Things to do in Gettysburg
And where to stay, the best time to visit, what a day costs, and the traps to skip.
Best time to visit Gettysburg
• a note or something on ✦ an occasion worth the trip
Best all round: cooler walking weather, harvest season, forest colour from mid October.
Spring shoulder season. Peach Orchard blossom in April, mild field walking, fewer crowds.
Battle anniversary 1 to 3 July: deepest programming, worst heat, crowds and prices.
Remembrance and Dedication Day solemnities mid month, then the winter quiet begins.
Worst weather and reduced hours, best prices and an empty battlefield.
What's on
- Battle of Gettysburg Anniversary 1-3 July
Ranger programmes and living history on the anniversary days, the biggest weekend of the year.
- National Apple Harvest Festival First two weekends of October
Big country fair in Biglerville celebrating Adams County's orchard harvest.
- Remembrance Day Parade Saturday nearest 19 November
Thousands of period dressed reenactors parade through town to the cemetery.
- Dedication Day 19 November
Ceremony at Gettysburg National Cemetery marking the anniversary of the Gettysburg Address.
- Remembrance Illumination Remembrance Day weekend Saturday
A candle is placed on each Civil War grave in the national cemetery at dusk.
- Gettysburg Christmas Festival Early December
A decorated, walkable small town Christmas weekend centred on Lincoln Square.
- Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival May, with a late summer edition traditionally held
Long running bluegrass festival at Granite Hill Camping Resort. Confirm current year dates.
Best things to do in Gettysburg
Gettysburg National Military Park Museum & Visitor Center
Start here for the film, the vast Cyclorama painting and the museum that make the battlefield legible.
Association of Licensed Battlefield Guides
A licensed guide rides in your car and turns six thousand acres of monuments into a story you can follow.
Little Round Top
The famous hilltop where the Union line held, with the best sunset view over the Valley of Death.
Devil's Den
A maze of giant boulders below Little Round Top that kids climb and sharpshooters once fought from.
The Angle
The bend in the stone wall where Pickett's Charge broke, best understood by walking the field to reach it.
Gettysburg National Cemetery
The cemetery Lincoln dedicated with the Gettysburg Address, quiet and moving at dawn or dusk.
Seminary Ridge Museum and Education Center
The first day's fight and field hospital, told inside the building that saw both, plus a cupola view.
Eisenhower National Historic Site
President Eisenhower's retirement farm, preserved as he left it and a calm break from the Civil War.
Where to stay in Gettysburg
Lincoln Square and downtown
first trip, all-round base
Walk to dinner, pubs and ghost walks, with the battlefield starting at the end of the block.
Baltimore Street and Baltimore Hill
history-first visitors
Bullet marked houses and inns inside the story, a short walk to the cemetery and the square.
Battlefield edge, south of town
quiet, couples, repeat visitors
Farm inns on acreage beside the park, peaceful at night, driving distance to dinner.
Steinwehr Avenue
budget and mid-range motels
Safe and handy for the Visitor Center but the town's most touristy and least characterful strip.
Gateway Gettysburg, Presidential Circle
conferences and groups
Big hotels and parking three miles east, with nothing of Gettysburg within walking distance.
West of town, Fairfield Road
campers and budget families
A campground resort with cabins and a lake that undercuts every motel while feeling like a holiday.
Think twice about
- Route 30 and York Road commercial strip
Car dependent chain retail east of town. Nothing of Gettysburg is visible or walkable from here.
- Baltimore Pike retail corridor south of the borough
Highway hotels and strip retail at town prices. Choose Steinwehr or downtown instead.
- Steinwehr Avenue as a first choice base
Safe but the most tourist saturated half mile in town. Fine for budget, poor for character.
Best restaurants in Gettysburg
Dobbin House Tavern
Candlelit colonial dining in a 1776 house, formal rooms upstairs and the beloved Springhouse Tavern below.
Food 101
The seasonal modern kitchen locals recommend first, the town's foodie dinner at mid range money.
Farnsworth House Inn
Period dining in the bullet pocked house: game pie and shoofly pie, plus the Sweney's Tavern garden.
Mason Dixon Distillery
A working distillery with a serious scratch kitchen, the best break from 1863 in the town's dining scene.
One Lincoln
The square's most useful all day table, modern comfort food inside the historic Hotel Gettysburg.
Garryowen Irish Pub
The town's favourite Irish pub, a cut above standard pub food and where locals actually drink.
Appalachian Brewing Company - Gettysburg Battlefield
A big, easy brewpub near the field that absorbs families and groups of twelve without blinking.
The Gettysburger Company
The cheap tier headliner: stacked burgers, fries and shakes that reset the day's food budget.
Outdoor things to do in Gettysburg
The Links at Gettysburg
The prestige round near town, cut through red rock cliffs with lakes and a championship pedigree.
The Bridges Golf Club
A highly rated public course in open farmland, an underrated round at mid range prices.
Meadow Brook Golf Course
The only genuinely cheap round near town, basic and local, fine when the golf is not the point.
Confederate Trails of Gettysburg
Ride the battlefield itself with a licensed guide, seeing the ground at a horse's pace and eye level.
Ole Tyme Carriage Rides of Gettysburg
Horse drawn carriage tours and battlefield hayrides from a working farm, easy for kids and grandparents.
GettyPeds
E bikes and scoot coupes that make covering the whole battlefield faster, hill free and far more fun.
Big Round Top
The taller, wooded twin of Little Round Top, a steep quiet climb almost nobody bothers with.
Sachs Covered Bridge
A red 1854 covered bridge over Marsh Creek, the prettiest free stop near town for photos and a picnic.
Best hotels in Gettysburg
Hotel Gettysburg
The grand historic hotel on the square itself, the default luxury base for a first or occasion trip.
The Inn at Lincoln Square
Five apartment sized suites in an 1820s colonial on the square, with kitchens and a quiet courtyard.
The Federal Pointe Inn
A restored 1896 schoolhouse with big suites, a pub and free parking a short walk from the square.
Farnsworth House Inn
Sleep inside the famous bullet scarred house, with period rooms, dining rooms and its own ghost tours.
Langdon Hill House
A lovingly restored Civil War home whose breakfasts and hosts earn the town's strongest B and B reviews.
1863 Inn of Gettysburg
The practical pick: a well run motor inn with breakfast and a pool beside the national cemetery.
Battlefield Bed and Breakfast Inn
A farmhouse on thirty acres beside the park, with morning history talks and real countryside quiet.
Baladerry Inn
A ten room inn on old hospital ground, quiet and personal, with breakfasts repeat guests swear by.
Is Gettysburg expensive? What a day costs
| Budget | $90 a person |
|---|---|
| Classic | $175 a person |
| Splurge | $350 a person |
A day of food, drink, sights and getting around, before the room
What to book ahead
- Gettysburg National Military Park Museum & Visitor Center: a few days ahead
- Association of Licensed Battlefield Guides: weeks ahead
- Gettysburg Ghost Tours: a few days ahead
- The Links at Gettysburg: a few days ahead
- The Bridges Golf Club: a few days ahead
- Confederate Trails of Gettysburg: weeks ahead
- Ole Tyme Carriage Rides of Gettysburg: a few days ahead
- Hotel Gettysburg: weeks ahead
- Licensed Battlefield Guides: days ahead, weeks ahead for July and Remembrance weekend.
- Horseback tours and Dobbin House dinners sell out by capacity in season.
- Inns double in price and fill for 1 to 3 July, Remembrance weekend and college graduation.
Is Gettysburg safe?
- Carry water on the battlefield. There is effectively none to buy beyond the Visitor Center.
- Ticks in battlefield grass and Michaux forest from spring to fall. Check after hikes.
- Rattlesnakes live in the Devil's Den and Big Round Top boulders. Watch your handholds.
Gettysburg travel tips: tourist traps to skip
- Steinwehr Avenue wax museums and dioramas are rainy day filler, not a substitute for the Visitor Center.
- Late night ghost hunt upsells with handheld meters are the genre at its most gimmicky.
- Eating beside your motel instead of driving ten minutes to the good downtown kitchens.
Getting around Gettysburg: public transport and more
- You need a car. The battlefield is toured on its own roads and park entry and most parking are free.
- Park once downtown, use the Racehorse Alley garage, and walk the centre.
- Battlefield roads are shared with bikes, carriages and buses. Drive slowly and expect sudden stops.
Who Gettysburg suits
| Solo travellers | Good |
|---|---|
| Groups of friends | Good |
| Couples | Great |
| Bachelor parties | OK |
| Families | Great |
| Bachelorette parties | OK |
Make Gettysburg your trip
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