Just Press Go Travel

We packed the kids up and drove 14ish hours to the city of brotherly love, Philadelphia, for a long weekend but most importantly, to attend the 108^th PGA Championship. 

This was a special trip because not only were we going to a tournament that we have come to love, but we got to experience Philadelphia and the tournament with friends!

Our travel party was 5 adults and 3 kids ages 3, 16 months, and 1ish.

Read on for where we stayed, what we did, and what we’d do differently on a future trip.

Where We Stayed

We were traveling with friends for this trip and opted for an Airbnb. This is the one we stayed at in South Philadelphia. Being honest – we looked about 6 weeks before travel for a place to stay and had limited options for the size of our party that had more than 1 bathroom. It was a pretty and clean place, had the right amount of space, but was not exactly the closest or easiest to get to anything we wanted to do. 

House Features

• 1 King Bed in Primary Bedroom
• 2 Queen Beds in Second Bedroom
• 2 Full Bunk Beds in Third Bedroom
• 2.5 Bathrooms
• Dining Table with 8 seats
• Rooftop with table and couch
• Laundry
• Fairly stocked Kitchen
• Pack n play and highchair! This was unexpected!
• Parking Spot – this is NEEDED in the neighborhood. However. It is not large enough to fit a van. Our friends had no issue getting their rented Corolla in and out.

Pros

• Everyone got to spend time together after the kids went to sleep.
• More than one bathroom. Did not realize how much of a luxury this is around Philadelphia at a reasonable price point. It may have also just been due to everything being booked for the tournament.
• The rooftop was awesome. Amazing views of Philadelphia.
• Appreciated all the table seating so we could eat as a group.
• Restaurants and parks within walking distance.
• Airbnb host was very communicative. 

Cons

• I mentioned the parking spot…but if your car doesn’t fit, my goodness. Parking in this area is rough, especially if you aren’t used to city driving and parking.’
• We were easily 20-25 minutes from everything we wanted to do and had to pay to park at most of them, too. It felt like for everything we did, this was not easy for us to get anywhere. That may be different if you plan on ubering or using public transit of which we did neither.
• Stairs. So many stairs. The second and third bedroom were on the second floor. The primary suite was on the third floor. Rooftop was fourth floor.

Things to Do

What We did This Trip

• Please Touch Museum | $25/person for anyone over the age of 1, and $18 for parking. We are from St. Louis, so I’m going to compare this to the Magic House. Large, open, interactive spaces for kids to create, play, and use their imagination. One area has vehicles and a space for kids to run their own burger or ice cream stands, another has water play, a fairytale area, and the most popular seemed to be the pretend town square with a bank, grocery store, restaurant, hospital, and park. Each area seemed to have a spot for kids under 3. Our favorite room was the Rocket Room where you could build and launch rockets, build and test rovers, and prepare for your own space shuttle launch whether that be at space command or on the spaceship. We enjoyed our time here and our toddler has asked to go back, but I think that we would potentially skip next time unless there is bad weather.  
• Liberty Bell | Free, just have to wait in line. Small museum on liberty and democracy with a photo op spot at the original Liberty Bell at the end. This is a quintessential Philadelphia experience. 
• Independence Hall | Free to access the grounds, must pay for tours to get inside Independence Hall. We walked around the grounds.
• Philadelphia Zoo | $29/person, kids under 2 are free, $22/parking. This was the nation’s first zoo and there is so much packed into the small footprint! Our favorite exhibit was the Giant Otters. We had never seen them before and they were so fun and had a great habitat. We were there about 3 hours including having lunch. If going on a Saturday with nice weather, I recommend getting tickets in advance (although we did luck out and were able to still buy some onsite even though it sold out online).
• Hancock Park | This was a short walk from Wissahickon Brewing Company – Old Kensington so we took the kids to get the wiggles out after sitting through dinner. 
• The reason we were in town….PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club. This was a whole day event for us on Sunday. Read about our day and my tips for planning here.

What We Missed Out On

• Franklin Institute
• Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Rocky Steps
• Betsy Ross House and other historical attractions
• Reading Terminal Market 
• Franklin Square
• Adventure Aquarium
• Smith Memorial Playground & Playhouse

Places to Eat

• Independence Beer Garden | Across the street from Liberty Bell Center and Independence Hall. Cute outdoor space with a large beer selection and limited bar food menu. 
• Parkway Corner Deli | Market with a delicious deli counter. Highly recommend.
• Wissahickon Brewing Company – Old Kensington | Large draft list, lots of seating inside and outside, food was fine.
• Rosario’s Pizzeria | THIS MENU IS WILD. It is walking distance from our Airbnb and it literally has something for everyone. This is a purely carry out restaurant as having 3 customers in it is too much.
• MoonNight | Vietnamese. We ordered via DoorDash when we were exhausted one night, and it was quick and delicious.

Things We’d Do Different

• If going with friends, I don’t know that we could have done much differently regarding housing, but if going with my family, we would probably stay closer to downtown to enjoy walking to more attractions, restaurants, and parks.
• Uber or use public transportation if possible. Driving, and more importantly parking, suck in downtown. May as well pay for transit and get dropped off right where you want to be.
• Next time we won’t be in town for a golf tournament, so I look forward to more sightseeing and experiencing more of Philadelphia’s many parks. One of my favorite things about driving around downtown was passing all of the squars, many of which had playgrounds.
• We’d try all new attractions as I listed in the “What We Missed Out On”

Questions? Interested in Booking?

Reach out to melanie@simplyperfectvacations.com with any questions, comments, or help booking your next vacation!