Hotel Review: Hotel Hershey; Hershey, Pennsylvania

There is something special about pulling into the long driveway of a luxury, historic hotel. A feeling that you just know things are going to be different – the service will be a little better, the pillows a little fluffier, the perks a little more unique. This is the feeling you get when you pull through the gates of the four-star, four-AAA-Diamond Hotel Hershey, in Hershey, Pennsylvania. This was our second visit to the hotel, the first being about three years ago. Since our last visit, they have undergone an extensive $67 million renovation, adding several new restaurants to the hotel campus, a new recreation area for guests (including a year-round ice skating rink) & ten four- & six-bedroom cottages.We stayed in the main hotel in a standard room with a king sized bed. Our room was very comfortable & had, I swear to you, the most comfortable bathrobes & bed I have ever had the pleasure of enjoying. There were little Hershey touches everywhere in the room: Hershey Kisses at turn down, a TV channel dedicated to playing the biography of Milton S. Hershey, & even complimentary full-sized Hershey’s bars at check in. Yet, unlike how a Disney resort can sometimes feel, the chocolate touches were just the right amount.

This is an old, historic hotel & much of the original architectural details have been preserved. This is most evident in the Fountain Lobby (pictured below), which used to serve as the main lobby & registration desk for the hotel (those things are now taken care of in a bright, renovated space with a stunning stained glass ceiling directly beneath the Fountain Lobby). The Fountain Lobby was bustling all weekend with folks headed to brunch, headed to Hershey Park & headed to the hotel’s Chocolate Spa. Late in the evening though, when the photos below were taken, it quieted down & became the perfect place to curl up with a good book & a glass of wine.

The one thing that sets the Hotel Hershey apart from other high-end hotels is that they cater to , & welcome, families. For folks like us, who are not traveling with children (& don’t even have children), this may or may not be a good thing. It can be disappointing to be woken up at 7am by slamming doors & children running down the hall (old hotel = heavy doors + thin walls). As we walked down the hall to our room, behind many doors, we could hear parents & children in various stages of arguing. The “children-ness” was compounded by the fact that we visited Hershey during one of the two spring weekends when they open up Hershey Park amusement park. It’s certainly something to consider when you’re booking a stay here & is something we will take into consideration next time. It would be nice if there could be a section of rooms blocked off for those guests not traveling with children who wanted to sleep in a little.

Still, despite the children crawling under the table next to us while we enjoyed breakfast in the fabulous Circular Dining Room, we enjoy this beautiful hotel. When you book your room, ask for a room in the front of the hotel & you’ll be rewarded with a view of the Hershey chocolate factory & Hershey Park. Visit on a warm day & enjoy the expansive front porch of the hotel, which is filled with rocking chairs & even a fire pit (there’s a s’mores cookout most evenings – unfortunately, ours was canceled because of rain). Pop into the Iberian Cocktail Lounge (it’s adults only after 10pm) & have a martini with a Hershey Kiss at the bottom, enjoy the live music, & splurge on the most amazing piece of peanut butter pie you’ll ever have. Stop by the Chocolate Spa, relax in the silent room (yes, it’s as wonderful as it sounds) & have a massage with cocoa scented massage oil or a chocolate body wrap, where you’ll be painted with chocolate & wrapped up like a burrito.

Hershey, Pennsylvania makes a great weekend get-away from many east coast locations (2 hours from DC, 3 hours from New York City, 2 hours from Philadelphia). Go see for yourself why this chocolate-obsessed town (& hotel) it’s call the “Sweetest Place on Earth.”