Carlisle sits at the centre of a rewarding cluster of day trip options. Gettysburg is 35 miles south — one of the most important Civil War battlefields, with a good museum and miles of preserved landscape. The Pennsylvania Dutch country around Lancaster is 60 miles east, with Amish farms, farm markets, and covered bridges. Harrisburg, the state capital, is 20 miles east and worth an afternoon for its grand Capitol building and the National Civil War Museum.
Hershey, with its theme park and the Hershey Story museum about chocolate history, is 25 miles east and a reliable choice if you are travelling with children.
