Colonial Beach Virginia Vacation - Thougts anyone??

[Blue Crabber]

Hey guys,

Well here is the deal, we are planing a summer vacation with my wife's family this year. We are looking for a little place on the water that we sleep 7 people and has easy access to a boat ramp so that we can take the boat and have a great time.

Here is what we are looking at:

http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p256366#photos-bar

It is a small cottage on the Potomac River in the town of Colonial Village and the price is right.

I have looked at the charts and stuff, but wondering if anyone has any helpful information on the area or on cruising the Potomac River.

I am even considering a cruise up into Washington D.C. if everything works out right. Or maybe just up to George Washington's home or something neat like that.

We will probably spend the week checking out the area by boat, doing water sports, fishing, maybe crabbing and possibly a long cruise like I stated above.

Any and all information would be very helpful in our planing! Thanks!!

 

[arks]

Re: Colonial Village Virginia Vacation - Thougts anyone??

Re: Colonial Village Virginia Vacation - Thougts anyone??

Brandon-
Colonial Beach is a popular boating area. I've never been there by boat but did look at a 32 Carver for sale at a large marina in Colonial Beach about 5 1/2 years ago. Seemed like a nice place to unwind.

You might get more replies if you changed your topic header from 'Colonial Village' to 'Colonial Beach'.

Here's an article from Chesapeake Bay Magazine. Lots of good history and area info:
http://www.chesapeakeboating.net/ME...91&tier=4&id=A1EEBA5E118D4ACFB21E597221832BF3

 

[Blue Crabber]

Re: Colonial Village Virginia Vacation - Thougts anyone??

Re: Colonial Village Virginia Vacation - Thougts anyone??

Arks - Thanks for the reply. I appreciate your knowledge and the link that you posted. I read the article and you are right about a lot of history there.

Thanks again!

 

[Free Bird]

Re: Colonial Beach Virginia Vacation - Thougts anyone??

That is a GREAT price for a waterfront rental. The Potomac is breathtaking in that area. I mean beautiful not stinky. If you go a little south or east on the river you will notice Westmorland State Park. It has chalk cliffs where you can find fossils such as sharks teeth. A couple of miles east of that is George Washington's birthplace. The house looks like a great base for your boating plans.

 

[dingbat]

Re: Colonial Beach Virginia Vacation - Thougts anyone??

My dad has lived in Colonial Beach or the past 10 years. Was down visiting him Wednesday afternoon.
CB is a nice little summer resort type town with gambling http://www.theriverboat.net/ as the main attraction. The town is golf cart friendly so most get around using golf carts. Otherwise, nothing to write home about.

Having said that, thee are a few things you need to know.

The public boat ramp is quite small and can get very crowded in the summer. Plan accordingly.

Washington DC is roughly 60 miles each way by boat from Colonial Beach. Quite a trip for a small boat considering the prevalence of thunderstorms in the area during the summer.

The Potomac is over 6 miles wide at CB point so it has a tendency to get rough on tide changes.

Also be aware that the waters directly out front of Colonial Beach are used as a firing range by The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren. Don't know how often they use the range during the summer. Here is a website for more information.
http://www.navsea.navy.mil/nswc/dahlgren/RANGE/boating.aspx

In June, July and August the area can be infested with sea nettles. The public beaches at Colonial Beach have nettles nets which helps a lot.

It?s not all bad. Crabbing and fishing is good if you know where to look.

 

[Blue Crabber]

Re: Colonial Beach Virginia Vacation - Thougts anyone??

Thanks for the responses guys. They are much appreciated.

Dingbat - the firsthand knowledge is great!!! You have given my much more info to check into.

The DC trip would be alot of fun but I know that it is a long trip in my boat and I would only make it if the conditions were perfect. So a small chance that it would happen I know, but still fun to plan for in case it works out.

Just to clarify, we are looking at going the 3rd week in July which you have suggested to be the peak time for sea nettles. Are there that many that you would not suggest doing watersports such as water sking and tubing? How far do you think we would have to go to avoid them to do these activities? I guess I didn't know that it was a big of a problem as you stated especially if the public beaches put nets out for them.

Thanks again for the info!!

 

[dingbat]

Re: Colonial Beach Virginia Vacation - Thougts anyone??

Just to clarify, we are looking at going the 3rd week in July which you have suggested to be the peak time for sea nettles. Are there that many that you would not suggest doing watersports such as water sking and tubing? How far do you think we would have to go to avoid them to do these activities? I guess I didn't know that it was a big of a problem as you stated especially if the public beaches put nets out for them.

Thanks again for the info!!

The end of July is prime time for nettles. It's not if you get stung, it's when you get stung.

Nettles are a big enough problem that Maryland has a website dedicated to tracking track them thruout the season. http://155.206.18.162/seanettles/sn_projdesc.php

Water sking in water that rough is problematic to begin with. Throw in a couple a million of nettles into the mix and I think I'll pass.

 

[Blue Crabber]

Re: Colonial Beach Virginia Vacation - Thougts anyone??

Dingbat,

Any idea how far north I would have to go to avoid those pesky creatures?

We are checking into other places and I just want to make sure that I won't run into the same thing there.

Do you think that somewhere above the bay bridge would work?

 

[dingbat]

Re: Colonial Beach Virginia Vacation - Thougts anyone??

I spend 99.8% of my time south of the bridge so I can't speak from personal experience in that area.

What I do know is that Nettles are found within a narrow range of temperature and salinity. The highest concentrations found in the temperature range (77-87?F) and at intermediate salinities (10 to 16).Taking this into consideration, one would thing that the Upper Bay in a dry year would be a prime candidate for nettles as well.

 

[Free Bird]

Re: Colonial Beach Virginia Vacation - Thougts anyone??

Let me point out that in years with high rainfall (this year) they aren't all that bad. I had a home on the Rappahannock and spent 6 summers tubing and skiing there and was stung maybe a couple of times. I never thought it was that bad. Bring Adolph's meat tenderizer but I never remembered. It's a fleeting pain, not nearly as bad as a bee. Also, when boating you can see where there are many and move to a different area. It looked like the house you are considering is in a development outside town and would have its own ramp. Maybe you live close enough to go scout it out before reserving it.