Gettysburg Recommendations

[MariDisney]

DH, DD10, DNiece 9, and I are heading to Gettysburg next Saturday the 31st until Tuesday the 3rd. We'll be arriving early afternoon and leaving probably mid afternoon. I already have hotel reservations.

I am a little overwhelmed by the number of houses and places with brief tours (each one with separate admission, of course). So, I'm looking for some ideas of a recommended itinerary from any experts out there. There seem to be some package ticket plans with admissions to 7 or so attractions, but what I don't know is if all of them would be worth seeing. We do plan on doing a bus tour of the battlefield.

DD has requested dinner at Farnsworth Inn. And both DD and DN are looking forward to a trip to Land of the Little Horses.

Any recommendations on how to structure our days? What are must sees? Any great (yet casual) restaurants? We want to do a ghost tour. Are any better than the others?

 

[akhenaten]

We enjoy eating at the Dobbin House Tavern. They have a dining room upstairs and the springhouse tavern downstairs...

 

[ols386]

We visited Gettysburg several years ago and they had a cassette audio tape that you could purchase, and take a driving tour around the city. I'm assuming it would be available in cd now. We really enjoyed it. It was a nice way to see many of the points of interest and historical sites, inexpensively. The nice thing about it is that you can go at your own pace. I think it took us the better part of a day.

 

[Tracy Savage]

The Dobbin house is really a neat place to see. The upstairs has a slave hideaway. The cellar has a working spring. I agree with the audio tape. You can go at your own pace and stop and look around if you want too. We did the Farnsworth ghost tour and it was kinda cheesy. Try this one----http://ghostsofgettysburg.com/

 

[StitchFanZ]

The new visitors center has a lot of really cool and accurate historical displays. Plan on spending a lot of time there. We could have spent a day there. The cyclorama alone- the big painting is worth the visit. It is an absolutely amazing depiction of the battle.
The Lincoln train museum was a waste of time and money - we look back on it as one of those places that was so sad that its a fond memory. Our train shop back home had a better train display.

 

[Octoberbride03]

Need recommendations for our trip too. Going up in early oct. so still a bit of time to plan it. I'm very excited, this is the first place I've been excited to go to since i got off my cruise in 2008.

 

[Tracy Savage]

Oh and stop in Abes Antiques. The owner looks just like Abe Lincoln. It's freaky!

 

[MariDisney]

Thanks for the ideas.

Any others?

 

[Amy]

I'm subscribing - DH and I are planning a getaway trip to Gettysburg in Sept. I haven't been there in years, and the last time DH was there it was with the scout troop.

I've started researching, and the Dobbin House is on my list to try (either the main dining room or the Springhouse). What about The Pub & Restaurant on Lincoln Square? Has anyone eaten there?

Also, are there any haunted restaurants we could eat at? Or are we limited to a ghost tour?

 

[HOGFAN]

I will be there August 1-3 myself. We plan on eating at both the Dobbin house and the Farnsworth house and doing their ghost tour. Im staying at the Days Inn.

 

[ambgoph]

I agree with the cd tour - it was nice to go at our own pace.

Take a 10-15 min. drive to the Boyds Bear store - it's huge! You could easily spend an hour or two. More info http://www.boydsbearcountry.com/

 

[bballmom56]

We were just out there on Thursday and Friday. We did the visitor's center with the movie and cyclorama first, then toured the museum in that building. As my DH had been there twice recently, we just followed the auto tour route and he was my guide! You could spend hours reading the monuments and visiting the different parts of the battlefield.

Our other activity was to do drive by tours of the colleges in that area (DH is a college prof. so we have an interest in that). We drove by Wilson College, Shippensburg U., Gettysburg College, Franklin and Marshall, and York. There were a bunch of others we could have found, but we were getting tired at that point.

 

[MariDisney]

I will be there August 1-3 myself. We plan on eating at both the Dobbin house and the Farnsworth house and doing their ghost tour. Im staying at the Days Inn.

I just made reservations at Farsworth House for Saturday. The website recommended calling a head, and I think it will be worth it because there were several times not open. You might want to do the same.

 

[Ceila]

I've started researching, and the Dobbin House is on my list to try (either the main dining room or the Springhouse). What about The Pub & Restaurant on Lincoln Square? Has anyone eaten there?

The Pub is just OK, not really good. Springhouse is much, much better for a casual meal. Also, unless things have changed in the past few years, the Pub is very much a hang-out for the college students on weekend nights (I used to be one of them a, ahem, few years ago!)

 

[Tracy Savage]

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...=2&ndsp=20&tbs=isch:1&ei=B-ZMTLT-K4L48AaW8Lk1

We ate lunch here, Its a short drive from Gettysburg. It you google the hotel, there is a picture of a ghost looking out a window and another with a ghost soldier standing in front.

 

[Tracy Savage]

Cashtown ghost-www.scaryforkids.com/cashtown-inn/

 

[fluffycow333]

I took Miss Betty's ghost tour recently, and I highly recommend it. She is great, and she doesn't go to the more "touristy" places, she takes you out of the mainstream where you are away from the crowd and things are more likely to happen...

http://www.missbettysghostsingettysburg.com/

Also, be sure to take the tour of the Shriver House. It is very interesting to learn about the effect of the battle on a normal family.

We ate at the Farnsworth House tavern, it was very casual and the food was good. We had sandwiches on potato bread. It was a great place for lunch.

http://www.farnsworthhouseinn.com/farnsworthhousegettysburg_019.htm

As for the battlefield, I reccomend Little Round Top. The view is spectacular.

 

[HOGFAN]

I just made reservations at Farsworth House for Saturday. The website recommended calling a head, and I think it will be worth it because there were several times not open. You might want to do the same.

thanks for the heads up

 

[Tracy Savage]

 

[Tracy Savage]

This is the Cashtown Inn. If you look to the left of the man, just above the writing "Old Hotel" you can see a ghostly image of a soldier.