Trip Report July 27th through August 1st

We just got back from vacation yesterday and we loved it.

Day 1: We flew in to the airport at around 10:30 and headed straight to our hotel, the Sheraton Society Hill. We were able to check our bags and then go grab something to eat. We ate at the Bourse for lunch... that way everyone could get what they wanted. After that we walked around the olde city area for a bit and went to the Visitor%26#39;s Center, the Betsy Ross House, Elfreth%26#39;s Alley, and Christ Church Burial Ground. That evening we went back to our hotel early...since we had been up since3:00am. The three kids (15, 19, 22) all went swimming in the pool. For supper that night we went to South Street Diner...again this allowed everyone to get what they wanted.

Day 2: Saturday we spent the entire day in the olde city area. We started out with breakfast at the Reading Terminal Market. This was our favorite breakfast during the entire trip. We ended up eating at the Dutch Eating Place...pancakes, french toast, doughnuts, and apple dumplings...it was wonderful! After RT Market we walked through China Town...this wasn%26#39;t much compared to the one we saw in San Francisco... It was somewhat dirty and didn%26#39;t offer a lot to look at. We then walked back to Independence Hall and went on the tour... after we finished, we had planned on visiting the Liberty Bell, but the line was so long it would have taken at least an hour to get to see it... we decided to put it off until another day. We returned to the Bourse to have ice cream (no real lunch since breakfast was so filling) We ate at Campos for supper that night and really enjoyed our Philly cheesesteaks...if not the service...the cashier was a bit rude and seemed hurried even though we were the only people in the place at the time. That night we went to the Lights of Liberty Tour. This was really fun and very different from everything else we had be doing...the bad part was that one of the light shows wasn%26#39;t working so we had to depend on just the audio portion at Carpenter%26#39;s Hall...We also were given umbrellas just in case it rained (thank goodness it didn%26#39;t)... I would highly recommend this tour to everyone...oh and if you are a teacher (we had 3 in my family) you get a discount price, only $7...you can%26#39;t go wrong at that price.

Day 3: Today we had breakfast at Benny%26#39;s Diner on Chestnut. It was good food and very inexpensive. Then we went to the Art Museum...which we loved. We took the Phlash there which is only $1 per person. It was pay what you want day, so this was also cheap. We spent a long time looking at all of the exhibits...the place was so large that I swear we walked 10 miles just inside the museum. Our legs hurt by the end. We the walked the short distance to Eastern State Pen. This was also a nice tour that had an audio tour available. Having already gone to Alcatraz we weren%26#39;t sure that we were going to be impressed, but we all enjoyed it. We could have stayed much longer than we did, but it was very hot inside and we went back to our hotel after a couple of hours. That night we returned to South Street and ate at Jonny Rockets (mainly for the shakes).

Day 4: We got the all day Phlash pass today so that we wouldn%26#39;t have to walk as much as we had been the last couple of days. We ate breakfast at Dunkin Doughnuts...which are everywhere (I%26#39;ve never seen so many). Then we got back on the Phlash and went to the Mutter Museum... this was wonderful...we spent at least 2 hours here...as the 19 year old in our family is majoring in nursing. After the Mutter Museum we took the Phlash back to the City Hall area and Love Park. We took all the tourist pictures and then got back on the Plash. We got off on Market Street where we ate at SOHO Pizza (which is right next to Campos) This was one of our favorite dinners. The pizza was huge and fed our entire family of 5 for only $11. The pizza was so good that we thought about returning the next night.

Day 5: This was our catch up day. We pretty much stayed in olde city to see all of the stuff we had missed so far. First we went to the Liberty Bell around 9:30am... this was the best time we could have seen it...there were only abour 10 other people in the entire building at the time. We could look at it take as many pictures with it as we wanted. So if you don%26#39;t want to wait in line, plan on going early in the morning. We ate at Burger King on Market, simply because the 15 year old was having withdrawl from fast food. After that we went to the Graff/Declaration House from 9:00am to 11:00am. We were all agreed that we learned the most at this location. There was a Thomas Jefferson performer here that was extremely well versed and knew everything you could on Jefferson and the era. We stayed for over an hour here just having an informal discussion with ';Jefferson'; and about 8 other people. Before we went to Constitution Center, we viewed the excavation of Washington%26#39;s Philadelphia house (right in front of Independence Hall) There were a lot of TV people and reporters there because that was the last day it was going to be visible. They were set to start covering it up again. We really enjoyed Constitution Center and Freedom Rising. There were many interactive things to do here. After Constitution Center we went to see old city hall and Carpenter%26#39;s Hall, as we had missed these earlier. Then we went to Franklin Court. This was a lot of fun, especially the printing shop where a park ranger had a lot of information for us. We had supper at the South Street Diner again on our last night in town.

Day 6: We got up early at 4am and left the hotel at around 5am. We were glad that the taxis sit outside of the Sheraton Society Hill all night just waiting to take people somewhere. We had a taxi in abou 30 seconds of requesting one.

Thanks for all of the suggestions and infromationfrom this forum! It helped to make our vacation great.

Trip Report July 27th through August 1st

Sorry for the long post, but there was so many things that I wan%26#39;t to share... I forgot to add that we didn%26#39;t rent a car....if you are staying in Philadelphia and planning on doing the tourist thing...you really don%26#39;t need one... we walked most places and took the plash everywhere else. We took a $10 per person shuttle from the airport and a $30 taxi ride back.

Trip Report July 27th through August 1st

Thanks for posting your trip report, sounds like you had a great time and really enjoyed Philly! How was the hotel (Society Hill Sheraton) for you? I have stayed there countless times and haven%26#39;t had a bad experience, my last visit there being almost a year ago, but recently it has gotten mixed reviews. Just curious.

Suzanne

Thanks for the great report. FYI, the rude counter person at the cheesesteak place is normal. It wouldn%26#39;t be authentic otherwise!

The Sheraton was a good hotel for my family. It wouldn%26#39;t spend the standard price for a room, however. The hotwire.com price was worth it for us. Due to the ongoing renovations the hotel hallways were pretty dirty with big pieces of plaster and debris laying throughout the entire hotel. Our rooms were very nice though and we loved the beds...very cozy. The pool was nice and the staff was very helpful. We did have an emergency alarm go off at like 7am during our stay... they said it had something to do with the renovations and there was no real emergency. I loved the fact that the hotel was close to everything...we didn%26#39;t have a car and we walked everywhere or rode the Phlash. All in all for the price we paid (around $100) it was a good hotel. Nothing special, but people should be willing to pay for the location alone.