Six to nine people in Arrowhead Lake: which house?
If your group is somewhere between six and nine people, five of our Arrowhead Lake homes are built for exactly that, and the differences between them aren't really about size. They're about water. Two sit on the lake with a dock or beachfront at the bottom of the lawn. Two sit back in the trees with the beach a short walk away. One takes nine people and keeps them entertained when it rains. All of them are inside the gates of Arrowhead Lake, which means the same two lakes, four beaches and three seasonal heated pools, and the same mandatory community fees on top of the rental rate.
The quick version, then the reasoning.
Treehouse Escape: three bedrooms, sleeps nine, across three levels. Dogs welcome.
Broken Oar Cottage: three bedrooms, sleeps seven. Two full baths and a six-minute walk to Beach #2.
Lakefront Retreat: three bedrooms, sleeps seven. Beachfront, with kayaks and a canoe on the property.
LiWay Lakeside: three bedrooms, sleeps six. Private dock, king bed, deck with BBQ grill.
Comfy Chalet: two bedrooms plus a loft, sleeps six. Four minutes from Minisink Pool.
Water at the bottom of the lawn, or five minutes away?
This is the question that sorts the list, and most people answer it in about four seconds once someone asks. LiWay Lakeside has a private dock, so you launch its kayaks from your own steps and fish before anyone else is awake. Lakefront Retreat is beachfront, with two kayaks and a canoe kept on site and a fire pit down by the water.
The other three are woods houses. Broken Oar Cottage is a six-minute walk to Beach #2, which in practice means you send the kids ahead with the towels while you lock up. Comfy Chalet is four minutes down the street from Minisink Pool and keeps beach chairs and umbrellas by the door, so you aren't hauling them from home. Treehouse Escape sits deeper in, with nothing out the windows but trees, which is its own argument.
Worth knowing before you fall for the dock: the community rental shack, where the rowboats, paddle boats and bikes come from, runs in the summer season, and the three heated pools open Memorial Day weekend and close after Labor Day. Come in October and the lake is still there and still beautiful. The pool gate is locked.
Nine people in three bedrooms, and how that works
Treehouse Escape sleeps nine in three bedrooms plus a loft, and if that math looks tight on paper, the layout absorbs it. Three levels, two living rooms, two and a half baths. A queen in the first bedroom, a full in the second, a twin and a twin-over-twin bunk in the third, then a twin and a full up in the loft. A family of four and a family of five can each take a floor and meet at dinner.
The lower level is where the trip gets decided: foosball table, and the second of the two wood-burning fireplaces. It's also the only one of these five that takes dogs, so if your group includes one, the choice is made for you.
Two houses that sleep seven, and they're nothing alike
Broken Oar Cottage is the more finished of the pair. Two queens, a twin room, a twin in the loft, a loft set up with a desk, granite counters, a dishwasher, and a dining area that seats eight. Two full bathrooms for seven people is the detail nobody appreciates until the morning of a ski day. Three cars fit in the driveway, which matters when a group arrives in separate carloads, and the lodge, the gym and the sports courts are close.
Lakefront Retreat trades square footage for the view. Two queens, a bunk room with a trundle, one bathroom, a sunroom. Air conditioning is in the master and the sunroom rather than throughout, so a July booking here is a different proposition than a May one. You're there for the fire pit by the water and the boats, and whether that's worth sharing one bathroom is a judgement only your group can make.
Six people, a king bed and a dock
LiWay Lakeside sits on a secluded wooded lot with its own dock. Bedroom one is a king on the second floor with a half bath attached, bedroom two a queen, bedroom three bunks for the kids. Two bathrooms, two single kayaks and a double at the dock. AC in the living room and the main bedroom; baseboard heat throughout.
That configuration suits a particular trip: two couples, or a couple with kids plus grandparents, where somebody deserves the king and nobody wants to negotiate for it over the first glass of wine.
The two-bedroom, and when it's the right call
Comfy Chalet sleeps six out of two bedrooms, managed with a loft and a living room that both hold foldable queens. A full bed upstairs, a queen downstairs with its own TV. That's a house for a family who doesn't mind a loft, or two couples who'd rather not pay for a third bedroom nobody sleeps in.
One bathroom, and the cooling is portable AC in the living room and the upstairs bedroom through the summer. Against that: a pellet stove for cold nights, a desk that actually works for a laptop, and that four-minute walk to the pool. For a shoulder-season weekend built around the fire pit and the deck rather than the beach, it earns its place.
The community fees, which nobody mentions until checkout
Arrowhead Lake charges mandatory fees separate from your booking, and they aren't ours to waive. Temporary membership is $8.50 per person per day in season, Memorial Day to Labor Day, or $42.50 per person per week. Off season it's $2 per person per day, and children under six are free. Add $20 per vehicle for a gate card and a one-time $20 HOA administrative fee.
The part that catches people is the timing. Everything must be paid at least three days before arrival or a $100 late fee applies, and the community won't accept registrations, payments or changes inside one day of arrival. We'll need your guest and child count, every driver's name, full car details and guest names to submit with the payment. Book a week in August for eight adults and the in-season membership is a real line item; book the same house in November and it's pocket change. That's the biggest reason one house can feel like two different prices.
Membership covers the pools, lakes, beaches, playgrounds, basketball and tennis courts, and the lodge with its library, fitness room, game rooms and banquet hall. It's charged whether you use any of it or not.
Getting there, and what's outside the gate
All five sit within about fifteen minutes of I-380 and I-80, which is what makes Pocono Lake work as a Friday-night drive. Jack Frost and Big Boulder are the closest skiing, roughly fifteen miles out. Kalahari's indoor waterpark and Pocono Raceway run around twenty minutes, Camelback and Camelbeach about twenty-five. For Hickory Run and its boulder field, you take PA-940 and then north on PA-423, with a dirt road covering the last stretch to the field itself. That access road closes in winter.
At the main gate, Pinewood Deli on Locust Ridge Road handles sandwiches, beer and whatever you forgot to pack. Along Route 940 there's Dominic's Pizza, family-run for years with an arcade in the back, plus Murph's Hideaway, Moyer's Country Kitchen and Stacked Deli. Jubilee, over in Pocono Pines, does breakfast and takes dogs. For a proper grocery run it's Ahart's in Blakeslee or the Walmart in Mount Pocono. The community backs onto Brady's Lake State Gamelands, which is a great deal of walkable ground immediately behind the houses.
Two practical things. You need a car, because the community is deliberately remote and nothing is walkable except the beaches and pools. And all trash leaves the house with you at checkout, to the trash center inside the community: the bears and raccoons here are not theoretical.
So, which one
Nine people or a dog, it's Treehouse Escape. Seven who want two bathrooms and the shortest walk to sand, Broken Oar Cottage. Seven who'd rather have the water in front of them and will share a bathroom for it, Lakefront Retreat. Six with a king bed and a dock on the list, LiWay Lakeside. Six who want the pellet stove without paying for a third bedroom, Comfy Chalet.
We manage more than two dozen homes in Arrowhead Lake, so if the group grows to ten or twelve between now and booking, say so and we'll point you at the right ones. Availability depends on your dates, and the fee schedule is set by the association rather than by us, so we'll confirm both when you inquire.