Just booked our flight to Philadelphia/DC over Thanksgiving break. We are going to go tour UPenn, Haverford and Bryn Mawr in addition to site seeing since we have never been to Philadelphia before. We will be there 5 nights leaving for DC the day before Thanksgiving. Literally, every hotel is booked Friday and Saturday night. Any creative suggestions. I would be willing to stay in a quaint area outside of the city if it is reasonably easy to get into the city for the sites. Thanks for your help! I truly would prefer to stay in the city; however. Looked at B&Bs too. Is there something special occurring that weekend?

You might want to check out some Main Line hotels, like the Wayne Hotel, for instance; usually you can get around on the regional rail lines fairly easily, and you'd be near Haverford and Bryn Mawr. Chestnut Hill is another option; here's a B&B site for them: http://www.bnbphiladelphia.com/phila...stnut-hill.htm

I believe that's the weekend of the Philadelphia Marathon, so that could be why you're running into a bit of trouble. Staying further out might work better for you, or you could do the weekend in one place and visit the Main Line sites, then move on in to Center City for touring.

Also look into the many hotels/motels in King of Prussia. Easy access to the expressway into the city.

Try the Desmond Hotel in Malvern, Pa. It would not take long to get to Route 30 to visit the schools.

I just found availability for 11/19-11/24 at Club Quarters and the Warwick near Rittenhouse Square, the Hilton Inn at Penn and the Sheraton in University City, and the Ritz on Broad Street. A lot of the B&Bs are booked, but the Rittenhouse 1715 is very well located, quite lovely and appears to have several different room types available for your 5 nights.

Other than that, I like the suggestions of the Wayne Hotel or the Radnor Hotel for the weekend then move into the city. At least then you'd get a feel for what it's like along the Main Line. If you'd prefer a more corporate style hotel, I;d look at the Conshohocken Marriott, which is closer to Haverford and Bryn Mawr's campuses than the other options, such as the Desmond, or places in KofP and Plymouth Meeting.

Thank you all so much. I probably should have stated that there are four of us, two teenagers, my daughter and son, so the sleeping arrangements are two double beds at a minimum (my husband isn't wild about sharing the bed with a sprawling 6 foot one inch 15 year old, but oh well!) Anyway, most of the bnb or inns could not accomodate us in one room if they had availability, and then the cost really goes up.

I looked into the Wayne hotel, and believe it or not they are also booked the 19th and 20th. After I had sent out this request, I found Inn at Penn, and booked online for the whole time. Then I decided to take your suggestion MLTimes, and move to a better location within the city so we are staying the weekend at Inn at Penn and the other nights at Alexander Inn. I had quite an issue with Inn at Penn, both trying to change online and on the phone, saying that I couldn't change the reservation at that time (this was not an online exclusive), and they told me there weren't any rooms available???? Okay, right now I am holding a room for five nights, and I want to change it to two. Then they said that there was a minimum night stay which was three nights. Okay, that wasn't written anywhere. I finally said cancel the whole thing, but fortunately, she got a hold of her manager and changed it to two nights. Inn at Penn has on their website that beginning November 15, they are under a large construction project. I don't think it would have been much fun staying there for five nights.

Thanks for all of your help. I am a bit concerned about traffic that weekend if the marathon is what is bringing in so many people. Maybe we should do Haverford and Bryn Mawr on Monday/Tuesday? I know need to do some research on the tourist side of our trip, but if any of you have suggestions, I certainly welcome them. We love history (my daughter plans to major in history), the arts, the outdoors, food, beautiful scenery, and just getting to know a city/area and its people.

I don't have any great insights on hotels but here is a good thread on food options in Philly
http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...iladelphia.cfm

In September when we dropped our son off at Penn, a friend took us to the magic garden which we really enjoyed
http://www.philadelphiasmagicgardens.org/

The Penn Museum of Archeology and Anthropology has a great collection
http://www.penn.museum/current-changing-exhibits.html

are you art fans ? If so, I would recommend the Barnes - need tickets in advance, but it is in Alfred Barnes former mansion exactly as he wanted it. The entire collection will be moving to the Benjamin Franklin Pkwy in the next few years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnes_Foundation

"Among its collection are 181 works by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 69 by Paul Cézanne, 59 by Henri Matisse, 46 by Pablo Picasso, 21 by Chaim Soutine, 18 by Henri Rousseau, 16 by Amedeo Modigliani, 11 by Edgar Degas, 7 by Vincent Van Gogh, 6 by Georges Seurat, as well as numerous other masters, including Giorgio de Chirico, Paul Gauguin, El Greco, Francisco Goya, Edouard Manet, Jean Hugo, Claude Monet, Maurice Utrillo, William Glackens, Charles Demuth, Maurice Prendergast"

There is a Residence Inn out off Rt 252 in Devon that has suites. It isn't far from Rt. 30 and probably only 20 min from Haverford and Bryn Mawr. It is very easy to get to West Philly and UPenn from that area of the suburbs. If the Schulkyl is backed up (which it usually is) there are pretty back roads you can take into the city.