Hershey, PA
Season:
Year Round
Rates (as of 2014):
Full hookups with cable: $45-$65/night; full hookups without cable: $40-$60/night; electric and water only: $35-$55/night; tent and no-hookup sites: $35-$55
Website:
http://www.hersheyparkcampingresort.com/
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| The Hershey characters visiting the campground for kid photo ops. |
One camping lesson I'm learning fast is that any campground with "Resort" as part of its name has some size issues. Hersheypark Camping Resort is the second "resort" campground we've visited in our years of camping. It has a lot to offer, but also has some drawbacks that affected our stay. In the end, we loved this campground and we had a great time, making some great memories while camping there.
Making Reservations
If you plan to stay at Hersheypark Camping Resort in your tent, R.V., or in one of its cabins, plan ahead--way ahead. Due to work scheduling, I couldn't commit to a date until three months prior to our vacation and that wasn't enough time to book a full-hookup site. We had another camper tell us they reserved their site a year in advance. I'm not sure you absolutely need to make the call that far ahead, but you sure will need more than three months if you're hoping for a full-hookup site for more than a couple days, especially if you'll be staying over a summer weekend.
You'll make your reservation by phone, but the website does include a contact email address if you have questions or want general information. Speaking of its website: It's awesome. You'll find just about everything you ever wanted to know about not only the campground, but what's going on in Hershey and surrounding cities. You'll need to make a deposit at the time of reservation and then pay your full rental cost one month prior to your visit.
Initial Assessment
We arrived on a Friday at the end of July and were greeted right at the entrance by employees who confirmed our reservation, gave us our map and schedules, and pointed us in the direction of our site. It does not appear that this is the case for weekday checkins; you'll have to exit your vehicle and check in at the registration office.
Hersheypark Camping Resort is beautiful. As you're entering the campground, you see on the right rows of Class A motorhomes, Fifth Wheels and Travel Trailers. This space is called Carrousel Circle. To the left beyond that is a large patio with some tables, three pools, flowering shrubs and the building that houses the store, registration office, arcade, laundry facility and restrooms/showers. A tent yard, a little further down, sits off the right. Gravel roads split off in all directions beyond a small bridge straddling a small creek.
Immediately, you see that Hersheypark Camping Resort is clean and well maintained all over. It's a large campground with a lot to explore and we couldn't wait to get to it.
Oh, by the way, you'll also realize pretty quickly that the campground is situated right next to railroad tracks. Trains barrel through at all times of night and day. If you're a light sleeper, you'll want to check the map for a site as far away from the tracks as possible and, again, you'll want to book that special request far in advance of your stay. Note that, at this time, the sites furthest from the railroad tracks are either no-hookup or water-electric only, but some are located along the river.
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| Taken from the playground, overlooking the creek and community fire pit. |
Hersheypark Camping Resort is beautiful. As you're entering the campground, you see on the right rows of Class A motorhomes, Fifth Wheels and Travel Trailers. This space is called Carrousel Circle. To the left beyond that is a large patio with some tables, three pools, flowering shrubs and the building that houses the store, registration office, arcade, laundry facility and restrooms/showers. A tent yard, a little further down, sits off the right. Gravel roads split off in all directions beyond a small bridge straddling a small creek.
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| Beautiful landscaping on our way to the store. |
Oh, by the way, you'll also realize pretty quickly that the campground is situated right next to railroad tracks. Trains barrel through at all times of night and day. If you're a light sleeper, you'll want to check the map for a site as far away from the tracks as possible and, again, you'll want to book that special request far in advance of your stay. Note that, at this time, the sites furthest from the railroad tracks are either no-hookup or water-electric only, but some are located along the river.
The Campgrounds
Cabins, cabins, everywhere! If you're not into "roughing it" or even bringing your hotel room with you (that's how I see our travel trailer, anyway), Hersheypark Camping Resort has many cabins for rent. Its Deluxe Cabins have indoor plumbing with a private bathroom and shower. Everyone else has access to at least five bathroom/shower houses. Since we ended up on a water/electric-only site, we had to use the campground's bathrooms as much as possible to avoid dumping the black tank. Hersheypark Camping Resorts has some of the cleanest campground bathrooms I've encountered in my years of camping. They even had a large stall that accommodated me and both of my boys. I have no complaints.
The campground is large. We took many leisurely walks up and down the roads both day and night. It's nicely wooded and, aside from the trains, it really does feel like camping when you're at Hersheypark Camping Resort.
Camp Sites
The campground is large. We took many leisurely walks up and down the roads both day and night. It's nicely wooded and, aside from the trains, it really does feel like camping when you're at Hersheypark Camping Resort.
Camp Sites
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| Campsite 85. |
The roads are narrow. To back our R.V. into the site, the campers across the street volunteered to move their vehicles for us. We ended up doing the same favor for other campers as they arrived. The R.V. fit perfectly in that site, and we were happy with its width. In fact, we had nice shade on this site and enough room for four adults and three kids to hang out around the campfire, as my brother and his family came to spend a couple days with us.
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| Campsite 175 |
Amenities
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| Pools as taken from the playground. |
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| Kiddie pool. |
area without the vest, and parents must be present. Our boys loved the kiddie pool that had a depth of about 1- to 1.5-feet.
They also loved the playgrounds, which included both jungle gyms and swing sets. We visited those at least twice a day. All equipment was sturdy and clean. The campground also includes sand volleyball courts, a basketball court, shuffleboard courts and horseshoe pits. And let's not forget the creek, bustling with small fish and strewn with rocks the kids had a ton of fun trying to walk across.
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| Playground |
As for Wi-Fi, service is pretty typical for campgrounds. Hersheypark Camping Resort had a couple of connections we could use, but they performed about the same. If you really need to get to something online, stay up late or wake up early to do it. Again, this is pretty standard for campground wireless service; I've yet to stay some place where the Wi-Fi was good enough to Facebook or check the bank account during the day. We always have to rely on our mobile carrier data plan for that stuff.
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| Arcade |
Local Attractions
Hershey is a tourist town. There's a lot to do and see. Hersheypark Camping Resort provides a free bus shuttle to Hersheypark amusement park and Hershey Chocolate World. Since our boys are small and we, therefore, couldn't justify the ticket price for Hersheypark ($62 per adult and $40 for our 4-year-old). If you do plan to go to Hersheypark, however, I recommend buying your tickets at the campground. They are slightly discounted and get you additional admission the day before you want to go. So, if your tickets are for Saturday, those same tickets will get you into the park Friday night for an additional few hours of fun. We did go to Hershey Chocolate World for the free tour and chocolate sample and to partake in some of its other activities.
The chocolate factory tour is awesome. I was really impressed, as were my boys. They made me ride it twice and not for the free candy at the end. They genuinely enjoyed the singing cows and learning how chocolate is made. Me, too. So impressed, in fact, I considered the $15 souvenir family photo totally worth the cost to keep that place going.
Chocolate World is essentially just a huge Hershey store. We picked up our share of mementos and sugar, for sure. We wanted to make our own chocolate bar, but there was a 3.5-hour wait and there was no way my boys would make it that long without a nap. So we picked up some take-home kits that ended up being disappointing activities, but delicious snacks nonetheless. You can also watch a 4D movie, take a chocolate tasting tour, and eat at the food court. Milkshakes were good.
We also visited ZooAmerica. I don't know - maybe we're spoiled by the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo back at home, but we weren't impressed with ZooAmerica at all. It only took about an hour or so to walk through the whole zoo. Wow. We thought maybe we made a wrong turn or something, but, the map confirmed we saw everything. We stopped for lunch and was also disappointed by the food selection and cost. Really, the only thing that stood out at this zoo was the funny four-man edutainment show that took place while we ate our lunch. They were creepy-cool like The Wiggles. I couldn't help but want to spare the planet of plastic bottles at the end, in a happy way.
Not far from Hershey are the Indian Echo Caverns. This was a great activity for kids, although, maybe not kids as young as ours (2 and 4). You're not allowed to touch anything in the caverns and most of the event is a verbal presentation about the rock formations and history of the site. Very interesting and cool for us, but the kids were a little bored when we stopped for too long. Fortunately, the baby fell asleep in dad's arms for half of the tour and I was able to entertain the preschooler by pointing to random lights strewn high on ledges. If you do plan to visit, print the $1 off admission coupon from the website.
Outside the actual caverns were more appropriate activities for younger children. There were a few animal pens where the kids can feed goats and chickens, and a playground that keeps them entertained while you wait for your tour to begin. At Gem Mill Junction, the kids can search for gemstones or fossils in bags of sand. We paid about $16 for two gem stone bags, which seems like a lot to me, but the kids were really proud of themselves for finding those rocks.
Other things in Hershey that we didn't have time to do:
Hershey is a tourist town. There's a lot to do and see. Hersheypark Camping Resort provides a free bus shuttle to Hersheypark amusement park and Hershey Chocolate World. Since our boys are small and we, therefore, couldn't justify the ticket price for Hersheypark ($62 per adult and $40 for our 4-year-old). If you do plan to go to Hersheypark, however, I recommend buying your tickets at the campground. They are slightly discounted and get you additional admission the day before you want to go. So, if your tickets are for Saturday, those same tickets will get you into the park Friday night for an additional few hours of fun. We did go to Hershey Chocolate World for the free tour and chocolate sample and to partake in some of its other activities.
The chocolate factory tour is awesome. I was really impressed, as were my boys. They made me ride it twice and not for the free candy at the end. They genuinely enjoyed the singing cows and learning how chocolate is made. Me, too. So impressed, in fact, I considered the $15 souvenir family photo totally worth the cost to keep that place going.
Chocolate World is essentially just a huge Hershey store. We picked up our share of mementos and sugar, for sure. We wanted to make our own chocolate bar, but there was a 3.5-hour wait and there was no way my boys would make it that long without a nap. So we picked up some take-home kits that ended up being disappointing activities, but delicious snacks nonetheless. You can also watch a 4D movie, take a chocolate tasting tour, and eat at the food court. Milkshakes were good.
We also visited ZooAmerica. I don't know - maybe we're spoiled by the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo back at home, but we weren't impressed with ZooAmerica at all. It only took about an hour or so to walk through the whole zoo. Wow. We thought maybe we made a wrong turn or something, but, the map confirmed we saw everything. We stopped for lunch and was also disappointed by the food selection and cost. Really, the only thing that stood out at this zoo was the funny four-man edutainment show that took place while we ate our lunch. They were creepy-cool like The Wiggles. I couldn't help but want to spare the planet of plastic bottles at the end, in a happy way.
Not far from Hershey are the Indian Echo Caverns. This was a great activity for kids, although, maybe not kids as young as ours (2 and 4). You're not allowed to touch anything in the caverns and most of the event is a verbal presentation about the rock formations and history of the site. Very interesting and cool for us, but the kids were a little bored when we stopped for too long. Fortunately, the baby fell asleep in dad's arms for half of the tour and I was able to entertain the preschooler by pointing to random lights strewn high on ledges. If you do plan to visit, print the $1 off admission coupon from the website.
Outside the actual caverns were more appropriate activities for younger children. There were a few animal pens where the kids can feed goats and chickens, and a playground that keeps them entertained while you wait for your tour to begin. At Gem Mill Junction, the kids can search for gemstones or fossils in bags of sand. We paid about $16 for two gem stone bags, which seems like a lot to me, but the kids were really proud of themselves for finding those rocks.
Other things in Hershey that we didn't have time to do:
- Antique Automobile Club of America Museum - This automobile museum was recommended to me before taking the trip and was on my "possible" list of things to do. We just never got around to it. My boys love anything with a motor in it, but they seemed happy enough walking around the campground and checking out all of the R.V.s.
- Hershey Gardens - We also heard this was a really nice place, but didn't fit it in.
- Hershey Trolley Works -You can take this seasonal 60-minute tour of Hershey on an old-fashioned trolley.
- Dutch Wonderland - Although we didn't visit this Lancaster, PA, park, several campground patrons recommended it to us while we were chatting. It was about 45 minutes from the campground, however, so we didn't make this trip.
Conclusion
When planning a summer vacation for your family, Hersheypark Camping Resort is a great destination whether you plan to stay for a week or weekend. There's a lot to do around town and at the campground. Just be sure to book your site well in advance of your trip and, if campsite space is important, be sure to ask about site depth and width before finalizing your reservation.
When planning a summer vacation for your family, Hersheypark Camping Resort is a great destination whether you plan to stay for a week or weekend. There's a lot to do around town and at the campground. Just be sure to book your site well in advance of your trip and, if campsite space is important, be sure to ask about site depth and width before finalizing your reservation.
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