Things to do in Philadelphia

[chrisisoutrunning]

I'm going to be in Philadelphia for a friend's wedding this weekend (unfortunately I'm the best man and can't skip out to try to scalp tickets to game three of the World Series...) and was wondering what I/my friends could do to kill some of the extra time we have on Saturday and before our flight leaves Sunday. The wedding and everything that goes along with that is actually in Wilmington, DE, but I think we'll have access to a vehicle to get to Philly.

 

I'd love to get downtown and get an authentic Philly Cheesesteak, but beyond that I'm not sure what else there is/I want to do.

[jimmyjeromehardy7]

I was there last summer and found it disappointing except for the art museum which has entire rooms from old castles and stuff (plus you can run the stairs ala Rocky). The liberty bell and independence hall are nice but it seemed like all the other historical buildings were closed or private buildings so I enjoyed Boston more. At the intersection of 9th and Passyunk are the 2 biggest cheesesteak places. We (and alot of others that were there) went to both and split meals to compare. Don't go down to the river park/landing - we walked like 10-15 blocks to get there and there was nothing there.

[PaulRigdon]

I'd drive the extra 45 minutes and go to Atlantic City. Philly kind sucks...

[tristarscoop]

I was stuck there for a few hours when my flight got bumped and I just headed down to all the kitshy touristy stuff. I mean, I wouldn't recommend it for days, but I had fun just walking from the public transport through downtown and then wandering all the "independence" stuff for a few hours. There's a couple of museum-y visitor's center places by the Liberty Bell and I basically just wandered in those. Everything has admission, though and apparently the Bell is like the damn White House and if you don't get your ticket in the morning, you're not going to see it.

[thebruce44]

You could go to Paddy's Irish Pub if you ever watch "Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia." Not sure where exactly its located but my friend went their and had a pretty good time.

 

I was there about 8 years ago and don't remember too much besides thinking that the historical stuff was kinda cool when I usually hate anything educational.

[JimH5]

I used to live in NJ, and we visited Philly a number of times.

The Philadelphia Zoo is the nation's oldest, and it's excellent. They have a newish exhibit space for their big cats. The old architecture within the zoo is very cool.

Take the Ben Franklin Bridge just across the river to Camden to see the Adventure Aquarium. Very awesome space. My daughter loves the hippo exhibit, and spent nearly an hour just watching them swim from the underwater viewing room. It's very large and impressive. There's also a minor league ballpark very near the

The cheesesteak "war" is pretty funny, and the two classic places are at 9th and Passyunk as jimmyjeromehardy7 mentioned above. Pat's King of Steaks is the original, and is housed in an unimpressive looking, but still cool little building, while Geno's is across the street and full of neon. There's another group of cheesesteak places called Steve's Prince of Steaks that is also very good. And another guy (Rick's) who is part of the original Pat's family has a place in the Reading Terminal market across from the convention center. The market is cool and worth a walk through, if you're in the area. And cheesesteak is good and greasy wherever you get it, though again, I'm partial to Pat's and Steve's.

I'm not as into the history stuff in the Central City section of Philadelphia. The Liberty Bell is there, on display, and it's cool. . .but it's a bell. They do have tour guides around, if you're into the history, but the old courthouses and meeting places for our nation's founding fathers are all in Federal-style buildings that are kind of dull in appearance--in my opinion.

There are some ships docked in the harbor. . . some warships, a schooner. . .we never visited them, but I think some accept visitors.

Outside of Philly, you're not far from Bucks County, a very pretty area along the Delaware River. There is also Lancaster, Bird in Hand, etc. The Amish settlements are fun, though a little too touristy. You'll find covered wooden bridges around a lot of that area, and can probably google the whole list of them. Very quaint.

It should be beautiful this time of year. . .Enjoy the trip!

 

[OldHoss]

If you like Belgian beer, burgers or mussels, there is no place as good as: http://www.monkscafe.com/

[homer]

In case anyone cares, there's a place in Milwaukee called The Philly Way and I believe the guy used to work at Pat's or Geno's.....sorry to hijack.