Ways to get to Gettysburg, PA
 

I'm going to be in Philadelphia for a few days and I want to make a side trip to Gettysburg. I would like to know what is the best way to get there? Is driving the only way to get to Gettysburg or can I buy a train or bus ticket?

Renting a car wouldn't be a problem, but I would rather buy a bus or train ticket.

Take a Keystone train ($27) from 30th St. station to Harrisburg.
Find a place to rent a car in downtown Harrisburg to get to Gettysburg.
The other choice would be to take a Northeast Regional PHL to BWI and rent a car at the airport.

Rabbit Transit offers service to Gettysburg from the Harrisburg Amtrak station.

http://www.rabbittransit.org/Schedul...dayFriday.aspx

There are only 2 buses to Gettysburg from Harrisburg, though, and they leave the train station at 7:18 and 7:42. Return buses leave Gettysburg at 2:05 and 3:00 PM. The bus trip takes a little less than 2 hours each way.

If you take Amtrak's Keystone service leaving 30th Street Station at 5:25 AM you could make the second bus, assuming there are no delays, of course. Train trip takes about 2 hours as well. Check the Amtrak website for return times. They depend on when you are going (June schedule looks different from July).

Total cost would be $61. More importantly, total travel time would be about 8 hours, and you would have 6 hours max in Gettysburg (the town; less than that at the historic sites). So you could do it, but you'll save a lot of time if you rent a car and drive yourself.

The sites where the battles took place over the three days are quite spread out, not something you could walk in a reasonable time. There are markers showing the routes of travel throughout the park. So you would need a car.

There have been organized bus trips to the park every time I've been there. You might check to see if any will be leaving from Philadelphia when you will be there.

If a car rental is no problem, I would do that . . You can get a private tour guide who will give a much better overview of the battle than you will get from a bus or other tour. The Battleground visitor center, which is very good for perspective, is on one side of the town, and the battle ground is on the other, so walking is not easy.

http://www.nps.gov/gett/index.htm

We stayed at the Gettysburg Hotel and it was very nice:

http://www.historichotels.org/hotels...-hotel-est1797

Unless you want to take a guided tour to Gettysburg, your best choice is to rent a car and drive because you will need it to get around the battlefield (and probably around town as well).

You can certainly do a self-guided driving tour of the battlefield, but the Licensed Battlefield Guides that Rich mentioned are top-notch. You'll learn so much about the battle from them and they will customize their tour if you have a specific interest. I've heard you need to book one in advance during the tourist season. Here's their website:
http://www.gettysburgtourguides.org/