Vaughan to Hershey: the chocolate-town weekend by chauffeured car

Hershey, the sweetest place

Hershey is the town Milton Hershey built around his chocolate factory in 1903 — the Kiss-shaped streetlights on Chocolate Avenue, the smell of cocoa on the wind, the school for orphans that still owns the company — and it is the family destination Vaughan parents of children under twelve book for the whole package: Hersheypark, the theme park Hershey opened for his workers in 1906 and which now has fifteen coasters and the Boardwalk water park; Hershey's Chocolate World, the free dark ride through a simulated factory with a Kiss at the end and the Create Your Own Candy Bar line; the Hotel Hershey on the hill with its cocoa-based spa treatments and the Hershey Lodge with its indoor water park; ZooAmerica's North American animals inside the park's gate; Hershey Gardens' roses and butterfly house; the Hershey Bears' hockey at the Giant Center; and, thirty minutes east, Lancaster County's Amish farms, the Strasburg Rail Road's steam train and the farmers' markets. The Hershey PA site has the town; the border guide has the Peace Bridge.

The road, and the split

From Maple the 400 and the 407 to the QEW, the Peace Bridge, I-190 and I-90 east to Rochester, I-390 south through the Genesee valley to Avoca and I-86 to Corning, then I-99 and I-81 down Pennsylvania's spine — Williamsport, Harrisburg — and Route 322 east the last twenty minutes to Hershey; eight and a half hours by the estimate and nine with the booth and stops. A family with young children splits it at Corning for the glass museum's afternoon (five hours from Vaughan) or at Williamsport, and the travel desk holds the night; a family with teenagers does it in the day with the Sprinter's tables and the screens.

Hersheypark

The park's fifteen coasters run from the wooden Comet of 1946 through the Great Bear's inverted track, the Storm Runner's launch, Skyrush's wing seats over the creek, Candymonium — the hypercoaster at the entrance's Chocolatetown plaza — to the children's coasters in the family areas; the Boardwalk water park inside the gate has the wave pool, the slides and the lazy river on the same ticket; the Kissing Tower's rotating cabin with Kiss-shaped windows is the view; ZooAmerica's eleven acres of bears, wolves and eagles are inside the park's gate on the same ticket. Height is measured in candy — a Hershey's Miniature, a Reese's, a Kiss, a Twizzler, a Jolly Rancher — and a child's wristband colour decides the day; the park's site sells the tickets and the Fast Track passes, and the Sweet Start early entry for resort guests is the hour before the public.

Chocolate World

Hershey's Chocolate World beside the park is free to enter: the Hershey's Chocolate Tour is a dark ride through a simulated factory with singing cows and a warm Kiss at the exit — a family rides it twice — and the paid experiences are the Create Your Own Candy Bar line, where a child designs a bar on a screen and watches it made and wrapped with their name on it; the 4D Chocolate Mystery show; the Chocolate Tasting Experience for the parents; and the largest Hershey's store on earth, which fills the Sprinter's bay and is declared at the booth. The Chocolate World site has the hours, which run late in summer.

The Hotel Hershey and the Lodge

The Hotel Hershey on the hill above the town is the 1933 grand hotel Milton Hershey built during the Depression to keep the town employed — the Mediterranean-styled lobby, the Circular Dining Room, the formal gardens, the pools, and the Spa at the Hotel Hershey with its Whipped Cocoa Bath, Chocolate Fondue Wrap and Cocoa Massage, which the parents book as the trip's indulgence — and the Hershey Lodge at the town's edge is the family hotel with the Hershey's Water Works indoor pool complex, the character breakfasts and the shuttle to the park; both give Sweet Start early entry and the park's shuttles, and the travel desk holds either, which for July weekends book in the winter.

Lancaster County, thirty minutes east

Lancaster County is Pennsylvania Dutch country — the Amish and Mennonite farms on the rolling land east of Hershey, the buggies on the roads, the roadside stands, the quilt shops — and a Vaughan family's day with the Sprinter: the Strasburg Rail Road's steam train through the farms with the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania across the road, the Amish Farm and House's tour, Kitchen Kettle Village's shops at Intercourse, Lancaster Central Market — the country's oldest continuously operating farmers' market, in the city's 1889 hall — and the shoofly pie and the whoopie pies from a farm stand. Photographs of the people are not taken; of the farms, yes.

The weekend, in shape

Friday at 7 from Maple, the Lewiston bridge at 8:40, Corning's glass museum at 12:30 for the afternoon, the Williamsport night; Saturday I-81 to Hershey by 10, the Hershey Lodge's check-in, Chocolate World's ride and the candy bar at 11, Hersheypark from one to the ten o'clock close; Sunday's Sweet Start at nine, the coasters until two, the Boardwalk until five, the Lodge's pool; Monday Lancaster's steam train at ten, the farm stands, the Central Market, the Hotel Hershey's spa for one parent at four; Tuesday the road home in one day — I-81, I-86, I-390, the Thruway, the Lewiston bridge at 5:30 with the 48-hour exemption on the Hershey's bags — Maple by 7:30. Four nights, the Sprinter on daily hire, one number in the booking engine.

What the chauffeur replaces

Eight and a half hours each way through three states; two bridges as a driver; I-81's trucks through Pennsylvania's hills; the park's lots, which resort guests do not need; the Lancaster day's back roads with buggies on them; and the drive home with a family that has eaten chocolate for four days. For a couple the trip is not this trip; for a family of five with children under twelve or two families in a Sprinter it is one fare and a parent who rode Candymonium instead of driving I-81.

Seasons

Summer for the park and the Boardwalk, with July and August the fullest; Hersheypark in the Dark's Halloween weekends in October; Christmas Candylane from mid-November through the New Year, when the park's coasters run in the cold under four million lights and the Sweet Lights drive-through — the December weekend Vaughan families book with the Lodge; spring for the Gardens' tulips and the park's shorter hours. The route's Pennsylvania hills in winter are the chauffeur's care.

Pairing it

Hershey pairs with Gettysburg an hour south for the battlefield's day, with Philadelphia ninety minutes east on the Turnpike for the family that adds the city, with Washington two hours south as the East Coast loop's first stop, and with Corning as the drive's split.

The park day, in order, for a family of five

Sweet Start at nine from the Hershey Lodge's shuttle or the Sprinter: Candymonium at 9:05 for the teenagers and the Chocolatetown carousel for the five-year-old; Skyrush and the Great Bear before ten; the Comet's wooden track for the grandparents; the Kissing Tower at 11 for the view; lunch at noon; ZooAmerica's bears and wolves at 12:45 for the hour of shade; the Boardwalk's wave pool and slides from 1:30 to 4 with the towels from the Sprinter's bay; the Storm Runner's launch at 4:30 when the lines shorten; dinner in the park; the Lightning Racer at dusk; the Lodge's pool at 9:30. Twelve hours, and a five-year-old who was a Reese's and rode everything a Reese's may ride; the park's site has the height chart to check before the trip.

The Hotel Hershey's spa, and the parents' hours

The Spa at the Hotel Hershey takes a parent for a half day while the other takes the children to Chocolate World's candy-bar line: the Whipped Cocoa Bath, the Chocolate Fondue Wrap, the Cocoa Massage and the Cuban-style treatments from the Hershey Cuba sugar mills' era, with the spa's lounge and the gardens after; the hotel's site books the treatments weeks ahead for weekends, and the Sprinter's afternoon is the one drop the travel desk puts in the plan. The Circular Dining Room's dinner with the children in their best clothes is the hotel's other hour, and the Hershey Gardens' butterfly atrium across the road is the children's.

Costs, plainly

The Hershey weekend is a daily hire for four nights in the booking engine, or a return with the park days released; the Lodge or the Hotel, the park's tickets, Chocolate World's candy bars and the spa are the family's own, and the 48-hour exemption covers the Hershey's store's bags. Against the fare are eight and a half hours each way through three states as a driver, two bridges, I-81's trucks and the Lancaster back roads with buggies on them; the trip is not a couple's, and a family of five with children under twelve or two families in a Sprinter book it for one fare and a parent who rode Candymonium instead of driving.

The Hershey Story and the town's other hours

The Hershey Story museum on Chocolate Avenue tells Milton Hershey's own — the Lancaster caramels, the factory, the town, the school for orphans that inherited his fortune and still owns the company — with a chocolate lab where the children temper and mould their own bar and a countries-of-origin tasting for the parents; the Hershey Gardens on the hill above the Hotel have the rose garden of 1937, the butterfly atrium and the children's garden; the Hershey Bears at the Giant Center are the AHL's oldest club and the October-to-April hockey night; and the AACA Museum's antique cars on the town's edge are the father's hour. The Hershey PA site has them all, and the Sprinter's daily-hire day threads them between the park's mornings.

Booking it

Book a daily hire from your Vaughan address for the weekend with the split's night and the Lancaster day, or a return with the park days released; tell us the hotel, the spa, the seats, the children's heights for the wristbands and every passenger's citizenship for the bridge, and the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before.

Book the Hershey weekend