Hershey Chocolate World

What do you do when you are staying at Hershey Campground? You go to Hershey, Pennsylvania. The Sweetest Place On Earth!

We got in Hershey, and followed the Hershey Trolley a few blocks.

We found our way to Hershey's Chocolate World.

The parking lot was huge and full, but because we got there around 2PM, there were a few people going home. We found a parking spot pretty close to the front door.

Yum!

We took the free simulated Hershey's chocolate factory tour ride. 

The ride takes you through farm land where dairy cows are for the milk, in the milk chocolate Hershey Bar.

We see the tails of Gabby, Harmony, and Olympia swinging to music.

Then we see Gabby , Harmony, and Olympia singing too us, which by the way, was Joe's favorite part of the tour!

After traveling through farm land, we enter the factory doors.

Inside the factory we see the cocoa beans being put on conveyor belts.

There are several different cocoa beans from different countries that are combined to get that special Hershey flavor.

This board told how many of each bar is made that day in the factory. Unfortunately my camera was not quick enough to make the numbers readable.

There were signs above listing all  the different steps to produce Hershey candies from raw cocoa bean to packaged candy.

All the different products are on conveyor belts, being processed.

There is a narrative explaining each step in the process.

Here are just a few of there candies.

Chocolate being stirred in a huge vat.

The smell in the factory was awesome.

Refining stage

There goes my favorite Hershey bar, the Almond Joy in dark chocolate.

Hershey kisses on the conveyor. Between the Hershey and California factory, 80 million kisses are produced a day.

After the tour, you get two free kisses. The ride drops you off in a huge Hershey store, with every kind of candy they make. There is also a food mall at the end of the tour.

After the tour, I wanted to do the Chocolate Tasting Adventure. I got my ticket, but we had to wait for 30 minutes for the next adventure. We rode the tour again and got a couple more kisses. ( Hey I missed some of the narrative, because I was taking pictures. At least that is my story. Joe said I wanted more kisses.

The first part of the adventure is to attend Hershey University, to learn everything you need to know about the cocoa bean. Then you are given five sample candy bars, and a chocolate drink. The instructor has us try the different samples, to taste and to differentiate the unique flavors. The cost was $9.00. Joe didn't want to do it, so I went in on my own. They also have a section, called, " Create your own candy bar" I wanted to do that also, but I will save that for another day when I can bring my Nana kids along and share that experience with them. We were going to do the trolley, but we would have had to wait a hour for the next tour. Joe came here just for me and he really didn't want to do it anyway.

We left Chocolate World, and drove on Chocolate Ave. to the Milton Hershey's Mansion.

The tour bus drives you by the mansion, so we did it on our own.

The mansion's stone wall around the property.

The mansion has 22 rooms. When Mr. and Mrs. Hershey died, it was given to the Country Club.

This is a home we drove by close to the Hershey Mansion. There are a lot of old stone homes in the Pennsylvania area.

The trolley also takes you past the real Hershey Factory, so we found that also. It is located just down the hill from the mansion on Chocolate Ave.The bushes out front are shaped to say Hershey Cocoa.

The smoke stacks of the factory.

The whole town was built by Milton Hershey around his factory. I didn't get the guided tour of the trolley, but I researched the information and found out this information. Note the kiss street lamps that are through out the town area.

Milton Hershey built a zoo and a amusement park for his employee's, because he knew all work and no play was not good.

We found our way up a hill that had a great view of the the town of Hershey.

You can see the Hershey Factory and Hershey Park.

At the top of the hill we found Hershey Gardens.

For a fee you can view the gardens.

Above the gardens, the Hershey Hotel sits, with the view of the town.

On one of Mr. Hershey's travels overseas, he was inspired by a hotel high above a city, He came home and build a hotel above his town.

Mr. and Mrs. Hershey did not have any children, but they started a school for orphan children, that provided housing, food, and clothing, as well as the education. The Hershey Cooperation supports this school to this day. The school is from K-12, with an enrollment of 1,800 presently.

We saved $24 by driving around and doing our own tour. There is also a Hershey's Museum in the town. 

We enjoy the country drive, which took us about ten minutes, to get back to our campground.