2026's 12 Best Small Towns To Visit In Pennsylvania
Mention the Poconos to most people and they picture ski slopes and indoor water parks. Fair enough. But the prettiest part of the region is its small towns, and most people blow right past them. A lot grew up around railroad depots and lake resorts more than a century ago, and plenty of that is still standing: old brick main streets, big Victorian houses, a waterfall or an excursion train here and there. Pick one or two and you have a weekend. Start with these nine.
Jim Thorpe
They call Jim Thorpe the "Little Switzerland of America," and the tangle of Victorian storefronts climbing its hillsides backs it up. This is the Poconos at their most photogenic: brick-and-stone buildings stacked on steep streets, mountains rising right behind the rooftops. Tour the Asa Packer Mansion, the 1861 home of a railroad baron frozen in Gilded Age detail, then walk it off in Lehigh Gorge State Park, where the river below pulls in whitewater rafters all season.
The name itself is a story. The town was called Mauch Chunk until 1954, when it merged with a neighbor and renamed itself for the Olympic champion Jim Thorpe, whose tomb sits on the east edge of town. At its heart stands the Mauch Chunk Opera House, an 1881 hall that started in the vaudeville era and still books live music today. Between the mansions, the mountains, and Race Street's shops and cafes, it is the rare small town that earns every photo taken of it.
Honesdale
Honesdale holds a claim few towns can match: it is the birthplace of the American railroad. In 1829, the Stourbridge Lion chugged out of here as the first steam locomotive to run on a commercial track in the United States. You can still ride the rails on the Stourbridge Line, a scenic excursion that rolls through the mountains and, come October, past whole hillsides of turning leaves.
The rest of town lives up to the history. The Lackawaxen River threads past a Main Street of 19th-century storefronts, where shops and diners like Dyberry Mercantile and the Towne House keep the sidewalks busy, and the Wayne County Historical Society displays a full-size replica of the Stourbridge Lion. Honesdale is also, improbably, the birthplace of Highlights for Children, the magazine founded here in 1946 and still edited nearby. Bring a paddle or a fishing rod and the river is yours.
Hawley
Hawley sits at the top of Lake Wallenpaupack, one of the largest lakes in Pennsylvania, with 52 miles of shoreline for boaters, paddlers, and anyone who just wants to watch the water. But the real surprise is the food. The Settlers Inn, a farm-to-table landmark in a 1920s Arts-and-Crafts building, plates locally sourced dishes, while Joe & Lorenzo's handles Italian downtown and the Lake Wally Cafe sorts out breakfast.
The town wears its industrial past well. The Hawley Silk Mill, an 1880s bluestone factory, has been reborn as a warren of shops, a coffee roaster, and studios, and its stone walls are hard to miss. Just outside town, resorts like Woodloch spread across private lakes in the surrounding hills. For a place this small, Hawley eats, shops, and unwinds far above its weight.
Stroudsburg
Stroudsburg is the Poconos' unofficial capital of doing things. Slate sidewalks and shade trees line a downtown packed with independent shops, restaurants, and art, from the Gallery at 530 Main to the Sherman Theater, which pulls in national touring acts most weekends. At the center, the 19th-century Monroe County Courthouse presides over a green ringed by red-brick storefronts.
History runs deep here. The Stroud Mansion, built in 1795 by the town's founding family, now houses the Monroe County Historical Association and its local collections. Main Street stays busy after dark with brewpubs, live-music rooms, and a long roster of independent restaurants, and the Delaware Water Gap is only a few minutes south. It is walkable, lively, and the easiest base for a first trip to the region.
Milford
Milford is a riverside borough of about 1,100 people with a downtown dressed for a period drama, all Victorian facades and iron balconies. The centerpiece is the Hotel Fauchere, an 1852 hotel still serving some of the best food in the region. A mile out, Grey Towers National Historic Site was the home of Gifford Pinchot, the first chief of the US Forest Service, and it anchors Milford's outsized place in American conservation.
Milford also marks the northern gateway to the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, 67,000 acres of protected river valley laced with 100 miles of trails, including a 27-mile stretch of the Appalachian Trail. Just inside the park, Raymondskill Falls, the tallest waterfall in Pennsylvania, drops in three tiers a short walk from the parking area. Back in the borough, the restored Upper Mill and its 1800s waterwheel round out an afternoon.
Delaware Water Gap
The town of Delaware Water Gap shares its name with the notch it guards, and it has been sending visitors into the mountains since 1793, when French settler Antoine Dutot laid it out. By the 1800s it was a full-blown resort, drawing guests like Theodore Roosevelt and a young Fred Astaire, and the Antoine Dutot Museum & Gallery keeps that story on display.
The gap itself is the draw, where the Delaware River slices between Mount Minsi on the Pennsylvania side and Mount Tammany across the water in New Jersey. Hike up Mount Minsi for a bird's-eye view straight down the notch, or drop a kayak into the Delaware River and paddle between the ridges. Come evening, the Deer Head Inn, the oldest continuously operating jazz club in the country, books live music most nights. Trails leave from just about every edge of town.
Gouldsboro
Gouldsboro is barely 700 people scattered among lakes and ponds, and it comes with a villain's origin story. The village went by Sand Cut until 1892, when it took the name of Jay Gould, the robber baron who ran a tannery here before becoming one of the Gilded Age's most reviled financiers. His old Delaware, Lackawanna and Western railroad station still stands, now a small history museum on a line that once hauled freight between Hoboken and Buffalo.
South of the village, Gouldsboro State Park wraps around a 250-acre lake with sandy swimming beaches and quiet boating coves. Its 2,800 acres of forest, wetland, and bog shelter rare plants and make for some of the best birding in the region. The park shares a border with Tobyhanna State Park next door, so a single visit can easily cover two.
Tobyhanna
A 15-minute drive from Gouldsboro, Tobyhanna once ran on ice. From about 1900 to 1936, crews cut and shipped ice from the lakes around town, and the restored 1908 Delaware, Lackawanna and Western station, now a railroad museum, remembers that vanished trade.
The main event is Tobyhanna State Park, more than 5,000 acres built around a 170-acre lake. Summer means paddling, swimming, and stocked trout off an accessible pier, plus a five-mile trail that loops the whole shoreline. Winter turns the trails over to skiers and snowmobilers, with a marked skating area when the lake freezes hard enough. Between the two adjoining state parks and the surrounding Pinchot State Forest, Tobyhanna stays green and busy in every season.
Lake Harmony
Lake Harmony, a resort town in Carbon County, is built around a glacial lake that has been sitting here for roughly 22,000 years. Low green hills ring clear water that turns into a paddler's playground in summer and a base camp for skiers once Jack Frost Big Boulder fires up the lifts. Ten minutes away, the Austin T. Blakeslee Natural Area packs 130 acres of trail along Tobyhanna Creek, with a waterfall an easy half-mile walk from the car.
The area has drawn vacationers for generations, anchored by the historic Split Rock Resort on the lakeshore. Just south, Hickory Run State Park protects Boulder Field, a National Natural Landmark where a 16-acre expanse of glacier-strewn rocks stretches out flat as a parking lot. Lake Harmony is a four-season town that never quite slows down.
Small Towns, Big Views
The railroad made these mountains a destination, and the tracks are still everywhere you look: Honesdale's excursion train, the old DL&W depots at Gouldsboro and Tobyhanna, the baron's mansion above Jim Thorpe. Add Milford's Victorian downtown, Delaware Water Gap's resort-era bones, and a long string of lakes and waterfalls, and you have a region built for slow weekends. Pick two or three, string them together, and let the mountains set the pace.
