The Best Way to See Gettysburg with Kids

Seeing a National Park with 3 kiddos isn’t always the easiest, especially when they have a short attention span and 2 of your littles don’t walk.  Want to see how we toured Gettysburg, read below.

We knew the first stop on our trip needed to be the visitor center so that we could get our stamp for our Passport book. But from there we needed to decide on how to see the rest of this amazing park.  MeMe had looked up the driving tour with the cd which was kinda expensive so we weren’t sold on that. When I started looking into tours I found TourBuddy, which is an app that you can put on your phone. In the end we decided on TourBuddy because it was less expensive and we could download it right before we left because let’s be honest with 3 littles you never know if your plan is going to work out.

TourBuddy is an audio tour that is downloaded on your phone.  Once you download the app you find the tour that you want and download it.  The price of the tour varies depending on which one you are wanting. At the time the Gettysburg tour was $16.99.  The app uses GPS to identify where you are, as you drive the narrator tells you important facts about that spot on the tour.

Ok so on to how we used it.  At the Gettysburg visitors center we got our stamp for our passport book (YEAH!!) and also picked up a map.  The map showed us where the auto tour started, (the tour buddy app would follow this tour). Of course by the time we were done walking in the visitor’s center and stopping by the gift shop the kids need a snack.  So after a quick pouch we loaded everyone back in the truck and started on the tour.

In the beginning we were using the lite (free) version of the TourBuddy app, but quickly decided that we wanted more details for the different spots on the tour. I quickly download the full tour and we were off again. The tour took us back in time and made us feel like we were really there.  As we were driving through town it pointed out different buildings that were important during the war and even pointed out where to look to see the bullet holes in the buildings.

The tour took us through the battlefields and spoke about each of the monuments.  In between stops the narrator told us different things that were going on at that time.  It made it easy to imagine what life was like for the soldiers. Jamie and I were  shocked at how much land was covered during this 3 day battle.  The kids weren’t so interested in the details but they did love the interlude music. The boys also fell asleep so it made that portion of the tour much quieter.  There timing was not the best, they fell asleep just as we were approaching little round top which would have been a great stop to take them out and climb to the top of the hill.  Apparently from there we could see the whole battlefield. Since they had just fallen asleep we decided not to stop but we will always have the app and can go back.

What I liked most about the TourBuddy app for Gettysburg:

• • Self paced.  We could stop wherever we wanted or not stop.

• • The narrator was very knowledgeable and gave lots of interesting information about Gettysburg.

• The kiddos were contained and we were able to enjoy the tour without chasing a kid or wondering if they are bothering others.

If you are visiting a park with young kids I highly recommend looking into a TourBuddy tour. It makes seeing a national park with kids easy.