The Hershey Bears

Giant Center

The Hershey Bears are the Washington Capitals’ American Hockey League affiliate team. Most of the Bears have played at least one game up in Washington at some point. That being said, as a Caps fan, it’s also fun to go and watch a Bears game.

The Bears play at Giant Center in Hershey, Pa, on the same property as Hersheypark. The only way to get to a Bears game is to drive. There are no trains that will take you to the arena, like with Verizon Center. The drive is about two hours from DC, but it’s definitely worth it.

For Bears games, there isn’t a warm-up pre-skate like at Caps games in the sense that you can go down to the glass and watch them, so the only thing is to get there before puck drops. I’ll explain the game more explicitly in the next post.

Parking for the game is only $7 for the night and, if you come early enough, there are plenty of close spots. However, leaving can sometimes be a little bit of a problem. Especially when Hersheypark is open, it gets pretty crowded with everyone leaving at the same time. Not only is it crowded trying to get out of the general Hersheypark property, but getting out of Hershey in general gets pretty crowded.

If the game ends fairly early, to avoid traffic, it may be easier to grab a bite to eat and let some of the cars file out. There’s a Panera Bread right down the road from Giant Center. Coming into Hershey, you’ll pass it. There are also a couple other restaurants in that same shopping center and across the road.

There’s a Red Robin Gourmet Burgers only 1.4 miles down the road from Giant Center, an Applebee’s near Panera, a Fuddrucker’s, a Sheetz across the way from Panera, and a Bob Evans just down the road from Giant Center. These are just a few of the many restaurants nearby, so feel free to browse around while planning your trip up to Hershey, Pa, the Sweetest Place on Earth.