We will be traveling to Philadelphia in late April. If we stayed in the Mt. Laurel/Cherry Hill area, how long would it take us to get to the old city for tourist attractions each day either by bus or subway? Rates for lodging in the old city area are out of the budget for our dates.

Till somebody with personal knowledge comes along, see if this helps:
http://www.ridepatco.org/schedules/schedules.asp

~Liz

What is your budget for hotels? I used lastminutetravel.com for Philly last year and got rooms for less than $100. It would be worth trying that as time = money and its worth saving time by staying in the city if you can.

I did a search on Kayak for lodging in the Philadelphia area for a four-day weekend in late April. I found three places for less than $150 a night in the Cherry Hill area: America's Best Value, Holiday Inn, and Days Inn. Problem is, none of these are near a Patco Line Station
http://www.ridepatco.org/stations/routemap.html
the nearest station being in Collingswood.

You'll get similar prices if you stay near PHL Airport, and doing so will put you near the Eastwick Station of the Airport Line
http://www.septa.org/stations/rail/eastwick.html

As stated above, the BEST solution is to be creative and find a deal in Center City, or in nearby University City. Each time I've used simple tricks in naming my own price on Priceline, I've gotten a hotel there for less than $120 a night (tax and fees included).

Thanks for the help. It's good to know that University City would also be a good location choice. I often try to get a last minute deal, but when searching so far, I've noticed that 16 of the hotels in the old city area are booked for our dates. I need to weight the cost and time factor of travel if we stay away from the historical sites.

What weekend are you looking for? The Penn Relays are always the last weekend of the month, but I am drawing a blank on what is going on earlier.

I would stay in University City (and take the L) before ever considering the Airport or New Jersey.

When you are looking for deals, any of the following neighborhoods would be fine:

University City, Rittenhouse Square, Center City, Old City, Convention Center, Art Museum, Society Hill, Washington Square.

try the website visitphilly.com

and then compare the hotel prices to other sites or try bidding on price line

the neighborhoods recommended by Birdie are all fine and you can take public transit walk or a taxi to some sites if they are too far from your hotel.

I would not stay in Cherry Hill or near the airport.. you will spend too much time and money commuting.

The holiday Inn in Old City is good and reasonably priced stayed there about a year and a half ago.

I realize it may be too late, but I would like to suggest you check out airbnb.com We have used them for lodging in Boston and Portland. We usually just get a studio rather than a one bedroom. I did see one for $97 in the Art museum area of Philadelphia. airbnb is sort of like VRBO (vacation rental by owner).