Plimoth Plantation

My wife and I truly enjoyed our visit here. The actors remained in character and it was really cool seeing a village as it was back then. Historically it seemed correct. It was not romanticized and we could tell it was a rugged tough existence. Beautiful part of this great nation.

$ 26/​adult and $ 16/​kid. Actors not in character. Not worth it for a 30 minute self guided walking tour.

We enjoyed our afternoon at Plimouth Plantation. Great interaction with the people in the village and museum and grounds were impecably well maintained and filled with a unique experience to go back in time with the early settlers and native americans.

This review summed up: Not worth the money.
This place is a perfectly fine place to visit, but it’s only super interesting if you have children or you can easily convince yourself that the ‘actors’ are real people from that community and time. My husband and I decided to give it a shot, but it’s ultimately not worth the money unless you have children.

Wow! My family really loved visiting here. I could sit for hours and listen to the tribe and pilgrims. They really stayed in character. Worth it all the way from Seattle.

This place is awesome. I would have to say that it is the highlight of my trip. The native village was incredible, so was the village. The people here were awesome and knew their history well. I had a great time. The people in the gift store were very friendly as well and made this visit very pleasant.
I had only one little problem here, … I was thirsty and wanted a drink. I spotted a Coke machine outside the gift store. I saw that it took credit cards so I decided to use it. BIG MISTAKE! I swiped my card and no soda. The gift store refunded my money. When I got home 2 days later, my bank called me. There were 3 charges to my card. 2 from the machine for 4 bucks a peice and a 300 dollar charge from a store in Connecticut. The bank declined the charges and I confirmed the that the transaction was false. So, … how do I know it came from here? I’ll tell you, I only used this card at one location during the whole trip and guess where that was! Yup, … here. The swiper on the machine was one that someone had placed there in order to get my info. I didn’t even notice it it was a fraud. Bank cancelled my card and sent me a new one.
Good guys 1
Bad guys 0
/​/​/​/​/​/​/​BEWARE, BEWARE \\\\\\\ Check the reader and make sure it is authentic before you use your card!!!
Plimoth Plantation, … Highly recommended
Coke machine, … Not so much!

I have always wanted to go to Plimoth Plantation. My husband and I took my two kids (8 and 13), and they loved it as much as I did. We started with the Wampanoag site, and we learned about burning tree trunks to make canoes, something I never knew Native Americans did. We asked lots of questions, and we learned a lot of interesting things about Native American culture.
We then visited the colony. I loved talking to the re-​enactors; many of them talked about how uncivilized they found the people who had been there longer than they had. When I asked them if maybe it was because they had to adapt to the environment to survive, they were appalled and informed me that it was their jobs as Christians to change the environment to their needs! We saw a group of men putting up wall posts, and they teasingly told my son that he would fall into one of the holes and that it went down forever. He loved it! I also talked to two women who tended a garden, and just my asking about the function of valerian led to an incredible conversation about a possible schism within the colony.
Plimoth Plantation was exactly what I had hoped it would be. When I asked my kids what their favorite part of our vacation was, they both named Plimoth Plantation.

The actors were very friendly and did a good job of staying in character. The houses looked very authentic and the Native American village was very interesting as well. I enjoyed learning about how pilgrims made bread.

«Land of the Pilgrim’s pride!» Plimoth Plantation is a non-​profit, outdoor, living museum located in Plymouth, MA. It is a recreation of the original English village built by the Pilgrims when they landed there in 1620 to escape religious persecution in England. It is the second successful English settlement in the US, after Jamestown, VA. Plimoth Plantation was also the location of the first Thanksgiving and the beginning of this great American tradition.
The seaport town of Plymouth, MA is a bit of a hike from both Boston, MA and Providence, RI, but if you make an all day excursion out of it there is quite a lot to see and do, as well as several small seaport villages to visit along the way. These villages conceal some of the most amazing and fresh seafood spots for lunch and dinner. For one of, if not the best, lobster roll in New England, see my review for Green Harbor Lobster Pound in Marshfield, MA, just north of Plymouth.
We visited the Plantation on a Wednesday in June, so the upside is that we didn’t have to navigate through the weekend crowds. We parked right up front and we got right in. The downside is that on the weekdays there seemed to be very few people/​role-​players working. Who would’ve thought that the Pilgrims and Native Americans had day jobs?
The Plantation consists of a modern visitor’s center that has several live exhibits, including a baker, a candle maker, and a weaver among other trades. Visitors can view how these items were made in the 1600’s and can talk and interact with the exhibitors. All of the items that they make are available for purchase in the gift shop.
Upon leaving the visitor’s center you walk down a woodsy path that winds down a hill into a small clearing that is the Wampanoag Homesite, a recreation of the home of the Wampanoag people, the Native Americans that the Pilgrims first encountered. This area seemed much larger in my memory. Here you will find several replicas of the dwellings of the Wampanoag, a small planting area, and several role-​players in clothing from the time period. The workers here are real Native Americans, and should be respected as such. Signage explains how derogatory language is inappropriate, such as calling them «Chief» or holding up your hand and greeting them with «How.» Though it’s had to believe that needs to be spelled out for some.
One of the activities that was taking place in the Wampanoag Homesite was the creation of a burnout canoe. A worker used fire and hot coals to burn and hollow out a log to create a canoe. These are really used in the river that was behind him, and several canoes could be seen tied to the shore. There was also a woman weaving colorful bags out of fibers from the reeds and grasses that she had next to her. She also had a large fish that she turned on a spit in front of her. All of the food that you see them cooking, they actually do all get together like a family and they really eat it together. Another man was working in the planting area and explained to us the method of how the crops were planted and why.
After leaving the Homesite, a trail leads up a hill, away from the river bank, to the English Village. The Village is fenced in by hand cut wooden planks about 10 feet tall. It consists of about 15 homes, fields for livestock, gardens, and a fort with cannons pointed out of the second story toward the sea. The fort also doubled as their meeting house and church.
From here you are free to roam around the entire village and interact with the role-​players. There are adults doing chores and children playing games in the streets. There was a man grinding corn into flour, women tilling a garden, a man cutting shingles from a tree with an axe, a man telling stories of his travels across the ocean on the Mayflower, and two younger men drinking hard cider from mugs under a tree. Visitors are encouraged to enter each house, play every game, and engage with them all. Each person that you come across is a representative of one of the actual Pilgrims on record that lived in the village. Each one has a name, where they came from, what they do, who they’re related to, etc. They all have a story that they are more than thrilled to talk with you about. The most important thing that I can suggest is to engage and ask them questions! This is the hardest part for a lot of the younger kids because some of them get really shy. If you’re a parent, you may want to help them to initiate the conversation. We asked everything from where they were from and what they were working on, to what they were planting in their garden and what their bed stuffing was made out of.
A visit to Plimoth Plantation is an amazing experience, and if you lose yourself for a minute while interacting with the people it really starts to get foggy as to what time period you’re really in. We had a really fun time.
Beyond the Plantation, a replica of the ship ‘Mayflower’ and the Plymouth Rock are also about a 10 minute drive south.

Property is well cared for, trails are well marked to the ‘villages’. The attraction as a whole is very interesting. Some of the ‘actors’ are very forth coming with their stories & conversation. some you need to prode & start conversation & ask questions.
But once they start answring you in character it’s very interesting & engaging.
Overall, the experience was very enjoyable & learning with a fun twist.
I would go back again if I needed another fill on the historic tale.

Very expensive but informative! loved it. It had lots of animals and period costumes! Very fun and informative with the animalS and the people. Got to see mayflower dock. Spent all day there! Worth the money for the people and animals and interactions!

Been wanting to go here for years and honestly, it hasn’t changed much since I was a kid on that fieldtrip we all took in grade school! That’s a good thing, though… living history is what I was expecting.
Nice gift shops (and really good fudge), clean bathrooms, people are awesome… but just know there’s really no shade and you’ll get a sunburn (reapply that sunblock!!), especially on a hot, clear day.
Not sure little kids would appreciate the history of the place, but my kids/​grandson had a good time but they got bored quick.
overall, it’s a nice place to visit once or twice

I love history and I for one am a decedent of the pilgrims… but this place hasn’t improved. We use to travel here on field trips all the time to see how the original colonists lived. It’s amazing to see how small their village was. I will warn you, it gets extremely hot in the summer. The ground is very dry and there aren’t too many trees for shade. The actors stay in their roles pretty well but some of the food they are eating are covered in flies. This is understandable for the time but it will make you nauseous. Some of the information about the native American tribe is pretty interesting. My suggestion, if you aren’t a huge history buff or a decedent of the pilgrims, then steer away from here. You will be disappointed.

We came here in August 2014.
Very educational tour. The Colonists are character actors, who answer your questions in character. A few tourists tried unsuccessfully to stump them. The Native American educators are from different tribes across the country, educating participants on the local tribe’s past.
There is a lot of walking. Wear Off to keep away mosquitos and ticks in the woodsy areas. Wear comfortable shoes. Once you enter the villages, there aren’t opportunities to purchase snacks or drinks. If you think you’ll be thirsty, carry a water bottle.
If you have an outdoor museum membership, be sure to use it so you can get tickets at a reduced price.

Plimoth Plantation is a cool living history museum/​learning site, where you can spend as much or as little time as you want, and the experience changes depending on who is working in the village that day. They have a nice visitor center with one of the best gift shops I have ever been to, too. Didn’t try the food court, but it was cool how they offered up English and Native American food options if you wanted something more themed, instead of just pizza or hot dogs. For example, one of the Native American interpreters was making succotash from scratch over a fire and told us we could try some at the café if we were interested!
The grounds themselves are well kept and pretty. I was a little disappointed that the English settlement is way bigger than the Wampanoag village. It would have been nice if they were more even, since it kind of gives the impression that the Native American side is less important.
One of the cool things about this site are the costumed 1^st vs. 3^rd person interpreters. Those who work in the English side talk, sound, and look as if they were real Englishmen. You can not get them to break character, which is interesting. However, the Native Americans actually have that ancestry and speak as themselves, which is even better. It does make me wonder what would happen if someone who was obviously not Native American or White applied for an interpreter position here.
I learned a lot here and would go back again sooner if it weren’t so expensive. The Grist Mill looks cool too, and the Mayflower ship was fun. Both sites require separate admission and are located closer to Plimoth downtown where the shops, harbor, and restaurants are. While there, you can also check out Plimoth Rock, where the colosseum housing it is way more majestic than the rock itself. All 3 are totally seable in one day!

A gorgeous day spent at Plimoth Plantation with my son’s third grade class! This is the year they study state history in school, so the timing fit in nicely with the curriculum.
This is my second time there and it was even better than the first and I always learn something new!
The facility is clean, including the bathrooms (which is amazing given the number of children there when we went).
Jim W. gives a great in depth review, so I won’t go into the details other that to say there are lots of great areas to break out and have a picnic so my preference is always to bag a lunch.

Lots of good things happening here. Only open for a few more weeks. Foliage is beautiful.

Plimoth Plantation is about 3 — 4 miles south of Plymouth. Based on our experience, I’d recommend going early, as they have a huge parking lot that appeared to be filling rapidly by early afternoon.
There are 3 tiered options for admission. You can just seen this site, you can add either the Mayflower II (ship) or a new grist mill in Plymouth, or you can see all 3. We opted for the plantation and the ship. For our group of 3, it was just under $ 100.
You first see a short intro film, which does a good job of setting up the general viewpoints of both the native people and the colonists. You can then wander outside to either the Wampanoag village or the colonial settlement.
I will say first that the ‘living history’ reenactment mode of ‘museums’ is not really my preferred thing. It just seems a bit awkward to interact with the actors, though it got easier over the course of the visit. It was interesting seeing them doing some of the activities like how they constructed parts of the homes, etc.
We first stopped at the village. The two stand-​out memories here were probably not what was intended. One of the guys got into a discussion about tribal-​membership policies (increasing the genetic/​blood percentage needed for membership when things like casino income went up, thereby denying cash to some now-​former members). Though it had nothing much to do with the colonial period, I found this really interesting (statistics + the darker side of human nature: what’s not to like?). The second instance was one of the women stating that before the colonists showed up, the indigenous people ‘lived to be 100′. Now, I’m not denying that someone occasionally *could* have lived to 100 then, but given their basic hunting-​and-​gathering + limited agriculture, I found that claim highly suspect. I’m sure it was a lot better for the Wompanoags before the colonists showed up; I“m just not convinced it was *that* good. Otherwise the rest of the displays /​demos were fairly conventional and often interesting.
We spent more time in the colonial village, mostly because it is so much larger. There are also more displays /​activities going on. Most of these seemed to center on food production, construction, or how the Pilgrims got kicked out of England or Holland. All of the reenactors we listened to were good.
I think we spent a bit over 2 hours on our visit, but you could easily spend even more time here.
After a lunch at the on-​site cafeteria (which I’ll review separately), we drove back to Plymouth itself to see the Mayflower II, a near-​exact replica of the original ship. We found parking along the beachfront road in town and walked a couple of hundred yards to the exhibit. Btw, «Plymouth Rock» itself is fairly underwhelming — about the size of a couch, walled off in a small pit surrounded by raked pebbles that look more like a zen garden. It is nearby, though.
The ship + associated exhibit were also interesting. They provide background on lengths of voyages, provisions, etc. It is also educational to see how small the vessel was, especially vs. the # of people it carried. This was a very worthwhile addition to the earlier tour.
Overall, I thought the day spent here was very worthwhile.

We enjoyed visiting Plimoth Plantation very much. It’s very accurate to say that you will get as much out of it as you put in. This is not a place where information is spoon fed to you (well, maybe a little). You need to engage with each group and explore. It’s fun.
That being said, unfortunately, we appeared to have chosen an off day. The Wampanoag section was down by 4 people (we overheard one of the men mention this). There were only 4 in the village and although they did a good job, it did feel sparse. Also overheard was one man talking about his custody battle with his ex-​wife! Umm… I understand real life happens but it was a bit off-​putting. But there were a couple of men who really did a great job talking and answering questions.
The English village was fascinating also but again felt a bit empty. Those there did do a great job staying in character.
The Craft Center is currently closed for renovations and although they did have a couple of artisans set up in the Welcome Center, it was disappointing not to see more. Don’t bother with the Nye Barn unless you want to see a couple of goats.
A couple of practical notes — the only restrooms are in the Welcome Center. There are 2 sets, one is in the back near the café. No facilities near the 2 villages. Plan ahead!
Bring water for your walk, especially this time of year.
I think I would come back to Plimoth, perhaps in the fall with harvest activities.

The gist: Incredible re-​enactors, strong attention to telling the fair story of the past, beautiful location.
We came here on a Boston vacation and I kind of thought, «pilgrim re-​enactors? psscht!»
I can’t believe how wrong I was. It was the highlight of our trip, spending time with these masters of their craft.
First, we went to Mayflower II, which I can see why some people gave it low star ratings, but I liked it. It’s so impressive to see how small that ship was. And to chat with someone from the past about their trip and hopes, it just made it all feel so real. And we got to ask him prodding questions about the native americans and religious oppression, too!
You might see the pricing and think, «$ 30 – 35 dollars! That’s a lot!» and it is. But it felt totally worth it to me after walking through the Plimoth Plantation spot.
First, you go to the Wampanoag village. The Wampanoag don’t pretend to be from the past, which is probably for the best. There are several signs on the walk to the recreated village that are basically like, «hey, don’t be racist — don’t say things like, „how, Chief!“ or „Heya-​wuppa!“ when you see the re-​enactors».
It was great to hear about their lives, but it was even better to talk to the pilgrims. We must have sat and talked with Mistress Bradford for 30 minutes, just hearing about the life she’d led and her hopes and worries for the young colony. The re-​enactors were just, so top-​notch. They’d clearly all thought long and hard about their characters and were all on the same page about what the feel was they were going for.
The Plimoth village itself is on a beautiful sloping hill, with all these recreated buildings that you can just wander around. There aren’t a bunch of signs there saying, «Don’t touch!» or «Call this number to learn about what you are looking at!» The lack of interpretive signs was refreshing — history speaks for itself.
Anyhow, if you are in the area, or even in Boston with a car and a love of history, I highly recommend coming here.