Road-trip stops in Pennsylvania

Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site

Carlisle Federal Indian Boarding School National Monument

Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site

Eisenhower National Historic Site

Flight 93 National Memorial

Fort Necessity National Battlefield

Friendship Hill National Historic Site

Gloria Dei Church National Historic Site

Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site

Independence National Historical Park

Johnstown Flood National Memorial

Lower Delaware National Wild and Scenic River

Steamtown National Historic Site

Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial

Valley Forge National Historical Park

Comfort Inn Harrisburg-Hershey

Harrisburg is the I-81 corridor's natural first overnight if you're coming from New York or New England. You've done the Pennsylvania stretch — which is longer than it looks on the map — and tomorrow you wake up in the Shenandoah Valley. The Comfort Inn is close to Hershey if you want to do Chocolate World in the morning, and close to I-81 if you just want to eat breakfast and drive. Both are valid choices.

Hershey's Chocolate World

If Hersheypark is too much time or money, Chocolate World is the free alternative and it's genuinely great. The chocolate tour ride is free, you get a free candy bar at the end, and the gift shop has every Hershey product ever made. Your kids can design their own candy bar wrapper and you can buy chocolate in quantities that should require a forklift. Twenty minutes off I-81. Free ride, free chocolate, free smiles. The Griswold family budget approves.

Hersheypark

The sweetest place on Earth — literally. Hersheypark is a full theme park built by the chocolate company, and the whole town smells like chocolate. Roller coasters, a waterpark, and Chocolate World next door where you get free chocolate at the end of the ride. Free. Chocolate. If you're taking the I-81 route from the Northeast, this is the big-stop option that turns a driving day into a vacation day. Your kids will not complain.