If you find yourself in a car smelling of spilled coffee and something best described as grease, listening to cries of “I’m hungry!” or “I’m bored!” or “Are we there yet?” and you get lost at least three times in as many hours, it’s safe to say you’re probably on a road trip — one of the great Canadian summer pastimes.
Like a few other parts of parenthood, I've romanticized the family road trip. I picture entertaining car games, like I Spy and I’m Going on a Picnic. Pit stops for the best burger, or location-specific “not to be missed” treat. Interesting landmarks. Beautiful scenery. A sense of adventure. These were the road trips of my childhood, as I remember them (although my parents might challenge my nostalgia).
Because while there are always elements of the above, my own family’s road trips tend to go something like this: Car games are annoying and short-lived (I Spy, it turns out, is the worst offender); pit stops only add length to an already long trip; and the best side trip on the never-ending highway may be to a glass museum, which probably isn’t making any top 10 lists.
Yet despite the at times vast chasm between vision and reality, I still love road trips. They allow you to travel with little planning, and they don’t take a huge investment (except perhaps in patience). And I’ve learned the best way to ensure everyone is happy after too many car-bound hours is to have a coveted destination at the end of it. So when Great Wolf Lodge (GWL) offered to host my family for two nights at their Pocono Mountains location, I shouted “Road trip!” and immediately forgot the chasm mentioned above. The drive wasn’t too long — about 6 hours, a distance we’d easily done on other trips — and the promise of 48 hours of non-stop, waterlogged fun sealed the deal. (Yes, there is a GWL much closer to where we live, but again, see above to the whole romanticizing road trips thing.)
The “Poconos” is in northeastern Pennsylvania and is beautiful —lush green hills and loads of space for outdoor enthusiasts to explore. While this trip was all about the waterslides, the Poconos is definitely going on our “must re-visit” list. Surrounded by woods (though for shoppers, an outlet mall is only a few minutes away from the Lodge), Great Wolf was like an oasis after having been cooped up in the car. We’ve never been to a GWL, so everything was new and exciting — and incredibly well branded.
With over 4 million visitors a year (half of them kids), GWL knows what they’re doing to make your trip one you won’t soon forget. From the log cabin décor, to the wolf ears everyone gets upon check-in, to the enthusiastic “High Paw” (a high five, but with your fingers curled into your palm to look like a clawed paw), to the animated shows and little touches, like pajama story time each night, GWL knows how to immerse you in their “glamping” culture. Upon seeing the waterpark and our room, which was comfortable (especially the beds) with a rustic cabin feel, our 7 year-old declared she’d be happy to move in permanently.
It wasn’t long before we’d washed away the road trip grime and settled in for some fun. It’s no secret GWL is known for its waterslides, and if you’re a sliding family, then this is the place for you (if you visit, be sure you’re ready to get wet — and stay wet — for hours at a time, and bring water shoes).
The indoor water park is huge, filled with eight long and swirling slides, a wave pool, mini slides, and a play area for younger children, along with a fast-food-style burger counter and bar area. There are also plenty of life jackets available, and lifeguards scattered throughout the park.
If you need to dry out for a few hours, there’s an arcade, a spa for kids called Scoops, glow-in-the-dark mini golf and bowling, a high-ropes course (a highlight for us), a MagiQuest® game exclusive to GWL (Note to parents: kids need to be able to read if you don’t want to be the ones doing the magic quest, and it takes anywhere from 4-6 hours to complete), a "stuff your own" GWL stuffed mascot and game, an ice cream parlour, various shops, take-out pizza (made in house and delicious, with gluten-free options) and a buffet restaurant (at $28/person we found this a tad costly for dinner). Though GWL gives you plenty of ways to indulge, we would have appreciated lighter options for meals, like a sandwich or salad station, and perhaps some fresh apples or bananas at the check-in desk for a between-meal healthy snack.
Which brings me to why GWL was actually a perfect destination for this road trip … we truly didn’t have to leave for anything, which meant the teeming rain that lasted our entire trip had no effect on us whatsoever. Unlike the road trips of my childhood, which saw us huddled together in the tent during rainstorms trying not to break the waterproof seal, we were only waterlogged because of hours spent hollering with joy (or in my case, screaming in fear) as we rode the slides.
Of course, with a pretty significant price tag (though our trip was complimentary, I added up the cost for our weekend of fun at over $1,300, US) a visit to GWL bears little resemblance to the "cheap and cheerful" road trips I took as a kid — filled with sleeping bags and mosquitoes and PB&J sammies wrapped in waxed paper for days on end. But it was a super fun, memorable, "one-stop-shop" easy trip that left a big impression on our kiddo, who will likely be offering us a ‘high paw’ for weeks to come and is already asking, “How long until we go back?”
Disclosure: I was a guest of Great Wolf Lodge, Pocono Mountains, and all opinions expressed are my own.
Images courtesy Karma Brown and Great Wolf Lodge
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