Visit these 3 Great Amusement Parks in Eastern Pennsylvania this Summer

There is a great history of amusement parks in Pennsylvania. Three of the best known parks are located in the eastern part of the start from the Pocono area down to Amish country. Here is a look at three of the top amusement parks, not just in Pennsylvania but some favorites of folks from around the globe.

Knoebel's Grove, Elysburg
The catchy jingle promises, "Fun, food and fantasy-Knoebel's amusement resort..." Still family-owned and operated, Knoebel's Grove in Elysburg, Pennsylvania is nearing a century old.

The park official started to blossom into the family amusement park it is known as today in 1926, however the son of the original farmlands owner Henry Hartman Knoebel began offering hayrides, called tally-hos on his land prior to that. Knoebel also started to charge visitors a quarter to feed and water the animals. He began to allow people to swim in the creek and even hired a lifeguard. Soon, he began to sell popcorn, candy and drinks. Later, a huge swimming pool was built and then a carousel was added. And then the rest is history, as they say.

Today, Knoebel's Grove is known as America's largest free admission park. No admission charge is much to the delight of anyone who cannot or does not want to ride rides, but simply enjoy the park atmosphere. Instead, visitors can purchase tickets per ride, or get a wristband to ride all day.

Knoebel's offers rides for small children right on up to thrilling wooden roller coasters, boasting some of the best in the country. Perhaps the best-known roller coaster at Knoebel's is the Phoenix. The Phoenix roller coaster has since 1985 been consistently rated among the two ten wooden roller coasters in the country. Other rides of note are the huge haunted mansion, the Twister, another wooden roller coaster and the train ride, which twists and turns through the forest, where passengers can get a glimpse of red and gray squirrels feeding.

Knoebel's is also known for its food, much of it being homemade. In fact, the park was featured on the Food Network for having some of the best amusement park food in the country.

Knoebel's is also known for its scenery. The park is not entirely paved like many of its counterparts and instead sprawls through grassy, wooded scenery with streams and lots of wildlife. The landscaping is beautiful. It's truly a natural, scenic park with all the excitement of a 'concrete' park. Even the parking lot is a grassy field!

Aside from the amusement park, the resort also offers a campground with over 550 sites and 30 log cabins, plus a large swimming pool with waterslides and a children's pool. Knoebel's also offers a picnic area and many pavilions are available for rent for company parties, family reunions and class trips.

Hershey Park, Hershey
The Hershey bar is arguable the most famous candy bar in the country. But, the name Hershey means a lot more than just candy bars, especially for those who have made to visit to the still-growing amusement park, Hershey Park.

Hershey Park, named for Milton S. Hershey and his candy concoctions, is celebrating its centennial this year, meaning that for over 100 years the park has been providing fun times for its visitors. While the park draws thousands and thousands of visitors from around the world, many do not know that Hershey Park simply started as a picnic and leisure grounds for employees of his chocolate factory.

Today, Hershey Park offers over 60 rides and attractions, including the famous Sooper Dooper Looper. The Sooper Dooper Looper was the first loop roller coaster on the east coast, and still gives thrills to riders every season. Other rides of interest are the Kissing Tower, the Canyon River Rapids white water rafting ride, the Coal Cracker (a log flume), the Comet roller coaster and the Monorail.

New for the 2007 season, Hershy Park also has a new Boardwalk section featuring five water attractions: East Coast Water Works, Coastline Plunge, Bayside Pier, Sandcastle Cove and the Wave Rider. The East Coast Water Works is the largest water play structure in the country, offering seven water slides, two crawl tunnels, 600 interactive water toys, pull ropes, cross bridges and more. The Coastline Plunge offers a host of waterslides, the Wave Rider allows guests to test their surfing skills, the Bayside Pier is a large wave pool and the Sandcastle Cove is just for the little ones, with lots of water toys.

The Hershey Park website has a fantastic directory of park attractions with blurbs about what to expect on each coaster and ride as well as what level thrill the ride is. The Boardwalk's site offers podcast tours of the newest attraction to Hershey Park.

Hershey Park also offers lots of live entertainment, food, games and more. Aside from Hershey Park, many families visiting Hershey also visit ZooAmerica, Chocolate World, the Hershey Museum, the Hershey Gardens, nearby outlets and more. Aside from local hotels, Hershey also offers a great family campground, Hershey Highmeadows.

One AC content producer talks about her trip to Hershey Park here. And, bet you didn't know that Hershey Park also offers year round fun, and even romantic getaways for couples. Here is an article that talks about the chocolate spa in Hershey.

Dorney Park and Wild Water Kingdom, Allentown
Like Knoebel's Grove, Dorney Park first started as a small family park, dedicated to picnic areas and enjoying nature. After sold to another family, the Plarrs and being passed through the family for a while, in 1992 an amusement park company took over the reigns of the Allentown area attraction. Today, the park sprawls over 200 acres and offers over 100 attractions.

In the 80s, Dorney Park added its water park, Wild Water Kingdom, which was on of the first seasonal water park established in the Northeast.
In 1992, the park opened one of its biggest attractions to date, the Hercules Roller Coaster, which at the time, with a 157-foot drop was the tallest of any wooden roller coaster in the world. Today, the Hercules is just a memory-as a new coaster stands in its place. (However, the Hercules really put Dorney Park on the map!)

In its place stands Hydra the Revenge, which was built in 2005. This name is quite poetic, really as Hyrda is also a character from Greek mythology. Hydra was a seven-headed monster who battled Hercules. It was a perfect way to transition into a newer, more thrilling coaster. In fact marketing efforts of this coaster include a saying that, "It brought down Hercules in 2005...." Hydra the Revenge is the first and only floorless coaster in the country. It has seven inversions, making for a very thrilling ride.

Other attractions of note at Dorney Park include the Steel Force roller coaster, the Dominator and the newest, roller coaster the Talon. The Talon is also the largest inverted roller coaster in the Northeast.

Wild Water Kingdom offers a few dozen water rides of all kinds including a lazy river, a giant wave pool, a rapids rides, lots of water slides, kiddie pools and more.

For more information on Dorney Park,check out this AC article.