Boiling Springs PA: lodging.

[ChinMusic]

Which hotel is better, Gelinas, Allenberry, or somewhere else?

[HikerMom58]

I heard good things about Allenberry.
If you stay at the campgrounds in Boiling Springs, the train will keep you up all night.

We did an 18 mile day going right thru Boiling Springs to the Darlington Shelter. That is a nice shelter and has a ton of really nice camping area around the shelter. There might be a porcupine that likes to hang out near there but it didn't bother anyone.

[Jeff]

Allenberry is a great deal for hikers!!

[Starchild]

Allenberry all the way. Wished I zeroed there

[illabelle]

I heard good things about Allenberry.
If you stay at the campgrounds in Boiling Springs, the train will keep you up all night.

ABSOLUTELY TRUE! Don't stay there!

[Don H]

I've been to both places.

Allenberry is OK, average hiker hotel room, the room I was in had two double beds so you could share. I think the cost was $40 last year for the hiker special. They have a great buffet dinner for I think $12. It's also about 1/2 mile up the road past the trail.

Gelina's is a B&B and cost about $80 for the night. It is very fancy, almost too good for hiker trash The owners are super nice and their son Mike does shuttles so if you need a ride to Walmart about 7 miles away he'll do that. They will not allow you to carry your pack into the house. They have lots of breakable antique (read expensive) stuff that packs tend to break. They do have a secure place on the porch for your gear.

Both are nice places, just different.

[Rain Man]

Which hotel is better, Gelinas, Allenberry, or somewhere else?

Don't know Gelinas, but stayed at Allenberry last October. Not a bad hike out of town to the place. Good breakfast to order. Room was from the '60s or so; but not bad for AT hikers. Cost (I shared with my hiking partner) was not bad. Old TV with few channels.

I think the hikers rooms are in the building with the actors and staff, so it's not what the regular, high-priced patrons get.

I'd go back (subject to learning about Gelinas).

RainMan

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[Don H]

What's nice about Galina's is it's in the middle of Boiling Springs, just across the pond from the AT.

[joshuasdad]

Gelina's is a B&B and cost about $80 for the night. It is very fancy, almost too good for hiker trash The owners are super nice and their son Mike does shuttles so if you need a ride to Walmart about 7 miles away he'll do that. They will not allow you to carry your pack into the house. They have lots of breakable antique (read expensive) stuff that packs tend to break. They do have a secure place on the porch for your gear.

+1 -- used Mike for a section shuttle, inexpensive and reliable. On a different weekend, we rented the family suite in the attic, and a Galinas relative babysat the kids when we had dinner at the tavern. Location is great.

[Jeff]

Another +1 on Gelinas....clean,comfortable, excellent shuttles(with notice). As mentioned above, they have a few rules you must follow and the owner has no problem letting you know if you are breaking any of them....as it should be !!!

[Kingbee]

I stayed at Allenberry a few months ago. Great deal on a nice basic room. 40$, and a 6 dollar breakfast buffet to fuel up in the morning.

[Trail Bug]

Stayed on a Friday night and had their seafood & prime rib buffet. Great place.

[couscous]

Allenberry has the best warm, melt-in-your-mouth sticky buns.
Looking forward to some Friday night at the HOF Banquet.

[tiptoe]

I stayed at Allenberry a few years ago. I don't remember much about the room, but the breakfast was wonderful and so was the swimming pool, with weather in the 90s.

[Cookerhiker]

...If you stay at the campgrounds in Boiling Springs, the train will keep you up all night....

I can sleep through most anything and I did when camped there on a section hike in '11. Never heard them. I wonder if the engineers on the trains heard my snoring?

[Blissful]

Hey ChinMusic!! Hope the hike is going well.

[HikerMom58]

I can sleep through most anything and I did when camped there on a section hike in '11. Never heard them. I wonder if the engineers on the trains heard my snoring?

Funny Cookerhiker.... you musta been really tired!

[kidchill]

I highly recommend the Allenberry...I hung out with the guy that runs the place, Charles, and he got me wicked drunk for free! Not to mention, it's $40 for a full-sized room with 2 beds. Only down side is that there's no cable in the rooms...but, if you hang out at the bar, he'll throw you the remote so you can watch whatever you want. I thoroughly enjoyed my stay there! If you're going NOBO just keep walking straight passed the left turn (where the trail goes down the road)...if you're going SOBO, hit the road and make a left instead of a right following the trail into town. There's a decent gas station in town to resupply and the ATC is there in the park.

[just dad]

I stayed at Gelinas B & B last summer since it was right in town. The husband had passed away and the wife was running the B & B. I had spoke with the son on the phone, but never saw him. The minute we arrived the witch began bad mouthing hikers. She said: thru hikers think they are special; they are arrogant; they brought ticks into my home, they broke my washing machine; they killed my bird; they **** in their clothes. This witch is truly a piece of work who hates hikers. She seemed completely put out by my two simple requests, which were (1) may I wash my clothes and (2) may I collect them from the dryer. The house was not in great shape either. The carpet had holes in it. The TV in the room had to be at least 30 years old and only received 4 channels based on the handwritten instructions. We could not wait to get out of her home. We got up at 5:30 the next morning and were gone by 6:00 am.

[Coffee]

Is this the Allenberry website? I'm not sure since I see no reference to $40 rooms and it seems a lot pricier than described.

https://www.allenberry.com/pages/lodging/lodging.html

On a related question, is Boiling Springs a good place to come off the trail due to proximity to Harrisburg or are there other nearby options that might offer cheaper transport into Harrisburg (public transport)? I'm in the process of planning a section hike which is going to start at Rockfish Gap where I'm being dropped off. My original plan was to leave the trail at Harpers Ferry and take the train back to DC but I'd like to hike a bit more than 160 miles. So I was thinking of either hiking the C&O canal to DC to make the hike around 220 miles. Or possibly to continue north on the AT and complete the MD section and go into PA, but I'm unsure where it is easiest and cheapest to come off the trail in PA with the idea of riding back to DC via Amtrak.