PENNSYLVANIA: HERSHEY SPA DECADENT & DELICIOUS
by Roberta Sotonoff
When you were young and very, very good, often your mother gave you a sweet as a treat. Well, Hershey, Pennsylvania has taken your mother’s idea and pumped it up about 1,000 notches. Untold indulgences pervade this little town about two hours northwest of Philadelphia.
Chocolate rules here. Sweet, brown and sometimes gooey stuff is everywhere. Check into the hotel or lodge and receive a chocolate bar with your room key. A little box of morsels will be in your room, too. It appears that bathroom might be one of the few places where you can’t indulge yourself.
It is no surprise that the Spa at Hotel Hershey offers a menu that allows its clients to be rubbed, wrapped or soaked in some sort of chocolate-based potion. Enticing treatments have names like Hershey Kiss, Chocolate Immersion, Chocolate Dipped Strawberry Parfait Scrub and Hershey Peppermint Pattie. Just the idea of it has you thinking you just might lick the treatment off yourself, but know this. The health benefits associated with chocolate come from eating it, not by having it rubbed all over your body.
Many clients don’t think about the calories. At the spa reception desk there is a brandy snifter of Hershey kisses. While waiting for my treatment, I notice a client popping lots of them in her mouth.
“Excuse me,” she says to the receptionist. “Do you have anything for cellulite?”
“Stop eating the candy,” I think as I chuckle to myself before I am whisked away into the changing room.
Once clad in the spa uniform – a robe and sandals – the next stop is one of several relaxation rooms. These include an inhalation room and the Quiet Room. The latter waiting area is patterned after Milton Hershey’s library. Overlooking Hotel Hershey’s reflecting pool and gardens, it is surrounded by a Mediterranean-styled colonnade with a backdrop of nearby mountains. The sideboard of this wood paneled, clubby-type room is filled with goodies – teas, fruits, muffins and, of course, Hershey flavored tidbits like brownies, hot chocolate and kisses.
I am soon summoned for my Cocoa Massage. I have visions of having a brown potion spread all over my body and because of my cellulite lumps, looking like a Hershey Almond Bar. This is not the case. Though the scent of cocoa permeates the oil that the masseuse uses, it is colorless. My therapy is accompanied by a classic Swedish massage.
The spa is not just dedicated to chocolate-based treatments. Milton Hershey’s fondness for Cuba was the inspiration for the “Cuban Experience.” Treatments include Cuban products like sugar, coffee plus tropical and tobacco flowers. For example, the Noche Azul Soak uses white butterfly jasmine, hibiscus and orange blossoms in the bath. The Mojito Sugar Scrub is a sugar lime exfoliating experience.
Classic spa treatments also are on the menu. Hot stone, Shiatsu and deep tissue are some of massages are featured sans chocolate. One of the signature treatments is the Spa Rain Shower which uses 16 shower heads and is topped off with a massage. My Personal Prescription Facial begins with an assessment of my skin type. Since my skin is dry, special moisturizing lotions are used, fortunately, chocolate-free. This ever-present chocolatyness gets to be a little overwhelming at times. When my treatment is over, those special moisturizers make me feel like I have a new face.
Between treatments, there is the Oasis. This cozy restaurant, with décor that evokes visions of a harem tent, is especially for spa guests. And the best part? You can dine in your robe. The Oasis buffet appeals to the health conscious and those who throw calories to the wind. Would you believe chocolate salad dressing? It’s there. Maybe if you are lucky, tomato bisque and the “to die for” couscous will also be present. Of course, there is some sort of chocolate concoction as well as candy on the dessert table.
I know it is difficult to tear yourself away from the spa, but it is worth your while to do some exploring. Don’t worry, the scent of chocolate will always be somewhere close by. Do not miss the 3-D movie complete with sensory effects and dancing candy bars at Hershey World, the official visitor’s center. Hershey Trolley tours the town, past the amusement park and Milton Hershey School. Driving down Chocolate Avenue, one cannot help but chuckle over the street lamps that look like Hershey kisses. Throughout this tour, visitors learn about Milton Hershey, candy making and, of course, get free chocolates.
For more information: www.chocolatespa.com
Roberta Sotonoff is a freelance writer from Illinois.
