As a passionate lover of all things automotive, one of my favorite finds in any city I visit is a good car museum. There’s nothing like taking a stroll through America’s rich automotive history, and who better to curate a car museum than the Antique Automobile Club of America. Featuring a wide range of automobiles and other automotive memorabilia, a day at the AACA Museum Hershey, is an absolute must if you are in the Hershey – Harrisburg area. Even though the AACA Museum in Hershey, PA only opened it’s doors in 2003, it’s an extremely well regarded car museum. It’s collector-oriented roots have allowed it to gather a deep collection of automobiles that reflect the majority of the key stages in Automotive history. The museum is of such high quality that it’s been recognized as an Affiliate Museum by the Smithsonian and is considered to be one of America’s greatest automobile museums by Autoweek. It only took one step into the lobby of the AACA to see why . Because the AACA began as a collector driven museum, they have the ability to bring in a large variety of rotating exhibits of vehicles that aren’t often seen in this kind of venue. These hotrods in the lobby had me drooling! The AACA also owns a pretty deep collection of vehicles that they use in their permanent exhibit area. They’ve chosen to display their vehicles in different vignettes that showcase some of the different automotive eras. All the exhibits featured more than just cars of course, there was a ton of automotive memorabilia that would make any picker drool. In between these vignettes, there were other temporary exhibits like “The Art of the Build: Rods and Kustoms”, which features one-off and unique custom productions. The AACA Museum features a lot more than just cars though. They have a nice collection of motorcycles on permanent display, as well as some pretty rare Indians as part of their “Indian Nation: Indian Motorcycles and America” exhibit. They also feature a collection from the Museum of Bus Transportation that includes this famous guy from Forrest Gump! If you’re lucky when you visit, you might even get a chance to catch a glimpse of the sweetest ride in Hershey, PA. That’s because the AACA Museum currently has the Hershey’s Kissmobile Cruiser on long term loan! On top of all this, the AACA Museum also features a permanent display with hundreds of hood ornaments, a collection of other automobiles in their reserve collection that rotate in and out of the museum, and will be opening the worlds largest and most complete collection of Tucker 48 Automobiles in October 2014. The museum is definitely worth a visit for any automobile lover. Depending on how thorough you are, plan on spending anywhere from 1.5 – 3 hours going through this incredible collection of automobiles.
Looking for other Attractions or Hotels Near the AACA Museum in Hershey? Check out the Visit Hershey Harrisburg website for fun activities and great savings.