Philly over New Year's Eve
 

Thinking of spending several days including New Years' Eve in Philly. Any recommendations for which area to stay in, hotel suggestions, live music venues?

I stayed at the Hotel Palomar near Rittenhouse Square last week. Great location and the service is super. The other Kimpton, the Hotel Monaco, looked very nice. If you book either,, join thrir free loyalty program, it is well worth it.
There is a thread started by gruezi on restaurants, which you might find helpful. Philadelphia has some terrific options.
Have fun!

First thing to know about Philly on New Years Day:
http://phillymummers.com/

I've been to Thanksgiving Day parades in Detroit, NYC, and Philly; as well as New Year's Day parades in Pasadena and Phoenix. The Mummers are my favorite amongst all of these.

> which area to stay in

Philly's mass transit -- specifically, the Market-Frankford Line (aka the "Blue Line")
http://www.septa.org/maps/transit/mfl.html
-- allows you to stay at just about any lodging near Market Street, and quickly get to all the attractions you could want. I can't emphasize enough that you do NOT want to drive a car while visiting Philly. So any Center City lodging should be fine. Places along the Ben Franklin Parkway are (probably) close enough to be acceptable.

I just realized the thread on restaurants is in the Lounge.

Yes, Mummers Parade and stay in Center City, I echo PaulRabe on this one! Just know that some of the Mummers are just obnoxious drunken guys; if that's what you see first, don't give up, make sure you wait for all the terrific costumes, groups and bands to come along!

We have lots of live music venues, what type of music do you prefer hearing?

We are interested in Jazz and Blues. We have been to Philly many times and several times over New Years'--just not lately. Our friends who were there before the summer want us to go to the Wyndham ( used to be Holiday Inn), however, Tripadvisor has listed many negative postings regarding a work demonstration there. I like the Rittenhouse area, however, it is a bit more expensive than the Wyndham ( especially the Palomar).