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Visit Pa.’s best festivals, parks, and ice cream shops with this curated summer guide and bingo sheet

by Asha Prihar of Spotlight PA |

A hand holds a waffle cone with ice cream scoops
Commonwealth Media Services

We asked, you answered, and now it’s time to plan your summertime adventures.

Inspired by our friends at Bridge Michigan, we requested your help in crafting a Pennsylvania summer bucket list full of hidden gems and off-the-beaten path attractions. In response, you shared dozens of places to see, eat, explore, and relax, from lakefront beaches to ice cream shops in the woods.

Now that we’ve sorted through your submissions and assembled some of them into a list to help inspire your plans for the season, we’re challenging you to put it to use as you try to score a Pennsylvania summer bingo.

Yes, there are prizes involved.

How it works

Goal No. 1, of course, is to have fun. A close second: Score a bingo on the card below. We hope you use our crowdsourced list as a muse, but you don’t have to limit yourself to only the things we’ve listed.

The Spotlight PA Summer Bucket List bingo card
Asha Prihar / For Spotlight PA
The Spotlight PA Summer Bucket List bingo card

Save this card on your phone or print it out, and take it with you on your trips around Pennsylvania this summer. As you complete each activity, take photos! Once you get a bingo, fill out this Google Form and email your photos to newsletters@spotlightpa.org. The deadline to submit is Tuesday, Sept. 2 (the day after Labor Day). If you’re having trouble with the form, send us an email.

At the end of the summer, we’ll shout out anyone who gets a bingo, and enter them into a drawing for some Spotlight PA swag. If you don’t quite make it to a bingo, still send us your photos and let us know what you completed, and we’ll consider including them in a PA Local summer photo roundup.

You can find additional rules at the bottom of this article. And now, for your summer fun guide!

Your Pennsylvania Summer Bucket List

🌳 Get lost in the trees at a park, forest, or preserve

From the Allegheny National Forest, which spans several counties in the northern tier, to Wissahickon Valley Park in Philadelphia, the opportunities to wander through nature in Pennsylvania are numerous.

These other parks and forests also come recommended by Spotlight PA readers and staff:

🚂 Take a scenic train ride or drive

For a blast-from-the-past experience, you can check out a heritage railroad. Some reader recommendations include the East Broad Top Railroad in Huntingdon County, the Pioneer Tunnel Coal Mine & Steam Train in Schuylkill County, and rides through Centre County with the Bellefonte Historical Railroad Society.

If you’d prefer a modern train experience instead, a nice summertime ride on Amtrak’s Keystone Service line can carry you from Harrisburg to Philadelphia — and vice versa, as well as to and from various cities and towns in between — for a day trip sans parking headaches and turnpike tolls.

If you prefer a scenic car trip, one reader recommends taking Route 666 from Sheffield in Warren County to East Hickory in Forest County, then taking Route 62 south to Tionesta. “It is calming and cool in the summer,” Bill H. of Erie County writes. “There is camping, fishing, and wading along the way. Look for local stores and sites along the way. Get a meal in Tionesta and visit the dam area.”

🪨 Appreciate unique geological formations

Scenic views abound at the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area in Pike County, where you can see the Delaware River snake through Appalachian ridges.

Kathleen Butler of Bucks County recommends Venango County’s Freedom Falls, a 20-foot waterfall. An iron furnace’s ruins are also right nearby.

In Clearfield County, you can find Bilger’s Rocks, a park with prehistoric sandstone formations where Spotlight PA’s Colin Deppen played a 20-person game of tag as a teenager.

🎶 Hear live music

In some places, summer means free concerts. Hit up downtown Wilkes-Barre on certain Saturdays in July for all-ages Rockin’ the River shows along the Susquehanna, or attend Bellefonte’s decades-old Summer Sounds from The Gazebo series to hear a variety of music styles on Sundays.

🌊 Spend some time by — or in — the water

Pennsylvania may not border an ocean, but that doesn’t mean you can’t go to the beach.

Consider going for a swim at Racoon Creek State Park in Beaver County, or Mt. Gretna Lake and Beach in Lebanon County, which reader Chris Bradley from Montgomery County describes as a “quaint, lifeguarded lake with fun (beach, high dive, trapeze swing, inner tubes, kayaks and more) for the whole family.” Or take a dip at Carbon County’s Mauch Chunk Lake Park, which Adrienne Wright says is “like going to the beach without having to drive to Jersey!”

Reader Jane Bryndel of Elk County recommends renting a canoe to check out the Clarion River near Ridgway. “You don’t need to travel to a national park to be deep in the middle of the PA Wilderness,” Jane writes. “It is crazy beautiful. And did I mention I can almost guarantee a bald eagle sighting?”

If you prefer to admire the water but stay out of it, you might enjoy the trails at Marsh Creek State Park in Chester County or Silver Lake Park in Bucks County, or the scenic Clarion-Little Toby Trail in Elk County, which partly runs along a railroad.

In Union County, Spotlight PA’s Michelle Mertz recommends a trip to Sunbury’s “Marina” — a.k.a. a 50-acre portion of Shikellamy State Park situated on the tip of an island in the Susquehanna that has walking paths, places to picnic, a seasonal butterfly garden, and more. You can also stop by Neville Island in the Ohio River near Pittsburgh for mini-golf or roller skating.

🎉 Attend a fair or festival

Is it really summer without a trip to a fair or festival? Although our official “state fair” (the Farm Show) happens in January, local communities in Pennsylvania offer plenty of opportunities to celebrate the season.

Here are a few fair and festival recommendations from Spotlight readers and staff:

🎥 See a drive-in movie

Reader Alyssa Morgan of Lycoming County recommends loading up the car with pillows and blankets to see a flick at the Pike Drive-In Theatre, a three-screen spot in Montgomery. Lehigh County, meanwhile, boasts Shankweiler’s Drive-In, which claims to be the “oldest operating drive-in theater in the world and the second ever built” and comes highly recommended by Spotlight PA’s Christina Bruno.

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🐄 Visit a farm

For some life-changing ice cream and immaculate “farm vibes,” Christina also recommends adding a stop at the tucked-away Crystal Spring Farm in Lehigh County to your Shankweiler’s trip. Over in Lycoming County, Today Farm has “something for everyone,” reader Sarah Stoudt writes: “Beer, kids playing structures, fresh made food some sourced on the farm. Beautiful scenery.”

⛰️ Ascend a tower or mountain

If you’re not terrified of heights, catch a panoramic view of Pennsylvania. In Northampton County, Nazareth’s “Indian Tower” — which was used to spot enemy planes during World War II — sits on high ground where you can “see all the lights of the Lehigh Valley,” Spotlight PA’s Danielle Ohl says.

Reader Regina recommends heading to the top ridge at Worlds End State Park for a view of several mountain peaks. “Just breathtaking,” Regina writes. If you prefer taking in mountain views while seated, a 14-minute ride on Knoebels Amusement Resort’s Scenic Skyway chairlift will take you 360 feet into the air, where you can see the rest of the park and some of the hills and mountains around it.

For those who really want to reach for the sky, Pennsylvania’s highest point is Mount Davis in Somerset County, located in Forbes State Forest. You can catch a 360-degree view from an observation tower there.

🍦 Grab a frozen treat

No matter what your other plans are, put a cherry on top of your day by finishing off your excursions with a scoop or two. You can stop at the Jigger Shop after a day at Mt. Gretna Lake, or pair a hike at Little Buffalo State Park with a stop at Hall’s Ice Cream afterward. (The latter was a favorite lockdown-era activity for Spotlight PA’s Stephen Caruso.)

Adriane Reilly of Chester County likes visiting Chester Springs Creamery at Milky Way Farm and saying hi to the animals after enjoying some ice cream as a way to “spice up a bland summer evening” or celebrate special occasions.

If these options don’t tickle your fancy or fit your itinerary, try stopping somewhere on Pennsylvania’s state-sanctioned “Ice Cream Trail.”

🗺 A handy map of every destination

Wondering which of these spots are closest to home? See our bucket list mapped:

The fine print

  • We’ll accept vertical, horizontal, or diagonal bingos.

  • You must submit a photo from each activity.

  • Many of the activities on our list fit into more than one category, but you can only mark your bingo card once for each activity you complete. For example: If you attend the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, you can check off the “Attend a fair or festival” box, or you can count it as “Anything from our list in Central PA” — but not both.

  • Unless a box specifically mentions our list, feel free to count destinations that don’t appear on it, so long as they fit the category and are located in Pennsylvania. Make sure you describe what the place is and what category you counted it toward.

Once again, here is the form to submit your bingo. Happy summer!