Trip to Hershey and Amish Country in Pennsylvania
♦ Routes (free): Detailed travel itineraries in USA
This route combines a visit to a fancy tourist town entirely revolving around the chocolate industry that developed there with a visit to towns where time has stood still and people from a special sect live: the Amish sect.
Hershey is a small, fancy tourist town in the state of Pennsylvania that entirely revolves around the chocolate industry. Although the famous chocolate factories, Hershey Chocolates, have long since moved to other locations, the town remains loyal to the factory founders and the tourists who flood their town, and many tourist attractions at the site of the original factory operate vigorously in the city. The main attraction is a visit to "Hershey’s Chocolate World" where you take a 12-minute tour in moving cars along a chocolate production line, from cocoa beans to the final product. The tour is free, and in return, you exit directly into the large and colorful factory store.
♦ Recommended hotels in Hershey:
Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott Hershey Chocolate Avenue
If you are interested in saving, you can live in the nearby large city: Harrisburg.
Wonderful apartment hotels in Harrisburg, especially suitable for families (including families of 5-6 people) are:
Staybridge Suites Harrisburg-Hershey
SpringHill Suites Harrisburg Hershey
Additional attractions are located nearby:
A large amusement park called: Hersheypark, open from mid-May to early September, featuring more than fifty amusement park rides including 6 roller coasters and 6 water rides. Nearby are also botanical gardens named Hershey Gardens, also open from mid-May to early September, and the Hershey Museum dedicated to chocolate history, open year-round. The phone number of the main visitor center for the Hershey-Harrisburg area: 717-975-8161. From Hershey, drive towards Harrisburg via Route 322 and from there continue east to Lancaster via Route 283; the drive takes about fifty minutes.
Amish Country - In a fertile agricultural area centered in the city of Lancaster is the "Pennsylvania Dutch Country," where settlements and farms of the Amish sect are scattered. This sect was established here by Christian groups that were persecuted in the 18th and 19th centuries by authorities in Europe and found refuge in liberal Pennsylvania. Members of the sect lead a lifestyle exactly identical to that practiced by their ancestors about 400 years ago, and although they live in the heart of modern America, they do not use electricity, travel in buggies with wooden wheels, and work their land with simple and primitive tools. The men usually wear black suits and black hats, grow well-groomed beards (no mustaches), and the women wear long, dark dresses and a cape. The children are dressed exactly like their parents, and when you tour the place, it will seem to you by the appearance of the people that you are touring in the heart of Mea Shearim.
Members of the Amish sect are pleasant, welcoming people and live in peace and harmony with their modern neighbors. Most Amish settlements are scattered along Routes 30 and 340, south of the I-76 interstate. Besides the large city of Lancaster, most settlements are small and surrounded by agricultural fields, including: Bird-In-Hand, York, Lititz, and Strasburg.
The best way to tour the Amish settlements and soak up the special atmosphere is in a small black buggy hitched to a mare, the main means of transport for the Amish. Several companies organize buggy tours: Aaron and Jessica's Buggy Rides and ABE’S Buggy Rides, both in the town of Bird-In-Hand, on Route 340, and they are the largest and most recommended.
Buggy tour in Amish Country
In Bird-In-Hand, there are additional tourist sites teaching about the unique lifestyle of the sect: at Plain and Fancy Farm, you can take a tour of a model house with furniture and equipment reflecting the lifestyle of the Amish. The place is called: Amish Country Homestead, and guided tours of about half an hour are held there. The farm also features an impressive 30-minute audiovisual display called: The Amish Experience Theatre, describing the dilemma of an adolescent boy who must choose between the Amish lifestyle and the modern world beckoning from outside. Nearby is a small schoolhouse named: Weavertown One-Room Schoolhouse, featuring a combination of animation and wax figures that authentically describe studies at the sect's school. Open from April to October.
In Lancaster, the largest of the Amish settlements, you can also learn about the Amish way of life at "The Amish Farm and House," located about 8 km east of Route 30. Guided tours of about 45 minutes are held in the house and farm, during which various Amish customs are explained. Open year-round.
Train lovers will not miss a visit to the town of Strasburg from which you can set out on a 45-minute ride on a well-preserved ancient steam train on a route passing between Amish settlements, considered the oldest short route in the US.
In the town, there is also the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania and The National Toy Train Museum. In the area are many more family attractions, and it is worth spending at least a full day there.