IF YOU GO

Colonial Williamsburg. 101 Visitor Center Dr ., Williamsburg, Va. 888965-7254, colonial williamsburg. com

The restored capital of colonial Virginia boasts 88 original or reconstructed 18th-century buildings, including a 1660 church, taverns, homes and trade shops. You’ll encounter historic interpreters and craftspeople throughout the 300-plus-acre living history museum, and there are “Visits with a National Builder” several days a week, when you can chat with someone playing the Marquis de Lafayette or Thomas Jefferson. Single-day tickets $20.49 to $40.99; winter singleday tickets $13 to $25.99; multiday tickets $25.49 to $50.99; winter multiday tickets $16.50 to $32.99.

“Deadwood Alive.” 715 Main St., Deadwood, S.D. 800-344-8826, deadwoodalive.com

Living history troupe in boots, hats and 19th-century dress performs faux shootouts on Main Street and a re-created trial (admission: $3 to $6) of gunslinger“Wild Bill”Hickok. George Washington’s Mount Vernon. 3200 Mount Vernon Memorial Hwy., Mount Vernon, Va. 703-780-2000, mountvernon.org The 18th-century family home of the first president offers tours of the furnished house, a museum about the first president’s life and times, a working farm, grist mill and distillery. History interpreters include family members, slaves and farm hands.

Hearst Castle. 750 Hearst Castle Rd., San Simeon, Calif. 800-4447275, hearstcastle.org Newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst’s art-stuffed and grandiose Spanish-style, 20th-century estate just off the California coast boasts 165 rooms, 123 acres of gardens and opulent pools. Evening and holiday tours of the estate often star glamorously decked out interpreters recreating a 1930s party.

Old World Wisconsin. W372 S 9727 Hwy .67, Eagle, Wis. 262594-6301, old world wisconsin. wisconsinhistory.org

This almost 600-acre, openair museum explores the lives of immigrant populations in Wisconsin from the 1840s to the 1910s. Relocated farm structures and town buildings plus outdoor areas are home to multiple thirdperson interpreters, and visitors can do hands-on activities, such as gathering eggs on a farm and trying on hoop skirts and wooden shoes.