11 Coolest Small Towns in the Poconos for a Summer Vacation

Lake Wallenpaupack opens 52 miles of shoreline for boating, sailing, and water skiing Memorial Day through Labor Day. The Falls Trail at Ricketts Glen sends weekend hikers past 21 named waterfalls. The Lehigh Gorge rafts dam-release whitewater past Jim Thorpe, and Camelback Mountain trades its ski lifts for an alpine coaster and mountain biking trails. These are the things people drive to the Pocono Mountains in northeastern Pennsylvania for once summer hits. The eleven towns below sit close enough to all of it to make decent weekend bases: railroad heritage in Honesdale, Victorian streets in Jim Thorpe, casino floors in Plains, lakefront cabins in Hawley and Lake Harmony.

Bangor

Bangor sits at the southern foot of the Blue Mountain ridge in Northampton County, where the Pocono escarpment drops into the Lehigh Valley below. The town's distinctive draw is Columcille Megalith Park, the modern Celtic-inspired stone sanctuary William Cohea Jr. began assembling on a 20-acre slope after a 1977 visit to Iona, Scotland. More than 90 stone settings stand on the property today, placed mostly between 1980 and 2005 using a mix of modern equipment and archaic leverage methods; the largest stone, called Mannanan, rises 20 feet and weighs about 45 tons.

Downtown Bangor itself runs to brick storefronts left over from the slate-boom years when the surrounding ridges supplied much of Pennsylvania's slate industry. The Broadway Pub keeps a British-themed corner of the historic district, Tolino Vineyards a few miles out grows estate fruit on a patio with mountain views, and Smith Krekk Farm runs alpaca walks a short drive from town.

Blakeslee

Blakeslee is an unincorporated crossroads in Pocono Lake Township of Monroe County, named for Jacob Blakeslee, who opened the original post office there in 1884. The area sits on the western Pocono Plateau and serves as a service center for the nearby ski resorts, lakes, and Pocono Raceway in adjacent Long Pond, where NASCAR runs its annual summer race weekend on the 2.5-mile tri-oval.

Summer visitors use Blakeslee as a base for mountain biking, kayaking on Brady's Lake or Tobyhanna Lake to the north, and hikes through the surrounding state forests and game lands. The Blakeslee Flea Market runs weekends on Route 115. The smaller covered bridges in the surrounding township make easy half-day driving loops for anyone wanting a quieter afternoon.

Hawley

Hawley sits on the Lackawaxen River at the gateway to Lake Wallenpaupack, the reservoir Pennsylvania Power & Light built in 1926 for hydroelectricity. The lake's 52 miles of shoreline define summer here: marinas around the lake run boat tours, pontoon rentals, sailing, and water skiing from Memorial Day through Labor Day. The borough itself runs about 1,200 residents.

The most-photographed building downtown is the Hawley Silk Mill, the late-19th-century former factory on Wallenpaupack Creek that now houses shops, restaurants, and a community college campus, with a creek waterfall running right beside it. Silver Birches Resort on the lake handles the higher-end stays, and smaller cabins along the shore handle the rest. Honesdale and Milford are both within easy day-trip range.

Honesdale

Honesdale calls itself the "Birthplace of the American Railroad" because the Stourbridge Lion, the first steam locomotive to run on rails in the United States, made its trial run from the town's Delaware and Hudson Canal depot on August 8, 1829. The original engine is now at the Smithsonian; a replica sits in the Wayne County Historical Society Museum on Main Street, a couple of blocks from where the run took place. The borough holds about 4,200 residents.

Downtown Honesdale still runs to brick Victorian storefronts climbing toward Irving Cliff, a short hike up from town that opens on the Lackawaxen Valley below. The Stourbridge Line still runs seasonal excursion trips through the surrounding forests from the same depot the Lion once used. Black & Brass Coffee Roasting Company anchors the morning crowd on Main Street.

Jim Thorpe

The Carbon County borough was called Mauch Chunk until 1954, when it merged with neighboring East Mauch Chunk and renamed itself for the Sac and Fox athlete who won gold medals in pentathlon and decathlon at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics; his remains are interred in a mausoleum on the eastern edge of town. The Victorian commercial core climbs the hillside above the Lehigh River with railway-money buildings from the 1860s and 1870s mostly intact, including the Asa Packer Mansion (the home of the Lehigh Valley Railroad founder) and the Mauch Chunk Opera House. Population is around 4,300.

Lehigh Gorge State Park runs north from town along the river, with a 25-mile rail trail for biking and Pocono Whitewater operating rafting trips against the dam-release schedule. The Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway departs from the downtown depot for round trips through the gorge. Curiosities Coffee and Ice House handles the morning crowd, and the Mauch Chunk Opera House books touring acts most weekends through the summer.

Lake Harmony

Lake Harmony, in Kidder Township of Carbon County, surrounds a natural glacial lake at the foot of Big Boulder Mountain. Big Boulder, opened in the late 1940s, is generally credited as Pennsylvania's first commercial ski resort, and a Big Boulder employee named John Guresh pioneered modern snowmaking there in the winter of 1956-57. The unincorporated community runs about 1,000 year-round residents and multiplies many times over on summer weekends.

Hickory Run State Park borders Lake Harmony to the south, and its 16-acre Boulder Field, a National Natural Landmark of sandstone and quartzite boulders laid down by glacial action roughly 20,000 years ago, is the area's signature non-water draw. Split Rock Resort handles the larger stays, and the surrounding lake cottages handle the rest. Tubing, paddleboarding, and water-skiing on the lake itself fill most summer afternoons.

Milford

Milford, the Pike County seat near where the Delaware River bends, sits at the northern edge of the 70,000-acre Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. The town's defining landmark is Grey Towers, the French-chateau-style home James W. Pinchot built in 1886 and that his son Gifford Pinchot used as a base for the early American conservation movement. Gifford served as the first chief of the U.S. Forest Service and as a two-term governor of Pennsylvania; the estate was donated to the Forest Service in 1963 and is now a National Historic Site open for tours.

Downtown Milford runs to brick storefronts along Broad and Harford Streets with the river a short walk away at Milford Beach, the boat launch and scenic toll bridge. La Posada, Felix's Cantina, and Log Tavern Brewing Company hold the dinner crowd. The Milford Knob Trail climbs to a panoramic overlook above the town in under two hours round-trip.

Plains

Plains Township sits in Luzerne County next to Wilkes-Barre in the Wyoming Valley, technically outside the four core Pocono counties but inside extended regional definitions. The township is best known for Mohegan Pennsylvania (originally Mohegan Sun Pocono), the casino-and-racetrack complex that opened in 2006 and was Pennsylvania's first commercial casino under the state's then-new gaming law. The site combines slots and table games with the Pocono Downs harness track that has been running since 1965.

Outside the casino, the area offers easy access to Seven Tubs Recreation Area, the natural rock-pothole formations on Wheelbarrow Run a few miles east. Ricketts Glen State Park, with its 7.2-mile Falls Trail past 21 named waterfalls, sits about 50 minutes northwest. Wilkes-Barre's River Common along the Susquehanna anchors family-friendly riverfront recreation a short drive south.

Stroudsburg

Stroudsburg, the Monroe County seat just off Interstate 80, is the largest of the towns on this list with about 5,700 residents. The downtown core runs along Main Street with 19th-century buildings still holding independent restaurants, shops, and galleries, and the food scene runs unusually broad for a town this size: Thai, Mexican, Portuguese, and Puerto Rican kitchens all operate within a few blocks.

Worth a stop in the historic core: the Stroud Mansion (built in 1795, now the Monroe County Historical Association's museum) and the Quiet Valley Living Historical Farm a few miles southwest, which interprets early 19th-century Pennsylvania Dutch farm life with costumed interpreters. East Stroudsburg University sits across the creek in East Stroudsburg, and the Delaware Water Gap is twenty minutes south on Route 209.

Tannersville

Tannersville sits on Route 611 in Monroe County's Pocono Township and runs about 1,500 year-round residents, with weekend crowds far outnumbering them once Camelback Resort opens for the season. Camelback is built around Camelback Mountain (2,133 feet, the highest peak in the southern Poconos), and summer brings the Camelback Mountain Adventures park into play with a mountain coaster, zip lines, and an aerial ropes course; the Camelbeach outdoor waterpark runs through Labor Day, and Aquatopia, the resort's indoor waterpark, runs year-round.

Big Pocono State Park sits at the summit of Camelback with hiking trails and a 360-degree view that on clear days reaches the Catskills to the north and the Lehigh Valley to the south. The Crossings Premium Outlets just off Interstate 80 holds about 100 outlet stores. Barley Creek Brewing Company a half-mile away handles the after-shopping pints, and Smuggler's Cove handles the larger dinner crowds.

Tobyhanna

Tobyhanna sits between Mount Pocono and Blakeslee in Monroe County's Coolbaugh Township, two miles south of Tobyhanna State Park's main entrance on Route 423. The park's 5,440 acres straddle Monroe and Wayne counties, with the 170-acre Tobyhanna Lake at its center, a sand beach for summer swimming, and the 5.1-mile Lakeside Trail looping the shoreline.

The land was a U.S. Army artillery training range before Pennsylvania acquired it in 1949, and visitors using remote sections of the park are still occasionally reminded by signage that unexploded shells have been found in the woods. Outside the park, Camelbeach a few miles south and Kalahari Resorts in Pocono Manor handle the indoor and outdoor waterpark demand for travelers who didn't come to camp.

Crossing the Pocono Plateau

Eleven towns is enough to fill a long summer's worth of weekend drives. The cluster around Stroudsburg and Tannersville (Camelback, the Delaware Water Gap, the outlets) makes a good first weekend; Honesdale, Hawley, and Lake Wallenpaupack hold a slower second weekend up north; and Jim Thorpe, Lake Harmony, and Plains anchor the southern and western edges with the Lehigh Gorge, the Boulder Field, and Ricketts Glen all within easy reach. The plateau is small enough to cross in a couple of hours and busy enough to take all summer to see, well before any traveler runs out of other Pennsylvania ground to cover.