Top 10 reasons Honesdale, Pennsylvania is the BEST small town in America. 

As Mayor of Honesdale, I am so very proud of this video, Thank you Jim for taking the time to check us out! I hope to meet you the next time you are back in town!

Running into the state representative and getting a spontaneous interview is awesome

Makes you wonder, how many other little gems of a town are still located and not discovered yet in this great country of ours? I hope you find more.

The song, "Winter Wonderland," was inspired by Honesdale's Central Park decorations.

Irvings Cliff is a must trip...overlooking Honesdale you can see the entire town laid out along the river...just wonderful in the fall when the leaves all change.

Pennsylvania appeals to me more and more. There are two major cities, a lot of forest, nice winters, a lot of culture and history, good Universities, good for sports, and the people seem quite laid back. I hope to get to visit Pennsylvania some day.

I grew up in Honesdale born and raised love the place no jobs had to move to better my life great place to visit and if you have money and don't have to work it's beautiful

Pennsylvania is a great state to be from.

Thank you so very much for your wonderful video and endorsement for Honesdale, Wayne County, PA I live 25 miles north of Honesdale, and also a citizen of Wayne County. Moved up here from a little north of Philly 44 years ago. One look and I knew my heart was home. I have never regretted that decision to stay. If you ever do move here, even if only for a Season now and then, you too will never regret it. I'm so glad you enjoyed your visit so much and I loved your video.

I was born in Honesdale, graduated from the High School and lived there 32 yrs until moving to Arkansas. I have so many fond memories running the river banks all summer long, watching canoe races every year. Every October they had Fire prevention week where kids could ride the fire trucks around the park! They also have fireworks off Irving Cliff in July which you can sit right under any place in town. Then the fall is just gorgeous! I miss home and the people!

Planning to move to Pennsylvania. Have everything picked out pretty much ready to go. Then you come out with this video. I'm glad you did, thanks Briggs

Pennsylvania is a beautiful state. Lancaster has changed so much but still retains the market day which I love so much.

While you're in Honesdale, travel approximately 45 minutes east on Route 6 (southeast) to the equally-beautiful town of Milford. Do the Grey Towers and Milford Diner.

Hi I live in honesdale I moved here last year from Miami FL don't regret a second ppl are amazing and caring best schools period love it here love it and yes been helped when I broken down before as well was a shock to me coming from Miami best place

Did you know that there is a town at the bottom of Lake Wallenpaupack? It was flooded to create the lake.

Moved from Brooklyn NY, to Honesdale in 2003..and I never looked back. Honesdale is everything you said it is...and sooooo much more.

Your comments, absolutely succinct. I grew up farther south of there in Pennsylvania, but when visiting there......rang true to my experiences. I live north and west of there now, but as I reach my retirement age....you make me want to make that my home, heck we might be neighbors shortly.

I’m part of the honesdale school district and it’s crazy to think someone likes it so much

A great town! And the Wayne County Fair was always a favorite for my kids when they were young. Small town living at it's finest!

I live in Glen Rock PA and we just celebrated our 6 year wedding anniversary and we stayed at the Wayne Hotel. Let me tell you that you are spot on! We are so in love with this town and the restaurant downstairs was amazing! A few blocks up we rode the Stourbridge Line and it was awesome! Always something to do here! Keep making these videos! Love it!

Nice to know these kinds of places still exist in America. Great tribute to their town.

That first reason got me thinking. You should do a list on the best cities for nature/out door recreational activities.

This is the best video you have done. I'm sold! Moving here for my 40th birthday

I live in nearby Jim Thorpe PA and have been to Honesdale many times as I worked as a police officer in both Pike and susquehanna counties. I even had 3 foster children who were from Honesdale. It is a great small town in PA with amazing people. NE PA has very many small towns with great people. I hope you make the move to NE PA someday. We would be lucky to have ya.

I often daydream of escaping the city , finding a little Norman Rockwell/ Mayberry town to go visit, I think I found it!!! Thanks.

Honesdale is a very homey village. Located 40 miles south of my hometown Deposit, New York. Love the locally owned businesses there. I visit Honesdale once in a while to escape from Binghamton.

I bought a house here and moved here in July 3 2003 17 years ago, and i am home.

My dad grew up here and I love coming out here in the country

As a kid my parents had a cabin in the Poconos, right up the road from there. They had to sell it during the late 70's but I have fantastic memories of hand feeding deer, black bear and even skunks by the side of our house. Fishing in Promised Land Lake and visiting all of the local towns. Back then a kid could sit in a tavern for lunch and play pinball for free and drink draft birch beer.

I absolutely love Honesdale. There is ALWAYS something going on in town, there are so many wonderful restaurants, the people are amazing, and even the drive there is beautiful. Nearby Hawley is also wonderful...I often think of Honesdale and Hawley as "sister towns". The Settler's Inn in Hawley is an amazing restaurant, and if you like antiquing, the little shops in Hawley are wonderful.

amazing you made this three days before my 16 birthday (this is my fathers account btw) and its stunning how much you captured my childhood home i was born and raised in honesdale for 12-13 years and it was the best town i could ever hope to live in my family moved to TX for my dad to have a better job oppertunity but i miss his place with all my heart so many memories and friends i just wish i could go visit at least one more time

I was born in Honesdale, raised in the area, and started my family there. It's true about the people being friendly, trusting, and hospitable. This video made me homesick... again. 😁

I'm actually quite surprised that a place like Pennsylvania is now something I'm now considering to move to after college alongside states like Texas, Idaho and Wyoming. Places like Honesdale have me turning my head towards PA.

I live 20 minutes away from Honesdale it is a really nice town. Good Luck with your move!

I moved my family here in 2016 my 14 yr old had a hard time fitting in. I don’t find the people so friendly to put siders moving in. Most ppl on my road are from NY and I find most people keep to them selves.

I've lived in Honesdale since 1981. It's home to the Himalayan Institute, which has had a tremendously positive effect on the community since establishing itself here in 1978. If you like Asheville, you'll love Honesdale! If you don't like Asheville, you'll love Honesdale!

I plan to visit Honesdale as I am only an hour away in Marshall’s creek. I think the whole area in general is the best. The people are very friendly here and out of towners are moving here to get away from the cities. This was a great video Briggs. I’m going to share this.

I’ve lived in Honesdale my whole life. I’m in my early 20s. Many people I grew up with hate this town and want to leave the area and never come back. I honestly like Honesdale, and I think I’ll always want to at least come back to visit, but that’s an unpopular opinion among my peers here. If you look at the average and median incomes here you’ll see that our economy is not doing so well. At least a few of the main small businesses are struggling and apparently cannot afford to pay their employees much more than minimum wage. It’s a relatively poor town.

We have been trying to find a nice place to move to. Had properties we tried to develop in Tennessee, then Maine and have settled on Pennsylvania. Out of all the states ive been to, the people from Pennsylvania were the most friendly and welcoming.

I actually live in honesdale beautiful town but there are no jobs here I've lived here all my life.. it's a great place to visit.. in the summer ..

I grew up an hour or so away from Honesdale and graduated from Lock Haven State in PA, and the area is beautiful, and the people are very nice and friendly indeed. I moved to the SF Bay Area after college but always remember "back east" and especially in the fall. The colors are amazing.

Pennsylvania is a BEAUTIFUL state...you found one of our gems:+) And the decent, moral, hardworking people are what make it the best:+) God bless~

I'm from the Pittsburgh area, but loved all four of your videos about Pennsylvania. I live in Texas now (my wife is from there), but Pennsylvania is a wonderful, beautiful state. My cousin married a woman from Honesdale and they had a wonderful marriage until he died last year. She is still a wonderful woman. I grew up in Braddock (in the house at the left), and have many fond memories of it. While the town has shrunk from its heydays of the 1940s and 1950s, the local USSteel mill (the Edgar Thompson Works) is still in operation. It was the first steel mill of Andrew Carnegie. It has been modernized, but they still keep a basic oxygen furnace on display so tourists can see what steel making was like in the late 1800s. The Carnegie Public Library, founded in 1885, is still in operation as part of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh system. It is tax supported, and was the first library Andrew Carnegie built. It had bound copies of The Atlantic Monthly, in which I read the story of Anna Leonowens and the King of Siam, aka Rogers and Hammerstein's "The King and I."

Honesdale reminds me of Norman Rockwell. A step back in time, relaxing, the people are friendly, and the Dick Smith House, where he wrote Winter Wonderland, that we sing after the Christmas Parade, while sipping hot chocolate. I miss it.

Visit Lancaster sometime. 3 hrs. From Manhattan and DC, 2hrs. from Philly and Pittsburgh. Beautiful area. Great history, shopping areas, markets, colleges, theaters and libraries. Home of the Amish. Visited by Washington, Lafayette, Franklin, Lincoln and Kennedy. Was US capital for a day. Worth the visit.

I live in Hawley (home to Lake Wallenpaupack) and deliver papers in Honesdale and Bethany and it is such a fun loving beautiful town! I call honesdale and Hawley sister towns because the Stourbridge Lion has excusions back and forth to them. There are so many events that go on and the parades at Halloween and Christmas are the best around! What a fabulous tribute to the town you made. If you do move you will never get bored with all that goes on in town but just exploring the entire area!

Thanks Briggs for the entertainment!

I like how you ended the video, “be nice to each other“

I fell in love with Honesdale from my first visit. I love everything about it. Lots of nice people, mountain, lakes, quaint downtown. Central Park at Christmas is so beautiful and special.

I had the pleasure of working at Camp Towanda for a few years which is where Wet Hot American Summer was actually filmed, this town is an absolute gem and the people were so kind. I highly recommend the Wayne County Fair which takes place every August or stopping by some of the many great places to eat such as Paulies or Camp Umpys .

I remember celebrating the 4th of july on lake wallenpaupack through out my childhood. Really amazing place.

My Honesdale story: my in-laws have a summer cottage on Elk Lake, and my brother-in-law was a teacher in the Western Wayne School District. One summer we spent the July 4th weekend up at the lake and went to Honesdale to see their fireworks. We set up our chairs in the lovely, quaint central park to watch the show. The fireworks were nice, but they kept stopping and restarting, because they kept lighting the hillside on fire. Not once, not twice, but three times they had to stop, hose down the brush fire, then restart the show. Hilarious, I still laugh thinking about it. Honesdale reminds me (in a good way) of the small town in Michigan that I grew up in. Glad it seems to be doing well.

My girlfriend and I wanted to get out of Philly for the weekend and randomly chose a small town in pa to stay and just happened to choose honesdale and we couldn’t have been more happy with our decision. This place had amazing food spots, some of the friendliest people and absolutely beautiful sunsets and views. One of the local bar tenders just gave us free drinks and gave us a rundown of the history of honesdale. Definitely want to make it back here at some point.

I am glad you said," Be nice to each other". Sad that people have to be reminded Love your videos, especially about the great things in my state, ALABAMA!! I have lived in several states but I love Alabama. Can't wait to visit some of the states you focused on

This was so so helpful! We are moving to PA and this was great thanks!

I've been trying for almost a year to go and visit. I'm preparing for retirement and this town meets all my needs.

This is the most awesome video on your channel! I thoroughly enjoy all your videos!!

This is your best video yet, and it’s easy to see why. That place looks amazing!

I visited that town years ago and I fell in love with that town great people

Wanted to thank you for this and all the other videos you've made. Me and my family are planning to move here over this summer. We're actually taking a trip there this spring to look at homes.

Jon Fritz is my state rep and friend. He is a great guy! This man is honest, candid and filled with integrity. You were right to include him as 1 of the 10 best things about Honesdale.

Good video and good reasons to justify your choice as this being the best small town. Hope it all works out for you!

It's the small towns scattered throughout PA that make the State charming. Gems need to be found; they're not on the daily surface. Great video, Briggs!

I would love a video on just the parks and nature in Honesdale Pennsylvania ❤

Okay, I see you Jim... this is great. Good luck on the move, the town will be happy to have you.

What a nice gesture to invite you to honsdale. Clearly you love it 👍. A lot to like about that town. 18:14 😵😂

I like the video. New Hope is my favorite PA town. Used to go to Wallenpaupack (sp) when I was a kid, great lake and memories.

What an amazing place! Thanks for going there and checking it out!!

So glad you came during Roots & Rhythm !!

My uncle lived there and he loved it...he had passed away..but I still have family there...and when we would visit from NY we loved it as well...but back the 40 years ago they really didn't have much a k-mart...a pizza place...and a few other places down on I believe main street...I was 11 back then..and I've thought about moving there as well...great place .

Our Dad FDNY has a Hunting Place in Waymart. Sadly, he passed. He & our family started in the Bronx & grew up on LI. My brother Freddy owns the place on Deer Run now. We LOVE it there

I considered PA before retiring but after 65 years of Northeast Winters, I could not stand another Winter of battling snow. I picked an area in NC out of the snow area and except for the out-of-control Trumpies it's a decent place to retire to. No place that is affordable is perfect.

Wow amazing video as usual my friend hopefully u can find more places like this

Great video, as usual! And Honesdale looks like the kind of town I'd love. I'll have to make it a point to visit there. We seem to value the same sorts of things when it comes to small towns. I moved out from the DC Sprawl (Arlington, Fairfax and Loudoun Counties) to Front Royal, VA almost three years ago. Knew I was going to like the area when, on one of my first house shopping trips, I pulled into a 7-11 to get a soda. As I walked back to the cooler section, this skinny young guy, shaved head, tattoos galore, stepped back directly in front of me. Just based on how he looked and where I'd been living the past few decades, I prepared myself for a less-than-pleasant encounter. The guy looks over at me and says "Oh! Excuse me, sir!" Immediate de-stress on my part. History all over the area (Shenandoah Valley), friendly folks, street festivals a few times a summer (I never miss the Virginia Wine and Crafts Festival), some really neat places to eat. I love it! Oh, and we have the Virginia Beer Museum! Thanks again for your videos.

I've been there several times. Couple nice places you can rent a cabin and good restaurants in the area. Lake walenwapauk is really nice. Rode my motorcycle there from Long island. Beautiful area especially if you follow the Delaware water gap up on the N.Y side and cross over to P.A. in Narrowsburg. Cant wait to go back soon.

My wife and I LOVE this video. It made us reconsider the east as a place to retire. That's like 20 years from now but it helps to plan ahead. We were looking a Trulia and you're right. The price of real estate out there is crazy cheap!

I feel ya on the friendly people of Pennsylvania. I went there in '73 after the military and fell in love with the place. Being a California boy that thought the East was nothing but city slickers, it blew my mind. Some of my best friends and wife are from PA. I'll go back one day for sure.

I was there on my way to the Poconos. I drove by that massive lake. Have a great evening!

I grew up there. It's a rathole of racism, bullying and general backwardness. Winters are miserable, road maintenance is slipshod and politics and gossip are typical small town.

Hi Briggs I’m a huge fan and me and my friend were talking and we were like how great would it be if we lived in Pennsylvania together . She said Pennsylvania was really cozy in the fall (even though neither of us would know because we have never been) I saw a video of yours a few days before and brought up Honesdale and that’s our life plan for ten years since legally we aren’t allowed to drive. Ur amazing

Excellent video, I'm packing my bags right now.

I loved this video this is my hometown and still live here it is a great place

I've been monitoring when's the "Top Ten Reasons Not To Move To Pennsylvania" going to be released. I watched this Honesdale video and maybe that's a good sign for Pennsylvania.

I went to summer camp in Honesdale, and I loved it! I didn't like the camp but the area. And downtown was awesome!

Thanx Jim for a great vid. I live in Philly but anytime Pennsy gets such good press I feel great. thanx for featuring one of our hidden treasures. I will have to visit it.

This is your best video , Briggs ☺♥♥♥♥♥

Incredible and such a breathtaking video and description of Honesdale! As a local government worker near Annapolis Maryland who is looking for a great place to retire to soon, I think this helps me figure out that this would be a great place for my wife, 11 year old adopted son and myself to relocate to. In one word...AWESOME!

I really love this town, wanna move here like tomorrow!😍😍😍😍

Visiting Honesdale in July. Looking forward to it 😊

Thank you for the nice things you have said about Honesdale. Honesdale definitely is a fantastic town. It was a great place to grow up in and a nice place to retire !

Thank you for this video. I have friends and family living in Hawley and I absolutely love Honesdale. It is a dream of mine to one day buy a home in Honesdale but my wife wont leave NY. I watched this video and actually teared up.

So interesting that you made the video! Loyal subscriber and liker

I wish every town was like this

Now you've got me wanting to move to Honesdale

#11. There are big rainbow trout in the Lackawaxen just on the edge of town.

I moved to WA state from Vermont. I stopped at Honesdale PA and fell in love with the place and people. You’re right about the people greeting you there. Strangers would ask me if I looked like I was lost or needed something. I never got that in Burlington Vt. I too have been contemplating leaving Seattle for Honesdale or the other spot in Wisconsin I stopped off at on the way 15yrs ago. The small towns are where it’s at. Great video!!!

I have to agree Honesdale might just be the best small town in America. I kind of grew up there, both my parents were from Honesdale my father a farmer my mother a nurse. So my history is from there. I spent my summers staying with my grandmother (aka Nana) on West St. in Honesdale and we have a family farm in Oregon Township just 5 miles outside of town its actually were my father was born. We would vacation there every summer. My brothers and I have always loved the farm and now we own it, been in the family for 101 years. All our children and grandchildren love coming to the farm and Honesdale. And yes the people a definitely different there - friendly, courteous and helpful. Great video I enjoyed watching it very much. Thankyou

Now I want to live there! I should visit 😊

I live in honsedale and it's super great here so thank you

Best video yet. Thanks man!