Gettysburg Day Trips from Washington DC

It is no surprise that the town of Gettysburg has a reputation for being eerie and spooky, given that one of the bloodiest battles of the American Civil War was fought on its fields. As well as thousands of deaths and a decisive outcome, the Battle of Gettysburg has placed the town near the top of the list of things to see and do in Washington.

With this in mind, Gettysburg becomes one of the most interesting places to visit if you’re passing through Washington DC. This area is located just an hour and a half from DC, so there are plenty of tours and excursions that depart from there to Gettysburg.

You’ll find plenty of options online for visiting Gettysburg from Washington. When choosing your excursion, it’s important to ensure that all the basic amenities are included in the trip. Once you’ve identified the option that suits you best, it’s time to make the booking request.

When making the booking, you should ask any necessary questions to clarify any doubts you may have about the trip, the booking process and the associated costs. Among other things, you should be clear about the cancellation policy, the reasons why the activity might be cancelled, and the meeting point for the excursion.

Generally, these types of bookings are made up to 24 hours in advance, but if you wish to book at shorter notice, you may be lucky enough to join the group departing at the time you wish to go.

As for cancellations, most tour operators require that, should you wish to cancel your booking, this be done at least 24 hours before the start of the trip.

These tours are generally offered as full-day trips, leaving Washington DC very early in the morning and returning at dusk. If you do it this way, you might just make it back to the city in time to join one of the Washington city tours; I can assure you it’s a perfect activity to include on your list of things to do in the city at night.

The entire journey from DC to Gettysburg takes approximately 12 hours, with the drive from the capital to Gettysburg taking an hour to an hour and a half. Then, the tour of the town, the battlefields and other attractions could take around eight to ten hours.

Once you arrive in Gettysburg, you need to take the time to listen to every story, visit every site and pay attention to the finer details; that is why a visit to this town takes so long. Bear in mind that you will spend the whole day in the town, taking a sort of journey back in time to the 19th century.

Of course, the duration of the trip may vary depending on whether it is a half-day or full-day excursion. Shorter tours usually offer a quick tour of the town’s most interesting sites , focusing solely on the Battle of Gettysburg.

Full-day tours, on the other hand, take the time to recount the most incredible stories not only of the battle, but of the war itself, as well as what life was like in those days.

The itinerary varies depending on the type of tour, but on most of these trips you’ll visit the town of Gettysburg and learn about its history from the tour guide.

At each stop, you’ll find informative displays explaining how the battle unfolded and providing historical facts about the events. One of the highlights of every tour is the diorama, which recreates the war in miniature.

The National Military Park in Gettysburg is almost always the main attraction, as it marks the area where the battle took place.

You can also take a tour of the entire battlefield and enjoy a re-enactment of part of it. You’ll have the chance to learn about the daily lives of the soldiers. In the park’s museum, you’ll see many of the artefacts used during the war.

If you take the ghost tour, you’ll experience eerie yet entertaining and unforgettable moments at each of these sites and others such as:

• Lutheran Seminary.

• Virginia Memorial.

• National Military Cemetery.

• If you’re travelling with children , I wouldn’t recommend taking a Gettysburg ghost tour as it can be quite frightening for them.
• I recommend you wear comfortable shoes and be prepared to do a lot of walking, as one of the main activities on this type of tour is walking around the town’s most iconic sites.
• Depending on the time of year you’re travelling, I recommend dressing in layers, as it might be sunny one moment and suddenly turn chilly the next.
• If you’re going on the tour with someone in a wheelchair , make sure the vehicle you’ll be travelling in is wheelchair-accessible.
• Make the necessary arrangements in case you want to stay longer and explore the area on your own once the tour has finished.
• Take extra money for food along the way, as these kinds of tours often do not include lunch or other refreshments. Although this isn’t always the case, many do offer snacks and drinks.

The trip from Washington DC to the Gettysburg area can cost between €120 and €180 per person. The cost may be lower or higher depending on the route, whether hotel pick-up is included , and whether meals or drinks are provided.

The tour usually takes between 8 and 10 hours to complete, so the price of the tour covers that duration. If you book a half-day tour, it could cost between €70 and €90 per person, and usually lasts between 4 and 6 hours.

The price of the excursion may vary depending on the services included. Generally, the price includes transport from a meeting point in Washington to Gettysburg. If you require transport from your hotel, you will most likely have to pay an additional fee.

Other additional costs may include admission to various museums where required and other activities within the town. If you’d like to take a guided tour of the town to explore the battlefield and other points of interest, you’ll also need to bring extra cash.

Other private tours departing from Washington DC that aim to show you the whole of the Gettysburg battlefield can cost up to a thousand euros. These types of tours are usually more expensive due to their private nature, meaning the experience will be exclusively for you and your group.

Obviously, the guided tour from Washington DC to Gettysburg is an ideal activity, especially to include on your list of things to do in Washington with children, as it is a historically enriching experience.

However, there are certain places you simply mustn’t miss during your visit and, if they aren’t included in the tour, I recommend you visit them on your own, just to make sure you don’t miss out.

Gettysburg Historic Centre

Of course, when you visit this town, you mustn’t miss the historical stories told in the town. During your visit to Gettysburg, you should visit the town’s most iconic houses, where you can see first-hand how the inhabitants lived in the 19th century in the midst of the American Civil War.

In the town’s historic centre, you’ll not only have the chance to visit authentic houses from the war era, but also various museums where you’ll hear the history they never told you at school about the atrocities of the war and how things were organised during the days the battle took place.

If you go on a night tour (which would mean staying in Gettysburg for one night, without this stay being included in the excursion from Washington), you can immerse yourself in the most eerie ghost stories the town has to tell. The ghost tour is one of the ideal activities to include on your list of things to see and do in Washington at night, or at least near the capital.

If you’re a fan of paranormal experiences and want to discover the dark history of Gettysburg, this is an experience you simply must have when travelling to Washington DC.

Gettysburg Battlefield

The Gettysburg Battlefield is preserved as a park for visitors to explore and gain a first-hand understanding of the experience of the soldiers who fought in the battle. A tour of the battlefield is an essential experience you mustn’t miss if you’re visiting Gettysburg from Washington DC.

There are plenty of ways to explore this site. One of the most common ways to take the tour is by car or coach. This is generally how the journey is made from Washington. If you want to break the mould, you can try a Segway tour , a bike ride, a horse-drawn carriage ride, or even a horseback ride.

Without a doubt, one of the best ways to explore the site is on horseback, but I only recommend this option if you have no back problems or mobility issues. On horseback, you’ll be able to visit each of the places where the battle took on its deepest significance.

Gettysburg Heritage Centre

This is one of the most interesting places to learn about the details of the war and specifically the Battle of Gettysburg, as well as to view a large number of perfectly preserved artefacts from the Civil War period.

The Gettysburg Battle Visitor Centre is an excellent place to see up close how this battle was organised. Here you can see, amongst other things, an incredible diorama depicting the battle exactly as it unfolded over the three days of the conflict.

This museum also has a souvenir shop where you can pick up mementos of your trip to Gettysburg, including leaflets and other informative material about the battle and the lives of soldiers during the American Civil War.

In this shop, you can also pick up various leaflets featuring stories of real people who experienced the conflict first-hand and suffered the ravages of war.

Devil’s Den

This is one of the most interesting places to visit on the Gettysburg battlefield. It is a rock formation shaped in such a way that it served as a trench for one of the warring sides.

Behind these large rocks, the soldiers fighting in the battle took cover. The site was used particularly on the second day of the battle to position the artillery. It was from here that various artillery barrages were launched against the opposing side.

Since the end of the war, this site has been preserved as one of the best-preserved centres of historical memory. On your visit, you’ll have the chance to see it up close and imagine what it must have been like for the soldiers to hold a battle trench in this very spot.

Little Round Top

This is one of the key sites of the Battle of Gettysburg and undoubtedly changed the course of the war. If you’re a literature lover, you’ll surely know that this place features prominently in the novel Angels of Death, which narrates, in fictional form, the actions taken during the Battle of Gettysburg that led to victory.

This spot is one of the interesting places to see during your trip to Gettysburg from Washington DC. It’s an activity I recommend adding to your list of things to do in Washington DC in summer, as this place is best appreciated in clear weather.

Little Round Top is a small hill situated right next to a larger hill called Big Round Top, which was also highly significant during the conflict, enabling soldiers to protect the area and achieve better results during the battle.

Both sites form part of the historical legacy of the Gettysburg battlefield and are definitely not to be missed during your visit to this town.

Guided tours of Gettysburg are definitely the best way to explore the town, as they give you the chance to hear the most incredible stories that you wouldn’t be able to discover on your own.

But travelling on your own may also have some advantages. Below, I’ll outline some of the key benefits of taking a guided tour rather than going it alone.