I’m planning on taking my family to Hershey, PA for a summer vacation trip, and am curious to hear of any first-hand accounts of staying at either of these two locations.
We stayed in a cabin in the Highmeadow campground once. It was December and there was hardly anyone else there - more employees than customers in the Park. Not on point for your question, I realize, but I did have an overall good feeling about the operation. I would expect the lodge and hotel to be pleasant, customer-oriented places.
I tried to hitchhike up the Hershey Highway once. Never made it.
This thread has been viewed approx 80 times, and a Brit makes the obvious joke?
What’s up with our Merkin cornhole humor?
[sub]I wonder if Hershey, PA has a junior hockey team, and if so, are they called The Hershey Squirts?[/sub]
They do have an American Hockey League team, but it’s called the Hershey Bears. Sorry to ruin your joke. 
I have never stayed at the Hotel Hershey, but I have had lunch there. It’s quite exquisite, although quite expensive. The service is excellent, from what I’ve heard.
Do try the chocolate pie. You’ll never eat regular chocolate cream pie ever again.
Robin
When I was born my parents lived in Hershey, broke newlyweds living on Mom’s speech therapist wages and paying for Dad’s residency. They would gaze at the Hotel and imagine a future when they could afford to stay there and how wonderful it would be.
About 10 years ago they decided to take a trip back to Hershey and stay in the hotel. They were sooo crazy excited. And soooo crazy disappointed. It was really outdated and not nice at all, the room was tiny and the fixtures were really old. Even the 5-star restaurant was a letdown. My parents were so crushed. 
If they have remodeled it in the past 10 years, give it a shot. If not, stay away.
We stayed one night at Hotel Hershey a few (7-8?) years ago. The room was nothing special - nice enough, but a tad pricy IIRC.
They were in the process of building a spa at the time - it wasn’t open yet but I’ve heard nice things about it since then. Wanna bathe in chocolate? (not pure chocolate, but cocoa etc. added to the bath water).
We did enjoy dinner and then brunch at the nice restaurant there.
Honestly, for a family vacation, I wouldn’t bother. You’ll find lots of hotels and motels within 10-15 miles of Hershey that are more affordable and better for the family. Grantville PA for example, Linglestown PA, Harrisburg (Eisenhower Boulevard has lots of them, that’s where we usually stay).
Oh - and you can buy discount park tix at any Giant grocery store in the area.
Good advice, Mama Zappa, except that there are plenty of hotels in Hershey itself.
The Days Inn is in the heart of Hershey, within a decent walk to Hersheypark
Across the street is the Simmons Motel, a local operation which links together a bunch of converted homes and a small two-story building in the traditional open-faced motel style.
The Comfort Inn-Hershey is on the main road to the park (1.5 miles away). It’s on the edge of town, but right by the supermarket, liquor store (excuse me, “Wine and Spirits Shoppe”) and the chain gang (Applebee’s, MickeyD’s, Bob Evans, Pizza the Hutt and others).
There’s another one in the same area but can’t remember the name.
As for the Lodge and the Hotel, I haven’t stayed there and haven’t lived here long enough to get a sense of how they are. The Lodge (long name: Hershey Lodge and Convention Center) is very nice looking, a huge complex, with conventions there on a regular basis. The Hotel is on a hill overlooking the park and is supposed to provide much better accommodations.
As for the park, we love it. It’s in a very compact space, but there’s a lot to do. They’ve added various waterrides in the last few years, and for the 100th anniversary, they’re adding more. If you’re a roller-coaster fan, they’ve got everything from the old-style wooden coasters to loop-de-loops to Wild Mouse (plus some more gentler rides).
If you’re going out for breakfast, I looooove The Hershey Pantry. You have to drive to the east side of town, but it’s worth it. Huge portions and good food (my wife and I take half our meals home and eat them later). However, you have to pay with money or personal checks: no credit cards.
If you want to chill at the movies, the Cocoaplex is a first-run movie house with stadium seating. Neat thing is that some of the theaters are very small, about six rows and big screens. Like watching the movie in someone’s home theater.
If you get tired of the park, right next door is ZooAmerica. An overhead bridge connects the part to the zoo. Nice place to wander about.
I went to the hotel and spa with friends a few years ago. The hotel was okay, nice and comfortable but pricey. I have no unpleasant memories of my stay.
The spa was great; I had the whole “dipped in chocolate” treatment–cocoa foam bath, cocoa husks scrub, cocoa scented massage. And waiting between these various sessions, you sit in a quiet common area with other people, everyone wearing white robes, eating chocolate and chocolate-chip muffins, and drinking hot cocoa. It was all rather like spending a day in an odd, chocolate-worshipping religious order.
Thanks for the replies so far…
I’m not put off by the cost of staying at the Hershey Hotel but am worried it will not live up to the price tag. The Hotel Hershey is billed as a luxurious, on-site establishment, with free shuttles to HersheyPark and fine dining options and activities such as hiking trails and whatnot. However, in reading reviews on websites like Yahoo! Travel, Travelocity and TripAdvisor, and while many people gave it a thumbs up, I also read of a lot of complaints about “thin walls” and “tiny rooms” (depending on which you get – apparently some rooms are particularly small).
Among the positive reviews, the spa treatments were frequently mentioned as a prime highlight, but those don’t interest either me or my wife; we’re going there on a family vacation with three children (aged 8, 6 and 3-1/2).
The Hershey Lodge, on the other hand, is more reasonably priced but has been disparaged in many a review as basically a motor lodge version of the Hotel Hershey while still charging a fairly high rate.
I know it’s lame to say “I almost did it,” but I seriously was one of the very first “views” on this thread yesterday afternoon and very nearly posted something to the effect of “Okay, everybody who came into this thread to see if it was about anal sex, 'fess up,” but didn’t because it would have been unfair to make that the very first reply.
I’m an S.O.B., but I’m not a heartless one.
Okay, so we’re a little behind.
Sailboat
We stayed at the Hotel Hershey on our honeymoon 2 1/2 years ago (we didn’t have enough time to go to Mexico, like we’d planned). I will say that I was VERY disappointed in the room - incredibly, incredibly tiny. My maid of honor was also our travel agent, and she specifically called them and asked them to ‘do something nice’ for us since it was our honeymoon, but they did absolutely nothing - not even a ‘congratulations’ when we checked in. (Which wouldn’t bug me, but she sends clients there all the time, and she was kind of annoyed).
We had to maneuver around the furniture because the room was so tiny. It was nicely kept, but honestly, for a luxury hotel, I expected a bit more.
We did spend a day in the spa, which was heavenly. We both got a package deal, and thoroughly enjoyed it - like Miss Mapp said, it was a bit like being in a chocolate cult.
We ate at both the regular restaurant (for lack of a better term) and their 5 star restaurant - both were good, but not anything I’d call exceptional.
Honestly, we were somewhat disappointed in our stay. The staff was pleasant and helpful, but overall, I expected more for what we paid a night. I’d stay at a different hotel next time.
E.
Consider staying in Lancaster county at a good B&B, enjoying Amish country and then taking a day to head over to Hershey, which is about 45 mins away from some parts of Lancaster county. It’s a nice combo, and the food at Lancaster county B&B’s is great, and so are the other dinner choices in the area.
For a family trip, Lancaster County combined with Hershey is enormously popular – so much so that there are combos to the different attractions in Lancaster County, such as Dutch Wonderland ( great if you have children under 10 and a nice warm up to Hershey Park), the Strasburg Railroad, the Pennsylvania RR museum and a lot of other stuff to see and do. People often combine Dutch Wonderland with Hershey – you really cover everything this way. No one will leave feeling like something wasn’t for them.
We’ve done it several times. Feel free to give me a holler. We’ve had some great vacations and can tell you the do’s and don’ts.
As an aside from living in Harrisburg for a few years, although everyone always does it, the Hershey tour is a real let down. I guess some time ago, they stopped having tours of the real plant due to quality control issues so the tour is inside a ‘simulated’ chocolate plant. To me, it really isn’t the same as seeing the actual food being produced.
Likewise, World of Coke is similarly disappointing, but I always enjoy the brewery tours I’ve taken as well as the cranberry plant in Las Vegas (although I’m still trying to figure out why the hell I took a cranberry plant tour in Las Vegas AND why the hell they process cranberries there).
That sounds good. In fact, I now recall having gone to Hershey myself once in the distant past, when I was maybe 7 or 8 years old. I remember going on a ride through some kind of M&M factory, with the smell of chocolate being everywhere in the air; taking a ride in a buggy cart (Amish?) and visiting a small amusement park whose entrance had a big wooden-clog-wearing blonde girl for the icon. I suppose this is “Dutch Wonderland”.
Please do reply with some suggestions for a Lancaster, PA vacation, or PM me if you don’t feel like posting it to the SDMB in general.
Thanks!
PS – though my mind is usually near the gutter, and am not above making dirty puns at any moment, I must say I typed the subject line in the OP completely innocently… Good thing I didn’t say anything about looking forward to packing some fudge on my vacation.
robardin, What is your family like (ages, etc)? Feel free to omit the dysfunctional bits!
This will help me to help you.
My kids are (or will be) aged 8, 6 and 3-1/2.
They like amusement parks but not “extreme” rides, i.e. coasters. (Neither do my wife or I, for that matter.) Kiddie rides are perfect. Dutch Wonderland sounds like a good option.
They certainly like chocolate, of course.
They like water park stuff and swimming pools. Ideally wherever we stay has an indoor swimming pool as well as outdoor, so we can still take a dip if it rains.
We typically stay in a suite room when we can (due to having 3 kids) or a large room with 2 double beds. Hence my concern for staying at the Hotel Hershey (thanks guys, now I can’t type that without sniggering). They required me to book two connecting rooms, which is a serious bundle of cashola. They suggested the Hershey Lodge as an alternative where we could stay in one room, but from what I’ve read I sort of feel like I’d be better off staying somewhere else in the vicinity for less money once I’m not at the “real” establishment (the other misgivings about the HH aside).
I’m planning on going out there the week of July 4th, which is a Wednesday this year, so we can see the fireworks at HersheyPark. Something like arriving on Sunday or Monday night and staying through Thursday or Friday. An outdoors activity such as hiking for one of the days would be nice, if the trail is scenic.
Thanks
I would seriously plan on staying someplace a couple miles away. IIRC, there is a Holiday Inn somewhere not too far away that has an indoor pool (look for Grantville PA). I can specifically recommend a Best Western Inn and Suites - they have “junior suites” with 2 double beds and a foldout sofabed, and we’ve stayed there several times. There’s an indoor pool, though it’s nothing special but the the kids will enjoy splashing a bit. Look for the one in Middletown, PA (actually any hotel you pull up listed as “Harrisburg - Airport” or “Harrisburg East” is a decent distance to Hersheypark. It’s perhaps 15 minutes away from the park and convenient to the interstate (I-83) and the turnpike (I-76).
Any place that lists its address as “Harrisburg - East”, “Harrisburg - Airport”, “Linglestown”, “Grantville” or “Middletown” will be convenient to the park and to Lancaster (30ish minutes east of Hershey).
As others have said, Dutch Wonderland and Strasbourg are fun places. We once had the surreal experience, stopped at a traffic light in Strasbourg, of watching an Amish man, driving a buggy, go through the drive-through lane at the bank
There’s also Lake Tobias Wildlife Park - about a half-hour or so north of Harrisburg through some winding roads. Lots of exotic animals there, including all sorts of cattle, large birds, a couple of tigers, etc. I actually felt bad for some of the animals because they were caged vs. more modern “open” habitat (the cattle, deer-like critters, emus etc. were all in open fields), but the kids will enjoy it. There’s a tour bus that costs extra but is well worth it - they drive you out through the fields and the animals come up to the bus to mooch. There’s always a big elk that climbs onto the front steps of the bus.
Hersheypark is opening a new waterpark this year and my kids are very eager to check it out. In fact we may be there part of the time you are (I’m considering taking them that Sunday/Monday).
On the :::snicker::: part of the thread… The house I grew up in, on the eastern part of Harrisburg, was about a half mile from Pennsylvania Route 39, a straight shot to the park. Yes, I grew up on the Hershey h - uh, let me rephrase that :eek:
Ah - I didn’t see this one before I posted my info about hotels - your knowledge of accommodations in the area is definitely more up-to-date than mine!!
I will say that I’m always a little startled at the cost of hotels in the Harrisburg area. Cost of living there is usually so much less than I’m used to (DC suburbs), e.g. my mother’s house on an acre of land sold for half what my townhouse went for around here. But it can be tough to find a bargain on accommodations, even at the lower-end places like Super 8. Rack rates are frequently 90 bucks or more for a fairly basic room, and it can be hard to get much of a discount. I think the demand winds up being high enough that they don’t have to have much wiggle room - I’ve often had trouble getting accommodations at my preferred places.