Top Ten Romantic Adventures in our Area

The Top of the Romantic Adventure List HAS to be Annville Inn!

Named one of the Most Romantic Inns on the East Coast; this is the perfect spot for romantic adventures! In our newsletter, we say that we’ve lost count on the number of engagements that have occurred here when a ring was nervously presented.  We can say that we have a 100% success rate in hearing, “YES!  I will marry you!  

Come to Annville Inn to enjoy our quiet, peaceful and serene Pennsylvania countryside at the foot of the Blue Mountains. 

Bask in our true two-person Jacuzzis, or the outdoor hot tub.  Enjoy splashing about or sunbathing in our large in-ground pool.  Sit by the fire on a cold winter’s evening as the purple shadows get longer and longer as you watch them from our glassed in four season Garden Room, and you watch the sun dip under the horizon in a blaze of glory. 

Relish Rosalie’s breakfasts, which have earned her wide acclaim…and over 5,000 Five Star Reviews!   Relax in our beds featuring top of the line Queen’s Down Mattresses (no down feathers, though…we work hard at being non-allergic!). 

Watch your favorite films in our state of the art movie theatre with commercial Dolby 7.1 Surround Sound and 75” High Definition Screen and oh so comfortable leather recliners. 

Wile away the hours in our Game Room or the Plant Conservatory.  Sip your favorite hot beverage and gaze out at the mountains. Stroll our three acres of botanical gardens. Laze away the afternoon in our hammocks for two. 

Outdoor Romantic Adventures

Find your way through our Maze, and while in there, discover a hidden see-saw, pond with a water fall, and meditation and picnic areas! 

Take time to smell the roses in our Main Rose Garden resplendent with nearly 600 rose bush plants.  Stroll along our trails and visit our newest Garden, the Stumpery.  Not as big and elaborate as the one on England’s King Charles’ estate, but we like it! 😊

Pause in our Parlor, also the Music Room.  Tinkle the piano keys if you play, or just kick back for quiet reading in this sun-filled, pleasant room.

Especially…savor the calliope of tastes and textures of Rosalie’s famous breakfasts while dining in an elegant setting with table settings that are perfection.  Sip your favorite Inn beverages including our highly praised Annville Inn coffee brew, our pure no additives juices, Rosalie’s hot chocolate or tea from our collection.  For fans of really, really good water, our very deep well and onsite water treatment plant produces water described by Guests as “sweet, refreshing, a very easy on the throat drink that is all together most pleasant.”  We actually have Guests who want to take some of the water home with them!

2) Dine in One of Our Area’s Outstanding Romantic Restaurants. 

For this list, we omitted taverns and very casual diners, and listed restaurants that over the last 20 years have been reported by our Guests as some of the BEST and most romantic restaurants they’ve dined in throughout their lives.  You cannot go wrong at any of these restaurants. Some have beautiful, decorative wood reflecting old work craftsmanship and even secluded tables, most have low lighting, all have beautiful décor, and all are widely known in our area for their gastronomic delights.  You can find more about these restaurants, and some photographs, in our Annville Inn Travel Guide.

• Tratoria Fratelli
• Alfred’s Victorian
• Log Cabin Restaurant                            
• What If Restaurant
• Hotel Hershey Circular Dining Room

3)  Enjoy Live Performing Arts. What a Romantic Adventure!

Within minutes of Annville Inn, find world-class entertainment.  Some of the live performing arts venues include:

• Hershey Theatre
• American Music Theatre
• Dutch Apple Dinner Theatre
• World Famous Gretna Theatre under the canopy of the forest in Mt. Gretna
• Fulton Opera House
• Sight & Sound Theatre
• Don’t forget the plethora of programs offered by the Pennsylvania Chautauqua in Mt. Gretna
• Lebanon Community Theatre
• Hershey Area Playhouse

4) Enjoy Visiting Together our Plethora of Nature Centers 

One spectacular place we want to certainly mention is:  Hershey Gardens and Conservatory/Butterfly House. You can find details on all the nature centers in our area in the Annville Inn Travel Guide (including Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, whose research takes them  all over the planet. Located only 45 minutes east of Annville Inn.  Reached either by Interstate or the “mountain road,” which starts right behind our Inn (that is our preferred route!) Both of these make amazing romantic adventures!

5)  Take Time Together for Long Walks on Our Area’s Hundreds of Miles of Trails

When we first moved to the area over 20 years ago, we were stunned by the number of hiking trails, and the dedication of local governments and the state in providing, improving and maintaining the system of hundreds of trails in our area.  We can talk to you about the possibilities; we know which ones are “leisure”, “challenging” or “technical.” In this blog, we highlight a few of the stellar trails perfect for romantic adventures; you’ll find more in the Annville Inn Travel Guide.

• Rails to Trails (many different trail heads near Annville Inn)
• Quittie Nature Center Trail, Annville (tranquil, winds around an old quarry and mill race way.
• Lebanon Valley College Campus…in reality, a large public garden.
• Governor Dick Trail System (multiple trails winding about through the region)
• Dinosaur Rocks, and Boxcar Rocks (two entirely different locations) trails.
• Stoever’s Dam Park in Lebanon (known to be very well maintained with beautiful scenery)
• Union Canal Tunnel Park (minutes from Annville Inn, oldest continuously used transportation tunnel in North America.  Still used today by canal boats for docent led tours.)
• St. Anthony’s Wilderness (runs from Harrisburg, through the mountains behind Annville inn, and ends just east of us.)
• Appalachian Trail  (Maine to Georgia, and passes just north of Annville Inn. You can see the mountain ridge from our Inn!)
• Horseshoe Trail (lengthy trail “local” to a number of Pennsylvania towns and destinations. Covers a great distance.
• Hawk Mountain Trail System
• Ned Smith Center for Nature & Art Trail System
• Wildwood Nature Center Nature Trail System
• Many, many more. We can’t list them all and are aware we might have left some readers’ favorites off.  Please send us your favorites for inclusion in the next edition of this post.

6) Drive in the Countryside, Always a Romantic Adventure

…and get out of your car and explore some of the trails mentioned above, but also enjoy beautiful country drives through these areas:

• Scenic byways winding through Pennsylvania Dutch farmland
  • Drives through Amish countryside…see farms worked with horse drawn equipment
  • Mountain drives—one of our favorites winds past three covered bridges, along sparkling trout streams, and past large old barns.  Many of these drives and romantic adventures are highlighted in the Annville Inn Travel Guide

7) Beautiful Parks

Picnic, stop and swing on antique gliders at Coleman Park, look for natural wonders and beauty in all our area parks that are perfect for romantic adventures. 

Some highlights (Distance from Inn shown in brackets):

• Coleman Park  {3 miles}
• Quittie Nature Center {2 miles}
• Memorial Lake State Park {7 miles}
• Swatara State Park {8 miles}
• Middle Creek Wildlife Refuge {15 miles}

8) Romantic Adventures: Train & Dinner Rides and Riverboat Rides  

Many of these rides feature dining should you want a “dinner train” or “dinner cruise”.  Perfect for a romantic adventure!

• Middletown and Hummelstown Railroad (M&H)
• Strasburg Rail Road (rides through verdant Amish farmland)
• WK&S Railroad (Wanamaker, Kempton and Southern Railroad)  {Also known as the “Hawk Mountain Line”) 
• Other nearby railroads a short distance away include scenic railroads in Reading, PA and in the Lehigh Valley, just northeast of Annville Inn.
• Pride of Susquehanna Riverboat (paddleboat departing dock in Harrisburg)

9)  Create Your Own Wine Trail, or Just Linger Longer at a Winery! 

Wineries, Vineyards, Wine Tastings are “everywhere” near us. Annville Inn is surrounded by 35 wineries!.

Rather than dedicate a large portion of this post to the amazing wine (and beer!) venues near us, those interested should visit the Winery or Brewery sections of our Annville Inn Travel Guide.

10)  Symphonies and Concerts 

Cultural arts abound in Central Pennsylvania. Near Annville Inn are three symphonies.  A number of theatres offer much more than the typical blockbuster fare of shopping centers, and a unique perspective, often in stunning auditoriums.   Some in our area include {Distance from the Inn in brackets}:

• Allen Theatre (see recent blog post), concerts, lectures, events, tribute bands, first run films, foreign cinema, art films.  Special programs and entertainments such as magic shows.  {Five Miles}
• Midtown Cinema, Harrisburg (art films)  {40 minutes}
• Hershey Symphony Orchestra, the nation’s largest volunteer orchestra with professional direction and instrumentation.{10 minutes}
• Lancaster Symphony Orchestra {ca. 30 minutes}
• Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra (led by Grammy award winning conductor) {45 minutes

Enjoy a concert together!  Concerts abound at:

• Hersheypark Arena
• Hersheypark Stadium
• The Giant Center-Hershey
• Gretna Music/Gretna Theatre
• Englewood Hershey
• PENN Hero’s Stage
• Coleman Park Amphitheater

BONUS Romantic Adventures

11) Romantic Adventures You Might Enjoy Doing Together 

Not normally on a “most romantic list” but when you are engaged in activity together it is time shared and great fun.  We had one couple that stayed with us to go to The Drunken Smithy workshop and over three days made amazing hand forged swords. That was on their bucket list, and to them, a top romantic adventure. 

Other such activity could include antiquing (we have tons of antique and thrift stores, and over the mountain is the “antique capitol of America,” a town where nearly every business is an antique store, visiting the Black Swan, only 12 minutes away with over 60 antique dealers, exploring shops in unique towns such as Lititz and Bethlehem, roller skating in a “hidden away” roller rink, under the canopy of the forest in Mt. Gretna.  If you are into exploring history, just ask your innkeepers.  We can guide you to historic sites, places to learn about Amish culture, and much more.

Enjoy athletics together.  We are surrounded by a number of championship golf courses. All other sports have venues here (including tennis, bocce, scuba diving, hatchet throwing, archery…you name it!)

Many Couples Enjoy Romantic Adventures Working Together to Try to…ESCAPE! Escape Rooms Near Us Include:

• Escape Room Hershey
• Adventure Escape Room Hershey
• Escape Room Lititz
• Escape Room Lancaster
• The Art of Escape, Pine Grove (in mountains behind Inn)

Make something together!  Join a workshop at the Drunken Smithy, for example. Watch for a Blog Post soon that will be completely dedicated to the Drunken Smithy, a Lebanon Valley original business founded and operated by two exceptional blacksmiths. 

Enjoy learning together, enjoy cooking together!  The Acclaimed Chef Cooking Class is an Annville Inn original, going back over 18 years. Spend six to seven hours with an acclaimed chef in a participatory class. Rather than watch (you can also just observe if you prefer) you are slicing/dicing/sautéing and more right along with your acclaimed chef instructor.  Following the class, sit down to a fabulous wine dinner you have prepared, served to you by Inn staff.  Classes are based upon your desires such as wanting to learn various nationalities such as Italian or French. Other couples want to learn regional cuisine such as Louisianian Cajun. Some want to learn specifics such as baking or appetizers.   Call Rosalie for details and to schedule your class (not usually available during summer months):  717-867-1991.