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Family-friendly Philadelphia
Getting Here is a cinch
Getting to the Philadelphia region is a cinch. It’s accessible by car, train, bus and airplane. By car, the city is just two hours from New York City, 90 minutes from Baltimore, three hours from Washington D.C. and about an hour from Lancaster County, Atlantic City and the New Jersey shore via major highways.
Those who prefer someone else to do the driving can hop on Amtrak, which provides service along the Northeast Corridor and points west and south, or Greyhound, operating bus service throughout the region. The Philadelphia International Airport, approximately seven miles from Center City, serves more than 25 airlines.
Speaking of planes, air travel to Philadelphia got a whole lot cheaper with the arrival of Southwest Airlines, now providing service to and from the city. The airline offers daily nonstop flights from cities such as Chicago, Las Vegas, Orlando, Phoenix, Providence and Tampa Bay, etc. Travelers can also take advantage of direct or connecting service from 31 other destinations, such as Ft. Lauderdale, Los Angeles, Oakland, Houston and Seattle. Meanwhile, US Airways offers special GoFares starting at $39 one-way between Philadelphia and more than 20 popular U.S. cities!
Getting Around
Once here, the city layout is simple to master. The compact Center City boasts founder William Penn’s easy-to-follow grid street design. It spans just 25 blocks between two rivers – the Schuylkill and the Delaware. In between, the north/south streets are numbered and the east/west streets have tree names (e.g., Walnut, Spruce, Pine). In addition, the city has five main parks, perfect for some playtime in between museum hopping. Curb cut-outs make the city stroller and wheelchair accessible.
When the feet get tired, there are plenty of options for getting around town – some practical, some just plain fun. Let’s start with the practical: Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) provides bus, subway and trolley service within the city, and suburban trains operate between Philadelphia and the surrounding counties.
Phlash, the purple touring-bus-turned-trolley, whisks visitors around to major attractions from May through November. Taxis can be found all over town, and for those headed to the countryside, renting a car is best. Most major car rental companies have outlets at the airport, train station or in Center City.
If getting from point “A” to point “B” isn’t the goal, but seeing all points from “A” to “Z” is, then a different mode of transportation is the order of the day. Wildly popular among families, Ride the Ducks, World War II-era, amphibious Army vehicles converted into fun sightseeing vessels, quack, disco and ride from land — through more than a dozen sites in Old City and South Street — to water — Delaware River at Penn’s Landing.
Boarding a Big Bus, the Double-Decker bus service made famous in London town, is one more way to see the most popular tourist attractions quickly. Passengers can hop on and off at more than 20 stops or sit back and enjoy the beauty of the city during the 90-minute tour. Yet another option is the Philadelphia Trolley Works, taking riders on tours led by clever guides capable of quoting fun historic and contemporary facts.
Attractions Galore
As for attractions, there’s plenty to do, and the best news of all is that lots of it is free or low-cost.
Quick history lesson: Philadelphia is the place where democracy was born. It was here that
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