12 Most Relaxing Pennsylvania Towns

Pennsylvania holds a long line of small towns where the day slows down without much effort. Some sit next to dark-sky parks. Some run on rail-trail traffic and old country railroads. Coudersport is a few miles from Cherry Springs State Park, the second International Dark Sky Park ever certified. Wellsboro is the gateway town to the 47-mile Pine Creek Gorge, the so-called Pennsylvania Grand Canyon. Eagles Mere preserves a Victorian-era resort village around a 117-acre spring-fed lake. The twelve below all run on the same general idea: take longer than you'd planned, and the visit improves.

Coudersport

Coudersport is the seat of Potter County in the heart of the Pennsylvania Wilds, a 12-county region in the north-central part of the state with the lowest population density east of the Mississippi. The 82-acre Cherry Springs State Park, 16 miles southeast of town, sits at 2,300 feet on the Allegheny Plateau and is surrounded by the 262,000-acre Susquehannock State Forest. The park was named the second International Dark Sky Park (Gold Tier) by the International Dark-Sky Association in 2008, and on a clear new-moon night the Milky Way casts a discernible shadow on the Astronomy Field.

Potter County Stargazing Tours, run out of Coudersport by Adventure World Tours, leads two-hour guided sessions with telescopes and red-light navigation through the dark sky areas. The 18-hole Coudersport Golf Club sits at the edge of town and is one of the older public courses in northern Pennsylvania, dating to 1924. The downtown holds the Old Hickory Restaurant, a well-known steakhouse with a working wood fire, plus the 1853 Potter County Courthouse on the square.

Wellsboro

Wellsboro is the seat of Tioga County and the gateway to Pine Creek Gorge, the 47-mile-long, 1,500-foot-deep canyon known regionally as the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon. Colton Point State Park (on the western rim) and Leonard Harrison State Park (on the eastern rim) hold the main overlooks, with the deepest stretch of the gorge between them at Tioga County's Black Forest. The 62-mile Pine Creek Rail Trail runs along the canyon floor on a former Conrail right-of-way, with Tiadaghton State Forest on both sides and dozens of road-accessible trailheads from Ansonia south to Jersey Shore.

Main Street in Wellsboro is one of the few in the state still lit by gas lamps, an unbroken stretch of about 80 lampposts that the borough has maintained since the 1930s. The Penn Wells Hotel, an 1869 building on Main Street, is a long-running anchor for downtown lodging. Oregon Hill Winery has run a Main Street tasting room since 1983 and pours grape and fruit wines made from its vineyards south of town near Morris.

Lake Harmony

Lake Harmony is a Carbon County resort village built around a 175-acre glacial lake on the Pocono Plateau, an hour and a half from Philadelphia and two hours from New York. The lake handles wakeboarding, water skiing, kayaking, and fishing through the warm months, with rentals available from Lake Harmony Watersports on the eastern shore. Captain Joe's Fishing runs guided trips for largemouth bass and pickerel.

Nick's Lake House on Route 903 is the standing waterfront restaurant on the lake, with an open-air deck for warm-weather dining. Split Rock Resort, a few minutes south of the lake, holds H2Oooohh!, a 53,000-square-foot indoor water park with tube slides, a wave pool, a raft slide, and a lazy river, open year-round. The Big Boulder ski area, with night skiing on most of its terrain, sits less than two miles from the lake.

Lewisburg

Lewisburg is a Union County college town on the West Branch of the Susquehanna River, anchored by Bucknell University (founded 1846). Market Street, the main commercial corridor, is a National Register historic district running about ten blocks of preserved 19th-century brick storefronts. The Samek Art Museum, operated by Bucknell with a downtown satellite gallery, rotates contemporary exhibitions throughout the year and brings consistent gallery programming to a town this size.

The Susquehanna River Greenway runs more than 500 miles across central Pennsylvania, linking river towns through trails and access points. Dale's Ridge Trail, two miles long, follows a creek through meadow and bluff outside Mifflinburg with wildflowers in late spring. Fero Vineyards & Winery, on a 12-acre property a few miles south of town, grows Pinot Noir and Lemberger varieties suited to the Susquehanna Valley climate and pours flights from an outdoor patio in the warm months.

Eagles Mere

Eagles Mere sits in Sullivan County in the Endless Mountains, an old summer-resort town built around a 117-acre spring-fed lake at 2,100 feet elevation. The lake is owned by the local property association and is open to residents and to guests of the few inns in town, with swimming, kayaking, paddleboarding, and small-craft sailing through the warm months. The Eagles Mere Country Club holds an 18-hole 1903 course laid into the surrounding hills with substantial elevation change between holes.

The historic village runs along Sullivan Avenue with shops, two restaurants, the Eagles Mere Museum (open in summer), and the original 1879 Crestmont Inn (now a private residence). The Eagles Mere Toboggan Slide, a 1,200-foot ice chute built each January when the lake freezes, has been in operation since 1904 and is one of the few remaining natural-ice toboggan runs in the country.

Honesdale

Honesdale, on the Lackawaxen River in Wayne County, is the birthplace of the American railroad; the Stourbridge Lion, the first commercial steam locomotive to run on a track in the United States, made its first run from Honesdale on August 8, 1829. The Stourbridge Line excursion train still runs from the original 1849 station, with seasonal trips for fall foliage, the Easter Bunny Express, and the Halloween-themed Tunkhannock Express.

Irving Cliff at Gibbons Memorial Park rises about 300 feet above downtown, with several short trails to the overlook running through the trees behind town. The Wayne County Historical Society, on Main Street, holds a working full-size replica of the Stourbridge Lion built in 1933 for the Chicago World's Fair. The Great Wall of Honesdale, a community mural project, runs along Court Street with reproductions of paintings, photographs, and other works by local artists.

Mifflinburg

Mifflinburg is a Union County town that built its 19th-century economy on horse-drawn carriages: at the height of the buggy era, around 1900, the town had more than 50 buggy makers and was one of the largest carriage-manufacturing centers in the country. The Mifflinburg Buggy Museum on Green Street preserves the W.A. Heiss Coach Works (a complete 1890s buggy shop with original tools, finishing room, and showroom), open Memorial Day through Labor Day for tours.

Raymond B. Winter State Park, 11 miles west of town, runs 695 acres of forest in the Bald Eagle State Forest with the small Halfway Lake at its center, a sandy swimming beach, and several marked loop trails. Sand Bridge State Park, three miles further west, covers 3.5 acres along Rapid Run, a small picnic park with a stone footbridge built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1934.

Renovo

Renovo sits on the West Branch of the Susquehanna River in Clinton County, surrounded by Sproul State Forest (305,000 acres, the largest in the state) to the south and Bald Eagle State Forest (193,000 acres) to the north. The Bucktail State Park Natural Area covers a 75-mile river-valley corridor that the Bucktail Scenic Byway (PA Route 120) follows from Lock Haven to Emporium, with marked trout-stream access points and trailheads along the route.

The Donut Hole Trail, a 90-mile backcountry hiking loop through Sproul State Forest, leaves from the southern edge of town and connects to several backcountry primitive campsites. The Flaming Foliage Festival has run every October since 1949 with a parade, juried crafts, and a queen pageant, drawing several thousand visitors to a town of about 1,200 year-round residents.

Hawley

Hawley sits at the western end of Lake Wallenpaupack, a 5,700-acre PPL Electric Utilities reservoir built in 1925 with 52 miles of shoreline, the largest lake entirely within Pennsylvania. The Wallenpaupack Scenic Boat Tour runs 50-minute narrated cruises out of the western shore with local history and wildlife commentary. Several public boat launches and three commercial marinas serve the lake, and largemouth bass and walleye are the standard fishery targets.

The Pennsylvania Rail Bike runs four-passenger pedal-powered rail carts on a section of decommissioned track between Hawley and Lackawaxen, following the Lackawaxen River for the full 25 miles round trip. The Ritz Company Playhouse, an Equity-approved community theater on Main Street, runs a season of plays and musicals from spring through fall in a restored 1910 building. The Settlers Inn on Main Avenue, a stone-and-shingle building from 1927, is the standing dinner pick in town.

Milford

Milford is the seat of Pike County and the northern gateway to the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. Milford Beach, on the Delaware River, is a National Park Service-managed swimming and picnic area with a designated beach, a boat launch, and shoreline access for fishing and paddling. Raymondskill Falls, six miles south of town inside the recreation area, drops 178 feet in three tiers and is the tallest waterfall in Pennsylvania.

Grey Towers National Historic Site, on the southern edge of Milford, was the family home of Gifford Pinchot, the first Chief of the US Forest Service and twice governor of Pennsylvania. The 19th-century French-château-style mansion is open seasonally for tours of the house and 1,300-acre forest grounds. Downtown Milford runs a few blocks of antique shops, restaurants, and the Hotel Fauchère, an 1880 hotel that reopened in 2006 after a full restoration.

New Hope

New Hope is a Bucks County borough on the Delaware River, connected to Lambertville, New Jersey, by a 1904 free bridge. Weekdays are quieter than weekends; the New Hope and Ivyland Railroad runs heritage steam and diesel excursions from the 1891 New Hope station with options including the one-hour Lahaska Limited and the 1920s-themed Speakeasy Train (with period costumes and live jazz).

Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve, a 134-acre native-plant garden two miles south of town, holds about 800 species of plants native to Pennsylvania across woodland and meadow habitats with marked trails. The Bucks County Playhouse, a converted 1790 grist mill on Main Street, runs a year-round professional theater season. Odette's Steakhouse, on a riverfront site at the foot of New Hope's bridge, draws its name from Odette Myrtil, the French-born Broadway actress who ran a supper club here from 1961 until her death in 1978.

Clarion

Clarion is the seat of Clarion County in northwestern Pennsylvania, on the Clarion River, which is part of the federal Wild and Scenic Rivers System for a 51-mile stretch. The river runs Class I and II rapids through old-growth forest and is a regular paddling destination from late spring through early fall, with several outfitters renting canoes and kayaks out of the Cook Forest area to the east.

The Sutton-Ditz House Museum, at the Clarion County Historical Society, occupies an 1846 home with restored period rooms and rotating exhibits on the county's iron, glass, and lumber industries. The Autumn Leaf Festival, running on the public square every October since 1953, fills downtown with juried crafts, a parade, and an autumn 5K. Cook Forest State Park, 18 miles east, holds the largest stand of virgin white pine and hemlock in the northeastern United States, with several trees over 300 years old.

A Relaxing Pennsylvania Experience

The twelve towns above each give a different shape to the same idea: a working downtown next to a state park, a forest, a river, or a lake substantial enough that the schedule changes once you arrive. Pick the one whose anchor matches the weekend (a dark sky, a 47-mile gorge, a Victorian resort village, a piece of 1829 railroad history, a 5,700-acre lake) and the rest tends to handle itself.