Our goal in Washington DC was to locate close to public transportation, and Tom found a great hotel right across the street from the subway. DC has a wonderful subway system, and we had no problem using it to get our luggage to the hotel, and then on our daily adventures. I had a flashback to our time on the subways in Tokyo.
In Williamsburg we stayed at Kingsmill, a resort about 4 miles from Colonial Williamsburg. Tom had found a bike rental place ahead of time, so on our first full day there we hopped on the Kingsmill shuttle, and they dropped us off to pick up our bikes. You might notice from the picture that my bike was rigged with a piece of cardboard on the back (no fender - I wanted mud protection) and a nice little basket in the front. The owner of the shop was happy to accommodate my requests. It was wonderful biking to and from our destination, and we really got a great cardiovascular workout from a couple of strategically placed hills.
I will say that we, as bikers in Colonial Williamsburg (and Kingsmill), were definitely an oddity. We did see a few other people biking, but it was unusual. That surprised me. The place is huge and it's nice to traverse it by bike.
One thing that posed a challenge for us: eating. Since we were there for a week, we wanted to buy groceries, and not eat out all the time. Kingsmill did not have a grocery nearby, and we did not encounter one on our 4-mile rides to Williamsburg. So we fired up the computer and made use of Google maps...and found a store about a mile out on the other side of the colonial area - no problem on a bike.
So my main message about a carless vacation is that it's a lot of fun, but it requires flexibility and a bit of work. We're scheduled to do the same thing again next year. We've already inked it in.
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