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Where is a good place to vacation in PA?

Group vacation destination for foodies?

  • Small group vacation destination - all adults. Reasonable (less than 8 hours) driving distance from Western PA. Interested in relaxing and fantastic food. More details inside... A small group - 3 couples - of friends is interested in going on week vacation together next year. We range in age from not quite 30 to not quite 40 and are all big foodies. Ideally we'd be able to rent a house and just chill out (board games, napping, drinking, etc...) maybe do some shopping or artsy stuff, and well, eat really good food (both dining out and buying good ingredients to cook ourselves). Time of year is flexible as are things like beach vs. mountains. A few of us don't particularly want to fly, but don't want to spend our entire vacation driving so less than 8 hours from Western PA would be ideal. Do you know of such a place and can recommend one to us?

  • Answer:

    Our group of friends does this almost every year and it is totally awesome. Same outlook: cooking, relaxing, board games, lots of reading, bad movies at night -- it's great. We're online friends and so widely distributed. Each year it's in a different part of the US or Canada. The main difference from your case is that our groups tend to be 15-20+ people, not 6. We always rent our house from and that's worked out well every time. Depending on the location and budget we've gotten some pretty odd places and some luxury places, but the odd places were fun in their own way. ("Where the hell does this staircase go?") I recommend your own house over multiple rooms in a B&B or hotel -- having a common area in which to hang out that's still private to your group is key. It always reminds me of dorm life, except everyone in the dorm is a friend and no one is throwing up. Have fun!

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Portsmouth NH is pretty great for foodies. With over 252 restauarants in town, it's got one of the highest restauarants per capitain the country. Check out a few of the local fine favorites: http://www.dunawayrestaurant.com/ http://www.locococos.com/ OK this one is in Kittery, across the river, and it's not fine dining but it's still awesome http://www.dolphinstriker.com/tavern.html http://www.yelp.com/biz/four-portsmouth http://www.portsmouthbrewery.com/ http://www.jumpinjays.com/ http://www.96statestreet.com/ http://www.thewellingtonroom.com/ http://www.bluemermaid.com/ http://www.gilleyspmlunch.com/ OK also not fine dining but it's been here for like a century, literally, and has the guinness book world record for the most parking tickets and serves the best greasy burger or dog in town. and it's open till 3 am. There are zillions more that I could recommend but I have to go to work now.

Soulbee

Traverse City, Michigan! My folks live there, so we visit fairly often. Good white wine country (awesome rieslings), great produce, a huge local Bison farm and a couple places that specialize in nothin' but local foods. VERY nice this time of year, with the tourists gone.

paanta

Traverse City would be about 8 hours. I do recommend it (some extended family is there) but it's a hell of a drive that I'd only do to see the leaves changes on the way - the 5 hours to Detroit and 3-4 hours to TC are long stretches of Ohio and MI. The Seven Springs resort area is more like 1-2 hours, I think, and you could probably find something along your lines in the Seneca Rocks area of WV.

kcm

What about Lancaster? Plenty of arts and crafts in the area thanks to the Mennonites and Amish and lots of farm stands for food and produce. The only thing is that you'd be limited to the Tri-County area for dining out and while there are some excellent restaurants in those three counties, none of them are very close to each other.

Loto

Right up your alley: Given your location and your preference for good food, http://www.greenbrier.com/site/ in West Virginia is your best bet. This is a food mecca in the middle of nowhere. It's a hotel and spa but they do have guest houses and multi-bedroom suites that accommodate up to 8 people. Highly recommended. It looks like it would be a 4 hour drive from Pittsburgh.

Zambrano

Montreal, Canada has great, great foodie food options, but might be a 9-10 hour drive depending on how far west you are in PA. Toronto is another good, closer option. Not that there aren't great US cities too, but Montreal came to mind first when I was thinking about interesting and delicious food. I can also second the VRBO recommendation. We've rented twice through them and have been very happy.

kcoshea

Some friends of mine have a lovely 3-bedroom rental property in the Catskills, in a town close enough to the "vibey" parts of that area that you can go exploring Woodstock or go antiquing or go skiing if you want, but in a remote enough town that you could also just stargaze on the deck and do nothing if you want. Meta-mail me if you want their link.

EmpressCallipygos

Philadelphia. Six hours by car. Great restaurants, or shop at Italian Market/Rading Terminal. Tremendous beer town.

fixedgear

Finger Lakes region of NY; wine area; lots of farms; nice scenery, pretty hiking with waterfalls etc, glass museum, photography museum,...

LobsterMitten

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