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Tips & Traps
Insider advice from Local Friends and travelers. What to do, and what to avoid, city by city.
- TipA place or a move worth it
- TrapWhat to avoid, and how
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Insider advice from Local Friends and travelers. What to do, and what to avoid, city by city.
Join RALF to share your own tips and traps
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The Bellevue, at Broad and Walnut Streets, opened in 1904 as the Bellevue-Stratford, a French Renaissance landmark. After a major restoration the hotel reopened in late 2024, with the lobby returned to its 1904 layout including the elliptical staircase and a kept Thomas Edison electrical panel. Look for the…
Loews Philadelphia fills the PSFS building, a bank tower finished in 1932 and designed by George Howe and William Lescaze. The bank closed in 1992 and the hotel opened in April 2000, keeping many original design details and turning the old banking hall into an event space. Look up at night for the red PSFS rooftop…
The Philadelphia Fringe Festival fills most of September with theater, dance, circus and performance art in venues across the city, from small studios to a historic library. Hundreds of productions are listed each year, so pick two or three in one area and book ahead through the festival events page. FringeArts, on…
Odunde takes over South Street and Grays Ferry Avenue around 23rd Street on a Sunday in mid June, as the finale of a week of events. Expect a parade to the Schuylkill River, drum and dance circles, live music and more than 100 vendors selling African, Caribbean and American crafts and food. Entry is free, though food…
The Philadelphia Orchestra plays most of its home season at Marian Anderson Hall, the former Verizon Hall, renamed in 2024 for the contralto Marian Anderson. Programs range from standard repertoire and choral works in December to family concerts and film nights with live score. The season includes some Saturday…
Chris' Jazz Cafe on Sansom Street in Center City books live jazz Tuesday through Saturday and is closed Sunday and Monday, so a Sunday plan leaves you at a dark door. It serves lunch and happy hour on weekdays, and it stays open until midnight early in the week and until 2 am Thursday to Saturday. Look at the club…
Fante's Kitchen Shop has sold cookware in the Italian Market since 1906 and is still run by the same family. The shelves hold bakeware, pasta makers, coffee and tea tools, cutlery and Italian specialties such as pizzelle irons. It suits cooks who want a useful souvenir to carry home. Pair it with a walk through the…
Headhouse Farmers Market sets up on Sundays under the historic covered Shambles at 2nd and Lombard in Society Hill. The vendors change from week to week and include farmers, bakers, cheese makers, flowers, coffee and local drinks, so you can put together a picnic or take home local food. Go in the morning, since the…
Race Street Pier sits in the shadow of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge on the Delaware River. Walk up the sky promenade, a ramp that rises about 12 feet toward the bridge, for a close view of the span and a look back at the city. Come at high tide when the river laps close to the lower level, and stay into the evening…
Cira Green is a rooftop park about 12 stories above University City, and looking east gives a clear view of the Center City skyline across the Schuylkill River. Go in the hour before sunset and stay as the towers light up. Enter from South 30th Street between Chestnut and Walnut and take the elevator up. Listed hours…
The Rodin Museum on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway opened in 1929, with a building by Paul Cret and a formal French garden by Jacques Greber. A path through sycamores leads to a free-standing stone gate with The Thinker in front of the entrance, then across a garden with a reflecting pool toward The Gates of Hell. It…
The Barnes Foundation on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway shows French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings by Renoir, Cezanne and Matisse in crowded wall ensembles mixed with furniture and hand-wrought ironwork. The galleries copy the scale and layout of Dr. Barnes's original rooms in Merion, so the idea is to…
Pennsylvania sells spirits through state-run Fine Wine & Good Spirits stores and its own distilleries, so a Philadelphia supermarket or corner store will not stock a bottle of whiskey. Beer comes from bars, bottle shops and distributors, and wine from state stores and shops with a wine permit. Plan one stop at a state…
On SEPTA Regional Rail you tap a contactless card, phone or Key card at the platform validator or station turnstile when you board, and tap again when you get off. Skip the second tap and you can be charged the maximum fare for the trip. Use the same card or phone both times and keep other cards away from the reader…
John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum protects the largest freshwater tidal marsh left in Pennsylvania, inside the Philadelphia city limits. A boardwalk loop of under a mile passes observation blinds for ducks and herons, and a gravel dike road closed to cars leads deeper into the marsh. Spring and autumn…
Forbidden Drive is a gravel road that runs for miles along Wissahickon Creek, closed to cars for about a century and open to walkers, cyclists and horse riders. It is mostly flat and shaded, so it works for an easy morning walk or a relaxed bike ride. Start at the Valley Green lot and stop at Valley Green Inn, a…
Philadelphia Chinatown packs tiny takeout counters and larger family-style dining rooms close together, so you can compare dim sum on foot. Some dining rooms push carts to the table and others hand you a paper checklist to tick, so watch how the room works before you sit. Some small dumpling spots take cash only and a…
The Italian Market runs along South 9th Street in South Philly, with cheese counters, bakeries, coffee shops, butchers and fishmongers under colorful awnings. Build your own tasting walk: one sausage or cheese shop, one bakery, one coffee stop and fruit from a sidewalk stand. Go before lunch, since hours differ from…
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