We're going to spend a long weekend in Pittsburgh, PA this December. We want to use Hilton points, so our choices for lodging are limited: Hilton Pittsburgh, Doubletree-City Center, Hampton Inn-Downtown, or Hampton Inn-University Center.

I've mapquested them, but since we don't know the neighborhoods that was a bit of a futile exercise. We like to walk places; walking a few miles a day is no big deal and we definitely want to walk to the Warhol museum. Obviously, we don't want to do our walking in sketchy neighborhoods. We take all the usual precautions, but not knowing Pittsburgh at all, can anyone recommend one of these hotels over the others? Maybe one is in a much better neighborhood with more restaurants, more sights, etc. than the others?

Thank in advance!!

Oakland, the area around the Universities (Pitt & Carnegie Mellon) is a really nice area. It's incredibly safe and the right balance of quiet but lively.. There are a ton of restaurants and such. (Make sure you go to a Primanti Brothers no matter where you stay in the city). I don't know where the Warhold museum is, but the bus system goes EVERYWHERE, even though it is a little difficult to figure out the first time. Make sure on Saturday you go to the Strip District, it's practically dead on Friday but an amazing place on Saturdays all day.

Enjoy your trip, and GO STEELERS!! haha

Thanks for the info. I definitely will check out which of the hotels is in that area! And, Primati Brothers looks right up our alley too!

Oakland is lively university area with great ethnic reastaurants; the Carnegie museums are in Oakland, and Schenley park and the Conservatory. But the Warhol Museum is on the Northside (near PNG park), too far away to walk it.

Downtown is nice too, and you can walk to the Warhol Museum and the Strip district from there. It also has access to Station Square and the incline to the top of South Side for spectacular views and a trendy restaurant/bar scene.

I think its a tossup between Downtown and Oakland. Either would be good.

Hampton Inn-University Center is in Oakland/University.

Hilton Pittsburg is downtown with views of the Point (scenic park at the very tip of the triangle where the 3 rivers meet).

Doubletree is also downtown, but less views, near Melon arena.

Hampton Inn Downtown is downtown, actually in the Strip District. It would be the closest to the Warhol museum too.

Don't miss Wholey's (pronounced wooleys) in the Strip, also.

I loved the Primanti Brothers located at the Strip. If your Saturday morning is open, try to go to the Strip just to see the action. Loads of produce, meets, being unloaded. The smell of meat on skewers being grilled right there on the sidewalk never failed to call me. There's this Italian store that sells the most amazing cheeses!!! After all that walking, it's time to sit down and be amazed by the burger at Primanti's - with the slaw AND fries right inside the burger!!!

You didn't ask about this, but any visit to Pittsburgh has to include a ride up either the Duquesne or the Monongahela inclines on Mt. Washington. If you have time, it's nice just to walk around Point State Park. You'll see all three rivers: the Monongahela and the Allegheny converging into the Ohio. There's some construction there, so it may be best to ask your hotel concierge for more info.

For a local flavor, Squirrel Hill (when we first lived there, we kind of got confused when some locals pronounces it as see-qwel hill, and we thought it was different from Squirrel Hill) offers a variety of ethnic restaurants: Italian, Korean, Japanese, delis (try Kazanky's Deli), bakeries, etc.

The Phipps Conservatory is also a lovely place to visit.

The Union Station was designed by Daniel Burnham, the architect who designed New York's Flatiron Building and the Union Station in Washington, D.C.

As far as hotel location, hopefully someone from the area will come along and recommend the right Hilton location for you.

Thanks so much for all the great information! We will now make sure to go to the Strip on Saturday morning! Also, thanks so much for the tip on how people pronounce Squirrel Hill - we would not have been there long enough to figure that out!

Another suggestion--Since you will be there in December, the Nationality Rooms in the Cathedral of Leaning on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh (located in Oakland) will all be decorated for the holidays. The Nationality Rooms are great to tour year-round, but I especially enjoy them from November - January. For more info, see http://www.pitt.edu/~natrooms/

All the above advice on staying in Oakland is good; it is a great area, especially towards Squirrel Hill and Shadyside (where there's lots of restaurants and shopping - i.e. Coach, United Colors of Benetton, etc). Some of my favorite restaurants here in Pittsburgh - Casbah, Typhoon, SOBA - are in Shadyside.

However, just in case you look into the Hilton downtown again, DO NOT stay there. The current owner is in this dispute with the construction workers who are renovating it...and its condition is constantly dwindling. It was one of the big news stories prior to the G20 as to what to do with it during the summit. Here's an editorial about it http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09261/998860-192.stm

Agreed that you have to take an incline up to Mt. Washington; from the Duquesne Incline you can walk to Monterey Bay Fish Grotto, which has great views of the city.

I have to vote for the Hilton, with the Hampton Inn (Downtown) second. The Doubletree isn't very nice-it used to be a Ramada. The Hilton is still being renovated, though, as the previous poster said, so definitely check into that.

My husband is a Pitt alum, and we have season football tix, so we spend a lot of weekends out there. We never stay in Oakland near the University-it's much more of a college atmosphere over there, versus more of a cultural feel downtown. But I agree with seeing the Nationality Rooms, the Carnegie Museums (Art, Natural History), and Phipps--those are must-sees in my book. Getting cabs FROM the university area is difficult, so while you could easily take one from downtown over there, it's not that easy to get back. We're not patient enough for the bus, and the T (metro) doesn't stop there. If you stay downtown, I highly recommend the restaurants Nine on Nine (just saw Russell Crowe eating there three weeks ago!) and Eleven. Eleven would be very close to the Hampton Inn; Lidia's is another restaurant near there that I've heard good things about.

You also can go ice skating downtown.

The Warhol is on the North Shore, near the stadiums.
When you're over there, stop and eat at Bettis Grille 36.

GO STEELERS!

While in the stadium area near Bettis Grille 36, check out the Vietnam and Korean war memorials, very pretty area right on the river there.