ZooAmerica North American Wildlife Park
Eleven-acre walk-through zoo connected to the park by bridge.
30Rank
Hersheypark
Score7.2
🇺🇸United StatesHybrid resortNorth America (USA)
Hershey, Pennsylvania, United States
A Pennsylvania park built around chocolate, with a strong coaster collection.
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Opened
1906
Size
121 acres (49 ha)
Rides
71 attractions
Avg. visit
8 hours
Ticket range
$50–$85 USD
Hersheypark overview
Hersheypark at a glance
A Pennsylvania park built around chocolate, with a strong coaster collection.
Founded as a picnic ground for chocolate-factory workers, Hersheypark now runs one of the strongest coaster line-ups in the eastern United States. Candymonium is a 210-foot Bolliger & Mabillard hyper coaster, Skyrush is notorious for its aggressive airtime, and Storm Runner still launches to 72 mph in two seconds.
The Boardwalk water park is included with admission, and the park's chocolate-town setting, complete with Kiss-shaped street lamps, gives it a character no chain park matches.
Our editor's recommendation
Worth a day, but build it into a wider trip rather than flying in for it. It ranks #30 of the 50 parks we score, at 7.2/10 with 71 rides and attractions and a typical visit of about 8 hours. Tickets run $50–$85 a day. The strongest reasons to go are its all-round consistency. The honest catch: tickets are expensive for what you get, and queues average around 16 minutes. Best time to visit: Summer.
Hersheypark highlights
Rides & attractions at Hersheypark
These are the top attractions at Hersheypark — 10 rides and experiences hand-picked and verified by our editorial team, including 7 signature rides you shouldn't miss. Use the filter bar below to narrow the line-up by rider height, zone, category or thrill level.
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Kissing Tower
MILDNo height requirement
Plan your visit to Hersheypark
- Operating hours
- Typically 10am-10pm in summer, shorter hours in spring and autumn
- Operating calendar
- 2026 season runs early April to early January, across Spring, Summer, Halloween and Christmas Candylane calendars.
- Extended hours
- Preview Plan ticket add-on grants extra hours ahead of the standard opening.
- Seasonal closures
- Closed roughly October to late April apart from Halloween and Christmas Candylane
- Queue-skip pass
- Fast Track passes in tiered options, priced by date. From about $70 USD.
- How long to stay
- Full day
- Multi-day tickets
- Multi-day and Sweet Deal tickets bundling admission with ZooAmerica and Hersheypark's water areas.
- Season pass
- Annual or season pass from about $190 USD.
Hersheypark map
Official park mapHersheypark events & shows
Hersheypark Christmas Candylane
Long-running holiday event with millions of lights, Santa's reindeer and festive rides.
Hersheypark Dark Nights
Halloween event with haunted attractions and scare zones after dark.
Hersheypark reviews & ratings
Amusement Park Ranker overall score
7.2
An aggregate of 3 public review platforms, each normalized to a 0–10 scale and weighted by review volume.
Hersheypark wait times
- Typical day
16
- Crowd & wait score
6.3
Attractions near Hersheypark
Hershey's Chocolate World
Factory-style tour ride and create-your-own chocolate bar lab.
Hershey Gardens
Butterfly atrium and 23 acres of themed botanical gardens.
Gettysburg National Military Park
Civil War battlefield with driving tour and visitor centre.
Hersheypark is part of our index of theme parks ranked worldwide. Planning a shorter shortlist? The top 20 amusement parks in the world narrows the field to the essential stops.