Hershey, Pennsylvania
We spent two days in Shrewsbury, Hershey, and York. There’s so much to do besides Hershey Park.
When my eldest sister texted my mom that she’d booked our hotel for our yearly girls’ trip in Hershey, Pennsylvania, we were all confused. We knew that we weren’t going to Hershey Park, which is why most people went to this area, and we’d been to the area so many times before and thought we had done everything the town had to offer. She had booked that hotel because it was dirt cheap months in advance, a steal of $80 for a room that would fit my mother, me, my two sisters, and my nine-year-old niece. But as it turns out, there’s quite a bit to do, especially if you’re driving up from Maryland—there’s some goodies along the way you can stop at, including Lancaster. We did not do Lancaster this trip, but I highly recommend that as its own separate day trip.
If driving up from Maryland, specifically Baltimore, do what we did and stop at the Markets at Shrewsbury. It’s this little Amish market in the town of Shrewsbury, which is just past the Hereford and Cockeysville zone of Maryland. Don’t eat breakfast or lunch and don’t come on a Sunday (it’s closed)—there’s an entire food court section. The Amish are known for their traditional ways of living, and they make by hand all the American classics here. You can see girls pressing on the dough to make donuts and danishes in one section, people making bread in another, get meat at the butcher’s, and even get an entire entree with three homemade sides at another. This is then connected to a trinkets shop with all the home goods you’d ever dream of, and homemade Amish furniture. The Amish are known for their furniture, and despite it being wildly expensive, my eldest sister swore to come back and get this dining table she fell in love with.
We then drove the next leg to Hershey, Pennsylvania, where we stopped at a local gem hidden across from Hershey Park: Hershey Gardens. If you go to the Hershey Theatre the same day as the Gardens, you’ll get a discount. However, at $11 an adult in 2021, this is still a steal for a garden complex.
I’d been going to Hershey Park my entire life and never knew these gardens existed right across from it. I particularly recommend coming here in the spring and not in the fall like we did, because a lot of the plants would be dead. They were indeed dead—the entire perennial garden was a small, desolate wasteland. There were an impressive amount of roses blooming, in so many different breeds, shades, and sizes, and they were stunning to look at. Just past that, in the Children’s Garden, lies the bonsai exhibits and the pathways to the back trails. So there’s some nice hiking potential if you have the time for it.
For us, unfortunately, it was about to storm so we couldn’t take our time through the gardens. From what was blooming, however, there was still quite a bit of beauty to be found. The ornamental grass section (above right) was really pretty and wispy with the wind, there was a massive pretty lake, and a zen Japanese garden and bridge where you could peacefully just exist in. We didn’t go on the back trails because it was about to start pouring any minute, and so we maneuvered through quite a bit of cool-looking trees, statues, and decorative arches and figures to see the nature that was still alive.
After going through the outdoor section, we wandered inside to the indoor portion. They have a small room of exotic butterflies where you can just enter. The butterflies aren’t contained, so they’ll land right on you. They do check to see if you’re not accidentally smuggling one out, and you are advised to watch where you’re stepping. It was a pretty cool experience, to see them up close, since a lot of them would just be chilling on leaves and would not be shy when coming right up to you.
This is when it began furiously storming. We thought we waited for the perfect moment to dash to the car, but it turned out to be the worst one. Drenched by the time we were in the car, we were literally dripping and my mother realized her jeans she was wearing were the only ones that she had packed. And so, defeated, we headed to the local Tanger Outlets.
We killed quite a bit of time at the Tanger Outlets before heading over to our hotel to finally dry off, change into the new goodies we had bought at the Outlets, and then find a place for dinner. We had a reservation for The Chocolatier, the new Hershey restaurant by the park, but after seeing mediocre reviews and we were hungry before our reservation, we headed on over to Fabio’s, which was right next to our hotel.
My mother saw their menu in the hotel lobby, and after looking it up, I told our family we should go there. It was cheaper than The Chocolatier and seemed to have better quality food. And oh man I was right. The dinner pastas were massive, they served us two stacked plates of complimentary bread, and they gave us each a medium-sized salad to start. We left stuffed. I recommend the tortellini—it was pretty good. The ambiance in there was also immaculate, as was perfectly dim with string lights. I loved that place a little too much, if you can’t tell.
We then headed back to finish the outlets, then rounded out our night at Desserts Etc., by the Hershey Pantry. People rave about the desserts here, but on the fall day we went, the options were more chocolate/peanut butter/pumpkin based. I passed, but people still tend to love this place. Go for a nice coffee or a cupcake. It’s not too expensive so I recommend at least trying it if you want something not over-priced and not from the Hershey chocolate brand.
It was going back the hotel we took the back roads and discovered the cute main town drag. I’d never seen it before in my life, and was surprised to see a museum and spa also existed along with a historical-looking building. Sadly, the sun was setting and I didn’t bring my camera for this portion of the adventure, so I missed a lot of really cute pictures. It was worth soaking in the moment however. Take the back roads if you’re ever in town. You might find some great local haunts that you’d never know about otherwise.
After a quiet night of sleep, we checked out of the hotel the next morning and headed over to Hershey Park to get into the free portion called Chocolate World. Which was a mess. They say on their website they open at 9 am but that was a complete lie. We waited in the cold for thirty minutes, only to find out the timed tickets were also a lie. We got on the Chocolate World ride because my young niece had never been, which was the same as usual. It’s basically an overview of the chocolate-making process at Hershey. We got off the ride and entered the chaos that was the main store.
It was really, really crowded and most people did not wear masks. People go nuts in this store because there’s candy merchandise and limited edition merchandise you can get here. The line was literally insanely massive. I grabbed a specialty milkshake right before a line formed, which was a strawberry-chocolate milkshake with Hershey Kisses and whipped cream. It was prettier than it tasted. I wouldn’t get it again, but it was worth the picture lowkey. We then headed out because of how crowded it was, as there were just people everywhere without masks and it felt like you couldn’t breathe.
The Markets at Shrewsbury
It’s here where our paths could’ve diverged. You can easily hop to Lancaster, Gettysburg, or York from here and have a solid day trip at any of these three locations. We were tired though, so we settled for a tame York trip. We stopped in a big Christmas tree store, my mother stocked up on all her seasonal goods, and then headed to the nearest Cracker Barrel for lunch. I hadn’t been to Cracker Barrel in a hot minute, so when I ordered my dish (I’m cutting out meat, so got the sides of macaroni, pinto beans and pork, mashed potatoes, and dumplings) I was absolutely amazed at how salty it was. American food always hits me wrong because of the sodium levels. We then got out biscuits and I was even more amazed at how salty that tiny biscuit was.
And then we headed home! I wish we could’ve eaten lunch at the Shrewsbury Markets, since their food looked and smelled absolutely divine, but it’s closed on Sundays. There’s an insane amount to do in Hershey, even if you may not realize it, that doesn’t involve paying for the expensive park. I wanted to explore that small city-like strip a bit more and go to the Hershey Theatre and Museum, but that’ll be a trip for another time. The gardens were a pleasant surprise, especially since I never knew they existed. Would recommend going in the spring or summer, though, when everything is blooming.
And that’s it folks! This year’s girl’s trip was amazing, totally recommend it. Until next time :)
