Good Family Trips
The new visitors center is very nice. The National Park Service has done a great job in modernizing and still preserving the cyclorama. They have lost the electric map, much to my sons approval. They were very under whelmed by the electric map. The web site suggests a three hour allotment of time for the visitor's center this is very true. Buy the ticket for the movie and cyclorama presentation which gets you into everything the cost is around $10 for adults. Auto tours by CD or pod cast are available. Gettysburg has a long tradition of having battlefield guides take you on a personally guided tour of the battlefield. They are extremely knowledgeable; an experience available nowhere else. Bicycling around the park is also an option for the biker types, Gettysburg itself is very congested in the tourist season, but they have many stores, attractions, and cafes, even a Thai restaurant. It will cost less to stay outside of Gettysburg. If you are planning a few days to visit both Gettysburg and Antietam look at cities around the region. Chambersburg PA and Hagerstown MD are both fair sized cities to search for lodging and entertainment choices. If possible allow the enthusiast part of the family the opportunity to return on more than one day to the battlefields. The others in your family, who refuse to let you put the Gettysburg DVD in one more time, can plan an alternate activity. The area of the Blue Ridge is a very beautiful one for them to explore. My advice if you've always wanted a hat or souvenir sword, buy it, just try not to embarrass your family, unduly.
Visitor's Center (Big Round Top in background) taken from Culp's Hill Tower
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