Sprawled across 5,500 acres in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains, Skytop Lodge has been a favorite destination for family gatherings for generations, and has been named one of the country’s best resorts for reunions by Travel+Leisure magazine. It’s easy to see what all the hoopla is about: the resort offers enough activities to keep everyone happy year-round, including more than 30 miles of hike- and bike-worthy forest trails, a lake for fishing and boating, and a new Adventure Center with rock climbing, paintball and geocaching.  There’s also archery, horseshoes, swimming, tennis, golf, and guided nature walks. 

Since there's nothing we love more than a good freebie, we immediately took a shine to the resort's  “Stay Summer, Free Fall” promo. It works like this: Stay four consecutive nights before the end of August, and you’ll get a certificate to return for a free Fall Theme Weekend.  Skytop offers several of these weekends during the autumn; one of the most popular is Spoo-Tacular Weekend during the Halloween season, when the resort goes all out to transform itself with trick-or-treating, spooky sing-a-longs, ghost hunting, and more.  Note that the offer covers your accommodations only. That means it's worth at least $400, since nightly room rates for the Spoo-Tacular Weekend start at $199.