Gettysburg Advice

[Beaglemom3 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Beaglemom3]

I'm headed there on Memorial Day, but no timesharing.

Will tour the battlefields, bicycle, etc.

Any suggestions ?

Our thread here http://www.timeshareforums.com/forum...nsylvania.html was very helpful, but anything else ?

[susieq Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close susieq]

We were down there quite a few years ago ~ loved it. Unfortunately we couldn't do a lot of what we would've liked, (ML was with us). They do Ghost tours at night, which looked and sounded really cool. Of course tho, they say if you want to see ghosts, sit on the battlefield any night after dark. The cemetery's really interesting, too. Could've spent more time there just exploring.

Have a great trip!!

[Beaglemom3 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Beaglemom3]

We were down there quite a few years ago ~ loved it. Unfortunately we couldn't do a lot of what we would've liked, (ML was with us). They do Ghost tours at night, which looked and sounded really cool. Of course tho, they say if you want to see ghosts, sit on the battlefield any night after dark. The cemetery's really interesting, too. Could've spent more time there just exploring.

Have a great trip!!

Great ! Thanks. Just "boo-ked" a ghost tour !

[dougp26364 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dougp26364]

The two times we've gone to Gettysburg we've stay at the Farnsworth House bed and breakfast. Great little B&B within walking distance of the Jenny Wade house and downtown Gettysburg. They serve a decent breakfast and the restaurant serves period food that we found to be very good. Farnsworth House was there for the battle and has bullet holes/marks in the brickworks on the house. We find it much more enjoyable to stay here rather than the Holiday Inn Express just up the street.

If you want to see pictures of the Farnsworth house and the two different rooms we've stayed in, click the photo and it should take you directly to that album.



The battle field is huge and, despite what some might say is a couple of hour tour, really can take days or weeks. We've taken the bus tour of the park, which is great for getting your bearings and giving you some history of the battle. Just be aware that the busses don't go into Devils Den, which is a dissapointment to many. They're just to big and the road to narrow and curvy for them to get in there. We also found that the driving tour CD's sold at the bookstore were great for self guided tours. There are several different self guided CD's and all take a slightly different look at the battle. We've done two of them and enjoyed both.

We've also taken a horseback riding tour of the park. It was enjoyable but, they can't cover the entire park. If you do a horseback tour, just be aware that you'll stay on set trails and you won't see everything. We'd do it again as it was an enjoyable couple of hours out in the open rather than in the car.

[longtimer Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close longtimer]

My family loves Gettysburg. There is so much to do there. The Cyclorama is open again and, according to my boss (who was just there two weeks ago) it is well worth seeing. If you're into camping, there are some great campgrounds within a five to ten minute drive. There is a tour bus that goes through the battlefield and passes some of the highlights in the town. We did this several years ago and liked that it gave us a good perspective of where things were located. However, that tour has gotten VERY expensive. If you have a family, it's better to hire one of the park rangers for a personalized tour of the battlefield and monuments. (My boss did this and said it was well worth the money.) We've done the ghost tours and thought they were so- so, but I'm not really into that. Only did it because my kids wanted to see what they were like. If you've got kids or grandkids, check out the Boyd's Bear factory. It's about a 20 minute drive outside town, but is amazing - four huge floors of Boyd's Bears! There is a restaurant on the lower level (a little on the pricey side). Take along water bottles because it will most likely be very hot on the battlefield and there is nowhere to get a drink. If you decide to do the double decker tour bus and there is any chance of rain, take the lower level seats. It started raining when we did that tour and the poor people on the top level were stuck sitting in the rain - most of them withouy raincoats or umbrellas. BTW - If you decide you want a change of pace - you aren't that far from Hershey.

[Beaglemom3 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Beaglemom3]

I'll be at the Brafferton B&B if anyone knows it.

Thank you for all of your input.

I love this stuff !!!!

[4ARedOctober Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close 4ARedOctober]

.... If you have a family, it's better to hire one of the park rangers for a personalized tour of the battlefield and monuments. (My boss did this and said it was well worth the money.) .......

We spent two days there about six years ago....it was great. I highly recommend the above private tour....it is well worth the money. We had specific sites that we wanted to see and the ranger took us directly there and described the battles. I don't remember the length of the private tour but I remember wishing we had booked it for longer.

Have fun.

[Pstreet1 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Pstreet1]

We loved our visit there (used Priceline for the room and were very, very happy). There is a commercial film about the battle at a new commercial area on the outskirts of the town itself--maybe the south edge, but I'm not at all sure of that. We decided that since we were close, we'd see it. It was truly excellent. We got lucky and a business conference management group was seeing it at the same time we wandered in. They told us they had a speaker after the film and we were welcome to stay. He was a local expert who answered lots of very interesting questions from the group. But even without him, I recommend seeing the film if you have time. We were glad we'd seen it the evening before we went to the battlefield.

We bought the audio cd's for touring the field, and spent the whole day doing our tour--whole day, from before 8:00 a.m. until after 5:00. For us, the cd's were better than getting a guide or taking the tour. There are lots of rangers doing talks as you go also, and we joined several of those as we moved through the field. Contact me, and I would be happy to send you the cd's.

There are lots of good restaurants there that have certificates on restaurant.com The restaurant.com certificates are 60 or 70% off right now, and we loved the restaurants we tried. The code is "feast" at checkout; then hit apply. Getting a $25.00 certificate for $3.00 definitely helps with the meal price.

[EAM Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close EAM]

I'd suggest seeing the (long) movie before you go. It is a docudrama, so it is not 100% historically accurate, but it comes close. It helps you to visualize the soldiers (particularly the high-ranking officers) on both sides and understand their personalities and why they made the decisions that they did.

[susieq Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close susieq]

Great ! Thanks. Just "boo-ked" a ghost tour !

I'm jealous!!

[Beaglemom3 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Beaglemom3]

Trip On Hold

Have put the trip on hold due to Beagle #3, Lucy, has a tumor on her heart/right atrium.

Doesn't look good. She's at Tufts' Vet School now with a tick-borne infection on top of everything else, but is recovering from that. She is 14.

Thank you for all of your input.

[SteveChapin Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close SteveChapin]

Sorry to hear about the tumor.

When we went, we bought a CD that we put in the player in the car, and took a self-guided tour. I wish I knew where it was, now...

It basically takes you all the places the bus tour does, and then describes what happened there. It's good to get out and walk around the various places to really appreciate some of the lines of sight, etc.

sc
--

[longtimer Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close longtimer]

Have put the trip on hold due to Beagle #3, Lucy, has a tumor on her heart/right atrium.

Doesn't look good. She's at Tufts' Vet School now with a tick-borne infection on top of everything else, but is recovering from that. She is 14.

Thank you for all of your input.

I hope all goes well with your dog. People who don't have dogs don't understand they are like children to us. When our first beagle was very sick, it was extremely traumatic for us. We had him before any children and he was nearly 15 when we had to put him down. He was very ill and had liver cancer. The beagle we now have will be 11 on June 6. She is such a sweetheart. She looks like an old lady, but boy can she run when she hears the door of the fridge opening!
As a fellow dog lover, with a special heart for beagles, I am thinking of you.

[Beaglemom3 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Beaglemom3]

Longtimer and all,
Lucy has improved, that is, the tick-borne illness and subsequent pneumonia are under control if not gone after antibiotics and Lasix.
The heart tumor is inoperable, but she is without symptoms as I write.
The 'ol girl is begging, rolling around in stinky things and sunning herself on the porch.
God is great.
Thank you again.
Beags.

[longtimer Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close longtimer]

So glad to hear from you. She sounds like she's back to her old beagle-self again. My heart goes out to you. Take lots of pix and enjoy the time you have with her. If she's like any of the beagles we have had, she'll be loveable - and stubborn - right up to the end.