Vaughan to the Poconos: the mountain-resort week by chauffeured car

The Poconos, and why Vaughan goes

The Poconos are the mountains between Scranton and the Delaware River where New York and Philadelphia have taken their holidays for a century — the honeymoon resorts of the 1960s gave way to the family resorts of now, and the family resorts have indoor water parks: Camelback Resort's Aquatopia, with its retractable roof and its slides, on the ski hill at Tannersville; Kalahari Resorts' Pocono Manor, the state's largest indoor water park, with the safari-themed hotel around it; Great Wolf Lodge at Scotrun, which Vaughan families know from Niagara. Around them are the lakes — Lake Harmony's cottages, Lake Wallenpaupack's thirteen miles of shore and boats — the ski hills of Camelback and Jack Frost/Big Boulder, Bushkill Falls' eight waterfalls on a boardwalk trail, the Delaware Water Gap's rafting and hiking, Jim Thorpe's Victorian streets in the Lehigh Gorge, and the Crossings outlets at Tannersville. It is the resort week a Vaughan family takes when Muskoka is booked and the American version has a water park inside; the Pocono Mountains site has the region, and the border guide has the Lewiston bridge.

The road

From Woodbridge the QEW, the Lewiston–Queenston Bridge, I-190 and I-90 to Rochester, I-390 south, I-86 east through the Southern Tier past Corning to Binghamton, I-81 south to Scranton and I-380 south into the mountains to Tannersville, Mount Pocono or the Lake Harmony exit — eight and a quarter hours by the estimate and eight and three-quarters with the booth and stops; a family with young children splits it at Corning or Binghamton and the travel desk holds the night. The Sprinter carries a family of five and a week's bags, or two families to a rented lake house; the SUV a family of four to a resort.

The indoor water parks

Camelback's Aquatopia is the country's largest indoor water park by some measures and the resort's reason in winter — the FlowRider surf, the seven-storey slides, the wave pool, the lazy river, the retractable roof for summer, the adventure course above — with Camelback's hotel rooms including the passes; Kalahari's Pocono Manor is bigger by others — the Flowrider, the wave pool, the slides that leave the building and return, the adults' swim-up bar, the Tom Foolerys arcade — and its rooms include the passes too; Great Wolf Lodge at Scotrun is the version a family already knows. A Vaughan family picks by the children's ages — Great Wolf for under-eights, Kalahari or Camelback for the rest — and the travel desk holds the room, which for the March break and the Christmas week books in the autumn.

Camelback's hill and the winter

Camelback Mountain is the region's ski hill — thirty-nine trails, sixteen lifts, night skiing and a snowtubing park with forty-two lanes that is the country's largest — and the resort's winter is the hill by day and Aquatopia by evening, with the ski school taking children from four; Jack Frost and Big Boulder at Lake Harmony are the second pair of hills for a family in a lake cottage, and Blue Mountain south of the region is the third. The Camelback site sells the lift tickets with the room, and the Sprinter's bay takes the skis.

The lakes, the falls and the Gap

Lake Wallenpaupack is the region's big lake — thirteen miles long, with the boat rentals, the beaches, the Wallenpaupack Scenic Boat Tour and the Hawley village at its northern end — and Lake Harmony is the small one, with the cottages Vaughan families rent and Boulder Lake's beach; Bushkill Falls, "the Niagara of Pennsylvania," is eight waterfalls on a two-mile boardwalk trail through a hemlock gorge, the family's morning; the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area is the river's cut through Kittatinny Ridge with the rafting and canoe trips from the outfitters at Shawnee, the Appalachian Trail's crossing and Dingmans Falls' boardwalk. The Pocono Mountains site has the outfitters and the lakes.

Jim Thorpe and the Lehigh Gorge

Jim Thorpe, the Victorian town named for the athlete buried there, sits in the Lehigh Gorge forty minutes southwest — the Asa Packer Mansion's tour, the Old Jail Museum and the Molly Maguires' cell, Broadway's shops and the Inn at Jim Thorpe, the Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway's ninety-minute ride up the gorge and the bicycle trail down it, the whitewater rafting through the gorge on the dam-release weekends — and it is the day a Vaughan family adds when the water park has been done twice. The town's site has the railway's schedule.

The week, in shape

Saturday at 7 from Woodbridge, the Lewiston bridge at 8:40, Corning's glass museum at 12:30 for the afternoon, I-86 and I-81, Kalahari's check-in at 5:30 with the passes and the wristbands, the water park until nine; Sunday the water park's morning and Bushkill Falls' afternoon; Monday the Delaware Water Gap's raft trip; Tuesday Jim Thorpe's train; Wednesday the water park's rest day and the Crossings outlets for the parents; Thursday Philadelphia's Independence Hall in ninety minutes and back; Friday the drive home by the same road, the Lewiston bridge at 5 with the 48-hour exemption, Woodbridge by 7. Six nights, the Sprinter on daily hire with the resort days released, one number in the booking engine.

What the chauffeur replaces

Eight hours each way through three states as a driver with a week's bags; the bridge; I-81's trucks; the region's back roads to the falls, the Gap and Jim Thorpe, which are the week's days out; the Philadelphia day's I-476 and the Old City's parking; and the Friday drive home. For a couple the Poconos are a car's trip; for a family of five with a resort week, or two families in a lake house, it is the Sprinter's one fare and a parent on the raft rather than the wheel.

Seasons

The March break and the Christmas week for the indoor water parks, which are the region's winter reason and book in the autumn; December to March for Camelback's hill and the snowtubing; summer for the lakes, the falls, the Gap's rafting and Aquatopia's open roof; October for the mountains' colour — the region's best drive — and the Jim Thorpe Fall Foliage weekends' trains. The Poconos are a year-round week and the water parks are the reason the winter version exists.

Pairing it

The Poconos pair with Philadelphia ninety minutes south for the city day, with New York ninety minutes east for a family that ends the week in Manhattan, with Corning as the drive's split, and with Great Wolf Lodge Niagara as the nearer version of the same idea.

The lake-house version, for two families

Two families from Woodbridge — ten people — rent a house on Lake Harmony for a week in July: the Sprinter on Saturday with the ten and the bags, the house's dock and boat, Boulder Lake's beach, Jack Frost's summer mountain-biking and the Big Boulder's zipline, the Kalahari day pass for the rainy Tuesday, Bushkill Falls on Wednesday, Jim Thorpe's train on Thursday, and the Sprinter on Friday's return — the daily hire divided two ways, the house divided two ways, and a week that Muskoka's prices do not allow two families in July. The Pocono Mountains site has the rental agencies and the travel desk holds the house.

The Crossings and the outlet hour

The Crossings Premium Outlets at Tannersville — a hundred stores at the I-80 exit, Camelback's neighbour — are the parents' rainy-morning hour and the reason the Sprinter's bay comes home fuller than it left; Pennsylvania's untaxed clothing and the 48-hour CAD 800 exemption per person apply as at Grove City, and the receipts envelope is in the door. The outlets' site has the stores.

Costs, plainly

The Poconos week is a daily hire in the booking engine with the resort days released, or a return with the days out on daily hire; the resort or the house, the water park passes, the raft trip and the train are the family's own, and the 48-hour exemption covers the outlets. Against the fare are eight hours each way through three states as a driver, the bridge, I-81's trucks and the week's back roads; a couple does the Poconos in a car, and a family of five with a resort week or two families in a lake house book the Sprinter for one fare and a parent on the raft.

Camelback's summer: Camelbeach and the mountain

In summer Camelback's hill becomes Camelbeach, Pennsylvania's largest outdoor water park — the slides down the ski slope, the wave pool, the lazy river — beside Aquatopia's open roof, with the Mountain Adventures' zipline across the valley, the mountain coaster's two-kilometre track and the scenic chairlift to the summit's view over the Delaware Water Gap; a family staying at the resort does the outdoor park by day and the indoor one by evening on the same wristband, and the resort's site has the summer's hours. The Pocono Raceway at Long Pond, twenty minutes west, runs the NASCAR weekend in July for the group that wants it.

Skytop, Woodloch and the grand lodges

The Poconos' older tradition survives at Skytop Lodge, the 1928 stone hotel on its own five thousand acres with the lake, the golf, the falls trail and the treetop adventure course, and at Woodloch Pines on Lake Teedyuskung, the family resort of scavenger hunts, boat races and the all-inclusive dining that three generations of Philadelphia families return to; a Vaughan family that wants the American version of a Muskoka resort week rather than a water park books either, and the travel desk holds them, since Woodloch's summer weeks book a year ahead.

Booking it

Book a daily hire from your Vaughan address for the week with the resort days released, or a return with the days out on daily hire; tell us the resort, the split, the raft trip, the seats and every passenger's citizenship for the bridge, and the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before.

Book the Poconos week