The Turkey Hill Experience is located in Columbia, Pennsylvania. Columbia is a small town on the Susquehanna River between York and Lancaster.
The Turkey Hill Experience building can be easily seen along Route 30 between York and Lancaster. It is just two quick turns to get to Turkey Hill Experience from the Columbia exit of Route 30.
The parking lot is right beside the building. It shares a parking lot with a Turkey Hill Convenience store. On busy days, the parking lot can fill, so plan to arrive close to opening.
Turkey Hill Experience Tickets
Tickets may be purchased online. There is an add-on experience called the Taste Lab, where you create your own ice cream flavor. The Taste Lab has timed tickets and limited availability each day. If you would like to do the Taste Lab, it’s highly-recommended that you purchase the Taste Lab tickets online, in advance.
The regular entrance ticket includes walking through a museum-like space, and then the interactive process of virtually creating an ice cream flavor, packaging, and commercial for your new flavor of ice cream. This is completely digital; you see your creations on a screen throughout the experience. To actually create your own flavor to taste, you’ll need add-on, timed tickets for the Taste Lab.
When arriving at Turkey Hill experience, you’ll walk into the gift shop. At the back wall of the gift shop is the ticket counter, where you can get your tickets and map of the experience. The first part of the experience area includes pretending to milk cows and drive the delivery truck.
The kids seemed to love pretending to drive the life-size truck. After learning more about the history of Turkey Hill, the next station is the lemonade and tea sampling. Small cups are provided to try the range of flavors available each day.
Once getting your fill of tea and lemonade, you can watch a short film about Turkey Hill, then go to the stations where you can virtually design your own ice cream flavor on a computer and create a custom ice cream package.
Next, you create a commercial for your new flavor. This is the part that my kids like the best. She dances around in front of the green screen, and then hurries over to watch the play back.
Ice Cream Samples
Toward the far side of the second floor of the Turkey Hill Experience is the ice cream sampling. It’s tucked into the side of the building, so follow the signs to get there. This sampling is included in your admission ticket.
You can choose your sample flavors and continue going back for more. The sample cups are fairly generous. It’s fun to try the flavors you may not normally buy at the store.
Taste Lab
After doing all of the virtual ice cream creating, if you purchased tickets for the Taste Lab, you can create your own ice cream flavor with real ice cream. There are two classrooms for the Taste Lab – A and B. These classrooms are on the first floor of the building. Be sure to arrive a few minutes before your allotted time.
Once you enter the Taste Lab, wash your hands, and take a seat at a table in front of the flavorings. A teacher will walk you through the order and amount to use for each of the options. The Taste Lab experience takes about a half hour to 45 minutes.
You’ll also get to add in toppings that line the walls of the taste lab. Toppings include tiny peanut butter cups, pretzels, sprinkles, chocolate chips, and many, many more. You’ll learn more about the ice cream making process at Turkey Hill and answer some trivia questions.
Tips for Visiting:
- Have a cooler with in the car to store your Taste Lab creations if you visit during hot weather. They do not provide lids for the pint-size containers. If you or your child do not finish the ice cream, it might be best to bring along something to seal the container, or your own container to transfer the ice cream. We didn’t know this, and ended up with ice cream soup during our drive home.
- This attraction can get busy in cold weather, or rainy weather during the summer. It’s best to arrive close to opening.
- Purchase tickets for the Taste Lab online before your trip, since time slots can fill-up quickly. Plan to do the Taste Lab last, as you might have left over ice cream from the taste lab to take home.
Looking for more fun things to do in the area?
Check out this post about 20 things to do in Lancaster and this post about fun things to do in York.
