canterbury

I'll join the "I love Philadelphia" bandwagon, too. We're headed there in August for a couple of days as part of a quick East coast visit - though it has been many years since I've been.

Love the historical aspects especially. I just like the "feel," I guess, and I think it does have character.

I also love SF, but for different reasons.

Both great cities, different from each other.

Perigrinator

Hi travel3773 - I have to apologize as I am the one who made that comment. As I said in my original post - it was really, really meant tongue in cheek - I am new to this forum and I have been to Philadelphia and it is a beautiful city and I have nothing against it. So, I apologize to all of the people on the forum if I offended anyone. I will cease to attempt any humor on the forum as I am obviously not very funny and this is a place on for serious commentary. Again, I am so very sorry, I truly meant to offend nobody and am so sorry I did so.

jond

Philadelphia is one of my favorite U.S. cities. Admittedly I haven't spent a lot of time there, but I was there for a couple of days last year and I'm planning to go back again next year. I also didn't venture into the seedy areas (which I'm sure it has plenty of) but downtown was great. It has interesting historical areas, great museums, nice parks, good food, and I found the people there to be very friendly and laid back. Philadelphia also has a great location. If you want a break from the city, you can drive one hour east and be at the seashore, or a couple of hours west and be in the mountains. Philadelphia rocks!

FlyingMaltese

I grew up in Philadelphia, and absolutely loved its history, architecture, and museums.

One thing that is probably a turn-off for tourists to the city is the taxicabs. The dirty and run-down taxicabs is probably the most complained about problem by tourists and newly transplanted residents of this city.

Philadelphia allows cabs that are up to eight years old. No other major U.S. city allows such an old fleet. So when cabs are too old to run in Washington, Boston, Chicago and NYC, they are bought by Philly taxicab companies for use.

The result is less clean and probably less safe taxis in the streets.

leeshiebean

I happen to love Philadelphia. It's home to me, I grew up JUST outside of the city -literally, my south jersey town is across from the airport- I've worked over there and I went to summer school at Temple (though not in the best area of Philly). I've just recently moved to the Boston area, and while Boston is very charming, it's just not home to me. There's something about Philadelphia that I just love. Maybe it's those Eagles, hehe.

GoTravel

I LOVE Philly and am sad I will not be going back this year. Hopefully next year!

It is such a great town! I can't believe someone would compare it to a bombed out city!

karens

Well, in all fairness, there are some areas that do look bombed out, but they aren't on the tourist route!

I love to hike and mountain bike and Phila has one of the best urban parks in the country. Fairmount Park is very extensive and through Valley Green, you can hike for miles without crossing a road. The mountain bike trails are excellent - as challenging as any other you'd find "out east".

This often gets overlooked, and it's off the tourist's routes, too, but it's a great resource, especially in the urbanized east.