Philadelphia travel ideas
 

Hello. My husband and I will be in Philadelphia in a couple weeks. We have a hotel booked in downtown.
We will only be there two days but have a football game booked on Sunday.
We are looking for ideas on what to do on Saturday.
My husband likes history things. Looking for any recommendations on restaurants, too.

This will be both of our first times in Philadelphia.

For a restaurant: Paradiso!
http://paradisophilly.com

You have a wealth of historic options in Philadelphia. If you don't have a good guidebook yet, please consider getting one. It will give you the chance to make choices based on YOUR interests.

Did you do a site search? There's a recent excellent thread that answers a lot of your questions:

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

Philadelphia is loaded with great historic sites. You'll find plenty to choose from.

If you tell us where your hotel is, we can give dinner recommendations.

Reading Market
Liberty Bell
Barnes Museum

Go to the visitors' center and get your timed ticket to Independence Hall. I believe you can also get it on line in advance. the Liberty Bell is right there as well. The Constitution Center is also in the same area.

> My husband likes history things

Independence Hall -- the birthplace of the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the U.S. Bill of Rights -- is clearly the most historically important building in the U.S., if not the world. The Liberty Bell, which is only a symbolic icon of liberty -- its actual importance to U.S. history is almost non-existent -- pales in comparison.

If you like mementos of history, walk a block from Independence Hall and check out U.S. Constitution Center.

https://constitutioncenter.org/exper...ain-exhibition
https://constitutioncenter.org/exper...re-exhibitions

There is more history than you can shake a stick at in Philly!

I love the Barnes, but it is a very densely packed museum and would take at least half a day--and even then, you wouldn't see it all. You must purchase timed tickets in advance.

I highly recommend Eastern State Penitentiary. Take a look and see if it fits your interests:
https://www.easternstate.org

But I would prioritize Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell if you haven;t seen them.

I love the Barnes, but it is a very densely packed museum and would take at least half a day--and even then, you wouldn't see it all.

That ("very densely packed") is an understatement! We went in the morning and left around lunchtime - just overwhelmed. It's a fantastic place. We never even made it to the second floor.

Same here, sf! We loved it, but left after 4+ hours reeling somewhat :-) I think we made it to the second floor, but dashed through the last half dozen or so rooms, vowing to return.

Which is not to discourage anyone from visiting, I hope!

(Are timed tickets still required on weekends? Do they still sell out at busy times?)

In case you're interested, catty corner from the Barnes is IMO the best pizza place in Philly...Pizzeria Vetri

We loved the Constitution Center, and Independece Hall is a must. Liberty Bell is a long wait for not much.

"I highly recommend Eastern State Penitentiary"

NewbE. someone also suggested that to me, I'm nervous they might not let me back out.

((H))

Sorry it’s been a couple of days before I respond. It’s been a crazy week.

We are staying at the downtown Philadelphia Sheraton hotel. I’d like to buy all of our tour tickets in advance to not only save time but sometimes it’s a couple bucks cheaper.

I’ll have to look into Pizzeria Vetri and Paradiso to see where they are in relation to our hotel!

We will definitely be doing the liberty bell. What is the Eastern state penitentiary? Sounds like something I’d be interested in.

Thank you for the help!

I am going to buy tickets to the eastern state penitentiary tour. It sounds interesting.
What is another great history tour that covers a lot? My husband is unsure of doing the ESP tour because he said there is so many other history tours that have more history behind them.

We did the self guided tour at the penitentiary. It was pretty good and you can pace yourself. I think we spent about 90 minutes there.

Look in the rack of tourist sites that most hotels have. There was a discount coupon for the penitentiary.

https://www.discoverphl.com/visit/pl...isitors-guide/

Here's a link to the official visitors guide to the city.

For the colonial/revolutionary history, there is more than enough to keep you occupied in the area between 2nd and 6th streets. Elfreth's Alley, Christ Church and Christ Church burial ground, Carpenter's Hall, the Todd House, Arch Street Meeting House, Free Quaker Meeting House, Museum of the American Revolution, PHS 18th century mini garden, Franklin Court, Portrait Gallery in the First National Bank, Constitution Center, President's House area, Old City Hall, Congress Building, and Independence Hall are all within this. (And I'm sure I'm missing some.) The Philadelphia History Museum at Atwater Kent is on 7th; small, eclectic, but quite interesting with a formidable collection, including the original wampum belt given to William Penn. Further afield are the Kosciusko Memorial, Gloria Dei and Bartram's Gardens.

If you prefer later history, Reading Terminal, City Hall, the Wanamaker building, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Parkway, the Waterworks, and Fairmount Park are all 19th century history.

I recommend a walking tour with the short amount of time that you have; there are architectural tours http://www.tourphl.org/events and a ton of others, from straight-up historical to food and drink related: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attracti...nsylvania.html

For your amount of time, the hop-on, hop-off bus isn't really necessary. Go to www.visitphilly.com for more ideas or stop by missalg.tumblr.com (on four pages; just skip the poetry) for pictures and words.

Are you sure you can't make it longer? :)

Which Sheraton? There are a few.

Any - thank you for all of the tips! I will pass the info along to my husband, as he is the history buff. Unfortunately we can’t stay longer as we both work Friday and Monday, but we are excited for the two days we have to spend! (Wherever I fly, my husband flies for free - so we do a lot of two day weekend trips throughout the year when we are unable to take time off work. ��)

Birdie - all it tells me is the Sheraton Downtown Philadelphia.

Has anyone eaten at Dante & Luigi’s? I heard it’s good from what I read online. We are looking for a good place to eat that is some what fancier but not super expensive for Sat night.
Also, where has the best philly cheese steak? My husband would like one.