Inside Hershey

This Weekend in Hershey

There are so many events, we could hardly keep track of them all! But here's an attempt to list *most* of the fun events around Hershey for the upcoming weekend. It's the final weekend to enjoy our town before the AACA Eastern Region Fall Meet brings tens of thousands of visitors to Hershey, so get out there and have fun!

Friday, September 30

Hershey Homecoming

• Hershey High School Athletics Hall of Fame luncheon, noon at the Hershey Country Club
• Alumni Association Tailgate begins at 5:30 p.m. in the Hersheypark parking lot
• Parade begins at 6 at Tram Circle 2 in the Hersheypark lot
• Football game (Trojans vs. Mechanicsburg) begins at 7:00 p.m. at Hersheypark Stadium

It’s the final scheduled evening for Jazz on the Veranda at the Hotel Hershey. Fretwork is the featured artist at this relaxing event, which takes place on the Hotel’s front veranda from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m.

Paula Deen appears at the Hershey Theatre at 7:00 p.m. Tickets are still available at the theatre box office: 717-534-3405

 

Saturday, October 1

Inaugural Chocolate Tour bike ride (with 5-, 25-, 30- and 65-mile rides) and six-mile run/walk event to support cancer research. Sign-ups and registration begin near 30 Hope Dr. at 7:30 a.m. The ride and run/walk will impact traffic, according to the Derry Township Police Department: Although the run will follow the pedestrian/bicycle trail it will cross Centerview Rd, University Dr, and Bullfrog Valley Rd. Motorists traveling in the area during that time should expect heavier than normal pedestrian traffic and possible short delays. 

Hershey Gardens presents "Go Dutch: Take Your Spring Bulbs to a New Level" with horticulturalist George Weigel at 10:00 a.m. This program will show you how to take your bulb use to a new level and introduce you to some of the best under-used bulbs. Plus, learn how to force bulbs for indoor color in winter The program is $20 for non-members, $10 for members

The annual Hershey Soup Cook-Off runs from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the Hershey Fire Company. Admission is $10 for adults, $5 for kids 10 and under.

Picasso’s Place Grand Opening. This interactive art school opens its doors to the public from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., with art projects benefiting the Children’s Miracle Network. Location: 513 W. Chocolate Ave, Suite 100. 

ZooAmerica is offering the adult version of its popular ZooCamp. Wild Workshop at ZooAmerica runs from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. for adults ages 18 and over. Participants will have the opportunity to learn about endangered species, experience hands-on animal encounters, enjoy a guided tour of ZooAmerica and the Animal Health Center, build a birdhouse, dissect owl pellets, watch a skunk paint works of art and more! The workshop comes complete with a T-shirt and catered lunch, and is offered for $85 (members) and $95 (non-members). Call 717-534-3900 for details.

Hershey hosts the Wilkes Barre-Scranton Penguins at the Bears' preseason home opener: at the GIANT Center, beginning at 7:00 p.m. 

Hershey Homecoming Dance begins at 7:00 p.m.

 

Sunday, October 2

Hershey Gardens Gardenfest, a free community day, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Friends of the Hershey Library presents the program “Our Changing Climate” at 2:00 p.m.:  “You are the Future!” is the message Dr. Exhaustus delivers to children in this kid-friendly and interactive program. For details, contact the library at 717-533-6555.

 

Planning Your Visit to Hershey

Most summertime visitors to Hershey have one destination in mind: Hersheypark. But there's so much more to Hershey than the amusement park! Here are some tips for making the most of your visit to our community, with a few tips for accommodations, dining and other attractions. To get the latest news and event information about Hershey, follow us on Facebook.

Accommodations
In addition to operating Hersheypark, Hershey Entertainment & Resorts runs the luxurious Hotel Hershey and the Hershey Lodge and Convention Center.

If you want to be pampered on vacation, the Hotel Hershey is the obvious choice. With its acclaimed Chocolate Spa and a recent $75 million dollar expansion (featuring new cottage-style accommodations and a brand-new outdoor pool), the hotel is a destination itself. Room rates during the summer start at $400, but there are often special packages offered and the room rate includes a number of perks, including complimentary admission to the Hershey Gardens and The Hershey Story museum, local shuttle service, access to golf and kids’ activities and more.

The Hershey Lodge offers family rooms starting at $300 in summer, with many of the same perks as the Hotel Hershey, in a slightly less luxurious setting. Hershey bar characters roam the lobby and family-friendly activities abound.

There are plenty of alternative accommodations in the Hershey area, including many newer suite hotels. We like the Spring Hill Suites by Marriott, just a few miles north of Hersheypark on Route 39. Within a half-mile, you’ll also find a Quality Inn & Suites and a Country Inn & Suites. A Hampton Inn & Suites is located on East Chocolate Avenue, and another suite hotel is planned for the downtown.

If you’re not planning to bring the kids, there are some impressive bed & breakfast accommodations in the surrounding area as well. The Annville Inn and The Inn at Westwynd Farm come highly recommended.

Hersheypark Tickets and the Free Preview Evening

If you plan on spending more than two days at Hersheypark, consider a season pass. It will pay for itself —not only does it cover your admission to the park, it also gives you free parking, a 15% discount off food and merchandise in the park and a coupon book with excellent deals (10% off purchases at Hershey’s Chocolate World, for example). If your time is more limited and you've purchased one-day tickets, make sure you get to Hersheypark for the Free Preview Evening : the evening before your full day at the park, you can get in a couple hours before closing for free, and it's well worth the trip. Crowds are lighter, and you have the chance to get a feel for the layout of the park.

 
Making the Most of Your Day at Hersheypark

If you plan to try the waterpark attractions in the new Boardwalk theme area, a good advice is to wear your swimwear under your clothes and be at the main gate right at opening time (10 a.m.) Then get to the Boardwalk (on the far end of the park, in the shadow of the Ferris Wheel) as fast as you can and send one person to get a big locker there—they go quickly, and they're essential if you want to stow your swimming suits and enjoy the rest of the park after the Boardwalk. Another person should go to the wave pool area and claim lounge chairs for the family—lounge chairs are very hard to come by after 10:30.

Whew.

Now you can enjoy the park!

If you like big water rides, do the Vortex and the Whirlwind at the Boardwalk first to avoid hour+ waits later in the day. Then enjoy East Coast Waterworks. The wave pool, where your lounge chairs are located, is a fairly central location and a good place to relax with a drink and a snack mid-morning.

By noon, the Boardwalk is elbow-to-elbow people and the rides have long waits. That's a great time to change, stow your swimsuits in your locker and head out to see the rest of the park. The rides around Midway America (just outside The Boardwalk) should have short lines just after noon. If you're getting hungry, a great recommendation is the Sidewinder food court area. There are several good food stands there—a favorite is Mixed Grille, where you can actually find healthy food, and it's made from scratch. But there's a good burger stand, a sausage concession, a smoothie place and an ice cream place there, as well as a Subway, and it's a nice shaded area that tends to stay quiet.

Another tip: Take a break in the heat of the afternoon and head to the adjacent (and air-conditioned) Hershey's Chocolate World. It's just outside the main gate of Hersheypark, but it's easy to get a handstamp for a quick return to the rides. Chocolate World has recently reconfigured almost everything in the building—there’s the chocolate tour ride, a revamped merchandise area, a fairly good 3-D show, a chocolate-tasting experience, the "Factory Works" (kids get to "work" on a Kiss assembly line) and a Create Your Own Chocolate Bar attraction. It's worth spending at least an hour or two here. The milkshakes in the food court area are excellent and there are often new products and other surprises to be found around the central garden area.

Once you've returned to the park, don't forget to take in the shows. It's a nice break from the crowds and the entertainment value is excellent, whether you choose the aquatheater or one of the music/dance productions.


But Wait, There's More...Now How Much Would You Pay?

If you're in Hershey for more than a day and you want to see some other attractions, there are countless options nearby:

• Take a trip on the Hershey Trolley Works (tickets and departures from Chocolate World);
• Have lunch on the veranda or afour-star dining experience at the Hotel Hershey;
• Take a stroll through the Hershey Gardens (don't miss the Children's Garden and the Butterfly House);
• Play a round of golf at one of the courses in the Hershey Golf Collection;
• Take in The Hershey Story Museum downtown and by all means, schedule a class at the museum’s Chocolate Lab;
• Catch a performance or take a Spotlight Tour of the Hershey Theatre, offered Friday mornings year ‘round;
• See the animals at Hershey's ZooAmerica, a small zoo that's perfect for kids or a two-hour stroll;
• Stop by Founders Hall at the Milton S. Hershey school, gaze at the dome and find out what made Mr. and Mrs. Hershey so amazing;
• Go back in time and see more than 100 historic cars, buses and motorcycles at the AACA Museum;
• Visit Adventure Sports on Route 743S (batting cages, mini sports cars and boats, miniature golf and an arcade);
• Cool down at Indian Echo Caverns, just a few minutes west of Hershey;
  Stop by one of the many great downtown restaurants (we love Bricker's Pizza on West Chocolate Avenue for an Old World Pizza);
• Don't miss the Kiss-shaped streetlights while you're downtown, and by all means, drive past the factory on East Chocolate Avenue to see the Hershey Cocoa hedges on the east side;
• Visit the impressive Pennsylvania State Capitol building, located just 10 miles west of Hershey ;
• Take in all the sights (and tastes!) of Pennsylvania Amish Country, located less than an hour’s drive from Hershey.

What's New in Hershey?

Now that all that troublesome snow has melted, Hershey is preparing for another season of hosting out-of-town guests. Although there's no Big New Ride planned for Hersheypark this year, there are plenty of changes taking place around town that will make your stay in Chocolatetown even better!

Let's start with restaurants. The Fountain Café at the Hotel Hershey is now officially undergoing its transformation to an upscale Italian grill, which is slated to open this spring. And no more Tudor Grill at Hersheypark: it's rumored to be reopening as a family restaurant with a carousel theme.

In the village of Hershey, our favorite pizza place (Bricker's) has a new sister restaurant and bar next door called The Brickhouse (try the Angus burger there!) If you've ventured outside the Hershey orbit slightly to try the fine dining at al Mediterraneo in Hummelstown, you won't find it there—at least not in its former fine dining format. Al Mediterraneo has just reopened as The Gas Station gastro pub. Finally, if it's been more than a year since your last visit, you'll want to try the Hotel Hershey's new Harvest Restaurant and the new Devon Seafood Grill downtown (in the Hershey Press Building).

There are some non-culinary changes afoot in Hershey as well this year, and these are of the temporary-inconvenience-permanent-improvement variety. That's right, the dreaded road construction. There's a new bridge under construction over Swatara Creek, within sight of the GIANT Center. The bridge will replace the historic (and narrow) bridge just to the west on Hersheypark Drive.

While the bridge construction won't slow down many visitors, the realignment of Rt. 743 will irritate plenty of people for the next two years. Here's the scoop on the project, which will begin this summer and continue through 2012:

• Cocoa Ave. will be realigned beginning at the Cocoa Ave. / Caracas Ave. intersection and ending at Chocolate Ave. This will reduce the number of intersections from two to one in this area.
• Park Ave. will be realigned beginning at the Park. Ave. / Chocolate Ave. intersection and ending at the ZooAmerica parking lot entrance.
• A new bridge will be constructed east of the existing bridge to span over the Norfolk Southern railroad tracks. The existing bridge will be removed once this construction is finished.
• Park Boulevard (T-591) will be extended east to meet with the relocated Park Ave. roadway.
• New traffic signals will be installed at the Chocolate Ave. / Park Ave. intersection. Once the project is complete, only one signal will be used to control traffic in this area.

Definitely a needed improvement, and one that will ease traffic...eventually. But construction will have an impact on anyone driving through downtown Hershey in the meantime, and it's worth planning a detour if you're visiting Hershey this year!

Finally, Hershey's Chocolate World is adding a two-story, 1800-square-foot "factory experience" area that is expected to open by summer. Visitors will get to create their own chocolate bar, similar to the smaller Chocolate Lab program now available at The Hershey Story museum.

Restaurant Week in Hershey

If you've been looking for an excuse to try one of the new Hershey Entertainment & Resorts eateries in town, you'll find just the deal to justify a meal out this coming week! It's Restaurant Week in Hershey, and it's your chance to sample some excellent menus from September 13-17.

The following restaurants will be participating:

• The Bears' Den
  
• Harvest
  
• Circular Dining Room
  
• Hershey Grill
  
• Devon Seafood Grill
  
• Highlands Grill
  
• The Forebay
  
• Hogan Grill
• The Fountain Café
  
• Houlihan's

There are special menus at each participating restaurant. For example, here's the Restaurant Week Menu from Harvest, one of our favorites:

Choice of Starter

Frisée lettuce and crisp apple salad
Sliced red onion, honey roasted pecans, blue cheese dressing

She Crab Soup

Braised pork cheek, thyme scented spoon bread
Wilted chard, Jack Daniel’s sauce

Choice of Entrée

Sauté rainbow trout
Cabbage, potato, and wild mushroom medley, whole grain mustard sauce

Herb rubbed roasted half chicken
Caramelized root vegetables, thyme scented natural jus

Choice of Dessert

Pie of the day

Chef’s selection of fruit pie, served with vanilla ice cream

Warm Hershey’s Chocolate fudge brownie Sundae

Housemade Yuengling Lager Ice Cream
Caramel sauce with toasted pecans

At Harvest, $30 per person includes your choice of one starter, one entrée and one dessert—but each participating restaurant has a different menu and some offer two starters, two entrées and two desserts for $30.

Little Bits from Hershey | Twitter

If you'd like all those little tidbits of news that aren't quite big enough for a blog post, please follow The Hershey Insider on Twitter!

For example, if you're interested in knowing that the Calder Cup will be at Hersheypark today from 3:00 – 5:00 p.m. — it's on Twitter!

If you don't want to bother creating a Twitter account to follow us, it's just as easy to check the right column for the latest tweets or subscribe to the Hershey Insider TweetFeed here.

Another Dining Option in Hershey

 

Tomorrow marks the grand opening of Harvest, the new restaurant at the Hotel Hershey and part of the hotel's $67 million Grand Expansion.

From the outside, Harvest reflects the architecture of the hotel's Circular Dining Room. Inside, it has its own warm (and more casual) look, featuring earth tones and dark wood.

Harvest will highlight classic American cuisine, using fresh local ingredients gathered in season. Harvest will serve lunch and dinner, with daily specials.

For additional information or to make reservations, call 717-534-8800.

UPDATE: We visited Harvest for lunch during its first week open. Although you would expect a few glitches, there were none — staff was uniformly pleasant and well-trained, food was surprisingly good and the whole experience exceeded our expectations! More details and a quick review on my Flickr photo of Harvest's Chilled Potato and Leek Soup.

Gridlock Alert: May 15

The concert season in Hershey is just beginning, and that means smart visitors will be checking the event calendar before making plans to enjoy a day in Hershey.

This Friday, Bruce Springsteen comes to town, and his Hersheypark Stadium concert is a near sell-out. If you're planning a day at Hersheypark...well, you may want to reschedule. The roads will have all the traffic they can handle, especially after the concert — and local restaurants will have all the traffic they can handle before the concert!

If you reschedule, you'll want to plan around the following dates as well:

Sunday, May 24 — Coldplay is at Hersheypark Stadium

Friday, July 3 — Aerosmith and ZZ Top concert scheduled for 7/3 was postponed as of July 2.

Friday, July 17 — Nickelback is at Hersheypark Stadium

Friday, July 24 — The Dave Matthews Band always sells out at Hersheypark Stadium (Jason Mraz opening)

Friday, July 31 — Kid Rock and Lynyrd Skynyrd reprise the "Rock and Rebels Tour"

Sunday, August 9 — Creed is at Hersheypark Stadium

Wednesday, August 12 — Blink-182 and Fall Out Boy with Panic at the Disco, which should fill Hersheypark Stadium

Saturday, August 29 — Rascal Flatts is at Hersheypark Stadium

Demi Lovato is scheduled to perform at Hersheypark Stadium's Star Pavilion on August 21 and Keith Urban will bring his tour to the GIANT Center on August 18, but those concerts are expected to draw fewer fans. Still, if you'd prefer to enjoy Hersheypark without the Demi Lovato demographic, you may want to avoid the August 21-23 weekend.

Let the Tourist Season Begin!

The official tourist season kicks off today in Hershey!

Fun-loving visitors will be lining up as Hersheypark opens for the season at 10:00 a.m.

Gourmands have the annual Wine Festival this evening at the GIANT Center (and if they're smart, they've also reserved a table at the new Devon Seafood Grill as well—our dinner there on Wednesday was nothing short of spectacular, and the wine list was impressive to boot!)

And for visiting sports fans, there's nothing like Hershey Bears playoff hockey—the oenophiles clear out just in time for the Bears to do battle with their upstate rivals, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, at the GIANT Center on Saturday evening.

Not a bad start to a busy few months!

Image courtesy of Onzth, 

The Hotel Hershey | Grand Expansion Update

The Hotel Hershey celebrated its 75th Anniversary last year by embarking on a multi-year $67 million building campaign known as The Grand Expansion. Construction continued through Hershey's mild winter, and there's plenty of progress to show you since our last photo update.

The Grand Expansion includes upgrades to the Hotel’s front entrance, ten new luxury guest cottages, more meeting space (also in the form of a cottage), a new 130-seat restaurant (Harvest) a new recreation area, a year-round ice-skating rink and a multi-pool swimming complex with an infinity-edge pool. The expansion plan also calls for "The Shops at the Hotel Hershey," a lineup of seven boutiques that will open through the coming year.

The entrance to the hotel has moved, trees have been cleared and parking lots have shifted. The hotel's veranda has been rebuilt to allow for a more expansive porte-cochere. More refined details have been added—architectural elements matching the hotel's famous bell towers, copper flashing and a fountain.

Behind the hotel, the cottages and recreation areas are taking shape in full view of the Circular Dining Room. The skating rink has been poured and the water slides have been installed at the pool area.

Devon Seafood Grill | Hershey Restaurant

The Devon Seafood Grill sign went up on the restaurant's Hershey Press Building location this week, and everything is in place for a Monday, April 27 opening.

Devon Seafood Grill is a franchise operated by Hershey Entertainment and Resort Co. (HERCO), and it's located adjacent to another HERCO-run franchise, Houlihan's Restaurant & Bar. To make your reservations, call 717-508-5460.