bucks native
12-29-2006, 12:33 PM
Poconos rising
Sample some of the new attractions as the vacation area revives and remakes itself.
By Matt Blanchard
For The Inquirer
At your host with the most in the Poconos,
Beautiful Mount Airy Lodge!
Beautiful Mount Airy Lodge!
The Poconos have been losing prestige as a vacation spot since I first heard that famous television jingle in 1982. Then, in 2001, came the death knell: Mount Airy Lodge went bankrupt, leaving its crystal chandeliers and heart-shaped beds to the auction block. Some folks said the Poconos hit rock bottom.
But now the former "honeymoon capital of the world" is about to see a multibillion-dollar boom in resort construction, and a flood of sophisticated New Yorkers aiming to remake this sleepy backyard ski spot into the Hamptons West. Can it be true?
The region's first new resort in 30 years, Great Wolf Lodge Water Park, opened in October. Next came the Lodge at Woodloch. It was quickly named one of the nation's finest spas.
Sleepy hill towns are finally perking up, and plans even are afoot to rebuild Mount Airy Lodge as a $360 million casino and hotel.
Heck, tourism officials don't even call it the Poconos anymore. It's now the Pocono Mountains, thank you very much.
The Lodge at Woodloch
The buzz surrounding this spa's June opening is probably the biggest factor buoying the Poconos' reputation right now.
Already ranked among America's top-10 most luxurious spas by Forbes magazine, Woodloch is the realized dream of two spa experts formerly of Arizona's Canyon Ranch: John and Ginny Lopis. They scoured the East Coast for the perfect location, landing on 75 acres of private forest fringing a natural lake in Hawley.
The vast lodge is both modern and rustic, with lounge and spa spaces that are cozy but not clubby. Meals at the spa's gourmet organic restaurant, Tree, are richer than the usual restrictive spa diet, and your $450 to $910 nightly room rate per person includes three meals daily, with one spa treatment worth $115.
Descend to the warren of well-appointed therapy rooms for a facial, massage, or body treatment. Reiki, Shiatsu, Native Sage Stone massages are all available here, as is a cranio-sacral treatment that promises to "promote cranial fluid movement and increase energy flow."
All of these treatments gently remove unwanted presidents from your wallet, but my straightforward Lodge Massage (50 minutes for $115) could ease anyone into bliss. Post-treatment, drift to the Whisper Lounge. Find a leather chaise longue and gaze through the mist of your organic tea at the snow-sprinkled pines outside. Try to remember: Is this the Poconos?
1-866-953-8500,
www.thelodgeatwoodloch.com.
Great Wolf Lodge Water Park
Scamper and splash while Old Man Winter scrapes at the window. Great Wolf Lodge in Scotrun is a 401-room hotel, with antler chandeliers and animatronic wolves, married to an indoor landscape of pools, play areas and water slides inside a soaring, sky-lit shed.
Aquatic highlights include the Hydro Plunge, an "uphill water roller coaster" that uses motorized conveyor belts to launch you up and down blue tubes snaking all around the park; and Coyote Cannon, the closest thing to being flushed down a giant toilet. And when the bell tolls, a colossal bucket atop the 48-foot Fort Mackenzie tower teeters and dumps 1,000 gallons onto the children below.
On dry land, Great Wolf has an Aveda spa and extensive video arcade. Hotel corridors are crowded with talking pictures and treasure chests belonging to MagicQuest, an electronic scavenger hunt for the Harry Potter generation. For $26, kids get a chip-embedded wand they'll need to accomplish three quests with dragons, fairies, and a cranky goblin.
It's a genuinely Disney-like experience, with some nearly Disney-like prices. The two-bedroom Grizzly Bear Suite goes for approximately $530 a night. The WolfDen Suite, where the kids sack out in a fanciful, sleeping cave with a 15-inch flat-screen TV, starts at $244. Rates include unlimited access to the water park, open until 10 p.m. for hotel customers only. Penny-pinching parents should watch for special off-peak rates.
1-800-768-9653,
www.greatwolf.com.
Hotel Fauchere, historic Milford and bald eagles
Nestled at the northern gates of the Delaware Water Gap is the next hot village: a restored Victorian summering spot called Milford. It's home to the finest new hotel in the Poconos and the region's finest new eatery: the Hotel Fauchere and its Delmonico Room restaurant.
Founded in 1867 by the head chef of New York City's Delmonico's restaurant, the Fauchere played host to celebrated figures from Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman to Mae West and Presidents Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt, before closing in 1976.
The new Fauchere is a 16-room, ultra-luxury blend of antique and modern charms. Rooms cost from $275 to $350 a night and come with the finest furnishings, all Kiehl's bath products, a bottle of wine, artisanal chocolates, and heated towel racks.
At dinner time, it's a toss- up whether the new Delmonico Room amounts to a hotel restaurant or makes the Fauchere into a restaurant hotel. New York foodies flock here for the $45 to $55 prix-fixe dinners - and then decide to stay the night. Try the frog's legs appetizer and succulent roast game hen. It's open Friday through Sunday, with reservations best made a week in advance. On weekdays, try Fauchere's other restaurant, the casual Bar Louis, where sushi and tempura-fried rice flour dough combine for a heavenly "sushi pizza" ($15).
January and February are prime bald-eagle-viewing months in the Water Gap. Fauchere's special package includes two nights accommodation for two, Delmonico dinner, and a lecture on eagle viewing, followed in the morning by eagle viewing with guides from the Eagle Institute, with a gourmet picnic lunch, all for $1,100.
570-409-1212,
www.hotelfauchere.com.
Caesars does it again
There's only one spot for total kitsch immersion therapy: Caesars Pocono Palace in Marshalls Creek.
Book one of the new Roman Tower suites. Yes, it has a large, heart-shaped pool on the lower level, a massage table with heat lamps, a private sauna, and a "celestial" mirror-ceiling bedroom with scores of tiny lights to mimic the night sky.
But then there's the seven-foot champagne glass Whirlpool Bath-for-Two standing in the living room. Climb up the stairs and over the side. Flip a switch, and the glass glows red. Be the olive in a giant martini.
These "world exclusive" suites are not faded relics of the 1960s. They are brand new, with plasma screen TVs, and are quite popular at $580 a night. Other room types go from $300 to $520. It's a bargain for the ultimate in Mondo Pocono.
1-877-822-3333,
www.caesarspoconoresorts.com.
Sample some of the new attractions as the vacation area revives and remakes itself.
By Matt Blanchard
For The Inquirer
At your host with the most in the Poconos,
Beautiful Mount Airy Lodge!
Beautiful Mount Airy Lodge!
The Poconos have been losing prestige as a vacation spot since I first heard that famous television jingle in 1982. Then, in 2001, came the death knell: Mount Airy Lodge went bankrupt, leaving its crystal chandeliers and heart-shaped beds to the auction block. Some folks said the Poconos hit rock bottom.
But now the former "honeymoon capital of the world" is about to see a multibillion-dollar boom in resort construction, and a flood of sophisticated New Yorkers aiming to remake this sleepy backyard ski spot into the Hamptons West. Can it be true?
The region's first new resort in 30 years, Great Wolf Lodge Water Park, opened in October. Next came the Lodge at Woodloch. It was quickly named one of the nation's finest spas.
Sleepy hill towns are finally perking up, and plans even are afoot to rebuild Mount Airy Lodge as a $360 million casino and hotel.
Heck, tourism officials don't even call it the Poconos anymore. It's now the Pocono Mountains, thank you very much.
The Lodge at Woodloch
The buzz surrounding this spa's June opening is probably the biggest factor buoying the Poconos' reputation right now.
Already ranked among America's top-10 most luxurious spas by Forbes magazine, Woodloch is the realized dream of two spa experts formerly of Arizona's Canyon Ranch: John and Ginny Lopis. They scoured the East Coast for the perfect location, landing on 75 acres of private forest fringing a natural lake in Hawley.
The vast lodge is both modern and rustic, with lounge and spa spaces that are cozy but not clubby. Meals at the spa's gourmet organic restaurant, Tree, are richer than the usual restrictive spa diet, and your $450 to $910 nightly room rate per person includes three meals daily, with one spa treatment worth $115.
Descend to the warren of well-appointed therapy rooms for a facial, massage, or body treatment. Reiki, Shiatsu, Native Sage Stone massages are all available here, as is a cranio-sacral treatment that promises to "promote cranial fluid movement and increase energy flow."
All of these treatments gently remove unwanted presidents from your wallet, but my straightforward Lodge Massage (50 minutes for $115) could ease anyone into bliss. Post-treatment, drift to the Whisper Lounge. Find a leather chaise longue and gaze through the mist of your organic tea at the snow-sprinkled pines outside. Try to remember: Is this the Poconos?
1-866-953-8500,
www.thelodgeatwoodloch.com.
Great Wolf Lodge Water Park
Scamper and splash while Old Man Winter scrapes at the window. Great Wolf Lodge in Scotrun is a 401-room hotel, with antler chandeliers and animatronic wolves, married to an indoor landscape of pools, play areas and water slides inside a soaring, sky-lit shed.
Aquatic highlights include the Hydro Plunge, an "uphill water roller coaster" that uses motorized conveyor belts to launch you up and down blue tubes snaking all around the park; and Coyote Cannon, the closest thing to being flushed down a giant toilet. And when the bell tolls, a colossal bucket atop the 48-foot Fort Mackenzie tower teeters and dumps 1,000 gallons onto the children below.
On dry land, Great Wolf has an Aveda spa and extensive video arcade. Hotel corridors are crowded with talking pictures and treasure chests belonging to MagicQuest, an electronic scavenger hunt for the Harry Potter generation. For $26, kids get a chip-embedded wand they'll need to accomplish three quests with dragons, fairies, and a cranky goblin.
It's a genuinely Disney-like experience, with some nearly Disney-like prices. The two-bedroom Grizzly Bear Suite goes for approximately $530 a night. The WolfDen Suite, where the kids sack out in a fanciful, sleeping cave with a 15-inch flat-screen TV, starts at $244. Rates include unlimited access to the water park, open until 10 p.m. for hotel customers only. Penny-pinching parents should watch for special off-peak rates.
1-800-768-9653,
www.greatwolf.com.
Hotel Fauchere, historic Milford and bald eagles
Nestled at the northern gates of the Delaware Water Gap is the next hot village: a restored Victorian summering spot called Milford. It's home to the finest new hotel in the Poconos and the region's finest new eatery: the Hotel Fauchere and its Delmonico Room restaurant.
Founded in 1867 by the head chef of New York City's Delmonico's restaurant, the Fauchere played host to celebrated figures from Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman to Mae West and Presidents Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt, before closing in 1976.
The new Fauchere is a 16-room, ultra-luxury blend of antique and modern charms. Rooms cost from $275 to $350 a night and come with the finest furnishings, all Kiehl's bath products, a bottle of wine, artisanal chocolates, and heated towel racks.
At dinner time, it's a toss- up whether the new Delmonico Room amounts to a hotel restaurant or makes the Fauchere into a restaurant hotel. New York foodies flock here for the $45 to $55 prix-fixe dinners - and then decide to stay the night. Try the frog's legs appetizer and succulent roast game hen. It's open Friday through Sunday, with reservations best made a week in advance. On weekdays, try Fauchere's other restaurant, the casual Bar Louis, where sushi and tempura-fried rice flour dough combine for a heavenly "sushi pizza" ($15).
January and February are prime bald-eagle-viewing months in the Water Gap. Fauchere's special package includes two nights accommodation for two, Delmonico dinner, and a lecture on eagle viewing, followed in the morning by eagle viewing with guides from the Eagle Institute, with a gourmet picnic lunch, all for $1,100.
570-409-1212,
www.hotelfauchere.com.
Caesars does it again
There's only one spot for total kitsch immersion therapy: Caesars Pocono Palace in Marshalls Creek.
Book one of the new Roman Tower suites. Yes, it has a large, heart-shaped pool on the lower level, a massage table with heat lamps, a private sauna, and a "celestial" mirror-ceiling bedroom with scores of tiny lights to mimic the night sky.
But then there's the seven-foot champagne glass Whirlpool Bath-for-Two standing in the living room. Climb up the stairs and over the side. Flip a switch, and the glass glows red. Be the olive in a giant martini.
These "world exclusive" suites are not faded relics of the 1960s. They are brand new, with plasma screen TVs, and are quite popular at $580 a night. Other room types go from $300 to $520. It's a bargain for the ultimate in Mondo Pocono.
1-877-822-3333,
www.caesarspoconoresorts.com.
