The National Park Service Museum and  Visitor Center at 1195 Baltimore Pike is the place  to begin your visit. The center offers information on park tours and local information, a film on the Battle of Gettysburg (fee), a detailed museum that focuses on the Civil War and the story of the Battle of Gettysburg featuring relics from many collections including the Rosensteel Collection of Gettysburg related items. There is a Resources Room with information on park exhibits and databases, the Gettysburg Cyclorama (to open in September 2008), a bookstore and refreshment saloon here as well.

The Museum and Visitor Center is open daily from 8:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. with summer hours from 8:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M. The center is closed on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day and New Year's Day.

Near the Visitor Center is the Soldiers' National Cemetery where Union dead from the Battle of Gettysburg were buried and today is the resting place for veterans and their families from all wars. It is also the place where President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863.

The park is open daily and park visitors may drive their vehicles to many of the places known in battlefield lore- Culp's Hill, McPherson's Ridge, Cemetery Hill, Spangler's Spring, Devil's Den, the Peach Orchard, Little Round Top, and the "High Water Mark" to name but a few. The park also has hiking trails, a horse trail, and welcomes on-road bicyclists.

The McMillan Woods Youth Campground is open to scout troops and youth organizations on a seasonal basis by reservation only. Reservations for camping at the site are accepted by a lottery system, beginning the first of every year. There is no commercial campground in the battlefield park.