Let's discuss the Poconos and those tacky "couples only" resorts

Hilarious.

Can't believe that is still a thing.

Lots of them are abandoned and essentially fire traps for the homeless now. I went down a YouTube rabbit hole last year of watching urban ex vids about them. Same with the Borscht Belt resorts...lots of once great, historic properties being reclaimed by nature.

Hotel whirlpool tubs are nasty. I honestly can't believe anyone gets in them.

[quote]Hotel whirlpool tubs are nasty. I honestly can't believe anyone gets in them.

The same type of people who get in them at the baths.

I had a friend with a house in the Poconos, but he ghosted me. Pretty enough.

🎶 Now is the perfect time and the season is just right you can play all day and dance into the niiiiight. At beautiful Mount Airy Lodge, all you have to bring, is your love of everythiiiiing.🎶

I’m deciding. Should I go to the Joe Piscopo show or Fred Travelena?

^^TravAlena

Found this.

VIdeo killed the Radio Star

Cheap Airfare killed the Jewish Alps & the more Goyishe Poconos.

This is the commercial I remember as a teenager in the early 1980s. The Poconos was considered a fancy getaway place for many blue-collar New Yorkers. I don't know who goes there now.

Another enticing commercial.

Mosty rabid raccoons, R10

I've always wanted to stay in one of these, but then I thrive in certain types of "tacky" environments.

Those heart shaped tubs, in those resorts, make me think of Hefner's tacky Playboy mansion and the grotto.

Are these actually for "honeymooners" or are they just swinger resorts?

Poconos used to be anti-Semitic and have "No Jews" signs apparently years ago. Isn't that where Gregory Peck went in the film "Gentlemen's Agreement" to get turned away?

In middle school we went on a ski trip and stayed at Mt. Airy Lodge. I was excited because I knew it from the commercials but it was a dump even in the late 70s.

You can bathe in giant champagne glasses, too.

In college I stayed at the Skytop Lodge, a late 1920s resort hotel -- pre-singles retreat era. It's a quite handsome grand pile, a stone Colonial Revival building with wings off in all directions. There was bocce ball on the lawn and older people, lots of posh down-dressed guests, though I think the main restaurant had a strict dress code at dinner.

It was a dead of winter trip and a different sort of place than the cheesy singles motels or the ski resorts, and was a great visit. The rooms were quite expensive at the time, but it was also a full-/part-board rate. We were the youngest people on our own on the hotel, by a couple generations, but I remember the other guests were very nice and chatty, even as we planted ourselves in the lobby for the better part of the stay.

Another time with the same friends I stayed at a rustic cabin rental, but a big one, 1930s-40s with flagstone floors and a massive fireplace, unmodernized and charming because of it. It sat almost on a small road and then terraced down to a stream in back, completely forest.

Both places were great experiences, but I never saw the tawdry bits up close.

Skytop Lodge

Kimmy Schmidt had an episode where they ran away to one.

When I was in fourth grade we went to a conference at Tamiment and I told my parents I knew this girl I saw there and they thought I was crazy. But it turned out she really did go to my school, though it was about 2 1/2 hours away.

I’ve always found it odd that the Poconos are so trashy. Trashiest mountain retreats in the Northeast. Even the old Borscht Belt is nicer and more interesting. I know there are some decent vacation developments tucked into northeast PA - but all of the hotels, including that nasty gay campground, are trashy. Odd given it’s a perfect weekend trip from NYC or Philly - but I guess the demand is just not there. The rust belt towns and the people like the Goys may be an insurmountable obstacle.

These resorts are tacky, but it's a little sad that they are deteriorating. They were kitschy.

I remember, years ago, a co-worker was so excited to go with her boyfriend. When she returned, she said it was awful.

Apparently, this one is still going strong.

Not Poconos but the same concept. Really tacky!

The friend took me to The Skytop for brunch before I was ghosted. They put out a nice spread. No “once around the garden.”

Their heyday was in the 70s. I'm sure they were dumps by the late 80s---by then, going to a Caribbean island where you weren't supposed to leave the resort (but many did, to sample the local culture) was the norm.

R16, in [italic]Diner[/italic], doesn't Shrevie suggest to Beth that they go to that resort with the heart-shaped bathtubs? I can't remember if he mentions the Poconos, or if I just assumed he meant the Poconos because of the tubs.

He mentioned the Poconos, not the tubs. Not a 50s thing.

Thanks, r31. The vagaries of memory. At any rate, I doubt Barry Levinson would have had Shrevie suggest the Poconos if it were considered anti-semitic. It's been decades since I saw [italic]Gentlemen's Agreement[/italic], so I have no idea where the hotel was.

Anyone here go to Grossinger’s? That looked nice and not tacky like the Poconos places.

I bet Jeff Spaide went for secret assignations.

The Madonna Inn is nothing like the places being discussed. Fabulously tacky, yes, but no heart shaped tubs or "love swings".