Skytop, Pennsylvania
Some resorts have their season, then fade away. Few achieve the kind of permanence of Skytop Lodge, a stone manor in the Poconos.
Since 1928, families have come for the serene wooded mountain setting and the activities–archery to ice skating. Thirty miles of walking and biking trails wend through forest and along streams and waterfalls. You can swim, boat, or fish on the lakes. There's skiing, snowshoeing, and skeet shooting. The 1928 18-hole golf course was updated and lengthened five years ago but kept its old-time feel. Another antique is the retro ice-cream counter in the basement alongside a games arcade.
In the lobby, a stately pine-paneled space with a massive stone fireplace, tea's served at 4, or you can take it in the wood-paneled card room or the library.
What really makes Skytop special is a certain family-ness that harkens to its leisure-oriented heyday. It's most evident in the Windsor Dining Room, where families reconvene, dressed for dinner, and discuss what they did all day.
Bottom line: An old-fashioned family getaway.
Skytop Lodge, 800-617-2389; skytop.com. Rates start at $503 a night for two, including all meals; kids under age 16 in parents' room, $45 per night, two maximum; kids in own room, half regular rate.
