The Poconos are comprised of such a vast geographical region in Pennsylvania it's hard to get a handle on all there is to do there. Friends like the Poconos for their historic inns, leafy lifestyle, and easy access from the all-too-often sweltering city. Find a comfortable inn, check in and explore a region that has catered to city swells and their ladies since the turn of the century. If it's a look into the Golden and Industrial ages you seek, a trip to the Poconos can illustrate how the upper crust lived at the turn of the century and through the Roaring 20s. Vestiges of those times are still lovingly maintained and a stay in one can be both revealing and relaxing.

Favored by honeymooning GIs and their new brides after World War II, the area and its many inns quickly became known as the "Honeymoon Capital of the World." The post-wedding frolic in the Poconos is still a requirement for many just-marrieds in search of heart-shaped beds and other amenities.

Golf courses rich in early golf history wind through the woods and the Delaware River, the only free-flowing river on the eastern seaboard, beckons harried easterners eager to pick up a paddle or hike along its banks.

The Poconos, first and foremost, are about mountains and the activities that occur in high places. State parks and resorts in the region abound with wildlife and are crossed with trails for hiking, birding, horseback riding, nature photography, mountain biking, dirt biking, and all-terrain vehicles. Resort activities run the gamut from quiet hiking to paintball battlefields, water parks, video arcades, fun parks with skateboarding, bumper boats, go-karts, and mini-golf.

Other attractions include bowling, inline skating and on-water activities such as jetskiing, boating, fishing, canoeing, rafting or kayaking. Festivals dot the calendar during the summer and there are more than 30 golf courses to play.

Getting to the Poconos from anywhere is easy. Four interstate highways, I-78, I-80, I-81 and I-84, bisect the region. All the resorts and activity centers (some inside the Pocono Mountains technically and some just outside) are off an interstate and include Big Boulder (570-722-0101), I-80 exit 284 in Lake Harmony; Camelback (570-629-1661), I-80 exit 299 in Tannersville; Elk Mountain (570-679-4400), I-81, exit 206, Union Dale; Jack Frost (570-443-8425), I-80 exit 284, Blakeslee; Snö Mountain (570-969-7669), I-81 exit 182, Scranton, and Shawnee Mountain (570-421-7231), I-80 exit 309, Shawnee-On-Delaware.