Western Pennsylvania Travel

Web Sites

Regional Resources

• Pittsburgh and its Countryside
  This site from the Pittsburgh Visitors and Convention Bureau provides information on attractions in the surroudning 12 counties of southwestern Pennsylvania.
• Allegheny Mountains Convention and Visitors Bureau
  Covering the Southern Allegheny mountains.
• Cook Forest Online
  A commercial site with information about the forest north of Pittsburgh near Allegheny National Forest.
• Laurel Highlands Visitor's Bureau
  Information on natural attractions, recreational activities, dining/lodging, and events in Westmoreland, Somerset and Fayette counties.
• Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor (US Route 30)
  Take a trip along an historic American highway instead of an Interstate!
• National Road Heritage Corridor
  The National Road is the most historic transportation corridor in the United States, one of the first colonial routes traveled by early settlers. Generally, the National Road in Pennsylvania is aligned with U.S. Route 40 through the southwestern corner of the state.
• Northwest Pennsylvania Nature Tourism
  This is a website to promote ecotourism and offers information on Agriculture, Bicycling, Birding and Wildlife, Camping, Environmental Education, Forests, Hiking and Backpacking, Historic Sites and Museums, Hunting and Fishing, Lakes and Rivers, Wildlife Art and Galleries, and Winter Activities. It also includes Driving Tours.
• Northwest Pennsylvania's Great Outdoors
  This is a visitor's bureau for Cameron, Clarion, Clearfield, Elk, Forest and Jefferson Counties.
• Western Pennsylvania Museum Council
  The Western Pennsylvania Museum Council is a non-profit consortium comprised of museums in 17 counties in Western Pennsylvania (Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Blair, Butler, Cambria, Clarion, Crawford, Fayette, Greene, Indiana, Jefferson, Lawrence, Somerset, Venango, Washington and Westmoreland). It includes museums of all kinds and sizes throughout our region including art museums, natural history museums, living history museums, historic houses and sites, science and technology centers, children’s museums, zoos, arboreta and botanical gardens.

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Resources by County

Armstrong County

• Armstrong County Tourist Bureau
  Calendar of events, hunting, fishing, boating

Beaver County

• Visit Beaver County
  This website from the Beaver County Tourism Department offers online brochures of their events.

Bedford County

• Bedford County Visitors Bureau
  Located in the Laurel Highlands, find information on attractions, events, dining, lodging.
• Bedford Springs Resort
  This historic mineral springs resort, visited by U.S. presidents in the 1900s and early 20th century, has been reconstructed and reopens in June, 2007, offering spa treatments, hotels, golf course, trout stream, and trails for biking and hiking.

Butler County

• Visit Butler County
  This full-featured website offers restaurant listings, hotel bookings, maps, and an event calendar. Butler County is immediately north of Pittsburgh.

Cambria County

• Visit Johnstown PA
  Information from the Johnstown & Cambria County Convention & Visitors Bureau covering News, What to See & Do, Dining, Accommodations & Facilities, About Our Region, Community Services, Directions & Maps.

Erie County

• Lake Erie Quality Wine Alliance
  Travel this wine trail to visit the wineries along the Lake Erie shore. Includes links to member wineries.
• Presque Isle State Park (State DCNR site)
• Presque Isle State Park (Presque Isle Partnership)
  The park, a place for all seasons, is located on a peninsula (presque isle is French for almost an island) approximately 3,200 acres in area which extends 7 miles into Lake Erie. The Peninsula provides seven miles of sandy beaches suitable for public bathing on Lake Erie. It also provides access to more recreational waters than any other area in the Commonwealth and is the most visited state park in Pennsylvania.
• US Brig Niagara
  A reconstruction of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry's flagship in the battle of Lake Erie.
• Visit Erie
  A website by the Erie Area Convention & Visitors Bureau with listings of accommodations, restaurants, and attractions. Also maps of the region.

Fayette County

• Christian W. Klay Winery
  Located in Chalk Hill, PA (east of Uniontown near Fort Necessity National Battlefield) in the Laurel Highlands.
• Fallingwater
  Fallingwater is the vacation home in the Laurel Highlands designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for the Kaufmann family. It is maintained by the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy.
• Fay-West Online
  Provides information on tourist services and destinations in Westmoreland and Fayette Counties.
• Kentuck Knob
  All fans of Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater should make a visit to this nearby home designed by Wright for ice cream makers I.N. and Bernardine Hagan. Read more about it in the Saturday, June 23, 2001 Post-Gazette:
  • Kentuck Knob edges out Fallingwater as more livable home
  • Getting a personal glimpse of house the Hagans built
• Laurel Caverns Geological Park
  a 430 acre geological park featuring Pennsylvania's largest cave located just fifty miles south of Pittsburgh on Route 40, east of Uniontown, in Farmington.
• Linden Hall
  Stay in a turn of the century Tudor Mansion in the Laurel Highlands
• Nemacolin Woodlands Resort and Spa
  A destination unto itself in the Laurel Highlands, south of Ohiopyle in Farmington.
• Nemacolin Castle
  The historic mansion of the Bowman family, located in Brownsville, PA, reflecting early life in America from Colonial times to the late Victorian era.

• Ohiopyle State Park
  Located primarily in Fayette County, Ohiopyle State Park encompasses about 19,052 acres of rugged natural beauty and serves as the gateway to the Laurel Mountains. The focal point of the area is the more than 14 miles of the Youghiogheny [yaw-ki-GAY-nee] River Gorge that passes through the heart of the park. Maintained by the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.
• Ohiopyle White Water Outfitters
  On the Youghiogheny River
  • Laurel Highlands River Tours
  • Mountain Steams and Trails
  • White Water Adventures
  • Wilderness Voyageurs

Greene County

Greene County is located in the southwestern corner of Pennsylvania with borders on West Virginia.

• Greene County: Visiting
  Information on area attractions and tourism event
• Greene County Historical Society
  The Green County Historical Society Museum has 52 rooms housing more than 10,000 artifacts, all representing Greene County’s rich history, dating from the early native Monongahela culture to the early 20th Century.
  • Annual Harvest Festival
    A two-day celebration of the fall harvest is celebrated the third weekend of October at the Greene County Historical Museum with local artisans demonstrating and selling traditional crafts.
• Greene County Tourist Promotion Agency
  Offers a calendar of events and in the future a visitor's guide
• Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Legend of the fall
  "Even Martha Stewart Living recognizes Greene County is the place to be for autumn leaves." This article from Sunday, September 30, 2007 by Mackenzie Carpenter extolls the fall foliage of Greene County, located southwest of Pittsburgh. Offered are driving tours along country roads and information on Waynesburg and Greensboro.

Indiana County

• Indiana County Tourist Bureau
  Calendar of Events, accomodations, city transportation, parks
• The Jimmy Stewart Museum
  Located in Indiana, Pennsylvania (Jimmy's hometown) highlights its namesake's accomplishments in film, radio and TV.
• Potters Tour
  In October of 2008, 18 potters' studios opened their doors to the public. If you are interested in pottery, you might check this website for information about the potters.
• Smicksburg & Dayton
  Located in the northwest corner of Indiana County, these two small communities and the surrounding area are home to over 280 Old Order Amish families.

Lawrence County

• Lawrence County Tourism
  "Lawrence County in Western Pennsylvania offers a tranquil respite to those escaping the urban confines of city living. Located 45 miles north of Pittsburgh and 80 miles south east of Cleveland, Ohio, the county is proud of its diverse cultural heritage, quaint villages, scenic beauty, and abundance of community activities."
• McConnell's Mill State Park
  McConnells Mill State Park, in Lawrence County, encompasses 2,546 acres of the spectacular Slippery Rock Creek Gorge, created by the draining of glacial lakes thousands of years ago.

Mercer County

• Mercer County Convention and Visitors Bureau
  North of Pittsburgh in northwest Pennsylvania where U.S. Interstates 80 and 79 cross.

Somerset County

• Confluence Tourism Association
  Confluence is a town on the Youghiogheny River, upriver from Ohiopyle. The town is named “Confluence” for the juncture of the Casselman River and Laurel Hill Creek with the Youghiogheny River. It offers fishing in its rivers and biking/walking on the Great Allegheny Passage, a rail/trail that extends from Pittsburgh to Washington, D.C.
• Seven Springs Mountain Resort
  Located in Champion, PA, about 1 hour east of Pittsburgh via the Pennsylvania Turnpike (Donegal Exit). Offers skiing, snowboarding in winter, golf in summer.
• Somerset County Chamber of Commerce
  Check out the events and attractions listed at the Somerset County Chamber of Commerce in the Laurel Highlands, east of Pittsburgh

Venango County

• Oil Region Alliance: Tourism
  It was in Venango County, 90 miles north of Pittsburgh, that Colonel Drake drilled the first oilwell. Do a "Bike and Choo-Choo", a one way 10-mile guided bike ride exploring the ghost towns that sprung up through the valley and a train ride back to Drake Well Museum.

Washington County

Located just south of Allegheny County and Pittsburgh.

• Washington County Tourism
  Located in southwestern Pennsylvania, this site has information on Covered Bridges, County Parks, Points of Interest, Services, Restaurants, Organizations, Lodging, Shopping, Calendar of Events
• Pennsylvania Trolley Museum
  The Pennsylvania Trolley Museum has evolved over the past 50 years from a handful of volunteers and a few trolleys to over 600 members and currently 45 trolleys preserved a its museum in Washington, Pennsylvania. It is unique in that visitors actually experience the Trolley Era first hand by riding the Museum's beautifully restored streetcars for a scenic four-mile ride into the past.
• Meadowcroft Museum of Rural Life
  preserves the history of life on the land in Western Pennsylvania over the past 14,000 years. The 200 acre outdoor museum includes: one of the oldest archaeological sites in North America and a renovated 19th Century village. Less than an hour from downtown Pittsburgh, Meadowcroft Museum is located three miles West of Avella.
• Washington, PA
  From the city government
• Washington County Fair
  An annual agricultural fair in August.

Westmoreland County

• Ligonier
  The official page from the Ligonier Valley Chamber of Commerce. Includes information about Fort Ligonier and the Highland Games. Fort Ligonier Days, held the second weekend of October, is the annual historic re-enactment of the Battle of Ligonier, located an hour's drive to the east of Pittsburgh. Includes food and craft booths.