Lancaster/Hershey

[kwg]

We are thinking of going to Hershey PA for our vacation starting Monday or Tuesday. We were going to go to Myrtle BEach SC but the weather looks so crummy (hurricanes will do that) and last night dh mentioned hershey and so I looked around and it looks like it would be a lot of fun. Ds1 is 6 and ds2 is 18 months. The things we are interested in are the science museum, children's museum, amish country (would that be boring for the kids?), maybe the gardens (a butterfly house sounds cool!), the zoo, touring the hershey factory-if we can- and also maybe another tour on how thye make pretzels in a factory, and dutch wonderland. We were thinking hershey park would not be fun for ds (who has been on very few rides and is extremely cautious by nature). But I am not sure? I am not sure we would have time for ALL that . Anyway, I was wondering if anyone who has been there knows if that sounds ok for that age of kids? Is there anything I am missing that we *must* see? Also, where should we stay? Ideally we would have a kitchen for some of our meals -ds1 is very particular-Does it matter if we stay in lancaster or hershey in terms of travel times,rates, or how nice the places are? Is there a really cool (and cheap haha) kid friendly place?

TIA!!!! We have not been on a vacation in five years, dh is taking off and we really want to go somewhere!

[fluttermama]

We live in Lancaster county, about 45 minutes from Hershey. I would recommend Dutch Wonderland as a wonderful family place for young kiddos. Chocolate world at Hershey is fun (and free! ). It would be fun to go to Intercourse, PA and take a buggy ride...there are also petting zoos and Amish farms that you can tour.

http://www.amishbuggyrides.com/

This is a neat place for kids (although they built a Target right next door ) :

http://www.amishfarmandhouse.com/

It's actually right down the road from Dutch Wonderland.

Plain and Fancy Farm is a place that you can stay that has the buggy rides, restaurant, petting zoo, and farm all in one...it's pretty tourist-y, but will give you a taste of the Amish experience. My dh works right down the road from there. There is an Amish School house that you can tour like a mile from the hotel (dh works across the street from the school house).

http://www.amishviewinn.com/pffarm.htm

I love this place...we stayed here once when we were moving...it has a great pool and huge lawn with a creek...and then across the creek a great petting zoo with a wooden playground...it's very quiet and great service.

http://www.bird-in-hand.com/index.ph...m_country_inn/

You also get to use the indoor pool of the main Bird in Hand hotel which has an excellent restaurant (if you don't have allergies, anyway).

hope that helps!

And the Strasburg railroad is a great place to take kids....and it's not too far from the other Lancaster places I told you about.

http://www.strasburgrailroad.com/

[kwg]

Thank you so much!! I love MDC!!!!

[stayinghome]

Yeah strasburg rr is fun. Also hands on house http://handsonhouse.com/ .

[eepster]

If your not doing Hershey park I wouldn't bother with the factory tour. DS and I went to Lancaster county recently and stayed at the Bird-in-Hand Family Inn. It was nice that it had several amenities right there so I didn't have to put him back into the car seat in the evening. (There are many hotels with attached amenities in the area.)

We spent 3 days there just looking at choo-choo-trains (DS's current obsession) and were never board.

My only warning is to not go to Bird-In-Hand on sundays they close almost everything. DS ended up having ice cream and potatoe chips for dinner sunday night b/c all the restraunts were closed and he didn't want to spend 20-40 minutes driving in the car to go to one in another town.

[fluttermama]

My only warning is to not go to Bird-In-Hand on sundays they close almost everything. DS ended up having ice cream and potatoe chips for dinner sunday night b/c all the restraunts were closed and he didn't want to spend 20-40 minutes driving in the car to go to one in another town.

lol...yes, and everything shuts down around 8-9pm around Lancaster county, this way of life was quite shocking when we first moved here, lol! You can take a 15 minute drive from bird in hand to Lancaster city to find some restaurants open on Sundays...outback, longhorn, T.G.I's, etc. (google Park City)

[kwg]

Originally Posted by eepster

If your not doing Hershey park I wouldn't bother with the factory tour.

Is the tour boring? ds is 6, he loves how it is made so i thought it might be similar?d

Originally Posted by eepster

My only warning is to not go to Bird-In-Hand on sundays they close almost everything. DS ended up having ice cream and potatoe chips for dinner sunday night b/c all the restraunts were closed and he didn't want to spend 20-40 minutes driving in the car to go to one in another town.

Thanks for the heads up!


We are going to go to the beach but dh has said we can definitely go! maybe this winter. I am excited because it all sounds very fun! I was torn!

Thank you all for the info!

[eepster]

Originally Posted by kwg

Is the tour boring? ds is 6, he loves how it is made so i thought it might be similar?d

It's not boring, but it's only about 15 minutes or so. For those 15 min of fun you spend an hour driving into Hershey and parking, then wait on a pretty long line, then spend 45 min driving back out of town. On top of that Hershey park and chocolate shops are very near and very tempting.

It's a fun thing to do if you want to go to Hershey park and endulge in great quantities of chocolate :.

[kwg]

Originally Posted by eepster

It's not boring, but it's only about 15 minutes or so. For those 15 min of fun you spend an hour driving into Hershey and parking, then wait on a pretty long line, then spend 45 min driving back out of town. On top of that Hershey park and chocolate shops are very near and very tempting.

It's a fun thing to do if you want to go to Hershey park and endulge in great quantities of chocolate :.

that makes sense! thank you

[fluttermama]

We enjoyed it because my kiddos don't like rides yet and they love seeing how things are made. There is fun music and then a huge shop at the end. You get a free chocolate bar and there is a lot of souveneir type stuff. There is also a butterfly garden that you can visit as well, if you want to avoid the main park as we did.