Visiting Hershey For Jersey Week
Early November– known to the travel industry as JERSEY WEEK….. A week where schools are closed for Teacher’s Convention and the kids are off extra days on a non-holiday week. It’s prime time for NJ families to travel and adventure. While my little guy was only off on Friday, I knew I still wanted to make good use of the extra day. Jersey Week’s most popular destination for families is Florida…. But we opted for something sweet…. And much closer. HERSHEY!
With Fall being my most favorite time of the year, I don’t love the idea of leaving the area and all the pretty trees to be anywhere else. Enter PA into the chat. All the fall goodness during the beautiful drive and then add chocolate? Ladies and gents, we have a Jersey week winner.
I planned on a two night stay in Hershey. The Hershey Hotel was pretty pricey so I did some research and found a Days Inn just a short drive away. We actually saw the Hershey rollercoasters from our hotel window! While the hotel is very basic and some areas could have used a little paint, it was clean, the staff was absolutely lovely, free breakfast was included and the location was fantastic. Located right on Chocolate Avenue, you could walk to various restaurants and shops and even The Hershey Story Museum, which we didn’t get a chance to explore on this visit. The street lamps right outside are all also Hershey Kisses which is too cute and gives you an immersive experience just being in town.
Our first day in Hershey was my favorite. We spent the day at Hershey’s Chocolate World. You need tickets for the activities there, but to peruse the shopping and ride the super cute chocolate ride is free (and I rode it with my 5 year old 3 times!). The extras here, however, are well worth the spend. Purchase in advance to pick your ideal times. Here’s a quick rundown on what we selected.
Hershey’s Unwrapped Show– Super cute. You taste different chocolates during the little show– it’s literally written right into the script. It’s silly and participatory.
Hershey’s Great Candy Expedition- This is like a movie experience that also includes a bit of audience participation to choose the locations your virtual train visits. Adorable and playful. Felt like living in a Candyland world.
Stuff Your Reese Cup- We did one— and that is more than enough for a whole family. You pick the ingredients to go in, but the staff actually does the stuffing (I was hoping for it to be more hands on here but oh well). My little guy thought it was great— but note that this is a MASSIVE CANDY and you’ll be eating it for forever haha.
Create Your Own Candy Bar- This is a MUST DO. This was so neat! Using computers, you create your bar and follow along to watch the machine make and package the whole thing! You even get to design your label. This was so unique and cool—and I would definitely do this again! Also pretty silly to see everyone in their hair nets and aprons– but it makes the experience more authentic!
(There was a trolley ride that we didn’t do this time around– but it looks adorable! I’ll definitely be getting tickets for that our next stay!)
Our second day was the Hershey Theme Park. My little guy is too little for any crazy coasters but we had a great time checking out The Reeses Cupfusion Ride. It was our absolute favorite thing in the park. It’s a gaming ride where you have to shoot at the bad guys for points– makes me think of the Buzz Lightyear Ride in Magic Kingdom and it was oodles of fun. We also liked riding the monorail for an above ground tour of the park, and hitting up the little kiddie rides which there are plenty of! In the afternoon were able to pop over to Zoo America to visit the animals (included in all Hershey Park tickets as long as you enter from the bridge within the park) and watch the short Our Friends from The Sea show starring sea lions and seals in the Aquatheatre (this was super cute and informative). I felt like we got to do a little bit of everything and with this being a fall visit, we didn’t experience endless lines. It was easy to ride everything we wanted.
We did a lot of shopping while we were there and got cute matching t-shirts and other memorabilia as we like to do when we adventure together— and my son got to take his picture with Twizz (giant Twizzler) and Hersh (big Hershey bar) characters back at Hershey’s Chocolate World right outside the park— something he loves to do at any park!
So we spent waaaay less than a Disney trip. Enjoyed an adventure a car ride away. Ate plenty of chocolate, and came home happy. I can definitely see us going back. I hear holidays around Hershey are especially beautiful! Some decor and overlays were already making their way up– a chocolatey winter Christmas wonderland is definitely in store for any holiday visitors.
Marking it down as a “do-again.”
