I recently had the pleasure of being hosted last weekend in the beautiful Pocono Mountains located in Northeast Pennsylvania.  This has long been known as a Honeymoon area on the East Coast. Well you can throw that idea out the window!  The Pocono Mountains are now a year round family resort.  I am so excited to share all of the family fun we had a Camelbeach Waterpark and CBK Mountain Adventures.

We arrived on Friday evening at The Chateau Resort and Conference Center, this resort is located on prime real estate as it faces Camelback Mountain and is on the mountain base.  The Chateau was lovely and had gorgeous views of Camelback Mountain. We stayed in a king room and had a connecting room with 2 double beds for the kids.  The rooms were large and each offered a private balcony facing the Mountain and overlooking a lovely lake as well.  This resort is a AAA 3 Diamond location and reflects that with its restaurant, pools (both indoor and outdoor), 24 hour game room, fitness center and free parking for guests.  This resort is also very close to many attractions such as Camelback Mountain, Camelbeach Waterpark, CBK Mountain Adventures and more!  We hit the sack early on Friday night as we had a big day of fun ahead of us on Saturday.

Saturday morning we were off to Camelbeach Waterpark for the day.  We love waterparks, so we thought this would be a great opportunity to try something new.  Camelbeach happens to be the largest outdoor waterpark with 37 slides, rides and attractions. The weather didn’t want to cooperate as it was cloudy and cool, but that didn’t slow us down because all of the pools are heated to 78-80 degrees!  We were shown to the Pharoah’s Phortress area and greeted by our Cabana host Lucas, he was wonderful and very attentive.  We were checked in and given a locker key, private cabana access and a bowl of fresh fruit for the morning.  It took my youngest daughter literally 5 minutes  before she was bound for the play area here.  It is perfect for kids 8 and under with 50 different rope pulls, cannons, fountains and 8 body slides they can play the day away while you relax in your cabana.

We decided to hit a few of the larger slides together as a family.  Grab your mats and race everyone down the Checkered Flag Challenge, I was beat by my 5 year old, she was sure to remind me all day too.  Camelbeach also offers family raft rides that will fit 2 or 4 people depending on the ride.  We rode The Dune Runner and Sandstorm and they were a blast!  After we did a few slides we headed to the Blue Nile Adventure River, this is a great lazy river and it was so warm (don’t forget the pools are heated).  There were many more slides to ride but it was getting a bit too chilly to go on anymore.  So bummed because I really wanted to try the Flowrider surf simulator and a few more tube slides.

We had worked up quite an appetite on all the slides, so we headed back to our Cabana to order a bit of lunch.  The waterpark offers many selections such as pizza, wraps, burgers and sandwiches.  I had the Italian Cold Cut wrap and it was delicious, it also came with a pickle and chips.  The girls split some french fries and chicken nuggets, I would say they were good as they were eaten before I could try one.  After lunch it was a little bit cool so we decided to go for a ride on the Sullivan Sky Ride, this will take you from the base of the mountain to the summit on a 4 person chair lift.  You get a real bird’s eye view of the waterpark when you are 4500 ft in the mountains.  When we came back from the sky ride we had a dessert tray waiting for us in the cabana, yet another thing you get with cabana rentals!

Camelbeach is absolutely fantastic and really raises the bar for other parks.  It is huge, very clean and offers many amenities including 14 food areas, locker rentals, cabana rentals, complimentary lifejackets and a Tiki Bar.  Camelbeach is only 90 minutes from New York City, and 2 hours from Philadelphia and surrounding areas.  This waterpark is a must do!

We left the waterpark and headed down the road to CBK Mountain Adventures, if you have thrill seekers in the family this is the spot for them!  My husband and oldest daughter took the chair lift from base to summit and rode the 4,000 ft Zip Flyers, you literally race side by side at 60 mph down the mountain!  Sorry but after going up to the top of the mountain on the sky ride there was no way I was flying down it on a zip line.  We did however ride the Mountain Coaster as a family.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this ride but it was super fun!  It’s made of a 4500 ft steel track and you sit in a little seat with brakes so you can control the speed you go down the mountain.  The top speed is 25mph if you don’t use the brakes, we didn’t use them and it was so fun.  CBK Mountain Adventures also offers a Climbing Wall, Euro Bungee, Treetops Adventure Course, Ziplines and Mountain Segways.  If we had more time we definitely would have done more activities there.  You can very easily spend an entire day trying all of the adventures they offer.

As you can see there is so much to see and do in the Pocono Mountains as a family, but it doesn’t end here.  Camelback Lodge & Indoor Waterpark will be opening in Spring 2015!  This new resort will offer 453 guest suites, a state of the art indoor waterpark and family entertainment center as well as 4 restaurants including a ski-in and ski-out bar at the mountain base.  Camelback Lodge is going to be absolutely amazing and when it opens its doors will offer more year round excitement than any other mountain resort.  I can’t wait to go back and see it once it is complete!

Written by Jennifer Greene with Destinations in Florida Travel. Contact her today at jenniferg@destinationsinflorida.com for your next vacation.