A few weeks ago, Joe and I decided to take the kids somewhere for a night on a whim. Since we only had one night, we knew we didn’t want to have a really long drive and we had the idea that we wanted to take them to the mountains since they’ve been fortunate enough to be able to see the ocean a good bit this summer and they’ve never been to the mountains. We had looked at Skytop Lodge in the Poconos last year during the holidays because they do some really fun Christmas activities, so it came to mind pretty quickly when we were thinking of places we could go. It was very last minute as we decided at 8 am on the morning we planned to leave and I’m really glad we chose it!
It took us somewhere around 2 hours to get there and we lucked out with some beautiful weather. Once we got there and checked in, we brought our stuff up to the room and immediately went to eat. Our room was right across from one of the original elevators, so the kind with the metal screen and barely large enough to fit the four of us, and Amelia and Joseph loved it! We had lunch outside, sandwiches from The Market, in their little courtyard and then decided to go exploring down by the lake. We originally wanted to go canoeing but couldn’t go because they only allow three people max to a canoe and we were four. They like to have little kids sit between two adults so we couldn’t split up, either. So, there are a bunch of hiking trails and we opted to do that instead.
We chose to take the trail around the larger lake, mostly since we were already there, and it was beautiful! We made it a little less than halfway before turning around and heading back- we didn’t bring the stroller because we weren’t sure what the trails were going to be like space-wise.
This is actually a swing that faces the lake at the bottom of the hill you walk down to get to the lake from the hotel. It would be such a calming spot to have your morning coffee!
After hiking, we took the kids to the playground and the putting green and then took them to the indoor pool. The kids loved it but it was so cold any time we got out of the water and they wanted to keep switching back and forth from the baby pool to the big pool!
This picture is super grainy (I took it on my iPhone near sunset) but I just loved how the inside of the Lodge was decorated. Lots of blues and reds and very traditional with a touch of opulence. This was after we got back from the pool and gave them a bath.
All along their back terrace they have groupings of rocking chairs when you can sit and look over the gardens and lawn where they have all kinds of games and even a playground for the kids. We were talking about where we wanted to have dinner here and ultimately chose the Taproom. As you may be able to tell from the name, it’s mostly American bar food and everything we got was really good. I really liked the French Onion Soup! After dinner, we let the kids play a few games at the arcade and then went back to The Market for ice cream before heading back to the room for bed.
Clearly the kids liked the bed! Amelia and I slept in this bed and Joe and Joseph slept on the pullout and both were very comfortable. When I woke up in the morning, I walked downstairs to the Corner Roast for some coffee and when we got up and moving, we packed up and walked downstairs for a buffet breakfast (complete with waffle and omelet making stations) at Windsor.
I have to say I think Joe and I were more tired than the kids! There was SO much to do and we didn’t even do it all! We really enjoyed our stay and thought Skytop Lodge was very accommodating for families with kids.
This was such a fun adventure for our little family and we can’t wait to do it again! Joe and I love taking mini road trips (well, I love road trips in general) and it’s been fun as the kids get older to include them and plan our trips around them! We have another quick trip planned with Joe’s family in December for the holidays and Joe and I are thinking about taking one in November since we missed our annual anniversary trip! If you have somewhere you’ve gone and loved or somewhere cool that’s on your list, let me know! Also, I’m thinking of putting together a list of road trip ideas for the east coast if that’s something you’d be interested in!
On Amelia and Joseph:
on Britt:
*Note: This post is not sponsored in any way nor did we receive a discount for us to stay in exchange for posting this review. I’m just posting this because I love reading about where people go and stay with young kids and I hope it helps someone else!
