City: Hershey, PA

Category: Tours & Attractions

Telephone: (717) 534-3492

Address: 170 Hotel Rd.

Insider Pick:

Description: Begun in 1937 by Milton Hershey as “a nice garden of roses” for the public to enjoy, this bountiful botanical 23-acre oasis now features seasonal displays of more than 7,000 plants in 275 varieties. If you think the kids are going to get bored tiptoeing through the tulips, wait until they see the colorful “Children’s Garden” with its alphabet, colors, and counting themes and step into the Butterfly House, where 300 native species flutter freely among flowers and plants. The Gardens are open daily; hours vary by season. The Butterfly House is open late May through mid-­Sept. June through August is prime time for the roses of Hershey Gardens. April to May is tulip time (30,000 of them). In September and October, leaf peepers can take in the autumn array of colors and from December through March, you can stroll among the evergreen, holly berry, and crabapple trees, watching the birds forage for their winter food.