Make your next stay count

Ask about a guided walk at the Tannersville Cranberry Bog Preserve — a Nature Conservancy site protecting a 10,000-year-old glacial bog, one of the southernmost of its kind in the country. Reservations are required and it's nothing like the resort scene a few minutes away: a floating boardwalk through sphagnum moss, pitcher plants, and tamarack that most visitors never know exists.

Skip the main beach loop and hike the Range Trail's boulder field inside Tobyhanna State Park — a quiet, 2.75-mile out-and-back through wetlands and glacial boulders on land that was once one of the East Coast's largest WWII-era artillery training grounds. Weekday mornings, you'll likely have it to yourself.

The footbridge partway along the Tobyhanna Falls trail has been out for years, which keeps this spot far emptier than the region's bigger, ticketed waterfalls. Locals still fish for trout along the creek here on weekends when everywhere else is packed.

The Austin T. Blakeslee Natural Area, just off Route 115, is a 130-acre preserve few tourists know about. Its 2.3-mile Creek Trail follows Tobyhanna Creek to a real swimming hole beneath a small waterfall — bring water shoes, the trail runs rooty and wet.

Skip the resort crowds for the Kidder Township Hike & Bike Trail, a flat, quiet path connecting downtown Lake Harmony to Big Boulder Lake — perfect for an early-morning walk with lake views. For food, Piggy's Restaurant, family-owned since 1985, is the low-key local standby that predates most of the newer resort dining.

AJ's Pizza & Parm House on Plaza Drive is the no-frills, family-run spot locals actually order from on a weeknight — not a "must-see," just an honest neighborhood slice of Pocono Summit life.

Skip Dingmans Falls itself for now — it's currently closed for a multi-year bridge and trail project. Locals instead point guests to the Pocono Environmental Education Center (PEEC) on Emery Road, whose network of hiking trails is free, open year-round, and far quieter than the marquee waterfalls nearby.

Most visitors never realize the Schisler Museum & McMunn Planetarium sits right on ESU's campus and welcomes the public, not just students — a genuinely off-the-radar rainy-day pick, and a great one for kids.

Ask a local about Black Creek State Forest, a nearly 1,000-acre stretch of largely undeveloped forest nearby with no marked trails, just quiet old forest roads, primitive camping, and small trout streams. It's the kind of spot a local angler sends a favorite guest to — not something you'll find in a brochure.