Every now and again, just like Lady Astor, one wants to be with one's own . . . even in New Hope, Pennsylvania. The Motel in the Woods is Dame Edna's nightmare made real, all faux flower arrangements and velvet-skirted rocking chairs. Friday evening, head across the road to the mainly male Raven inn for dinner overlooking a private garden. Then go up the road to the Cartwheel, an all-purpose, all-scenes barn with a piano bar ("Who charmed the corn right off of the stalk, MMMAaaaa-mme!"), a dance floor, and pool tables. (Is that a man or a woman sinking the eight ball, the one with the beard and the stilettos?) Saturday, it's twenty minutes up Route 32 to Point Pleasant for a day of canoeing or rafting down the Delaware. Then back to the Raven for its incomparable tea: titans of business, Philly and D.C. attorneys -- some in Brooks Brothers, some in Hermes harness (yes!) -- all mixing with an ease that puts Fire Island to shame.

DETAILS The New Hope Motel in the Woods, 215-862-2800 (rooms from $79); the Raven, 215-862-2081; the Cartwheel, 215-862-0880.

Related:

• Archive: “52 Weekends”
• Articles by Jordan Schaps
• Table of Contents: Mar 13, 2000 issue of New York | Subscribe!