Thursday, August 6, 2009

Planning A Getaway At A Poconos Resort With Your Children

By Arthur Maluki Stiegel

Northeastern Pennsylvania has some of the country's best resorts and most beautiful wilderness. Because of their natural beauty, the Poconos mountains have often been a favorite vacation destination for people looking for a reasonably affordable vacation. And why shouldn't they? The mountains are easy to get to from most places in the northeastern U.S.. They are conveniently located several hours from both New York City and our nation's capitol. This area offers amazing scenery, a variety of outdoor activities and plenty for young travelers to engage in.

There are a number of small businesses around the Poconos region that offer a range of activities that children of all ages should have fun doing. You'll find adventurous things like horseback riding, downhill skiing, hiking, biking, swimming and camping. If you look hard enough, just about any outdoor activity that you could think of is offered somewhere in the Poconos mountains.

The region is also home to several family resorts that offer their own long list of kid friendly activities. These resorts offer sparkling clean pools, playgrounds and scheduled activities for kids.

These resorts include the Great Wolf Lodge Poconos, which offers enough water themed activity to please any underage guest. The lodge, which is part of a national chain of water parks, includes a water park that boasts a water roller coaster, water slides, lazy river, wave pool and even a fort area designed specifically for younger children.

A favorite among the winter traveler is the Woodloch resort. This place, which sits on 100 acres of forest land, features lakeside fun during the warm months, including a popular splash park for younger visitors. In the winter months, the resort features everything from snow tubing to ice skating to downhill skiing.

Once people leave their resorts, they can find numerous other activities in the Poconos geared toward children. There are almost too many to choose from.

Do you enjoy learning about local history when you travel? If so, the Eckley Mining Village is one of the best and more popular tourist stops in the region. It is a living history museum that shows you what the lifestyles were like at the time when Pennsylvanians relied on the strip mining pits to fuel their local economy. The mining village offers many hands on things for visitors to do.

Is anyone in your family of American Indian descent? A wonderful place to learn more about native Americans would be the Pocono Indian Museum. This is the only museum in the greater northeastern Pennsylvania area dedicated to presenting the actual history of the Delaware Indian. The museum looks back at the history of the Delaware Indian people through displays of ancient weapons, artifacts and tools.

The museum is very educational. However, some parts of it might be shocking. The Pocono Indian Museum does not forget to detail the less than friendly interaction of the Delaware Indians with white settlers. In reality, it took around 100 years or thereabouts for the new settlers to destroy almost all traces, even minor traces, of the Delaware Indians existence.

Frugal families wanting a relatively inexpensive weekend getaway should think about visiting the Poconos mountains this summer. A weekend here is always a rewarding experience. Visitors can both learn about the history of the U.S. and take advantage of some of the most exquisite outdoor settings in the country. This region is a true gem of America.

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