CAMPGROUNDS IN GETTYSBURG PA???

[CanDo]

We are looking to stay in the Gettysburg area for about 2 weeks in early August. At the Washington RV Show we picked up a brochure for the Drummer Boy Camping Resort and it sounds wonderful. Then I re-read the January 2005 Camperways and there was an article about Round Top Campground. It, too, sounds great. Does anyone have experience with either of these CGs? Our getaways are pretty jam-packed into the summer months as Dave is a high school teacher, so we'd really hate to lose 2-3 weeks in a less than pleasant location.

We had a pretty bad experience about 2 years ago. We used the AAA Camping Guide and picked out a place in Amelia, VA (Amelia Family Campgrounds), about 2 hours from home. Since it was in the AAA Camping Guide, we figured it would be a good place to go. We got in late at night, and the manager got us into a site. The next morning we found that the majority of the campsites were filled with people who lived there - they had built lean-to's and decks onto their rigs! The trees overhead were completely filled with the cable for the satellite dishes, and the dishes were lined up around the "lake", about 6 feet from our site. The bathrooms were pretty disgusting, and the camp store was, well, pretty non-existent. Needless to say, we left and went to Pocahontas State Park (about 45 minute drive), just outside of Richmond, VA. It's a beautiful place and has been a faithful standby for us.

Any insight on the CGs mentioned above or any other experience you have in the Gettysburg area will be GREATLY appreciated! We've already made the rest of our reservations for the summer, just have one more left. Thanks! You guys are terrific - we've learned so much from reading the MOC.

[Glenn and Lorraine]

This past spring we stayed at Round Top. On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being best) we'd give it a 7.
They do have some fulltime resident sites but we were not in the same general area.

My brother, a retired high school teacher, is a licensed guide at Gettysburg. He does personal tours rather than the bus type tours. If you are interested in a private tour send me a Private Message and I will give you his name and address.
There are also CD's available for renting or can be purchased. We did both. The rented CD was fine but we found the $12.95 for "The Complete Audio Tour of the Gettysburg Battlefield" on CD a much better bargain. Buying the CD allowed us to take our time, stopping for lunch or overnight and continuing at will. And by taking plenty pictures you are able to retake the tour after returning home.

[vickir]

We just spent 11 days at the Round Top Campground and would have no hesitation in recommending it to anyone. There's a nice pool, a nice store and it's very close to the Gettysburg National Battleground. They don't have WI-FI (at least they didn't last September) and the modem is only available during office hours (this is a very high priority item for Steve). They do have a decent cable though. We really liked our site (#208) ... very roomy.

We never made it over to check out Drummer Boy, so can't give you any insight on that one.

Hope you have a wonderful time in Gettysburg ... we're thinking about going back maybe later this year.

(By any chance, are you related to a Col. Charles Olmstead of the Confederate army?)

[sreigle]

Chris and Dave, Gettysburg is a wonderful place to visit. I would highly recommend you start with either the guided tour Glenn talks about or the guided bus tour. We took the bus tour but either way is good. This gives you an overview of the battle, the order of events, and really helps you understand it better. We then followed it up with three days of exploring the areas we'd seen on the bus. And could easily have spent another day or two, there. As Vicki said, we're seriously thinking of going back for a few days, maybe a week, after taking our two oldest granddaughters (D.C. area) for a week during Spring Break. That would put us at Gettysburg around the end of March, early April.

If you want to get a preview of the the town, the battlefield, and the surrounding area as we saw it, click on the link in my signature, then select 2004 Postcards, then scroll down to the December 14th to 31st postcards. We were at Gettysburg in September but the postcards were sent out in December. Besides the town and the battlefield the postcards include the Eisenhower Farm, Hershey, PA, and some other things in the area.

Hope you folks have a great time in Gettysburg. We really enjoyed our time there. By the way, we felt we had one of the best sites in the park at Round Top. They put you in those sites if you want cable TV. There's other good sites, too, but we sure liked this one. It took a little finagling to get level but was worth it.

I've heard Drummer Boy is really nice but haven't seen it. I think they have wi-fi but I don't know the cost.

[DrivesBGM]

I've stayed at both Round Top and Drummer Boy this past year. I don't think that you can go wrong with either.

I prefer Drummer Boy because of the WiFi access but this is a popular campground and therefore harder to get into.

Craig

[CanDo]

Thank you all for your input. We decided to go with Round Top this year and will try to get over to Drummer Boy for a look-see. Since we're still in vacation mode, we haven't gone to laptops in the Monty, so computer access isn't currently a factor. But it is good to know and will go into our little database for future travel. We are just soooo excited to get on the road this year. We have been to 2 RV shows in the last few weeks, and the itch is up to fever-pitch!

Vickir, not sure if we're related to Col Olmstead, but will contact my brother-in-law. He's a history teacher and has been working on the family genealogy. We'll let you know when we find out anything.

Glenn and Lorraine, thanks for the kind offer - sounds great! We'll contact you by PM.

Chris and Dave

[vickir]

Chris and Dave ... Be sure to ask for the discount at Round Top ... you MUST tell them you saw it on the billboard since that's the only place it's offered. We saw it after we checked in and they gave us a cash refund of $40+ so it's definitely worth mentioning to them.

Will look forward to hearing about the possible connection to the colonel ...