Where to stay in the Poconos (besides a cabin)

While you’re hiking, skiing, golfing or just unwinding during your trip in the Poconos, a stay at a homey cabin that you rented on Airbnb or borrowed from a very generous great-aunt might be the go to move. But that’s not the only way to vacation in the oasis of forested peaks, lakes and valleys — pink-and-rose hotel suites that look like vintage Playboy spreads and opulent mansion resorts from a different era have drawn in many romantics.

For a long time, the Pocono Mountains were renowned as the “honeymoon capital” of America. The craze kicked off in 1971, when Life magazine ran a risqué photo of two lovers, posed in flagrante delicto in the Poconos’ Cove Haven Resort, smooching in red-tiled, heart-shaped hot tub, their naughtier bits obscured by a bounty of bath bubbles. Couples from across Pennsylvania and nearby New York State flocked to Cove Haven and similarly-styled love hotels.

For decades, the resorts upped the ante: The heart-shaped tub begat the in-room swimming pool and then, in the 1980s, the seven-foot acrylic glass whirlpool tub sculpted to look resemble a champagne glass (one traveler compared the experience of luxuriating in the patented champagne tub to bobbing like an olive in a martini). It was a resort destination defined by seemingly endless innovation and novelty, which now seems trapped in amber, stuck in time.

Whether you’re seeking a honeymoon destination, a weekend to recharge or a family rest stop, here are alternative stays to cabins in the Poconos.

Stay for: The nostalgic honeymoon accouterments and roaming deer that will eat out of the palm of your hand.

No list of Poconos-only gems would be complete without the home of the heart-shaped tub. Where many Honeymoon Capital-era resorts have shuttered, Cove Haven and its sister resorts, Poconos Palace and Paradise Stream, endure. Everything here feeds back into notions of sex and romance, from the bar and grill being called “Spooner’s,” to the sign in the dining room flashing”LOVE.” Rooms are offered at varying price points, with some suites boasting built-in saunas, massage tables, and two-story tubs shaped like champagne glasses. Whether it’s tackily “vintage” or desperately in need of a facelift is likely a question of personal taste. But if circular beds, mirrored ceilings, and mood lighting aren’t enough to reignite that spark, chances are the honeymoon is well and truly over.

📍 194 Lakeview Dr, Lakeville, 📞 866-500-0488, 🌐 covepoconoresorts.com, 📷 @poconoromance

Stay for: Top-ranked family fun, forest bathing, and a state-of-the-art virtual reality arcade.

Where some resorts draw on the area’s status as the “land of love,” Woodloch feels more geared towards family fun: pools, go karts, a daily itinerary of scavenger hunts and more. Founded on Lake Teedyuskung in 1958, Woodloch is all about enjoying a stay with loved ones..

📍 731 Welcome Lake Rd, Hawley, 📞 800-966-3562, 🌐 woodloch.com, 📷 @woodloch

Stay for: Victorian-era charm, period-era antiques, and the full murder mystery experience

The small town of Jim Thorpe is known as both “the gateway to the Poconos” and “the Switzerland of America,” with its sweeping scenery and romantic cottages. But the historic Harry Packer Mansion has a rather different European pedigree. Built in the late 19th century in the post-Renaissance Italianate style, the mansion was a gift from pioneering Pennsylvania businessman Asa Packer to his son. . The new owners have swept away the cobwebs, but they’re still banking on the property’s gothic bona fides. It currently plays host to lavishly staged Murder Mystery Weekends, ideal for couples with a sense of history and a passion for the macabre.

📍 19 Packer Hill, Jim Thorpe, 📞 570-325-8566, 🌐hpmansion.com, 📷 @harry_packer_mansion

Stay for: The activities on Skytop Lake, rentable bikes, and 30-miles of hiking trails

In 2019, a fire destroyed Pocono Manor — a nearly 120-year-old resort hotel in Monroe County. The tragic loss to Poconos history had an unexpected consequence: Skytop Lodge, which was established in 1928 as the area’s reigning historic resort property. “After the Civil War, migration really started to accelerate,” said Barrett. When the resort opened, it was noted for it’s hotel management, decoration and arrangement. It was also one of the first resorts in the region to capitalize on the Poconos appeal as a golf destination.

📍 1 Skytop Lodge Rd, Skytop, 📞 855-345-7759 🌐 skytop.com, 📷 @skytoplodge

Stay for: Modern amenities in historical digs and easy walks to the quaint restaurants and bars of Stroudsburg.

This hotel in downtown Stroudsburg, which recently completed a big-ticket renovation following a 2015 fire, may not immediately strike you as especially historic. But the hotel’s modern facade is built on old bones. The original hotel opened as The Stroudsburg House in 1883, built by Jacob Hollinshead, grandson of Stroudsburg founder Jacob Stroud. It changed owners, and names, a number of times over the centuries. But the hotel long stood as a hub of what a 1960s newspaper called “the East’s most famous playground.” The hotel is in the middle of Stroudsburg, so you can wander to restaurants and bars, but still be only a few miles from the Delaware Water Gap. The Penn Stroud is a non-smoking establishment.

📍 700 Main St, Stroudsburg, 📞 570-421-2200, 🌐 choicehotels.com, 📷 @thepennstroudhotel

Stay for: Spacious themed suites, wet-and-wild fun for all ages, glow-in-the-dark mini-putt, and MagiQuest, miniature bowling.

An indoor waterpark may not exactly give you a sense of local history, but this international resort chain played an important role in reshaping the region. By the 1990s and 2000s, much of the Poconos’ appeal as a resort getaway had been challenged by low-cost carriers offering all-inclusive flight deals to resorts in Mexico and the Caribbean. The idea of the local holiday suddenly seemed neither sufficiently fancy, nor particularly cost-effective. Enter Great Wolf Lodge. In 2005, the family resort recast the Poconos as a destination for wet-and-wild fun for all ages. Its success birthed a waterpark boom in the area, which now counts the enormous Kalahari Resort.When you’re speeding down Great Wolf Lodge’s Hydro Plunge slide, remember you’re part of history.

📍 1 Great Wolf Dr, Scotrun, 📞 800-768-9653, 🌐 greatwolf.com/poconos, 📷 @greatwolflodge

In the 1930s, mining magnate Joseph Hirshhorn brought some 165 German and Italian craftsmen and artisans to 500 acres on Huckleberry Mountain to construct a manor house for the holidays. It was constructed with natural lumber and fieldstone from local quarries, Over time, the manor changed owners who transformed it into a full-service romantic country inn. Stay suites with fireplaces, whirlpool tubs and private balconies that offer views of the Northern Pocono Mountains while you enjoy spa treatments from pedicures to couples’ massages.

📍50 Huntingdon Dr., South Sterling, 📞 570-676-3244, 🌐 https://thefrenchmanor.com/, 📷 @frenchmanor

John Semley’s writing has been published in Harper’s, The New York Times Magazine, The New Republic, The Baffler, The Guardian, and elsewhere. His most recent book is Hater: On the Virtues of Utter Disagreeability (Viking).

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