamestown settlement which is just like a Williamsburg reenactment place, I think. We just had time for the historic stuff so we did the national park location and it was probably the most amount of money for the least amount of stuff compared to so many other parks we've been to. This place is here because of what it is, not because of what it offers to the customer. It's just some old paths and some recreations of some old brick foundations and such, there really isn't much. The museum section has a lot of potential, but it isn't clear what order to read everything and literally half the artifacts are removed from the displays, I presume due to the new regulations around native American artifacts, but it leads to a very poor experience. I think all these groups really need to get together and figure out a better way to market what they are offering, because right now it's confusing and just leads to a less than ideal final perspective on what you can get out of...