College Visits - Philly and West Chester College
 

Next weekend, Thursday Nov 7 - Nov 10, we will be traveling from northern NJ to the Philly area to look at colleges for our daughter. Our first stop is Temple University in Philly on Friday, then West Chester University on Saturday and finally Drexel in Philly. We cannot change the itinerary because we are working around the school's schedules.

Ideally I would like a hotel that is centrally located and not have to change hotels.

From our experience the college visits last a couple of hours. This whole college process is stressful and we need some diversions. We've been to Philly and saw the usual historic sites as well as the Franklin Institute. I need ideas of things to do in this part of PA. We enjoy exploring and finding new experiences.

Kind of "between" West Chester and Philadelphia is the King of Prussia area, which has a fair amount of hotels and an enormous mall that's quite nice. And you could visit Valley Forge, as well. Personally, though, I would go for a Philadelphia hotel as there would be so much more variety available in the "to-do" category, plus you'd be closer to both Drexel and Temple.

Some of the places to go in Philadelphia beyond the usual colonial/Revolutionary historical include the various art museums (Philadelphia Museum of Art, Barnes {need pre-tickets}, Rodin); the Magic Gardens on South Street; City Hall and the Wanamaker building; the U of PA Museum; the National Liberty Museum with its Chihuly glass; Eastern State Penitentiary; the Mutter Museum; the various "Squares" including Rittenhouse, Franklin, Washington, and Logan; the Dream Garden mosaic in the Curtis building (on Friday); and lots more! www.visitphilly.com has some great ideas.

Thanks Amy, that is the type of information we are looking for. We were there about 14 years ago and stayed at the Embassy Suites (walking distance from the Franklin). I remember buying bus tickets and we didn't use our car at all. Do you think that is the way to do it? I remember the bus tickets were very reasonable and the hotel parking was very expensive. Any moderately priced hotels you can recommend?

Definitely you don't need a car in Philadelphia; the transportation system is easy and relatively cheap. (www.septa.org) There's a subway (Broad Street/Orange Line) stop right at Temple, and you can take the Blue Line (the el, Market-Frankford line) out to University City (Drexel) area. Parking can be expensive, and getting around is easy to me. In fact, I don't even have a car! (I live in the northern part of the city.) I'm sure you're aware that Temple is a very, um, urban location, but I've been traveling on the subway since I was six with no problems.

I'm afraid I can't recommend hotels too well, as I don't have reason to use them, but a lot of people seem to like the Alexander Inn, which is relatively close to the Broad/Locust train station and in a kinda cool area at 12th and Spruce.
http://www.alexanderinn.com/home.asp

Have a great visit, and let us know if your daughter has particular interests that might not be on that list above! :)

I live just outside of Philly, and my wife works at West Chester University, so I know a bit about getting between the two areas.

You can ride the Septa 104 bus
http://www.septa.org/maps/bus/pdf/104.pdf
from the 69th Street Station (the west terminus of the Market Frankford Line [MFL])
http://www.septa.org/maps/transit/mfl.html
to the University itself. You may find it easier to just rent a car for a day, although a one day rental in Center City costs a bit more.

You most definitely do NOT want to rent a car while staying within Philly -- just stay in any hotel near Market Street, and ride the MFL from your hotel to Drexel, and the Broad Street (Orange) Line to Temple.

We are driving in from NJ, so a rental car is not needed. We had planned on driving between Philly and West Chester and not using our car while in Philly. Amy gave us some good ideas of things to do while not looking at schools. Paul since your wife works at West Chester, is there any thing of interest to do in the area?

> is there any thing of interest to do in the area?

Depends on your interests.
Some people think the town itself, with a few quaint shops and small restaurants, is interesting. Some don't. I'd have to know a little more about what YOU find interesting before I can answer your question.

Longwood Gardens: Have dinner or lunch there, and make sure to take a look at the rear of the organ room.

Winterthur: Interesting guided tour.

I like Amy's recommendations for Phila.

Hey, we have been doing college visits too. Last spring my husband took my son to some in the Northeast. In our experience, Philly was a good city to get a deal on hotels via the discounters.

If you are not keen on going the Priceline or hotwire secret sale route, we saw some of the same hotels for slightly more on expedia.com, travelzoo.com, etc. I figured out pricline via the instructions on betterbidding.com

Fodors member tchoinere reviews the Radisson Blu and the Sonesta on Sept. 19 and Sept. 23, in this trip report:

http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...and-philly.cfm

Forgot to mention that we "won" the sheraton university for their trip. They were happy with it.

I love visiting Philadelphia and staying in the city. The Sheraton is in a good location and it will give your daughter a taste of life in the vibrant area of University City. All that being said, I am going to offer you an alternative so that you won't have to worry about parking your car in the city. You can stay out in the suburbs, drive out to West Chester and take the train into the city schools.

The Marriott Courtyard Devon is within walking distance of a station on the R5 train line (I think it's the Strafford station.) You can take the train into 30th St station which is next door to Drexel and transfer to another train to get to Temple.

http://www.marriott.com/hotels/maps/...delphia-devon/

http://www.septa.org/schedules/rail/w/PAO_1.html

Ok, looking at the Septa trip planner, you may not even have to change trains to get to Temple.