I haven't been there myself but a friend's book club did an overnight at The Spa at Bear Creek in Macungie, PA (60-90 miles from NJ/NY). You can find it on the web at bcmountainresort.

I promise I'm not affiliated with the place! I live within 20 minutes of it and have known people (my friend, my sister, my sister-in-law) who have had positive experiences at the spa and the restaurant. Now that I'm typing this I'm thinking "Hey! How come nobody invited me to dine there?!". I guess I'll have to make a point to get there myself one of these days. Maybe I'll meet your group - hee, hee, just kidding.

It shouldn't be too far from you if you're in the NJ/PA area. Good luck and have fun. Jean

Hi Judith, I am in Central NJ. My sister is turning 30 in March and we are planning a weekend at the Borgata in AC. There is a spa there and a great wine bar. We don't gamble but plan on maybe hitting a few slot machines. They have a great spa package for $319 per person.

I have gone to AC before with friends, I wouldn't recommend more than 2 people sharing a room, we did that once and it was a DISASTER sharing the bathroom with more than one other woman.

I would recommend getting a suite. Having separate rooms seem antithesis to the core of the event. A suite will give privacy but allow for a central place for everyone to gather and stay up late and talk and tell 'ghost stories'. LOL. I've experienced group girl's vacations and we always had suites. You may even be able to rent a vacation cottage or condo. I've done vacations like that too.

One place for example we did was Christmas Village in The Dells. You get a whole little tiny house or condo. Gambling and shopping near-by. A spa right on the grounds.

Here is a link that might be useful: Dells Christmas Village

Thanks for the suggestions. I called the Spa at Bear Creek and the Borgata. Since we have 3 girls, the best either place can do to get us into one room is to give us a room with two double or queen beds and a roll away.

It sounds a little tight, plus it doesn't seem fair to whomever gets the rollaway to split the room cost three ways. But separate rooms gets really expensive and there's no common place to hang out.

I am really stumped. Some other places I've looked at are Jim Thorpe, PA and Tannersville, PA, but I'm not finding hotels with indoor pools, fitness centers, and a suite big enough for us to share in those places either.

How would you deal with this? Should the person whose on the cot just kick in less $$$???

I go away once a year w/ 3 high school girlfriends. We have done the suite thing, the one-room thing, and the individual rooms. When we did indiv. rooms, it was at a small B&B so we were able to leave our room doors open and visit between our rooms. Sometimes there are also small enough B&Bs that you might have the run of the entire place. I'm not familiar with your area, but I went away with a group of friends in Maine once and we stayed at a rental/timeshare condo that had 3 bedrooms and 2 baths, which worked out great.

The issue we always have with the h.s. girlfriends is that some of us like to shop, and one doesn't. So we try to talk ahead of time and decide how much shopping we'll do and whether the non-shopping friend will join us or just do something else (and she doesn't mind). So you might talk about what things everyone REALLY wants to do, and really does NOT want to do, ahead of time.

p.s. I highly recommend 2 nights! One is not enough!

I'm lucky enough to have gone on numerous 'girls' weekends...one of the most fun ones was meeting in NYC for fancy restuarants and Broadway shows. (We saved $$ for 6 months, so that we could live it up.) We stayed in a big room at the Michaelangelo. We slept 5 in that room. (2 queen beds and a roll away). Laughed & talked the whole time.

I am reconsidering Atlantic City, thinking about NYC instead. Just found this hotel in NYC, it has suite rooms available.

Here is a link that might be useful: Gansevoort

I have a group of friends that gets together monthly for dinner, theatre, potlucks, and lots of other kinds of activities. Once a year we do a weekend getaway. We go to San Marcos (TX) which is driving distance (from Houston). There is a HUGE outlet mall there.

We leave Friday morning and drive about three hours to San Marcos. We arrive around lunchtime so we eat lunch, then shop then have a nice dinner.

On Saturday morning we go to a local once-a-month flea market which sells crafts, jewelry, antiques, etc. Then lunch. Then more outlet shopping. Saturday evening, we have a light supper and wine back at the b&b and do show & tell where everyone shows what they bought.

Sunday we go back to the mall for a quick hit on any must-do missed stores, or for us to buy the item someone ELSE found that we didn't SEE (which we discovered during show-n-tell). Then we grab a quick lunch and drive home.

We have also driven to Mexico border towns for some wonderful shopping but it hasn't been safe to do that for the past few years.

There are seven of us. We always stay in a B&B and share rooms and bathrooms and a common area. We all love to shop so this trip is great for us, but just an example for you. We have the trip perfectly planned now, including b&b, schedule and restaurants, simply because we have been able to perfect it over the years.

Also, although this might not apply to your smaller group, I'll mention this for the benefit of anyone else reading. We rent a large van (12-15 passenger) since there are seven of us and we want to ride together. The large van not only allows us to ride together, but has plenty of room for luggage and purchases.

We've tried different things over the years. We used to do a picnic lunch along the way with everyone bringing something to contribute but found that was more trouble than it was worth. We have discovered that eating a substantial lunch on Saturday and a light supper with wine works well for us. We bring wine, cheese, crackers, and other nibbles for the light supper.

We've been doing this trip (interspersed with Mexico) for the past about 8 years. It's a ton of fun.

I do agree that sharing the bathroom is something you have to be agreeable to. We used to do this trip with five and stayed in a b&b with 2 bedrooms and a pull out bed, and only one bath. So five of us sharing a bath - well it was ok, but we had to plan out the timing so we could leave at a reasonable hour in the morning.

Now that we have seven, we stay in a b&b that has three bedrooms with a couple of extra beds in an open area (which we didn't use), and three and a half baths. What luxury!

I also agree that staying in separate rooms without a private common area defeats the purpose. Look for bed & breakfasts which will accommodate more than two in a bedroom. Many have a twin bed or two larger beds but you have to search. Or look at condo rentals which are usually plentiful in popular destinations. It took a lot of legwork to find one that would accommodate all seven of us this way but it was worth it.

I also agree that it's important that everyone be on the same page as far as activities. We all love to shop so this trip is great for us. If someone wanted to do a spa trip, I'd have to pass. I can only tolerate being pampered for about an hour then I want to get up and move! LOL

I recommend doing all your legwork on the internet BEFORE you go. Pick out restaurants, activities, etc. in advance. Once everyone is in agreement to everything, print out a schedule. This doesn't mean you have to be busy all the time, but you want to avoid sitting around not knowing what to do next, or worse, arguing about it while you're there. If you hash all that out in advance, everyone is already on the same page.

If you're in the PA/NJ area have you thought about Philadelphia or NYC? It's hard to beat seeing a Broadway show. If you want something a little different there's a highly rated spa at Woodloch, PA. That's 90 miles from NYC and a short drive outside Milford, PA (Pike County).

I live in S. Jersey and we have a place near Milford - I'll have to give this a little more thought and maybe I can think of some other places.

Here is a link that might be useful: Woodloch

I'm really liking the idea of a small B&B where we can each have our own comfortable bed. I love the idea of separate rooms but a common area. This way no one will have issues with snoring, coughing, rooms that are too hot/cold, if someone is noisy if they get up to pee. Hey, I'm not a total cranky pants but I AM a middle aged woman and I need my sleep!

The only downside with the eensy teensy B&B is you don't get the amenities of a big hotel, ie: spa on premises, indoor pool, sauna, etc.

When I travel with DH and kids we've rented houses before, and the renting-a-condo-option would be great but I don't want to bring food, prepare meals, etc. The trip is meant to be a break from all that.

Everyone's ideas about activities are really interesting. I definitely need to get a fix on our little group's preferences. I know one of the gals is a luxury lover and foodie. I'm a bit more low key and while no one will mistake me for an athlete I do love cross country skiing.

Whomever said one night is not enough is probably right, but given everyone's kids/husbands/work schedules it's all we can manage right now. We'll have to work up to two nights...something to look forward to!

Thanks so much for all the great ideas so far.

One idea may be a Marriott Vacation Club rental just outside of Atlantic City.. it's called Fairway Villas ... my husband and I went there a few years ago when it had just opened with another couple.. it was lovely.. There are 2 bedroom villas that sleep 6-8, so perhaps one person can stay in the living room on the pull-out... The rates are pretty reasonable and there is an Elizabeth Arden Spa on the premises and it's a short ride to Atlantic City for dinner or a show.. Just go to marriottvacationclub.com. We are not vacation club owners but have used the site to also rent villas in Orlando and Phoenix. Or how bout a bed and breakfast in Cape May?? Good luck and have fun!

You would probably get more for your money in Las Vegas. I really don't like staying in Atlantic City. Have stayed at Borgota, doesn't matter, its still Atlantic City. If you walk 2 streets off of the boardwalk, with the exception of the Boardwalk Outlets (I think that's what they are called) you are taking your life into your own hands. If you want a gambling type vacation, Las Vegas has more to offer and for less $$.

I'd go to NYC for 2 nites, share a room and see a great show. The shopping and food are great. There's alot of places to see good music. Plenty to do and see. It can be expensive, but with good planning you can save money.

When are you going - what time of year and what kinds of things do your friends like to do? I don't see a small B&B (unless you get the place to yourselves), my friends can be a bit loud when you mix in martinis...

Flying anywhere won't work, we are all driving to the agreed upon location on a Saturday morning, spending the day and one night together, then going our separate ways after breakfast on Sunday morning. We'll have to save Las Vegas for another time.

I found a place called the Inn at French Manor in Sterling, PA that seems really nice and has spa services plus a 4 star dining room, indoor pools, sauna, etc. but even that is a 3 hour drive. The smaller B & B's that advertise themselves as "spas" mostly seem to share a marketing relationship with off-site day spas in their towns or nearby.

The more I think about this the more I realize just how little time we really have!

the renting-a-condo-option would be great but I don't want to bring food, prepare meals, etc.

Just because you are in a condo with a kitchen doesn't mean you HAVE to cook. The advantage of the condo is the multiple bedrooms & bathrooms. The kitchen can stay unused.

I'm not sure if I'm reading this right but it sounds to me that there is not a real concensus on what to do. Just that you want to get away for a day and a night.

I hightly recommend that you discuss what you want to do before you do any further research. Even if you have more than one option, such as everyone would be agreeable to either shopping or skiing. Then you can search for places that are condusive to those activities. You don't want to do a bunch of research, settle on the "perfect" place, then find out one of the girls doesn't want to do that particular activity.

Since you mentioned your friend was a foodie, that brought to mind a few more possible activities.

Cooking Classes. If you can find a one day cooking class on a Saturday in a nearby area, you could tailor your trip around that.

Another idea, a food tour. Last time I visited my son in NYC we did two food tours. One was Pizza in Brooklyn - we ate at two different pizza places in Brooklyn and visited several locations where movies were shot. Great tour (all on a bus). The other one was a food walking tour of Greenwich Village. We walked around, visited several interesting restaurants and markets, and got lots of samples.

One more idea, wineries in the Finger Lakes in New York. I've never been but plan on doing a two day trip there in March. LOTS of B&Bs in that area as well.

I also highly recommend meeting at one of your houses and all driving to your destination in the same car. That makes the getaway start from the minute you leave that house instead of a couple of hours later when you arrive. Is there a reason you are all planning to drive separately?

Well, I think I've settled it. We are going to the Rittenhouse Hotel in Philadelphia. The Adolf Biecker spa has what we want. We will arrive Saturday morning, do spa appointments or shop in the afternoon, and go out to either see a show or a concert Saturday night. Sunday morning we'll get up, eat, possibly visit a museum or shop, and then leave.

lowspark,To answer the question about driving, none of us really live close to each other. Carpooling would mean driving some distance out of the way. Plus one of us is ALWAYS late for everything. Famously late. It's not always due to trivial stuff, she runs a large-ish business and it pulls her away. If someone is late and the others are already at the hotel sitting poolside or in a spa appointment, noone is inconvenience. But if we have to wait for her in a car on the side of a highway...ick. Not a great way to start a fun trip.

Thanks for all the other GREAT ideas. You can be sure I'll be saving this discussion for future trips!

I'm glad you were able to figure it all out. Sounds like a fun trip. Enjoy!

Oh that's a fabulous choice. I've had formal tea in the garden room and dinner at Lacroix. The dinner was wonderful. I hope you have great weather for walking around the city.

The Philadelphia Flower Show is Feb 28 - March 7. It's incredible.

Here is a link that might be useful: Phil Flower Show