If you’re looking for a destination that truly offers a full gamut of experiential offerings, look no further than Hershey, Pennsylvania.
Everyone knows that The Hershey Company makes great chocolate. So chocolate lovers by the thousands flock to Hershey each year to discover and experience a growing list of chocolate-related activities. But the Hershey/ Harrisburg region offers so much more.
Let’s start with the chocolate. Sophisticated chocolate lovers will be pleased to know that, in addition to its wellknown grocery store products, The Hershey Company also offers exquisite bean-to-bar chocolate under the name Scharff en Berger.
The Hershey Company acquired this San Francisco area company back in 2005 so visitors can enjoy a full range of chocolate from single origin artisanal bars to everyone’s favourite chocolate candy products while in Hershey, PA.
For adults, The Hershey Story Museum is a must. You can take part in the Chocolate Lab, where you will make and design your own chocolate bar or taste a flight of warm single origin chocolate shooters in the Tastings room. You can tour the chocolate museum and learn all about how the inclusion of double condensed milk makes Hershey’s Chocolate taste so unique.
If there are kids in tow, a visit to Hershey’s Chocolate World is recommended, where kids of all ages can experience a ride on the Hershey Trolley, candy and chocolate making, the 4-D Chocolate Mystery and more. Save some energy for a visit to Zoo America and Hersheypark for a day of thrilling rides and attractions.
Don’t miss a historic tour of The Hotel Hershey—a member of the Historic Hotels of America group of esteemed properties. The knowledgeable guide will explain how Milton S. Hershey and his wife Catherine loved to travel, and used the exotic influences of the Heliopolis Hotel in Cairo and time they spent in Cuba and abroad to design their namesake four-star/ four-diamond hotel.
The Chocolate Spa at The Hotel Hershey offers a menu of amazing chocolate treatments—including the Whipped Cocoa Bath and Cocoa Facial Experience featuring an edible chocolate facial mask. What could be more decadent? Lunch at the spa’s Oasis Restaurant and Lounge completes the decadence with chocolate martinis and a buffet style array of healthy and not-so-healthy choices.
Fine dining can be found in The Circular, a dining room with no corners and no bad tables. Milton Hershey designed the layout himself so that every table in The Circular is inviting and offers a beautiful view of the grounds or gardens. Look for cacao-infused offerings such as the cocoa-crusted scallops on the menu.
Nature lovers will also enjoy a visit to Hershey. The grounds at The Hotel Hershey are immaculate and adorned with 300 hanging flower baskets and 65,000 tulips. But it is the Hershey Gardens and Butterfly Atrium that are most impressive. There are 145 varieties of roses offering 3,500 blooms. There are 11 themed gardens with sculptures and a mile-long path to help visitors truly get lost in nature as they meander through the 23-acre botanical garden. Indoors, the Conservatory and Butterfly Garden keep summer alive in Hershey year-round. There are 500-600 butterflies in the Butterfly Atrium at Hershey Gardens at any one time. Be prepared for any number of them to land on you! Open 363 days per year, the Conservatory hosts special events and offers a beautiful natural environment year-round, while the outdoor gardens offer quiet solitude spring through fall.
Visitors arriving by air enter the region via Harrisburg International Airport—just 20 minutes from Hersheypark and the other Hershey attractions highlighted here. As the state capitol, Harrisburg is definitely worth a visit and likely to be the highlight for history buffs as well as art and political enthusiasts. There are free tours (on the half hour nearly every day of the year) of the Capitol Complex—a National Historic Landmark sprawling over five and a half acres of land in downtown Harrisburg along the Susquehanna River.
Don’t miss this! The Pennsylvania Capitol is more like an art museum than a government institution, though you are reminded of the formalities when the Senate is sitting or the House of Representatives is in session. The main Capitol building was dedicated in 1906 by President Theodore Roosevelt and designed in the American Renaissance style by Philadelphia architect Joseph Huston, who envisioned the building as a “Palace of Art.”
Huston definitely achieved his goal. The Capitol’s 272-foot high dome was inspired by St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The rotunda was inspired by the Paris Opera House. The murals adorning the walls and ceiling of the Senate Chamber, along with its bronze and glass chandeliers are simply breathtaking. The East Wing opened in 1987, was designed to meld with the original design of the building, and added nearly 400,000 square feet to the size of the Capitol Complex.
For those who enjoy artisan markets, Harrisburg’s Broad Street Market is a superb place to explore. You’ll find homemade fudge, freshly roasted coffee, locally crafted wines, and a host of tasty ethnic products to enjoy. Founded in 1860, there are approximately 40 artisans who sell their goods in the Broad Street Market--the oldest continuously running market of its kind in the US