Lancaster

Lancaster is a small town in the state of Pennsylvania. The first thing that strikes our minds when we mention Lancaster is the Dutch village there. Although, the Dutch village is a definite place to visit, really there is so much more to Lancaster. I realized this as I was planning our Lancaster trip.

The first step in planning a vacation would be to order a free vacation planning guide from here . This vacation planning guide take 2-3 weeks to reach you, irrespective of your location in the country. This is an excellent guide and has the list of everything in Lancaster County. If you do not have sufficient time to wait for the guide, like we did, then just flip through their online version.

We drove down from New York city to Lancaster. It was a distance of 170 miles and can ideally be covered in 4 hours. However, the week end that we travelled was a long week end and traffic in NYC did not allow us to reach before 5 hours. it is best to plan your vacation so that you get maximum time during the day as most attractions close by 6 P.M in Lancaster.

The attractions that we covered:

As we neared Lancaster, we drive toward the Kitchen Kettle village - our first destination. We had planned a Buggy ride here. Buggy rides are a slow, relaxed ride on horse carriages, typically used by the Amish people. The accompanying image is a buggy ride that is ready to leave.There are many different operators for buggy rides. We chose the AAA buggy ride just because of its reviews on tripadvisor. This website gives coupons for a $2.00 discount on each adult admission for this AAA buggy ride. Take a print out and present it when you are there. There is no need for advance booking of any type. the admission is $12.00 for a 35 minute ride per adult. There are also 55 minute rides. The ride takes you through the farms and fields of the Lancaster county showing houses where Amish people live. The person driving the carriage also gives a very brief explanation of their lives. The Amish people, supposedly, do not use any electrcity andn either they use television, internet or radio. they are cut off from the rest of the world and are pretty much self-sustainable leading a predominantly Agricultural life.

As you reach Kitchen kettle village, head straight to the AAA buggy ride counter and purchase your tickets. We will be told when to come back for the ride. Our wait was 45 minutes. Take this time to see around Kitchen Kettle village. It is a very small village, probably just hte size of a large apartment complex in a big city. There are many stores inside and I highly recommend buying jam,cookies and other home made eatables from the stores. The taste will mesmerize you. There are public restrooms available as well. Also, do not forget the homemade ice cream that is sold there. It is the most purest and tastiest ice cream that I have ever had and the milk in it melts in our mouth. The village claims that the ice creams are made wholly of milk from jersey cows.

When we finished our visit in the Kitchen Kettle vilaage and our buggy ride, we went straight to our hotel to relax and also it was 6 PM. This meant that most places except restaurants and clubs close. After some coffee and biscotti, we decided to take a look at one of the outlet malls - tanger outlet malls. This mall was coincidently less than half a mile from our hotel. This outlet mall has a very large collection of stores like GAP,Tommy Hilfiger,bath and body works, nautica, Aeropostale. The discounts are not major in all stores and you will need enough time to chek out good deals inline with your liking. We just had 2 hours as this mall closes at 9 PM and it was not enough. A 4-hour visit here would be perfect for shopaholics like me else for just a glance 2 hours are enough.

Then we headed back to our hotel to call it a night. I had some sandwiches left over with us from what I had packed for the drive(More on sandwich recipes coming soon...). We ate the sandwiches and fell asleep.

The next day was a sunday and our plan was to visit the Hershey Chocolate world in Hershey. This is a 30 mile drive from Lancaster. There are a fe wother attractions in Hershey apart from Chocolate world viz, Zoo America and Hershey Park. The parking is free for upto 3 hours. You will be give na token as you drive in that mentions the time of entry. As you exit, the time on that entry is checked and your payment is calculated. Most likely you will not need more than 3 hours here. This means the parking is effectively. free. There is no entrance fee. You can enter to buy chocolates at their store or take a free chocolate tour ride. This ride taken you through the chocolate making process in a train of cars. The best part of this tour is the free chocolate that you get at the end of the tour. the tour also has our photos taken as we are seated in the trolley. As we exit, we can choose to buy the photos. I think the cost for $10 for a 5x9 Picture. Then, the exit proceeds toward the Hershey store. Smart marketing, as always. Here you get to see all the products under the Hershey Umbrella in one place. Chocolates, candy, cocoa powder, chocolote syrup, Hershey themed t - shirts, mugs etc are some of the stuff that you will find here. the store also sells the world's biggest chocolate - 5Lb for $30. There is also an oppurtunity for a picture here with the 5Lb chocolate bar in your hand and needless to say, there is a queue.

Apart from this free stuff, there is the trolley works. This is charged $12 per person and is a 45 minute tour of the chocolate factory including a few samples given during the tour. You can purchase the tickets right there and no need to book in advance.The trollies leave every few minutes and are guided tours in Temperature controlled buses. You are taken around the sprawling Hershey Factory campus with a History narrated during the tour. This is definitely an enjoyable and informative session. This is the link to the Hershey Chocolate world website.

From Hershey, we headed to Strasburg - a small village inside Lancaster County.