Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
This is a destination that has been around for a long time and has been attractive to tourists for generations. I remember coming here as a child in grade school on field trips. I remember camping here as a family when I was a kid and playing on hay rides. I remember coming here with my mother for lunch on the square after my father died.
It is a special place in American history and a special place for anyone who enjoys travel with all the great built-in comforts of a destination that is well pulled together. It is conveniently located within an easy drive of the northeast’s major cities. And it is the perfect place to take your RV to explore and share those explorations with friends and family.
So when we were thinking of where to have a family reunion in Gettysburg, we settled on the Drummer Boy Camping Resort. My sister had been there before and said it was great and we checked it out online so it would work just perfectly given what we saw.
We pulled into Drummer Boy Campground in Gettysburg. It is a terrific place with multiple pools, excellent camp store, cabin rentals, video arcade, golf cart rentals and much more. We rode our bicycles into the town of Gettysburg which took about 20 minutes. There is a hill to climb but it was easy enough if you’re in somewhat decent shape.
Once in the town we rode around the quaint downtown and grabbed a bite to eat on the square at the Blue and Gray Bar & Grill located on the square. The Maryland Crab Soup was delicious as were the raspberry jalapeno wings – not too hot – just right.
We meandered up Baltimore Street toward some of the attractions with our destination being the Gettysburg Battlefield Tours. We paid for our tours and locked up our bicycles (they looked at us when we asked where we could park our bicycles like we’d just asked the time of the next high speed train to Miami as if we were the first to ever arrive by bicycle). We found a spot that would work for us to lock them up.
There are a lot of various battlefield tours out there – what is the best battlefield tour in Gettysburg? Well you’d have to take them all and be unbiased. We were thrilled with the one we selected. You can pay a bit extra for a double decker bus tour or a single decker coach is a bit less. We opted for the first available which was a single deck coach and quite comfortable. We had an excellent guide and really enjoyed the experience. There were several places where we got out and really learned a lot. It was fascinating in actual fact.
We got back after about a two hour ride and poked around in some of the nearby shops. There really is no shortage of things to do here for the entire family. There are small museums and loads of places in the battlefield itself to spend time. There’s no shortage of monuments either. And one of the things I remembered as a kid visiting was the ability to climb on a cannon. Again, no shortage of those.
We took ourselves and our bicycles back to the campground where we met up with family for some camping fun. We visited the pools and drove around on the golf carts and shuttled to the camp store. The sites are very nice and we were close together so we could easily walk between the sites. There are cabins for anyone looking for those and if you’re visiting Gettysburg looking for a camping cabin this is the place.
Overall whether you are using an RV or staying at hotels, Gettysburg is one destination that you have to have on your list. And if you’re looking for a great family destination I can strongly suggest Gettysburg for that too. For me, it was like reconnecting with a great old childhood friend. We will be back Gettysburg.
RV Road Trip Note:
This is part of the series of blog posts on a fourteen day road trip from St. Petersburg, Florida to the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania with stops along the way north and south with no real planned itinerary. We did this trip in our 30 foot class A motorhome in late July/early August with two bicycles strapped to the back. We traveled down to Gettysburg after visiting Scranton, Hazleton and Mahanoy City. It was an easy and quick drive during the morning.
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