Choc full of sweet dreams

Go Niche:DISNEYLAND is all very well, but what's it missing? That's right, chocolate. Which is why the sweet toothed might like to check out Hershey Resort in Hershey, Pennsylvania, instead.

The brainchild of Milton S Hershey, who made his fortune decades earlier inventing the US’s first mass produced chocolate bar, the resort began as a single hotel overlooking his chocolate factory as a way to provide employment during the Great Depression.

Family and friends told him he was mad. But with a sentiment that has some resonance today, he said: “We have about 600 construction workers in this town. If I don’t provide work for them, I’ll have to feed them. And since building materials are now at their lowest cost levels, I’m going to build and give them jobs.”

So build he did, and not just a hotel, but a community building and a school for disadvantaged children. As any Cadbury could tell you, the link between sweet tooth and soft centre is well established.

Today, the Hershey Hotel is known for its Chocolate Spa, where cocoa-based treatments good enough to eat are

slavered over those who just can’t get enough of the stuff orally.

Next door to the hotel is Hersheypark, a theme park with thrill rides and roller coasters to rival any in Orlando.

In summer, it opens a terrific water park with lazy rivers, roller-soakers, chutes and flumes, as well as a giant wave pool with cute cabanas you can rent for your day on the “shore”.

A three-day, two-night stay at the Hershey Hotel, including tickets to Hersheypark, starts at $499 (€354) for a family of four.

And wherever you look, there are confectionery references worthy of Willie Wonka himself, which is why Hershey is known as “the sweetest place on earth”. Suck it and see.

thehotelhershey.com