Before we started traveling full time we lived just outside Harrisburg, PA just 20 minutes from Hershey, PA! it was the first place we visited once we moved! I walked it preggo and all!
We made it a point to go again before we left since it was one of the kid’s favorite places, and it gave them a taste of what we would be doing on the road!
If parking is full when you get there, like it was for us then you get to ride the tram to Chocolate World. My kids had a blast on the tram!
We learned the first time that certain activities fill up fast like the Make Your Own Candy Bar! So we did that first!
We had to dress just like the Chocolate workers do in aprons and hair nets.
But I think Baby Girl took the cake on looking the cutest. This has become my favorite picture!
So you head in with your ticket and scan it, then you pick what type of chocolate you want, and the mix ins you want, sprinkles and more. Then you head to the assembly line. You scan your ticket again and it starts your chocolate bar in a mold.
Then the bar goes from station to station getting the mix ins and chocolate. The name of your child will show up on the monitors so they can follow their bar.
Once all the mix in’s are in there the bar gets covered in chocolate.
Right after that it gets sprinkles (if you choose!)
Then the chocolate bar goes into the cooling off tube which sets the chocolate.
Then you can get into a room with computers to design your packaging! Then you can see how much longer is left on your bar!
Then you can watch your bar be boxed.
Then the chocolate workers check for defects and place your wrapper on your box and you are all done!
The process takes 20-30 minutes depending on how many people are going in at the same time.
From there we headed on to the Chocolate World Factory tour. It’s free!
The tour shows from the beginning how chocolate is made with milk and cocoa beans.
Then even had videos of the real workers making chocolate and a real time count of candy made that day!
Then we got our picture at the end, my kids weren’t sure where to look!
Then we went and had lunch. This was treat in itself! They have tons of great desserts!
My kids had mac and cheese. I had a sandwich and the side was chips and pretzels that were coated in a chocolate dusting!
We had dessert and my husband took home some jolly rancher cupcakes! We then let the kids each pic out one stuffed animal and they LOVED THEM!
Then we decided to drive around Hershey. I love the Hershey Kiss street lights.
Many of the older nice homes were built for the early factory workers to live in because there wasn’t a town where the factory was built. Today they have been restored and are beautiful.
We drove past the Hershey Chocolate Plant
We even hunted down Milton Hershey’s home. Which is not open to tours (I want to know WHY not I want to see it!) it is used as offices.
We then headed by the Hershey Museum and the grounds
Someone was so pooped at the end of the day that she passed out with her Hershey toy in hand!