Delaware
THE BEST KEPT SECRET
The Delaware Highlands is that magnificent geological area along both sides of the Delaware River, which includes portions of Sussex County in New Jersey, Monroe, Pike, and Wayne Counties in Pennsylvania, and Orange and Sullivan Counties in New York.
To a great extent, over 100 miles of the Delaware River, starting at the Delaware Water Gap and going north to Hancock, New York, is truly pristine. Take a canoe trip down the Delaware River to the Delaware Highlands and truly, there is no more majestic spot in the United States with quality drinking water in the river that abounds with every type of fish that one could imagine, arid as well, hills and mountains on both sides as beautiful or more beautiful than you would find in Montana, Colorado, Idaho, or wherever you might choose to travel down a significant waterway.
The villages in the Delaware Highlands are very special. Possibly most outstanding would be Milford, an area founded in 1733 on a plateau overlooking the Delaware River surrounded by beautiful pristine heavily forested hills on three sides and charming streets abounding with world class architecture dating back to the 1700 and l8OOs.
In the Village of Milford, street side cafes are loaded with hospitality and the greatest food, and art galleries and boutique shops wherever you may look.
Milford, Pennsylvania has been blessed with beautiful street side landscaping, including sidewalks that are large blocks of Bluestone and charming street side lighting for those who like to browse through the galleries and shops during the evening.
Port Jervis, New York is another Delaware River town in the Delaware Highlands. It is truly a little river city having great rail service into Penn Station as well as Hoboken. It also quite historical because of the Delaware Hudson Canal dating back to the 1 82us that passed through Port Jervis on its way to bringing barges of coal from Pennsylvania to the Hudson River and then on to New York.
Going north along the Delaware River, there are many attractive little villages such as Shohola on the Pennsylvania side and Barryville on the New York side, about a 20 minute drive north of Port Jervis via Route 97, one of the most beautiful riverside drives in the nation.
Heading west from the Delaware River, there are some spectacular inland towns such as the Village of Hawley on Lake Wallenpaupack, one of Pennsylvania's largest lakes with 52 miles of pristine shoreline and magnificent water quality abounding with some of the finest game fish in North America.
North of the Big Lake, a 15 -minute drive, is the charming Village of Honesdale, the County Seat of Wayne County, and another magnificently beautiful area in the Delaware Highlands.
Just north of Honesdale, the wooded forests tend to open and one will behold some of the most beautiful rolling farm land with picturesque distant views that you might find anywhere in the United States.
All in all, the Delaware Highlands area, including Pike and Wayne Counties in Eastern Pennsylvania, are truly some of the most beautiful landscape that you will find any place. Combine this with tremendous Quality of Life experiences such as the Black Bear Film Festival in Milford each October, the Milford Music Festival each June, the great musical festivals in the Village of Hawley in the park, along with the great concerts at the Dorflinger Wildlife Sanctuary near Honesdale.
Throughout this great Delaware Highlands area, there are many interesting country homes reeking with historic backgrounds dating from the 1800s and 1900s, some in villages, some on mountain tops, and some along streams, takes, and rivers, and as well, great village homes that have been restored or might be in need of restoration.
Many home buyers in the Delaware Highlands are families who have recently sold or who contemplate the sale of their primary residence in New Jersey and are buying a home in the country to commute from back to their place of employment in New Jersey or New York with the idea that when they retire sometime in the not too distant future, they will live close enough to friends and family in the New Jersey and New York area so it won't be so far to travel to visit.
The Delaware Highlands offers a full array of amenities, including many golf courses designed and built by the finest architects such as Jack Nicklaus, Robert Trent Jones, Jim Fazio, and others, along with great snow skiing areas and numerous other outdoor activities.
What a great place to have a retirement home so close to the metropolitan region in an area with a spectacular Quality of Life.