The Lodges at Gettysburg — Hotel in Freedom Township

The Lodges at Gettysburg:

This was a great space for a good price. You get a lot, and it’s got plenty of nature around. The cabins are not too far outside of town; close to local tourist traps. I was able to get an instacart delivered, and also there are other delivery services that will come out.

Great staff! The check in went easy; awesome staff that are very accommodating. All of the cabins are named after US States. I stayed in the Rhode island suite. The parking is a little hilly, hard to find a level space; for the physically challenged, or handicapped, it will be an issue. No real steps to the cabin though; easy in and easy out.

The cabin was mostly clean; you could see the dust of the blades for the ceiling fan. The ceiling fan and lamps all have white LED bulbs. It seems biting and office like. A softer bulb would be so much better. The floor is wood plank, and creaky. There is no fireplace in the Rhode Island cabin, but they do have a fake fireplace/heater. Because of the cathedral ceilings, I had to crank the heat up to get it warm, but had no issues after.

There was a small deck on the RI cabin with two Adirondack chairs. I also noticed a bucket of sand for smokers. The cabins are close together, and other guests smoking might be an issue if you don’t like the smell.

I love the kitchen and the glasses, wine glasses, and plates/cutlery. They supplied a small dish soap bottle. The kitchen could use a sponge, or a brush to wash the dishes, and also a dish drain. The refrigerator is smaller than full size, but certainly adequate for a short stay. There was a good solid microwave, but no other way to cook, and no grill outside to BBQ. The couch was a bit worn, and didn’t feel clean. It was a fabric material, but in a situation like this, leather rules the day. I found the couch to be uncomfortable.

WI-FI! It was TERRIBLE!! If you need good WI-FI, this is not the place for you. I used my own personal hotspot (Skyroam) and it worked beautifully as always! I performed a speed test on the house WIFI and the best download speed I could get was a 2.44 and the upload was less than .02! Pathetic!! Especially in this day and age of people using WI-FI. If you want your Netflix, you will spend your time buffering. When I perform a speed test, I use the best of three, at different times of day. I can only imagine how it will throttle down when others are trying to use the WI-FI.

There were two small TV’s mounted to the walls in the bedroom and living area. One was set to a letterbox with no way to change it; there were no remotes for the TV’s themselves, just remotes to control the cable channels. Many channels were blocked out. A lot of people like hooking up their Roku or computer to the TV, but without an input selection, you cannot do it.

There was a replica compartment desk (cute and quaint), and the chair was a standard chair, not an office chair. If you had to sit on it for 8 hours working, you will not be a happy camper. Since so many people work remotely these days, they take their work with them, even on vacation. I can see that they are trying to have an old-timey theme, but you can certainly find replicas to desk chairs from once-when.

The bathroom was nice, with a big shower! Extra towels and other items in the bathroom closet. The tiled floor and shower was a nice touch. Good hot water!

The mattress was like laying on a slab of stone. Who chose those mattresses??? I love a firm mattress, but WOW, this was ridiculous. There were two beds in the bedroom.

Overall, the cabins could be great, they just need to be tweaked. It was a good stay, but mostly uncomfortable. I even stayed for a few extra nights, simply because it was quiet as no one was there. In my humble opinion, it should be a smoke free property. I think that the Lodges at Gettysburg is a work in progress, and it’s off to a good start! It definitely needs to be tweaked. I’m looking forward to going back when the property matures. I’ll bring my own pillow top mattress...

I cannot say enough good things about The Lodges at Gettysburg! My husband and I stayed there multiple times in preparation for having our wedding there. The rooms are clean, affordable, and comfortable, and the fireplaces are especially nice in the winter! And the view just can't be beat.

If you're looking to get married here and this beautiful, classy venue fits the profile of what you want, DO IT. Beth was our wedding coordinator and she went above and beyond for us. She dealt with a constant influx of questions from five separate parents plus me and my husband and always answered thoroughly and politely. I can't imagine that we were the easiest family to work with just because we asked for so much. She helped my stepmom figure out logistics to the tiniest details, she helped my mother-in-law upgrade the wine and champagne, and overall she just handled us with a smile. We are eternally grateful for her and the rest of the staff, even the people at the front desk who cheered us on and greeted us with smiles on our wedding day. And everything went off without a single problem. No crises, no issues, they planned and prepared to a T.

Edit: WARNING about the HAIR and MAKEUP PERSON! Her makeup selection was awful (drugstore and unbranded stuff she got on eBay - very grateful I don't have any allergies because Lord knows what's in that junk!), and the make-up look she gave me was not at all what I asked for. I'll admit I was super giddy at first and told her she did great (I have issues being straightforward sometimes), but looking in a bathroom mirror 30 minutes later I was not at all pleased. It was sloppy and not the style I wanted. She also bragged about doing hair and makeup for something like 16 people over the course of six hours. That should have been a red flag for me. Additionally, when my fiance asked about if she had someone who could give him a haircut and a wetshave the day of or before, she said she had a guy in Harrisonburg or somewhere and when we pressed if there was someone in town she went "lol no I don't trust anyone in town." Convenient, right?

She also has you sign a contract as soon as you walk in for your trial which says that cancellation within 30 says still requires the full amount to be paid (even if you are doing your trial less than 30 days to your date, as we did, about 28 days before). Fair, I get that, she's gotta make a living, and we were definitely late to the game. I'll gladly acknowledge my part in this. Despite all that, her contract sucks and she would do well to talk to a lawyer and have one written up. About a week after our trial, a family friend offered to do hair and makeup for myself and my bridesmaids, so we took her up on her offer. I texted Lindsay and told her about this, to which she responded "OK." Just a few days before my wedding, however, I got another text from her saying we owed her something like $865 dollars for hair and makeup for myself, my five maids, and the moms. We NEVER ONCE indicated that everyone would be getting hair and makeup, and I even SPECIFICALLY told her that only myself and my mom were guaranteed, and we would let her know if anyone else wanted to do it. And I'd be fine with paying for myself and my mom. I passed this issue onto my dad because I was understandably pissed off, who spoke with her. Apparently, part of the "contract" is a page with a list of people who may or may not want their hair and makeup done. There is no binding signature on this page, no text in the first page that indicated that this page even exists, and I only learned about it after the fact. I don't know what the outcome of this issue is. I don't know if my dad paid her what she asked for, frankly I don't want to know because I'm afraid the answer would make me angry.

Ladies looking to get married here: Don't let the $185 credit lure you. At best, she's a bad businessperson. At worst,...

6/10 would recommend for a wedding. Our wedding day and marriage was absolutely perfect due to very meticulous planning and a team of friends willing to help execute our vision. We truly do not wish to focus on a single negative aspect of the day because the positives far outweigh their importance; however as a bride, there are a few of the things I would have like to have known before booking with the lodges.

Be prepared for many upcharges, and when Beth says "gratuity will be included" she means 20% on your package, plus 20% on your bar tab, and they will still put out a tip jar, even after they were requested not to for being tipped prior to services rendered.

We asked Beth if there was any need for "wedding insurance" she laughed it off and told me that was a silly question. Yet, the power happened to go out during our reception for about 10 minutes, and there was no generator or backup plan.

A few very sentimental items were lost and thrown away by staff that day. Just LABEL everything and keep close tabs. My veil was mistaken for tulle by a staff member and thrown away, along with the serving utensils for our cake cutting and a few others.

When my mom noticed a family heirloom missing off the table during clean up, a few family members began searching high and low. Only to be met with resistance from the day of coordinator, who responded in a very unprofessional manner to one of my cousins, using the "F word" in response to them looking through the garbages, themselves, in the kitchen. I still have no words for level of unprofessionalism she demonstrated.

I was highly disappointed in this, especially considering they regard themselves so highly in professionalism, that they are willing to serve themselves a 20% gratuity, before services are rendered, instead of trusting that their skills are worth the tip in the end, at the discretion of the one footing the bill.

We would have liked to have heard back from Beth and asked how our event was and an opportunity to give her this feedback, but we've heard nothing from her, other than answering an email of a question I asked.

Considering they view every minute as a dollar sign, we thought they may have offered some compensation for the minutes and the items we lost: power going out, the staff disposing of items (veil alone being $350) the bar service also ending earlier than promised, all in all, probably $1500 in lost value.

If you go into this "financial relationship" with them, just go in knowing you are simply a client, you are a dollar sign to them, and I don't think you will be disappointed. For a $30,000 invoice, I had very high expectations of professional service that should have EXCEEDED my expectations from beginning to end.

This is not to say our wedding was not excellent, but as someone who works in the guest service industry, and two families that run bars and restaurants, we found them to fall short in a few areas and have be provided this same feedback to them, so they can make appropriate adjustments if they desire, however The Lodges has refused to respond, even after generously waiting 2 months for a response.

They did other things very well, and for that we are grateful to focus on. The food was enjoyed by every guest, the staff treated us all very respectfully, and attentively. The order of events for the ceremony was executed well and I had full faith in the coordinators to get us where we needed to be, and not worry about anything but enjoying each other on our day.

We highly recommend Ultamix DJ, Fiddlestix Florals, Mark Henry Design, and Stonehouse Cakery. We are so happy with our decisions in vendors that helped to execute such a perfect day, and trust they will treat...