Penn State, Bucknell and Saint Francis in 3 Days: A Central Pennsylvania College Trip
A parent-first plan for seeing Penn State, Bucknell and Saint Francis University from one hotel on Penn State's University Park campus: official tour sign-ups, visitor parking at all three schools, downtown Lewisburg for lunch, the Berkey Creamery and the Nittany Lion Shrine for siblings, and central Pennsylvania weather by season.
Old Main from the Old Main Lawn, Penn State (Oct 2026). Photo: Dough4872 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · resized and cropped
Last checked Oct 27, 2026. Every fact comes from the pages listed in Sources at the bottom. Some hotel and tour links are affiliate links (disclosure).
Check before you go. Tour times, sign-up rules, parking and seasonal closures change often, sometimes weekly. Every campus section below links to that school's official visit page and shows when we last checked it. Confirm there before you book or drive. College Visit Guides is not affiliated with or endorsed by any college or university. Names are used only to identify them.
The short version
Trip at a glance
Schools
Penn State University Park · Bucknell University (Lewisburg) · Saint Francis University (Loretto)
Days
3: Penn State on day 1, a day trip to Bucknell on day 2, then Saint Francis on day 3 before flying home. Arrive the day before.
Fly into
State College Regional Airport (SCE), about 14 minutes and 6 miles from the hotel with no traffic, with nonstop flights to Charlotte, Philadelphia, Chicago and Washington Dulles.
Best base
The Nittany Lion Inn on Penn State's campus: about a 12-minute walk to Old Main and a 2-minute walk to the Nittany Lion Shrine.
Car or transit
You'll need a car. Bucknell is about 1 hour 29 minutes east of the hotel and Saint Francis about 1 hour 19 minutes southwest, with no traffic.
Registration
All three schools take visit sign-ups online. Saint Francis runs its regular campus visits Monday through Friday, and Bucknell's guided tours run when classes are in session.
1. Who this guide is for
This plan is for parents with a high schooler, and maybe younger siblings, who want to see three very different central Pennsylvania universities in one trip: Penn State's flagship University Park campus, Bucknell in Lewisburg and Saint Francis University in Loretto.
Instead of changing hotels, you sleep on Penn State's campus every night and make two day trips, east to Lewisburg and southwest to Loretto.
Why this order
Day 1: Penn State's University Park visit is an information session and a walking tour of campus, and the Berkey Creamery is about a 7-minute walk from the admissions office in the Shields Building.
Day 2: Bucknell's student-led tours last a little over an hour, and downtown Lewisburg, with its Victorian homes and Market Street restaurants, is about an 11-minute walk from Freas Hall.
Day 3: Saint Francis offers a half-day visit with an academic overview, a campus tour, a complimentary lunch and a meeting with your enrollment advisor, then it's about 1 hour 24 minutes back to SCE.
Each campus parks you differently
Penn State: the Yellow H3 visitor lot at the Shields Building takes coins at the pay station or the HONK app (zone PSUYH3), with a 2-hour limit from 4 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays. There's no parking there on home football Saturdays.
Penn State's gated decks charge $2 for the first hour, $1 for each added hour and $16 at most per day; the Eisenhower Deck is about a 9-minute walk from Shields.
Bucknell: visitor permits are free and good for up to three days, and short-term weekend admissions visits don't need one. Admissions visitors park on Pascucci Drive near Freas Hall.
Saint Francis: there's ample parking next to the Admissions Welcome Center in St. Francis Hall.
Tour availability varies by season.
Winters are snowy: State College averages about 11 inches of snow in both January and February, with January highs near 34°F and lows near 21°F. Leave extra time for the two day-trip drives.
August is the wettest month, at about 4.2 inches of rain, and July averages about 81°F highs, so summer tours are warm but rarely hot.
Penn State's Yellow H3 visitor lot is closed to visitors on home football Saturdays, so check the football schedule before you pick a Penn State date.
Bucknell's guided tours run when classes are in session; at other times its self-guided tour (just under a mile, 30 minutes to an hour) starts at Freas Hall.
2. The suggested 3-day plan
Drive and walk times are no-traffic estimates from OpenStreetMap routing, using addresses geocoded with OpenStreetMap Nominatim. The Bucknell and Saint Francis day trips are each about 60 to 72 miles one way on rural highways, so leave a buffer before your visit time.
All three schools are on Eastern time.
Arrival day: fly into State College and check in on campus
State College Regional Airport (SCE) → The Nittany Lion Inn (200 W. Park Ave., State College)
Driving (no traffic)
~14 min, 5.9 mi (no-traffic estimate)
Driving
Drive
The Nittany Lion Inn → Nittany Lion Shrine
Driving (no traffic)
Walk
Driving
~2 min walk, 0.1 mi
SCE has nonstop American flights to Charlotte and Philadelphia and United flights to Chicago and Washington Dulles.
Expedia's listing for the Nittany Lion Inn notes a free airport shuttle; arrange it at least 24 hours ahead.
Walk over to the Nittany Lion Shrine, the limestone lion carved in 1942 and one of Penn State's most beloved landmarks.
Day 1: Penn State University Park
Hotel → Shields Building, Undergraduate Admissions (664 Curtin Rd.)
Driving (no traffic)
~5 min, 1.7 mi
Driving
~22 min walk, 1.0 mi
Shields Building → Berkey Creamery (Rodney A. Erickson Food Science Building)
Driving (no traffic)
Short drive
Driving
~7 min walk, 0.3 mi
Berkey Creamery → hotel
Driving (no traffic)
Short drive
Driving
~16 min walk, 0.7 mi
Register on Penn State's calendar for an information session and walking tour of the University Park campus.
Undergraduate Admissions is at 201 Shields Building, 664 Curtin Road, open Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Bringing 15 or more students? Penn State asks groups to submit its Large Group Visitation Form at least two weeks ahead.
If you drive, the Yellow H3 lot at the Shields Building has a 2-hour limit on weekday mornings; for a longer stay, use a gated deck such as Eisenhower ($16 daily maximum).
Day 2: Bucknell and downtown Lewisburg
Hotel → Freas Hall, Bucknell Admissions (One Dent Dr., Lewisburg)
Driving (no traffic)
~1 hr 29 min, 71.5 mi (no-traffic estimate)
Driving
Drive
Freas Hall → downtown Lewisburg (Market St.)
Driving (no traffic)
Short drive
Driving
~11 min walk, 0.5 mi
Lewisburg → hotel
Driving (no traffic)
~1 hr 31 min, 72.0 mi (no-traffic estimate)
Driving
Drive
Book a campus visit on Bucknell's sign-up page. Student-led tours run when classes are in session and last a little over an hour; depending on the date you can add information sessions on admissions, the individual colleges or financial aid.
Enter campus at Moore Avenue, bear right onto Dent Drive, then turn right onto Pascucci Drive for visitor parking near Freas Hall. Some visits start elsewhere, so check your confirmation email.
Certain in-person visits earn your student an application fee waiver, but only if the visit happens before they apply.
Bucknell has been tobacco-free since Aug. 1, 2024, and only service animals may go into campus buildings.
Day 3: Saint Francis University, then fly home
Hotel → St. Francis Hall, Admissions Welcome Center (117 Evergreen Dr., Loretto)
Driving (no traffic)
~1 hr 19 min, 60.4 mi (no-traffic estimate)
Driving
Drive
Saint Francis → State College Regional Airport (SCE)
Driving (no traffic)
~1 hr 24 min, 63.2 mi (no-traffic estimate)
Driving
Drive
Pick a morning or afternoon visit, Monday through Friday, on the Saint Francis calendar. The half-day visit covers academic programs, a campus tour, a complimentary lunch and a meeting with your enrollment advisor.
Use 117 Evergreen Drive, Loretto, in your GPS. The Welcome Center is in St. Francis Hall, between Torvian Dining Hall and Immaculate Conception Chapel.
Flying out of Pittsburgh (PIT) instead? It's about 2 hours 26 minutes from Saint Francis with no traffic.
3. Campus by campus
Old Main from the Old Main Lawn, Penn State (Oct 2026). Photo: Dough4872 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · resized and cropped
Register for an information session and walking tour of the University Park campus on Penn State's sign-up calendar.
Can't visit in person? Penn State also offers a virtual tour, virtual information sessions and one-on-one virtual appointments with an admissions counselor.
Visitor parking
Yellow H3 at the Shields Building: 2-hour limit 4 a.m.–3 p.m. on weekdays, 9 hours 3 p.m.–midnight, and 10 hours on weekends; pay by coin at the pay station or HONK zone PSUYH3. No parking on home football Saturdays.
Gated decks (take a ticket, pay before exiting): $2 the first hour, $1 each added hour, $16 daily maximum. Overnight visitor parking is allowed only in the East, Eisenhower, HUB, Nittany and West decks.
Getting there
About a 5-minute drive or 22-minute walk from the Nittany Lion Inn to the Shields Building.
What to know
Stop at the Berkey Creamery, Penn State's ice cream shop, open daily (closed University holidays).
Contact
Penn State Undergraduate Admissions, 201 Shields Bldg., 664 Curtin Rd., University Park, PA 16802; open Monday–Friday, 8:30 a.m.–4 p.m. ET.
Last checked Oct 27, 2026. Tour and admissions details change often, so confirm them on the school's official visit page before you go.
Student ambassadors lead guided tours when classes are in session, lasting a little over an hour. Depending on the date, you can add information sessions on admissions, the individual colleges or financial aid.
The self-guided tour is just under a mile, takes 30 minutes to an hour, starts at Freas Hall and also earns the application fee waiver. Groups of 15 or more students email admissions@bucknell.edu.
Visitor parking
Enter at Moore Avenue, bear right onto Dent Drive, then turn right onto Pascucci Drive for visitor parking near Freas Hall. Visitor spaces are also off Moore Avenue and Seventh Street.
Visitor permits are free and valid for up to three days; short-term weekend admissions visits don't need one.
Getting there
About 1 hour 29 minutes from the Nittany Lion Inn with no traffic. Williamsport (IPT), about 45 minutes away, is the closest airport; Harrisburg (MDT) and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (AVP) are about 90 minutes away.
Fullington Trailways stops on Market Street between Fifth and Sixth streets, about four blocks from campus.
What to know
The Samek Art Museum has a Campus Gallery on the top floor of the Elaine Langone Center and a Downtown Gallery at 416 Market Street.
Contact
Bucknell Office of Admissions, Freas Hall, One Dent Dr., Lewisburg, PA 17837; admissions@bucknell.edu.
Last checked Oct 27, 2026. Tour and admissions details change often, so confirm them on the school's official visit page before you go.
Half-day visits run in the morning or afternoon, Monday through Friday: academic programs, a campus tour, a complimentary lunch and a meeting with your designated enrollment advisor. Visit days fill up fast.
Saint Francis also schedules Saturday open houses and special visit days; see its visit page for current dates.
Visitor parking
There's ample parking next to the Admissions Welcome Center. Other visitor areas are the JFK lots, the lower Stokes lot, and along Lakeview Drive and Franciscan Way.
Getting there
About 1 hour 19 minutes from the Nittany Lion Inn with no traffic. Johnstown-Cambria County Airport (JST), about 42 minutes away, has United Express flights to Washington Dulles and Chicago O'Hare.
Amtrak serves Altoona and Johnstown, and Greyhound/Trailways serves Altoona, Johnstown, Cresson and Ebensburg.
What to know
The 600-acre campus sits high in the Laurel Highlands, 5 miles from U.S. Route 22.
Saint Francis is in its first year of moving from NCAA Division I to Division III, per the NCAA directory, so ask coaches what that means for your student's sport.
Contact
Saint Francis Admissions Welcome Center, St. Francis Hall, Loretto, PA (GPS: 117 Evergreen Dr.); Campus Visit Coordinator 1-814-472-3100.
Last checked Oct 27, 2026. Tour and admissions details change often, so confirm them on the school's official visit page before you go.
Price tiers (Budget, Mid-range, Upscale) follow each hotel's star class on Expedia. Rates vary by date, so check your dates on Expedia.
Hotel · Our pickMid-range
The Nittany Lion Inn
200 W. Park Ave., State College, PA
Why here
It's on Penn State's campus, about a 12-minute walk to Old Main and a 2-minute walk to the Nittany Lion Shrine, and about 14 minutes from SCE with no traffic.
Expedia lists this hotel as a 3-star property, so we place it in the Mid-range tier. Rates vary by date, so check your dates on Expedia.
Good to know
Expedia lists a free airport shuttle (arrange it 24 hours ahead), valet parking for a fee and the on-site restaurant Lionne. The hotel says guests can self-park in the Nittany Deck with a discount voucher.
Amenities, parking fees and room types change, so confirm them on the Expedia listing before you book.
Expedia lists this hotel as a 2.5-star property, so we place it in the Budget tier. Rates vary by date, so check your dates on Expedia.
It's about 4 minutes by car from the Shields Building, about 1 hour 25 minutes from Bucknell and about 1 hour 20 minutes from Saint Francis with no traffic.
Good to know
Expedia lists free breakfast, free parking and an outdoor pool; confirm current details on the listing before you book.
One hotel on Penn State's campus for all three nights means no repacking: Penn State is a walk away, and Bucknell and Saint Francis are each a single day trip.
5. Meals between tours
Hours change, so check before you go.
State College (Penn State)
Eat
Berkey Creamery
119 Rodney A. Erickson Food Science Building, University Park, PA
Penn State's own ice cream shop, about a 7-minute walk from Shields: Monday–Thursday 7:30 a.m.–9 p.m., Friday 7:30 a.m.–10 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m.–10 p.m., Sunday 9 a.m.–9 p.m.; closed University holidays.
At Penn State, the Yellow H3 lot at the Shields Building has a 2-hour weekday-morning limit; the gated decks cap at $16 a day.
At Bucknell, park on Pascucci Drive near Freas Hall; visitor permits are free.
At Saint Francis, park next to the Admissions Welcome Center in St. Francis Hall.
Flying in and out
State College Regional (SCE) is about 14 minutes from the Nittany Lion Inn with no traffic, with nonstop flights to Charlotte, Philadelphia, Chicago and Washington Dulles.
Harrisburg (MDT) is about 2 hours 14 minutes from the hotel and Pittsburgh (PIT) about 3 hours 28 minutes with no traffic, if fares are better there.
Johnstown-Cambria County (JST), about 42 minutes from Saint Francis, has United Express flights to Washington Dulles and Chicago O'Hare.
Weather by season (1991–2020 NOAA normals: State College)
Spring: April averages about 59°F highs and 39°F lows, with about 3.5 inches of rain.
Summer: July averages about 81°F highs and 63°F lows.
Fall: October averages about 61°F highs and 43°F lows, with about 3.5 inches of rain.
Winter: January averages about 34°F highs and 21°F lows, with about 11 inches of snow.
Parent checklist
Register for all three visits online, and pick a Saint Francis weekday and a Bucknell date when classes are in session.
Check Penn State's football schedule: visitor parking at the Shields Building is closed on home football Saturdays.
Book the Nittany Lion Inn for three nights, and arrange its airport shuttle a day ahead if you need it.
Rent a car at SCE for the Bucknell and Saint Francis day trips.
After each visit, take five minutes to jot down what stood out to your student.
8. Student-athlete recruiting visits
For families whose student hopes to play a college sport. Rules below are the NCAA's; each school's links were checked Oct 26, 2026.
Coaches arrange the recruiting part of a visit, not the admissions office. The tour sign-ups in this guide are for the regular family visit. An official (school-paid) visit is offered by the school, and contact with coaches follows NCAA rules that vary by division, sport and grade level.
Start with your sport's questionnaire, then email the coaches. The NCAA suggests emailing coaches with your achievements, highlight videos and interest in their program, including your name, position, NCAA ID and graduation year.
RecruitingWe found no department-wide recruiting page. Look for a questionnaire on your sport's team page at the athletics site ↗, or email the coaches.
Unofficial visit: any campus visit you or your family pay for. You can take as many as you like; in Divisions I and II each one has to come after the first permissible date for your sport.
Official visit: a visit paid for by the school. Each school can offer your student only one. Before a Division I official visit, your student must be registered with the NCAA Eligibility Center, be on the school's institutional request list, and the school must have their high school transcripts.
Division I (Penn State University Park, Bucknell University and Saint Francis University): on an official visit the school can pay for travel for the student and up to two family members, lodging, up to three meals a day for the student and up to four family members, and up to $60 a person in entertainment, including five home-game tickets. On an unofficial visit there are no free meals, but the school can give up to three home-game tickets. Division I uses recruiting calendars with contact, evaluation, quiet and dead periods; in a dead period, no in-person contact and no visits.
Rules change. Confirm with the coach, or check the NCAA's recruiting page and recruiting calendars, before you plan dates.
Planning around the season
Check each school's athletics schedule (linked above) before you pick dates, so a coach meeting doesn't land on a road trip or game day for your sport.
Our recommendation, not a school rule: ask the coach whether they can line up an admissions session or tour around your meeting. If not, book the regular family tour yourself through the official sign-up links in this guide, and leave time between the two.
Add your dates and how you're getting there, and we'll pull this guide into one plan: tour sign-up links, the hotel base, parking or airport notes, the route and meals.
Coming soon
Planning more college trips?
Visit-season reminders and new trip guides from College Visit Guides. Newsletter coming soon.
Sources
All checked Oct 27, 2026. Tour schedules change constantly, so always confirm on each school's official sign-up page. Photo credits are under each photo and on our About page.
Expedia listing: The Nittany Lion Inn (star class, checked 2026-10-27) (not linked: https://www.expedia.com/State-College-Hotels-The-Nittany-Lion-Inn.h28356.Hotel-Information)
Expedia listing: Hampton Inn State College (star class, checked 2026-10-27) (not linked: https://www.expedia.com/State-College-Hotels-Hampton-Inn-State-College.h12517.Hotel-Information)
Expedia listing: Graduate by Hilton State College (star class, checked 2026-10-27) (not linked: https://www.expedia.com/State-College-Hotels-Graduate-State-College.h26358.Hotel-Information)
The Nittany Lion Inn (hotel's own site; parking FAQ) (not linked: https://www.thenittanylioninn.com/faq)
