Did you know that the only place that exists as “Hershey, PA” is the post office in that town!? The rest is the Derry Township in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.
Overview
Wait, what!? I know – my mind was blown too! This is just one of the cool facts you learn on the Trolley Tour around “Hershey, Pennsylvania.”
But I’m getting ahead of myself. I’ve been dreaming of going to Hershey, the hometown of arguably the best chocolate in the USA. Stephen, being English, is #teamcadbury and while I think it’s tasty, Hershey has that nostalgia going for it and I’m firmly #teamhershey.
Hershey, PA is home to the Hershey Chocolate Company. They make 810 Hershey Kisses per second at their factory there – that’s 70 million a day and is their biggest seller. They make other versions of the iconic kiss (dark kisses, hugs, etc.) as well as other chocolate bars and sweets.
Reese’s also started in Hershey and has been a part of the company since 1963. They have a few Chocolate Worlds around the globe, but this is the hometown of all things Hershey and I’ve been looking forward to visiting since before the road trip began!
One thing to note – it’s VERY expensive to enjoy Hershey, PA. We didn’t even go to Hershey Park (a theme park) and it was $$$. Each activity at Hershey’s Chocolate World had a fee (except for one free activity), the history museum and its activities were more ticketed activities and then to enjoy a signature chocolate cocktail at the famous Hotel Hershey was yet another high ticket item.
As you might know, we’re on a $125 per day budget on our 50 state road trip, so it caused some tension for us (think the infamous Aquarium Wine from Year 1 – but worse) as I wanted to do “all the things” and hubs (understandably) did not. One activity alone – for one person – was $40. Eventually, we worked it out enough to enjoy our day together.
So with the high cost and low budget, what did we do? What were hits and what were misses – or should I say what where the (Milk) Duds, what were the chef’s Kisses and what was just plain Zagnuts!? Where could you Skor when other stops required a Payday to enjoy them? What was a Symphony and what would we skip since its price tag was a Whopper?
Gather around to hear my (Almond) Joys and my Zeros. Here are my thoughts and recommendations because Stephen would skip it all – remember he’s…uh… Whatchamacallit? Oh yeah, #teamcadbury.
Hershey Hits
The Trolley Works
This was well worth the time and money. You get to ride a trolley car around on a guided tour of Hershey, learn about Milton Hershey’s life and his true life’s work and legacy – The Milton Hershey School (which provides high quality, free education for young people from across the country) – plus you get Kisses and Reese’s as you go around. What could be better!?
Our driver, John and our guide, Dirk were wonderful. If you can ride with Dirk – do it! We saw the house where Reese’s were invented, the old factory, the school grounds and learned all about the AMAZING work at The Milton Hershey School. We drove up past The Hotel Hershey, to the middle school (which used to be the high school) and saw the expanse of the Hershey empire, including Hershey Park.
The Trolley Works tour tickets were $18.95 each which we paid for at Hershey’s Chocolate World.
Drinks at The Hotel Hershey
The Hershey’s Kisses Signature Chocolate Martini is served in the Iberian Lounge at The Hotel Hershey and it was amazing! Both strong and tasty with an adorable Kiss as your garnish! Stephen was interested in trying the Barrel Aged Manhattan but they were out. They also have a chocolate & caramel and chocolate & peanut butter cocktails that I’d love to try in the future. Stephen enjoyed a Lancaster Stout in lieu of the Manhattan. The Signature Cocktails are $14 each – the total was about $26 with tip.
The Hershey Story Museum Experience
You can go through the free exhibit at Hershey’s Chocolate World to learn some of the history of the Hershey company. I’m not sure it covers similar information as we didn’t end up getting to it, but some of the information covered in The Hershey Story is also covered on the Trolley Tour if you’re trying to pick just one. Had I realized this, I might’ve skipped the museum but I’m glad we went since we learned even more about Milton Hershey and something I didn’t know anything about – Hershey, Cuba!
One of the most interesting facts I learned that day was that Mr. Hershey almost rode on the Titanic and was called back urgently so transferred to another ship. I can only speculate, but knowing what I do of him from the whole Chocolate World Experience, I think Mr. Hershey would’ve made the choice that Isador Strauss did and our world would’ve looked very different today.
It was still a hit for me since I really enjoy museums, but if I were going to choose between the two to save money? I’d go with the Trolley Tour – it can’t be beat. There are other experiences at the museum that you can enjoy and I’d love to go back and try them. Tickets for the museum are $15 each but there are other tasting experiences for $8-13 and Chocolate Lab Class for $15 available too.
So… if you’re keeping track we’re now at $131.80.
Misses
Make Your Own Candy Bar
I hesitate to put this on my “miss” because I did enjoy myself. But it’s an expensive experience for what it is, it was a long wait/time and overall I wished I’d spent my money differently. You get to choose milk, dark or white chocolate (I went for milk chocolate), your mix-ins (I didn’t really like most of the options so I went with chocolate chips and stretched myself with pretzels – which was delicious so it was a good choice) and sprinkles or not. When do you get to put sprinkles on a candy bar? Never! So I said yes to sprinkles!
You watch as the bars move through the process, but there’s a lot waiting while they refill items, move bars that go wonky, etc. Then your bar gets covered in milk chocolate (no matter your original bar choice) and you wait as it goes through the cooling tunnel which takes another 6-8 minutes. You design your own wrapper which prints out and get a little metal box for your bar. I’d already paid so I just made the very best of the experience and enjoyed myself, but there was a lot of standing and waiting for smaller children to endure. It was $28.95 each to make your own candy bar.
Drinks and Snacks at Hershey Chocolate World
I went with Fireball in Apple Cider and Stephen tried their specialty Hershey Yuengling beer. They come paired with a candy which was a cute and fun treat. We also ordered the large pretzel. The drinks were fine but nothing special and sadly, the pretzel was hard.
One fun feature is that the pretzel comes with chocolate to dip it in. Overall, it was a fine experience but easily skippable for other fun things to do. It was $38 for the drinks and pretzel.
The Gift Shop
The gift shop is a huge part of the Chocolate World experience. It’s fun to find things that you can only get there – like Gingerbread KitKats – but there weren’t enough “specialty” things that you can only get there. There was so much standard Hershey merchandise that you really had to look for something special.
If you have a HUGE fan then it’s worth having a look, but otherwise it was a lot of things you can get in the grocery store – just for more since you’re at the capital of all things Hershey. That being said, I did find a special gift for my niece for Christmas – you can’t put a price on an Axolotl Squishmallow in a Hershey Kiss outfit… well you can… it’s $25.
Things We Didn’t Hit So We Missed
There are some other experiences in Hershey, PA that I’d love to go back and experience. I’d love to splurge and stay at The Hotel Hershey, tour the Milton Hershey School and learn more about the work they do there and enjoy some treatments at the Hershey Spa. I’d also go back to the museum and spend a little more time – we were rushed to get back for timed events – and do some tastings and maybe the Chocolate Lab experiences.
We didn’t do the free Hershey Chocolate Tour and looking at it, it looks like it was fun AND you get free candy at the end. Apparently children and teens who live in Hershey, PA figured this out very quickly, so they just go through again and again for free chocolate. Something I think Mr. Hershey would’ve wholeheartedly supported.
We didn’t go through Hershey Unwrapped or Stuff Your (Reese’s) Cup which both look incredibly fun. We also didn’t go to Hershey Park. I’m not a big rollercoaster rider, and generally, Stephen doesn’t like to spend our money on going to Amusement Parks even if he might enjoy riding the rides.
Final Thoughts
The overall Hershey, PA experience was a mixed bag. Highs like The Trolley Works tour, learning about the Milton School and having cocktails at Hotel Hershey made up for the average experiences at Chocolate World. All in we spent ~$200 plus tip for the tour guide, Dirk, on the Trolley Works. It was an awful lot for one day but we made some nice memories too. If you’re a huge Hershey fan it’s a can’t-miss, but do your research about which things sound the most fun before you go. We were really busy leading up to it so had to make “on the spot” decisions that affected our experience and we had major sticker shock. Despite all that? I’m #teamhershey for life!
That looks like a lot of fun, but like you say sooo expensive!