Woodloch Family Travel Guide + Discount (updated June 2021)

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My family recently spent a weekend at Woodloch Pines in the summer of 2019 and loved it! We were fortunate to return this year. I wrote this article after our original tip and just updated it for 2021.

Woocloch Pines a family resort in the Poconos. Both of our stays were for two nights and and we really enjoyed the endless activities and great food!

Beautiful boat ride on our Final day!

Beautiful boat ride on our Final day!

I originally learned about Woodloch from multiple friends with kids of all ages who stayed at Woodloch Pines, and from friends who went without kids to Woodloch Springs. They all raved about it so I was thrilled to be hosted by Woodloch for editorial consideration.

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2021 Update

We were so excited to return to Woodloch! In most respects it was exactly as we remembered — gorgeous grounds, robust amenities and activities, wonderful food and the friendliest staff. The two real differences were our kids’ ages and Covid precautions. Being two years older than the last time, we were able to experience more of Woodloch. My kids are now three and six, and my six year old was able to ride the junior go-karts, which was incredibly fun for him. We also participated in the family olympics and even went to the evening entertainment show both nights at the “night club.” We had lots of options and there are still plenty of additional activities that my kids were too young for but that we look forward to enjoying in future years. As for Covid, precautions, I recommend visiting Woodloch’s landing page on this topic (here), for the most up-to-date information.
Here’s a video of highlights from our 2021 stay (click here to watch).

Cohen family Woodloch

A bit about the Woodloch family of properties

Woodloch is pretty vast and it’s hard to get a handle on all the offerings! We stayed at Woodloch Pines. Here is a summary of the properties —

Woodloch Pines is a four-season, family resort voted in the top 1% of hotels worldwide on TripAdvisor. The Woodloch family of properties also encompasses Woodloch Springs, an 18-hole championship golf course community recognized by Golf Magazine as one of the “finest courses in America,” and sister property, The Lodge at Woodloch: A Destination Spa, ranked among the top five spas in the world by Conde Nast Traveler and Travel + Leisure. The trilogy spans 1,200 acres and can accommodate over 1,000 guests.

Woodloch vacations are built on the concept of “togethering,” or bringing loved ones together, spending time with one another, and creating memories to last a lifetime. Through a unique array of home-grown, team-building type activities for families, a nostalgic, back-to-basics environment, pristine natural surroundings and a truly unique brand of hospitality, guests leave Woodloch with a renewed sense of connection with their own families.

Discount

Guests can use code “FALL25” to receive 25% off rates during select midweek dates from September 12th through December 10th, 2021. Terms and conditions below:

*Rates are per adult, per night and include breakfast and dinner daily, 3 meal rate plans are available. Deal is valid on Deluxe and Edgewater room rate plans only with a 2 night minimum. Limited availability. Not valid on holiday midweek date spans, other blackout dates may apply. Not valid at The Lodge at Woodloch.

Our experience

First impressions

While I recommend arriving at Woodloch as early in the day as possible to get the most out of your stay, we didn’t arrive til about 7:00 pm. It was still light out, and as soon as we drove onto the property, I was immediately impressed with how green and well manicured it is! We live in a Manhattan high rise, and I was thrilled for my kids to experience so much lush greenery!

When I went to check in, seeing that I have young kids, the staff ushered us right into the dining room and told us that we could handle check-in later. That was our first taste of Woodloch’s amazing hospitality!

2021 update: we arrived in the early afternoon and packed so much fun into those extra hours! Sam was just tall enough to ride the junior go-karts and did so many times, we also drove the adult ones with the kids as passengers, and tried out the bumper boats.

Grounds

The grounds are simply beautiful and so well maintained! I took my baby on lots of stroller walks to help her fall asleep and really got to see a lot of the property. The facilities and activities are pretty intertwined so I will cover the pool, boating, indoor water park, etc. below under “activities.”

Meals

Meal options + dietary restrictions

We were on a full board plan, so we ate all our meals with Woodloch. Woodloch has a great big dining room and you sit at the same table for every meal (other than cookouts). Food and premium coffee is also available for purchase at the coffee house on property (similar to Starbucks). There is also food available for purchase at multiple bars and grills on premises, but we didn’t try those.

The food is wonderful and so plentiful! There were great kid and vegetarian options at all meals. I keep Kosher liberally, so I chose mainly vegetarian options with some fish dishes, and found them all to be delicious and not repetitive.

They asked for our food restrictions and then printed them out for us to confirm. We had the same waitress for our entire stay and she was really on top of our restrictions. She offered substitutions to accommodate before I’d even have a chance to ask.

Food and milk for the kids

I traveled with some spinach pancakes, bars, mini hummus packets, almond butter and coconut wraps, etc. for my kids but really didn’t need them because my kids loved the Woodloch food. See my mom hacks post for tips on traveling with food for kids.

We generally asked for whole milk for my daughter during meal time. In the main building, outside the dining room is a coffee and tea station. They didn’t have whole milk in the refrigerator, but once I asked for it they put a carton there for me. On a related note, see my tip for washing bottles, sippy cups and even pacifiers efficiently on the go.

Characters + meal photo opps

There were characters for the kids at every meal.

Saturday is theme night, and towards the end of dinner is a character parade (in our case, all 90’s themed characters).

There was a professional photographer at the theme night, who took this photo of us (I purchased the photo).

woodloch family theme night


I appreciated that at all meals we had the option of lingering over courses, or having our food brought out pretty quickly if we wanted to get out for the day or get the kids to bed. The daily activity sheet (discussed below) even specifies character appearance times so you can plan around that.

Dining room dress code

Jackets are optional for gentlemen. Collared shirts are required for theme night. My husband wore collared polos to dinner (these are his favorite).

Activities

There are soooo many amazing activities to do at Woodloch!! The daily activity sheet is given out at breakfast each day (also available online). To give you an idea of how expansive the offerings are — it’s a two sided legal sized sheet with general info like dining times and available times for all the daily activities on the front and all the special activities for the day on the back. They do a really good job of breaking down appropriate age ranges for the various activities.

My kids are 4.5 and 1 and had plenty to do. But I think that older kids would love Woodloch too — they even have a kid-friendly DJ party, movies and lots of other activities after dinner. Activities go til about 10:00 pm and the game room is open even later (in room babysitting is available).

Here is how we spent our couple of days:

  • hanging out at the lake and in the sand

  • playgrounds

  • mini golf

  • paddle boating

  • boat ride

  • arcades

  • bracelet making

  • kids’ outdoor pool / splashpad

  • kids’ indoor water park (note that there are bigger kid water slides there and at the lake)

  • carnival

  • petting zoo

Woodloch’s available activities change daily. There are lots of indoor and covered activities for those who need breaks from the sun or if the forecast isn’t kind to you!

Almost all activities are included with your stay. They do charge a nominal fee for select activities like the Zip Line, Paintball, Escape Rooms, caricature artist, etc.

We really filled our days and barely made a dent in the list of offered activities! I loved that I didn’t need to do any planning and my kids always had multiple activity options!

public.jpeg

Accommodations

We stayed in the Springbrook area. It was under a five minute walk to the dining room and really close to the kid pool / indoor water park, ice skating and other activities. There is a shuttle that runs the property pretty frequently, so I don’t think location matters much.

We had a suite and it was pretty massive! It had a big bedroom, living room, 2 massive closets and 1.5 bathrooms (the second one had only a shower, no tub). We also had a nice terrace overlooking the lake.

I used their crib for my daughter (see my article on packing efficiently)

We had a truly amazing time at Woodloch. Thanks to Woodloch’s top notch hospitality and activities, I was able to relax (instead of focusing on orchestrating the day) and truly enjoy the time with my family.

Shop the post

  • Stroller is from Colugo. I have a discount code here.

  • We use Babo sunscreen. I have a discount code here.