There’s a reason “Friends,” “Seinfeld” and every other New York-based television show always seem to reference “the Poconos.” The Pocono Mountains in northeastern Pennsylvania have long been a popular vacation destination for the upper East Coast, and its many resorts offer four seasons of outdoor recreation: hiking, fishing, rafting, skiing, dog mushing and too many other activities to count. The Poconos cover 2,400 square miles, land that is jam-packed with rolling mountains, thriving woodlands, churning waterfalls and 170 miles of winding rivers.
“When I first came here, I kept hearing myself say, ‘Wow,’ ‘Wow,’ ‘Wow’ around every turn,” said David Jackson, vice president of sales for the Pocono Mountains Convention and Visitors Bureau.
And all the wilderness and wildlife the mountain range has to offer is only 80 miles from the heart of Manhattan and 90 miles from center city Philadelphia. As a resort destination, the area is crisscrossed with interstates and state highways to ensure easy connectivity.
“Once we get you, we got you,” Jackson said. “Because tourism is our No. 1 industry, once you get to the region, everything connects, and it’s real easy to get around. It’s easy to access; 80 percent of all resorts in the state are here in the four counties that we represent.”
In addition to all Mother Nature has to offer, plenty of options for meetings and events have been built. Of the area’s hundreds of venues, the CVB works closely with about 35 meeting hotels and venues. The region also has 6,000 hotel rooms and is known for its team-building options, Jackson said. Very few meeting planners fail to take advantage of the Poconos’ outdoor recreation. Most get their attendees out to try snowboarding and dogsledding in the winter or white-water rafting, kayaking and zip lining in the summer — and some even opt for skydiving or NASCAR experiences.
New Convention Options
Kalahari Resorts and Conventions opened July 1 in Pocono Manor, Pennsylvania, with 457 guest rooms and 65,000 square feet of meeting space — and more are on the way. Crews are already working on the second phase, which will take the water park property to more than 900 rooms and a total of 200,000 square feet of event space. When complete in late 2017, Kalahari will be the region’s largest meeting space. Until then, the title stays with Split Rock Resort and its 76,000 square feet of banquet and conference space. Split Rock and Kalahari are two of the region’s four water park properties; the others are Great Wolf Lodge and Camelback Mountain Resort.
East Coast Dude Ranch
Although visitors may not expect to find a Western-style dude ranch so close to Pennsylvania Dutch Country, they can and will in the Poconos. Malibu Dude Ranch is located in Milford, Pennsylvania, which also happens to be the town closest to Manhattan in the CVB’s four-county region. The ranch has event space for groups of about 100, as well as on-site catering. Malibu Dude Ranch also offers plenty of activities, including line-dancing lessons, horseback riding, archery, skeet shooting, guided ATV tours, snowmobiling, pond fishing and a weekly Saturday-night rodeo in its 2,000-seat arena.
