On the last leg of our New York to Texas driving vacation, we spent a few days in Williamsburg, Virginia at Busch Gardens Theme Park and Water Country USA.  After doing some internet research, we decided to book a room at Country Inn and Suites, Williamsburg.

This hotel is located at 400 Bypass Road in Williamsburg, Virginia and is about ten minutes from the amusement park and less than fifteen from the water park.  Although we did not visit any historical sites on this trip, we saw road signs indicating that Jamestowne Settlement and Colonial Williamsburg were just minutes away.

As we drove up to this hotel, we noted that there were quite a few hotels and  restaurants such as Golden Corral and Cracker Barrel on the same block, along with non-chain restaurants like a pancake restaurant across the street.  There was plenty of free parking in their parking lot and we were greeted by the desk clerk as soon as we walked in the front door.  This clerk was new, and had to ask for assistance from her manager, but she was pleasant and apologetic and we had our room keys in a matter of minutes.

Country Inn and Suites hotels want you to feel like you are welcome and their lobby area definitely portrays that.  All of those which I have stayed in have had a wooden staircase from the lobby to the second floor, a fireplace,  a couch, chairs and small tables.  In addition, they have bookshelves with a lending library and to encourage literacy, you may borrow a book from one hotel and return it to any other of their hotels.

Coffee and cookies are available in the lobby around the clock, and breakfast is available here from 6 am to 11 am, in  a room off of the lobby.  The breakfast was enough to get us going in the morning, but was nothing special.  Plain bagels, white bread, mini muffins, cold cereal, yogurt, eggs, sausage, make your own waffles, juices and hot beverages were available.  It seems that most people staying at this hotel are visiting one of the Busch Gardens parks, or other tourist attractions, and since most open at 10 am, the breakfast area is overly crowded from about 8:45 to 9:30.

Our room was a comfortable suite which included a fold-out couch, flat screen television on a chest of drawers, arm chair, floor lamp, table lamp on an end table, another lamp on a larger table with two chairs, and a large wall mirror above a countertop with the ice bucket and coffee maker, under which was the refrigerator and microwave oven.  An open closet area housed the iron and ironing board.  Across from the counter and closet area was the bathroom, which was fairly standard with a large mirror and a good amount of vanity space for our belongings.

A door separated this area from the bedroom area, which contained two queen beds, a nightstand with a clock radio, lamp and telephone, a large chest of drawers with a second flat screen television and a small open closet.  Even though the door could be closed (and locked if you so chose), only one thermostat located in the bedroom controlled the temperature in the entire suite.

The room was very welcoming and made the attempt at being somebody's guest room rather than a bleak and utilitarian hotel room.  The walls were beige, the door painted green, and the furniture, rugs, drapes and bedspread in varying tones of rust and tan while pictures of flowers and farmhouses in wooden frames hung on the walls.  Of course, it was still a hotel room, but it was an inviting one.

This hotel offers free wireless internet services in its room and  a definite plus to this room was the amount of electrical outlets available so that I-Pads, I-Pods, Kindles, cell phones and camera batteries could be re-charged when necessary.  I did make use of their small business center to print out discount tickets to the parks we were visiting, but since we spent many hours at a water park, we did not make use of the indoor pool.

The theme parks we visited while staying here were ten to fifteen minutes away and we had our car, but I was surprised that neither this nor other hotels in the area offered a shuttle service.  We have stayed at hotels near other amusement parks, such as Dorney Park and Kings Dominion where this service was offered.

We paid about $142 per night, including the various taxes, for this room which could sleep up to six people if necessary.  In the three weeks or so prior to staying at Country Inn and Suites, Williamsburg, my family had stayed in nine different hotels in that many different cities.  Both of my children commented how nice this one was, and that if we need to get a hotel room in the future, we should use this chain.  We had stayed in small hotels in small cities and a much larger and fancier suite in the heart of Houston, Texas, but this hotel seemed to be the most comfortable and inviting for my family.

Recommended: Yes