Judy

We need to go to the Wilkes-Barre/Wyoming Valley area on business and are looking for reasonably priced lodging. I did a yahoo search and found mostly economy motels & a Hilton. Does anyone have any first hand experience with lodging in this area? Also, what is that area like to live, in general? Thanks.

craig

Sounds like you have already found your reasonably priced lodging. What area would you be comparing Wilkes-Barre to as far as what it is like to live there?

kameha

I have stayed at one place sort of in the area - in Clarks Summit. Called Inn at Nichols Village and it was very nice. I don't know much about Wilkes Barre. My brother lives in Clarks Summit and it is really pretty and housing seems cheap. Scranton, I think, still remains pretty depressing.

duh!

Scranton, with nothing much other than Steamtown, does have the Radisson, in the restored Lackawanna Train Station. Beautiful, great service, decent prices.

goNets

If you stay in Scranton there's a great new Irish pub, the Banshee (do a google and you'll find the web site) that has great live music (the Wolftones played there last month) and comfy nooks where you feel like your in your own living room. If you're into that kind of music this is an excellent venue. Plus, Guiness pints are only $3.50.
Slante

sparky

Wilkes Barre area is rather depressing. My brother used to live there and it has a deliverance kind of vibe to it. I would NOT recommend moving there, but it is a cheap place to live

jeannie

Sparkey says it best. The WB-Scranton area kind of spooks me out. Turns out that I need to visit there maybe every other year (it's 3 hrs north of me), and I never feel comfortable until I'm on my way home. Can't quite put my finger on it.

Long Gone

I grew up in the Scranton-Wilkes Barre area. Well, in truth, I only grew up after leaving for college and never going back save for brief visits on family occasions. The place feels a lot like Eastern Europe - and I make this comparison from firsthand experience in both places. The people are pretty much stuck in a mentality typical of first or second generation immigrants. That's nice if you like to have ready access to great ethnic (Italian, Polish, German) food but otherwise the place is pretty dismal. WB's downtown is probably prettier than Scranton's but that's not saying much. Scranton, once a rockin' place (it's where girls from the big city of NY went to take care of unplanned pregnancies in the early 1900's!) is going down the tubes rapidly, now has significant gang and drug related crime problems in some sections. The local economy sucks - never quite recovered after the coal mines closed and the sweatshop dress factories moved off shore- and pretty much anyone with anything on the ball gets out of there.
Clark Summit (mentioned above)is quite nearby but definitely has a different and more pleasant culture. The nearby Poconos are fun to visit, though they are getting overrun with NY and NJ folks.
If you do go to Scranton, try to eat at Cooper's - you'll have a great seafood dinner for quite reasonable price.

Stosh

Try this -
http://www.thewoodlandsresort.com/ It's probably the nicest you'll find without driving all the way to the Pocono resorts.

Judy

Thank you to everyone for your insightful responses. Obviously, it's not exactly what I was hoping to hear, but since I really did want the truth, I appreciate your giving it to me.

Now, to make it more interesting, I've just been told that our visit will concentrate more on the Danville area, more so than WB, which on the map looks to be pretty far from Wilkes-Barre, and even more remote. The best accommodation I could find there was a Hampton Inn. Since it seems so far from anything, should I assume it's even more depressing? I'm concerned that it might make WB look like the big city. Or is there a chance (I'm the eternal optimist) that it's just a lovely undiscovered area? I'm from the NY/NY metropolitan area, and while I realize it won't be anything like that, I'm just nervous about how big a difference it would actually be.

Thanks again for all your great posts, the past ones and hopefully the future ones.

craig

The town of Danville has its own web site: www.danvilleboro.org

Judging from the information there, it seems there is not much going on in Danville. However, because it is not a decaying city like Scranton or Wilkes-Barre, it may have some of the charm that you seek.

BTW, I stayed in a Hampton Inn over Thanksgiving (my sister lives near Stroudsburg, PA where it is located) and, other than fairly thin walls, it was not bad. It had a decent free buffet breakfast, a hair dryer in the bathroom, cable TV, an indoor pool and workout room. We had a non-smoking room with a king bed. IMHO, at $113/nt it was not cheap for the location but the Danville one is probably cheaper.

I grew up in the NY metro area, attended school in Bethlehem, PA and trveled throughout PA early in my career. My general opinion of Pennsylvanians is that they are rather provincial. That will be your biggest obstacle to enjoying your time there.

TLC

Is your visit by any chance associated with Geisinger Medical Center? If so, while it's not exactly Mass General it's not a bad place, either. The area is indeed somewhat provincial, as is most of PA, but it is pretty and cost of living is reasonable - especially compared to NYC. And if you get to the point that you really need a fix of unbridled urbanity NY is close enoough for a day trip.

Judy

Thanks again for the additional responses. Also, let me correct an error in my last post. I meant to say that I was from the NY/NJ area.

Yes, TLC, you hit the nail on the head. Our business does concern the Geisinger Med. Ctr. and I'm trying to get a feel for the area. Are you from that area? I'm just concerned, because even though I know enough to realize it's not NYC, a yellow pages search seems to indicate an absence of even routine middle America chain stores that people tend to rely on, so I was wondering just how isolated it was on a day to day basis. And a lot of the homes seems to be small structures on huge acreage. Given all the snow coming down today, I'm concerned about claustrophobia! Thanks again for any addition infomation.

Rachel

gonets, it's "Wolfetones" and "Slainte".

mare

My husband's sister lives in Wilkes-Barre, so we've stayed in hotels there a few times. Clark's Summit has a very nice Hampton Inn. There's one in right in Wilkes Barre too, and it's acceptable but not as nice. We've also stayed at The Genetti (owned by Best Western, I believe) in Wilkes Barre. It's a large, somewhat old fashioned hotel. The price is fairly reasonable. If you have an Entertainment coupon book, it is sometimes included in the half price hotel section.

Wilkes-Barre is rather industrial. There's nothing quaint or charming about it. I personally would not want to live there, but my sister and brother-in law like it well enough.

TLC

Judy, the homes in the area do tend to be smaller than you may be used to if you are in suburban NJ. That's partly because many are older, dating from times when homes were built smaller as the heating systems were not as efficient. As far as having big box retail close by - nope, ain't gonna happen. IMO that's not necessarily a bad thing, mind you, but I'm enough of an old hippe to rue the crass commercial consumerism that typifies our current society. When people spend so much energy - and money! - making sure that even training pants have a Gap label, it says something about values. OK, off my soapbox. Bottom line: if you want a typical cookie cutter suburban lifestyle in the Danville area you'll have to plan some road trips to pick up the goods, but you may also just discover a degree of liberation from the pressure to conform to the latest Madison Avenue has to sell.

Bobbie

I live in Scranton and it really is everything everyone says it is and more. It's not so hot. Large landfills, quarries and strip mining dot the landscape. Young people move out so it's an aging area. Danville is on the same scale as the Scranton/Wilkes Barre area except it's much smaller.

Bobbie