Most people will tell you there’s no such thing as “Poconos cuisine.” They’re mostly right. The region is still as gorgeous and rich as ever, and never too far for anyone on the East Coast.

The area’s small towns have been able to hold on to their charming old school spirit - yes, the Pocono Palace Resort is still open, and yes, the tub is still heart-shaped - while welcoming a few trendier newcomers to keep things interesting. The low-key Poconos popped up on a lot of radars as a natural, cheaper alternative, free of the sparse midcentury modern furniture stores, CBD oil shops, and boutiques selling paper-thin Victorian nightgowns that have invaded other cutesy mountain towns. There are dozens of special towns ranging from tiny to medium in size, including a few recognizable map points like East Stroudsburg (notable for its public university), Jim Thorpe (named for the first Native American to win an Olympic gold medal for the U.S.), or the Delaware Water Gap - though plenty of towns unheard of outside the region are worth checking out.ĭuring the COVID-19 pandemic, the nearby Catskills became overrun with eager city folk hoping to escape their crowded urban environment for a summer or forever (if you haven’t read the roughly 1 million articles on the upstate New York housing market, the general gist is it’s a free-for-all).

On the border between Pennsylvania and New York, the Poconos stand on traditional Indigenous territory known as Lenapehoking, occupying 2,400 square miles of Northeastern Pennsylvania (NEPA) over four counties. For all the folks who go down-a-shore to stroll the boardwalk and dislodge fillings with chunks of salt water taffy, there are clever counterparts who head north to Pennsylvania’s majestic mountain range for lake swimming, hiking, water parks, and summery food to match. This is not a hard-and-fast rule, but residents of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware tend to be either shore people or Poconos people.

Casino ice cream mount pocono