Milton S. Hershey built the entire town of Hershey, Pennsylvania, over a hundred years ago to serve his Hershey Chocolate factory and the factory employees. Today, not everyone who lives in Hershey works for the chocolate company or its affiliated enterprises. However, Hershey attractions still dominate. According to TripAdvisor, four of the top seven Hershey attractions are Hersheypark, Hershey Gardens, The Hershey Story (The Museum on Chocolate Avenue) and Hershey’s Chocolate World. Hershey’s Chocolate World itself includes five separate activities.
1. Hershey’s Chocolate Tour
A free ride takes you on a simulated chocolate making tour. You pass an animated dairy farm and real working equipment that is making Hershey’s chocolate. You’re bound to end up with a chocolate craving after seeing the flowing chocolate and smelling the chocolate scent. However, your craving will be satisfied with the Hershey’s Miniature you get at the end of the ride.
2. Create Your Own Candy Bar
If the candy bar from the chocolate tour doesn’t quite satisfy your chocolate craving, you can experience more chocolate as you create your own candy bar. Use a computer to design your chocolate bar. Choose from milk, dark or white chocolate, and add “inclusions” like pretzels and toppings like sprinkles. Design your wrapper. Then watch the automated equipment make your bar. [This activity is currently closed during an update.]
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3. Chocolate Tasting Experience
Become a “Hershey’s Palateer” when you learn to taste chocolate. Tasting involves looking at the chocolate, listening to the snap as you break a piece off, taking in the aroma, and finally, tasting it. In the Chocolate Tasting Experience you taste several different chocolates. You learn to distinguish among earthy, floral, fruity, spicy, nutty, sweet and dairy flavors in chocolate. At the end, you are awarded a completion certificate. I recommend this for older kids and adults.
4. 4D Chocolate Mystery
In this interactive show, the audience helps to solve a mystery. Strobe lights, loud noises, mist and mouth-watering chocolate scent are enough to keep even the most worn-out tourist awake. The show is fun for kids and adults alike.
5. Trolley Works
Board the trolley for a ride around Hershey. The guides point out sites significant to Hershey as you ride through town. Besides other Hershey attractions, you go past the Hershey chocolate factory, the company founder’s home, and the Milton Hershey School. (The Hershey School is a school for disadvantaged children. It is completely funded through a trust established by founders Milton and Catherine Hershey.) The guides add humor to the tour and pass out Hershey’s samples as you learn more about the company’s history.
If you visit Hershey’s Chocolate World
Besides the activities noted in this article, Hershey’s Chocolate World also includes Hershey’s largest candy store, a bakery and a food court. The Hershey’s Chocolate Tour ride is free. However, there is a charge for the other activities.
Hershey’s Chocolate World is located at 101 Chocolate World Way in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Hours vary by season. Check the web site for hours for the day you plan to visit.
Accommodations
During our visit to Hershey we stayed in at the Red Umbrella Bed and Breakfast in nearby Grantville. Check rates here
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Disclosures: The Hershey Harrisburg Regional Visitors Bureau and Hershey’s Chocolate World hosted our visit to this attraction. Our admission was complimentary. However, any opinions expressed in this article are my own.
This article contains an affiliate link. If you book a room through the “check rates here” link above, I will receive a small commission at no additional cost to you.
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This post is making me want to go back to Hershey! My husband and I took our high school youth group on a mission trip to Pennsylvania over five years ago and on our way home, we spent a day in Hershey. We had a lot of fun at the Amusement Park and at Hershey’s Chocolate World. I’ll never forget how delicious the ice cream was there!
Hershey certainly is a fun town. We didn’t make it to Hersheypark on this trip. We definitely need to go back and do that.