We absolutely love Jim Thorpe. It’s peaceful, but there’s enough to do to enjoy a long weekend there. From Philadelphia it’s only about an hour and a half drive at most, so we go there a lot. There’s a lot of land and hiking, so it’s also a great place to go if you have dogs. For us, it’s more of a retreat than a vacation, but it’s a spot that I highly recommend you visit at least once!
When we go, we always stay at an Airbnb right across from the Old Jail Museum. There are countless Airbnbs and Bed and Breakfasts so you’ll have no trouble finding somewhere to stay. I recommend booking your stay early if you can, because it can get quite crowded in the warmer months. When we don’t stay at that one, we stay at a cabin! It’s in the same area – it’s right in the center of town and we can walk everywhere. I highly recommend checking out one of his Airbnbs, as we have never had any issues. Anytime there has been a problem or we have needed something, he has taken care of it immediately.
There are a lot of places to rent on Airbnb that are up on the hill overlooking the town. The view is really nice, but it makes it way harder, if not impossible, to walk into town. For us, being able to walk everywhere and enjoy being outside is one of the main reasons we go, so this wouldn’t really work for us. I suggest finding a place on the main road closer to town.
We had been to Jim Thorpe a number of times before we actually took a tour of the Old Jail Museum. The Airbnb we always stay at is right across the street from the jail, but we just never made it over there until recently! I’m glad we did, though. It’s quite interesting, and the tour guide was very informative and friendly. The jail was in use until around 1980, and inside there are 27 jail cells, as well as rooms in the basement that were used for solitary confinement.
The jail is most well-known for the Molly Maguire trials, which ended in the hanging of 7 coal miners suspected, perhaps wrongly, of murder. Before one of the men was executed, he placed his hand on the wall and said “this handprint will remain my proof of innocence.” The handprint of this man still remains on a wall in the jail, despite the fact that the wall has been repainted, washed, and completely torn down and rebuilt.
Entrance fee to the jail is $10 for adults, $8 for students and seniors, $5 for children aged 6-12, and free for children under the age of 6. The guided tours are only available from Memorial Day through Labor Day weekend, but they are always closed on Wednesdays. Make sure you check their website to check their hours.
If you are in Jim Thorpe for an evening, you should definitely try to catch a show at the opera house. At the very least, you should go inside and take a tour of the opera house. During the tour, you’ll learn the history of the opera house and get to see the beauty of it.
The majority of the shows here feature local artists from the community or other nearby communities, so going to a show is a great way to support the local community!
If you’re going when the weather is nice, you can check out the tours that take you white water rafting, kayaking, or tubing. We haven’t done this yet, but it looks like a lot of fun! There’s a family friendly trip, which stays away from the stronger rapids, and a more intense trip that goes through the rougher rapids. There is also single and double kayaking, which can be a fun alternative to white water rafting. Additionally, these companies generally offer bike tours and paintball adventures as well.
There are some really great hiking trails in the Jim Thorpe area. When we go, we always have the dogs with us so we like to take them out as much as possible. We don’t do any strenuous hikes with them, but there are a lot of really good trails where we can do this. We take the dogs to the Switchback Railroad Trail, but the more famous place to go is the Glen Onoko Falls.
At Glen Onoko, you can see some really awesome waterfalls, but the hiking is more difficult so it’s not a great place to go if you have your pets with you. If you like hiking and are in decent shape, I recommend going to find the Glen Onoko waterfalls. Just make sure to wear proper footwear and be careful, because there have been some injuries and deaths due to people not paying attention or having the proper experience or equipment.
Take a ride on the Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway! The ride costs $14 per adult and $9 per child, and lasts for 90 minutes. It is a scenic tour, and there is also a guide/conductor who will give you some background about the places you are seeing. The train will take you on a scenic route along the river, and you will get to see a few small waterfall sand some rock formations. It’s especially beautiful in the fall when the leaves are changing color. This is also a great option for families with younger children. If you take the ride around Easter time, you may even get to see the Easter Bunny on the train!
If you’re lucky, my dog bagel might even end up being your conductor!
The Harry Packer museum is a bed and breakfast that overlooks Jim Thorpe, but you can also go tour the mansion and have drinks on the terrace. If you’re familiar with the Haunted Mansion ride in Disney World, you may recognize this mansion, as it was the inspiration for the ride. There are also events held at the mansion, including murder mystery dinners and wine tastings.
Staying here is quite expensive, and so are the murder mystery dinners, so we haven’t done that yet!
I definitely recommend heading to the Libations Lounge inside the mansion and grabbing a drink after you take the self-guided tour!
Jim Thorpe is one of the most peaceful places I have ever visited. It has the small town feel, but it’s also lively and full of people walking around the streets when the weather is nice.
There are some really great shops along the road (there’s really only one main road, so you’ll know where to go). They are mostly, if not completely, owned by people who live in Jim Thorpe, so stopping and buying something small at one of the stores is also a great way to support the community.
There are breakfast places, coffee shops, a couple bars, a small winery where you can do wine tastings, an ice cream shop, a soap shop, a letterpress shop, and the list goes on and on. If you go in the winter, some of the shops may not be open or may have shorter hours, but you should definitely go into all of the shops at least once!
Also, when the weather is nice, they sell hot dogs, pierogis, popcorn, and Italian pastries in the town center by the train and the river! There are some benches to sit at, as well as a really cute gazebo you can also sit in.
Jim Thorpe is a really great place because it’s busy, but it still feels like a small town where everyone knows each other and looks out for each other. The tourism there is pretty strong, as it draws a lot of people from New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. In the winter, you can stay in Jim Thorpe and go skiing, snowboarding, or snw tubing at the nearby Pocono Mountains like Blue Mountain, Big Boulder, Jack Frost, and Camelback Mountain.