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Philadelphians (and those who visit often) know how wonderful this city is, bursting with mural-bejeweled neighborhoods, fawned-over restaurants, praise-worthy bars, treasure-filled museums, awe-inspiring gardens and design-forward hotels.
You don’t have to take our word for it though — the national and international press have done plenty of talking about it recently.
Publications like Travel + Leisure, The New York Times, Condé Nast Traveler, Bon Appétit, Esquire, USA Today, Food & Wine, Forbes and many more have given Philly a lot of (brotherly) love over the last year, and we’re here for it.
A slew of spots across Philadelphia were recognized in 2024, from amazing eateries and inviting taverns to comforting accommodations and enthralling attractions. And some of the biggest accolades were saved for the city as a destination itself.
Read on for more of the media’s favorite and most highly recommended Philly spots to explore, eat, shop and sleep, all recognized publicly over the last year.
The Best New Restaurants in America (2024), Esquire
After peddling her Puerto Rican-style turnovers for five years as a Fishtown pop up, “Diasporican” chef Amaryllis “Amy” Rivera Nassar opened Amy’s Pastelillos, her new brick-and-mortar takeout lunch spot. The bright pink corner shop offers her fried dough pastelillos (pronounced past-e-LEE-jos) in classic and rotating flavors stuffed with fixings like pork stewed in guava barbecue sauce, cheesesteak, picadillo or shredded chicken stew, which Esquire — in naming it one of its Best New Restaurants in America — describes as, “fresh like a favorite thing, as welcome as a love letter, [bursting with] flavors and, let’s face it, love.”
Where: Amy's Pastelillos, 2001 Memphis Street, Philadelphia, PA
Located inside the new Hotel Anna & Bel — a former asylum for “Indigent Widows & Single Women” dating back to 1769 — Bastia, a standalone Mediterranean restaurant from chef-partner Tyler Akin, serves a menu of Corsican and Sardinian-inspired dishes. The Fishtown spot — named one of Esquire’s Best New Restaurants in America — features dishes including strozzapreti ricotta dumplings, braised veal osso buco and fried squash blossom stuffed with ricotta that the author describes as “the single best bite I’ve had this year,” calling on guests to “stuff thyself. Sink into the pleasure. Surrender to the squash blossom, baby.”
Where: Bastia, 1401 E. Susquehanna Avenue, Philadelphia, PA
Restaurants of the Year (2024), USA Today
The list of extraordinary Philly restaurants receiving national kudos got longer in 2024, including a nod as one of USA Today’s Restaurants of the Year for University City’s Doro Bet. The roomy fast-casual locale’s Ethiopian fried chicken, breaded with teff and tapioca flours and marinated in buttermilk with berbere spice — which the article calls “life-changing,” “wafer-crisp and unendingly juicy” — is a co-owner Mebruka Kane original, invented in 2021. The article highlights other menu items, pondering that “you could die of tender heartbreak while tasting Kane’s fresh-built shawarma or long-simmered doro wot chicken leg.”
Where: Doro Bet, 4533 Baltimore Avenue, Philadelphia, PA
We Asked, You Answered: Here Are America’s Favorite French Fries, USA Today
The charming Bucks County borough of Newtown —‚ home to 1,711-acre Tyler State Park and historic Newtown Theatre (the oldest continuously operating movie theater in the country) — isn’t where one would expect to find some of the best fries in the nation. But USA Today is on a mission to point you to Isaac Newton’s, where you’ll find a serving of what the paper deems America’s Favorite French Fries. The article praises the “thin, crispy and extra-long” Belgian-style fries seasoned with an Old Bay-inspired house blend and served with a “tangy” bourbon mayo sauce.
Where: Isaac Newton's, 18 S. State Street, Newtown, PA
The Restaurant List 2024: Our 50 Favorite Places in America Right Now, The New York Times
Stealthily located in up-and-coming East Kensington, Little Walter’s is a dimly lit low-slung corner restaurant named to The New York Times’ Restaurant List 2024 as one of their “50 Favorite Places in America Right Now.” The unassuming spot offers up “robust and deftly executed Polish cuisine,” including rustic sourdough served with dill butter and smalec, wieprzowina z rożna — “sumptuous” rotisserie pork on a bed of kapusta (stewed cabbage with onions and sauerkraut) — and, of course, house-specialty pierogies. Afterward, order up from a surprising dessert menu, including a rotating-flavor seasonal take on water ice.
Where: Little Walter’s, 2049 E. Hagert Street, Philadelphia, PA
The 20 Best New Restaurants of 2024, Bon Appétit
The Best Dishes We Ate at New Restaurants in 2024, Bon Appétit
Olde Richmond neighborhood joint Meetinghouse — one of Bon Appétit’s 20 Best New Restaurants — is, “at its heart, a beer bar,” according to the article, “though you might not know it from the menu” featuring “unassumingly excellent pub fare” like turkey cutlets “so moist that sauce would only distract” and a hot roast beef sandwich “that squares up with even the best bar burger.” But it’s dessert, specifically, that the publication calls out, selecting the “eminently enjoyable” Vanilla Ice Cream with Crème de Menthe as one of the Best Dishes We Ate at New Restaurants in 2024.
Where: Meetinghouse, 2331 E. Cumberland Street, Philadelphia, PA
Rittenhouse Square’s My Loup celebrated 2024 as one of the 20 Best New Restaurants per Bon Appétit, where married chefs Amanda Shulman and Alex Kemp (of Her Place Supper Club) offer “compelling” French cuisine with Quebecois influence, which the mag “feels perfectly matched to the City of Brotherly Love.” Separately in their Best Dishes We Ate at New Restaurants in 2024, Bon Appétit highlights the “ingenious” esca-roll, a “sculpturesque” roll of bread filled with escargot atop herb butter showered in Parmesan, “as if a cinnamon roll crashed head-on into a plate of France’s finest escargot.”
Where: My Loup, 2005 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA
The 10 Best Oyster Bars in America (2024), Esquire
In the land of cheesesteaks and hoagies, Philadelphia’s seafood scene is highly underrated. Combining a fantastic foodie destination with the Port of Philadelphia’s superlatives as the East Coast’s largest port for fresh produce imports and largest freshwater seaport, fresh and fantastic seafood abounds in the city. If your desire is out-of-this-world bivalve mollusks, head to Rittenhouse Square’s Oyster House, named to Esquire’s list of 10 Best Oyster Bars in America Right Now. The publication spotlights the nearly half-century-old Sansom Street spot’s two-buck happy-hour oysters paired with a martini, Champagne or Chablis.
Where: Oyster House, 1516 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA
2024’s Top 100 Restaurants, OpenTable
You don’t have to be new to be great. A family-owned stalwart since 1967, Saloon Restaurant isn’t just a Bella Vista Italian and seafood tradition, but it’s also one of OpenTable’s Top 100 Restaurants. The Italian Market-adjacent trattoria‘s dark oak paneling, brass fixtures and authentic local antiques create “a warm congenial and casual atmosphere,” which the honor describes as “like stepping into Philadelphia’s past.” The two dining rooms — each with its own vintage bars — offer a “relaxed and enjoyable experience” and a menu highlighted by grilled octopus, dover sole, Saloon steaks or veal chops with long hots and housemade gelatos.
Where: Saloon Restaurant, 750 S. 7th Street, Philadelphia, PA
22 of the Best Pizza Places in the United States (2024), The New York Times
Philly knows pizza. But what husband-wife owners Valentin Palillero and Eva Mendez brought to the scene stands in a league of its own. Opened in 2005, San Lucas Pizzeria stirs up a South Philly melting pot of flavors with pies featuring simple, traditional Italian crust as a base for creations honoring the couple’s Mexican heritage with toppings like smoky guajillo sauce, spiced pork, black beans and chopped cilantro. That innovation was recognized by The New York Times, which honored the shop as one of the 22 Best Pizza Places in the United States.
Where: San Lucas Pizza, 2000 S. Bouvier Street, Philadelphia, PA
For two years, Liz Grothe ran the monthly Couch Cafe supper club out of her Northern Liberties apartment. Then in December 2024, the Filipino-American chef moved her offerings to new Queen Village brick-and-mortar spot Scampi! (formerly Neighborhood Ramen), a BYOB with an Italian-American prix-fixe menu. Among Couch Cafe items expected to migrate to Scampi! are her ravioli-esque culurgiones, singled out by Bon Appétit as one of the Best Dishes We Ate at New Restaurants in 2024 in which the author describes her “generously plump” and “elegant trout-stuffed” Sardinian pasta dumplings as “so pillowy, the dish has been haunting my thoughts since.”
Where: Scampi, 617 S. 3rd Street, Philadelphia, PA
The Best Candy Stores in the U.S.: #3, Time Out
Step back in time at Shane Confectionery, America’s oldest confectionary shop (dating back to 1863) and No. 3 on Time Out’s list of Best Candy Stores in the U.S. The “Philly favorite” Old City boutique’s appearance is period-true with antique scales, carved cabinetry, glass cases and shopkeeps in long dresses or bowties serving award-winning handcrafted chocolates and confections (made with early 1900s machinery) like penny candy, licorice, jellies, fruit chews, bonbons, caramels, dipped pretzels, craft chocolate bars and house-panned goodies. For more nostalgia, pop next door to their Franklin Fountain ice creamery.
Where: Shane Confectionery, 110 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA
The 50 Most Beautiful Restaurants in America (2024), People
Five-Star Rating, 2024 Stars Awards, Forbes Travel Guide
Occupying the top floor of the 60-story Comcast Technology Center (the tallest building in the U.S. outside New York and Chicago), SkyHigh Bar is a casual cocktail lounge offering sweeping views out 40-foot-high windows 1,121 feet above the city. Michelin-starred and James Beard Award Best Chef-winning Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s specialty drink and bite-sized snack café — the highest eatery in the city, settled atop the luxe Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia (see below) — was named one of People’s 50 Most Beautiful Restaurants in America, while also receiving a Five-Star Rating from Forbes Travel Guide.
Where: SkyHigh Bar at the Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia, 1 N. 19th Street, Philadelphia, PA
One of the Best Food Markets in America (2024), Food & Wine
Bring an empty stomach and your favorite grocery totes to the weekend-only Southeast Asian Market in FDR Park, crowned One of the Best Food Markets in America by Food & Wine. A community of refugees and immigrants transformed the South Philadelphia space into a bustling cultural landmark boasting upward of 70 vendors from locales like Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia serving up street food, exotic produce, flavorful spices and delicious beverages at their new permanent market pavilion by the old tennis courts on the park’s south edge between Treehouse Woods and I-95.
Where: FDR Park, South Broad Street & Pattison Avenue, Philadelphia, PA
In 2022, Tony Artur and Megan Loos relocated their Speckled Egg Café from Lambertville across the river to the Rice’s Market in New Hope — and the move paid dividends, soon earning it a place on USA Today’s Restaurants of the Year 2024. The Tuesday-and-Saturday-only spot, the article states, “feels like stepping into a cozy kitchen where customers are welcomed like long-awaited houseguests,” showcasing the couple’s “creativity at turning locally sourced ingredients into unexpected dishes.” The piece highlights the breakfast and lunch menu’s rotating items like pork belly congee, tomato eggs Benedict on zucchini waffle and honey-brined chicken on mascarpone.
Where: The Speckled Egg Café, 6326 Greenhill Road, New Hope, PA
2024 America’s Classics Award Winner, James Beard Foundation
The James Beard Foundation America’s Classics Award honors locally owned restaurants beloved not just for their cuisine, but for timeless appeal, connection to the community and culinary heritage. Only two Philadelphia establishments have ever received the special recognition: John’s Roast Pork in 2006 and now Vietnam Restaurant in 2024. With a primary location in Chinatown (opened in 1984) and a spinoff café in University City, chef Benny Lai’s now-legendary spot was singled out for its dishes like barbecue platters, crispy spring rolls, 10varieties of vermicelli bowl, lemongrass stir-fries and a selection of Polynesian cocktails.
Where: Vietnam Restaurant, 221 N. 11th Street, Philadelphia, PA
15 Top Bars in the U.S. (2024), Food & Wine
Speakeasy-esque Andra Hem — Swedish for second home — experienced a meteoric rise from launching in 2022 to being named one of the 15 Top Bars in the U.S. by Food & Wine. The sleek cocktail spot brings patrons to the nondescript entrance of the inconspicuous black-painted brick Rittenhouse Square building, offering an aesthetic described by the magazine as “clean yet warm; formal yet approachable.” The menu at the “proper drinks lounge” offers Scandinavian eats and eclectic cocktails, including the Lambhattan, “a curious standout take on the classic, spiced with lamb-washed bourbon … bizarre, yet works oh so well.”
Where: Andra Hem, 218 S. 16th Street, Philadelphia, PA
The Best Bars in America in 2024: USA Today’s 27 Favorite Spots, USA Today
Along tree-lined cobblestone 2nd Street adjacent to Headhouse Square, Bloomsday is at its heart a “charming pub [dressed] like the hottest wine bar in town,” as described by USA Today upon its selection as one of the 27 Best Bars in America. The female-led restaurant, wine bar and bottle shop offers a relaxed atmosphere along with varied all-day menus and a long list of natural wines, ciders and bubbly from the marble-and-crystal bar. The article spotlights the Bloomsday Citywide, a “fun spin” on the Philly classic featuring a different beer and vermouth each month.
Where: Bloomsday, 414 S. 2nd Street, Philadelphia, PA
Best Irish Bars in the U.S. (2024), Travel Channel
Historic McGillin’s Olde Ale House has been serving up cold beer and solid bar food down a small Center City alley since before the Civil War. Today, the city’s oldest continuously operating tavern (circa 1860) remains a premiere public house, named one of Travel Channel’s Best Irish Bars in the U.S. The relaxed dinner-and-drinks pub — described as “chock-full of Old World character” — serves up a menu filled with pub classics like shepherd’s pie, along with throwing an epic annual St. Patrick’s Day party.
Where: McGillin's Olde Ale House, 1310 Drury Street, Philadelphia, PA
The Best Bars in America (2024), Esquire
“Hyperlocal” may be a food-industry buzzword, but at East Kensington’s Post Haste, that sustainability message is taken to heart. Case in point: anything bottled is from local distillers, while glasses are made of recycled liquor bottles from local bars and upcycled décor. But you don’t get named one of Esquire’s Best Bars in America on effort alone. The tavern, described as “reminiscent of an old Irish pub,” specializes in tasty versions of cocktail classics including the publication’s favorite All The Cosmos, a riff featuring cranberry from New Jersey’s Pine Barrens, kumquat superjuice and lemongrass syrup.
Where: Post Haste, 2519 Frankford Avenue, Philadelphia, PA
Raise a glass to Poison Heart on Spring Garden Street in Poplar, the edgy cocktail spot — from Superfolie’s Vincent Stipo and Chloé Grigri — named to Esquire’s list of Best Bars in America for 2024. The publication praises Poison Heart’s “slightly punk stylishness” and “vibe that has you wishing you’d worn your black leather jacket” alongside its fancy freezer martinis and freezer Sazeracs, well-rounded wine offerings and knowledgeable staff. The article praises the outstanding menu featuring items like patty melts, waffle fries with raclette cheese, fresh oysters, popcorn, crispy fried shrimp and more.
Where: Poison Heart, 931 Spring Garden Street, Philadelphia, PA
10 Best Small Art Museums in America (2024), The Washington Post
Home to one of the world’s most important galleries of impressionist, post-impressionist and early modernist paintings, the Barnes Foundation (founded in 1961, on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway since 2012) was proudly named one of the 10 Best Small Art Museums in America by The Washington Post. “The collection is stunning,” lauds the article, showcasing masters like Renoir, Cézanne, Picasso, van Gogh, Matisse, Rousseau, Degas, Rubens, Gauguin, Goya, Manet and Monet — along with American paintings, decorative arts, metalwork, African sculpture and Indigenous jewelry and ceramics — nestled into its “gracious contemporary home.”
Where: Barnes Foundation, 2025 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, PA
15 Best Museums in the US You Had No Idea Existed, Thrillist
Once the most famous prison in the world, massive Eastern State Penitentiary operated from 1829 to 1970, housing 85,000 felons including infamous criminals Al Capone and Willie Sutton. The attraction, offering tours highlighting the prison’s history alongside modern social justice incarceration issues, was honored by Thrillist as one of the 15 Best Museums in the US You Had No Idea Existed. The abandoned site “comes to life over the Halloween season” as the nation’s largest haunted house during the annual Halloween Nights.
Where: Eastern State Penitentiary, 2027 Fairmount Avenue, Philadelphia, PA
The 71 Most Beautiful Streets in the World (2024), Architectural Digest
Charming Elfreth’s Alley in Old City isn’t just one of the oldest continuously inhabited residential blocks in America — it’s also one of the most gorgeous on the planet. That’s the verdict from Architectural Digest, which lists the colonial-era 400-foot cobblestone walk in its roundup of the 71 Most Beautiful Streets in the World, highlighting its old-fashioned flower boxes, wooden shutters, Flemish bond brickwork and Federal and Georgian architecture. Built between 1720 and 1830, the alleyway’s Trinity Houses — once inhabited by figures like Dolly Madison, Betsy Ross and Stephen Girard — are still occupied by everyday Philadelphians.
Where: Elfreth's Alley, 126 Elfreth's Alley, Philadelphia, PA
19 Weird Landmarks in the U.S. That Are Worth a Visit, Time Out
The artifacts spread across Philadelphia’s many museums can be described as stunning, historic or awe-inspiring. But they can also be just plain strange. None exudes the curious and creepy like the Mütter Museum, named one of 19 Weird Landmarks in the U.S. That Are Worth a Visit by Time Out. The institution, says the review, is “jampacked with human specimens, stomach-churning medical objects and more bones than you could imagine,” including anatomical and pathological specimens, wax models, antique medical equipment and even slices of Albert Einstein’s brain and 139 human heads.
Where: Mütter Museum, 19 S. 22nd Street, Philadelphia, PA
20 Best Art Museums in America (2024), The Washington Post
One of the nation’s largest and most recognizable art institutions, the Philadelphia Museum of Art rises majestically at the head of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, recognized by The Washington Post on its list of the 20 Best Art Museums in America. Describing the works inside housed in an “engagingly old-fashioned display of permanent collection galleries,” the piece spotlights the “magnificent” Crucifixion by Rogier van der Weyden, “essential” works by Cézanne and Monet and Homer’s “thrilling” The Life Line, without even mentioning the museum’s famous steps cinematically scaled by Rocky Balboa.
Where: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2600 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, PA
The Special Tony Award for Regional Theatre (2024), Tony Awards
And the Tony goes to … The Wilma Theater! The 50-year-old stagehouse — which prides itself on presenting “bold, original, well-crafted productions that represent a range of voices, viewpoints, and styles” — was recognized for doing just that on the industry’s biggest stage: the 2024 Tony Awards for Excellence in Broadway Theatre where it walked away with the Special Tony Award for Regional Theatre during the 77th annual ceremony. The award recognizes outstanding achievement among regional theaters that contribute to theater as an art form nationwide.
Where: The Wilma Theater, 265 S. Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA
Our Favorite Hotels of All Time, Esquire
2024 Global Recognition Award, Hotel & Resort, Global Recognition Awards
Four-Star Rating, 2024 Stars Awards, Forbes Travel Guide
The honors keep racking up for the Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia at Comcast Center, North America’s highest hotel. Features like spectacular views, luxury rooms, the top floor infinity pool, the award-winning spa, and destination restaurants like Jean-Georges Philadelphia and Vernick Fish helped the property earn both a Four-Star Rating award from Forbes Travel Guide and laurels from the Global Recognition Awards. But the biggest accolade the hotel received this year is a nod from Esquire naming it one of Our Favorite Hotels of All Time, calling the spot “one of the most impressive tower hotels in America.”
Where: Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia at Comcast Center, 1 N. 19th Street, Philadelphia, PA
Top 15 Hotels in the Mid-Atlantic: Readers’ Choice Awards 2024, Condé Nast Traveler
Talk about Revolutionary. The Kimpton Hotel Monaco Philadelphia rises 11 stories above adjacent Independence National Historical Park, the closest accommodations to Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. And in 2024, the luxurious boutique hotel was named No. 10 on Condé Nast Traveler’s Top 15 Hotels in the Mid-Atlantic, an honor recognizing amenities like the upscale rooms decorated with early-period accents and the property’s two popular popular gathering spots, cozy Red Owl Tavern for classic comfort food served streetside and Stratus Rooftop Lounge’s stylish ambiance and stunning open-air skyline views over America’s most historic square mile.
Where: Kimpton Hotel Monaco Philadelphia, 433 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA
With Philadelphia properties filling a quarter of Condé Nast Traveler’s 2024 Top 15 Hotels in the Mid-Atlantic, you can’t go wrong with a stay anywhere in the city. But you’ll surely fall for the publication’s pick at No. 9, Center City’s The Logan Philadelphia Hotel. The Logan nods to Philly’s rich history, but its atmosphere exudes modern luxury with fresh color palettes, updated rooms, a full-service spa health club and chic on-site restaurant Urban Farmer and bars Assembly Rooftop and Commons Lounge.
Where: The Logan Philadelphia Hotel, 1 Logan Square, Philadelphia, PA
Located right on picturesque Rittenhouse Square, the luxury-filled The Rittenhouse continues to wow critics for its proper but friendly service, elegance and access to the rich vitality of the neighborhood’s dining, culture and green space. In placing the hotel among its Five-Star Rating award winners, Forbes Travel Guide says the property feels “fresh and intimate” and appreciates the amenities, including the Lacroix at The Rittenhouse restaurant and the Mary Cassatt Tea Room. As well, Condé Nast Traveler’s Readers’ Choice Awards voted The Rittenhouse No. 6 among the Top 15 Hotels in the Mid-Atlantic.
Where: The Rittenhouse, 210 W. Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia, PA
Best Hotels in the World: 2024 Readers’ Choice Awards, Condé Nast Traveler
You don’t have to spend a million bucks to feel like a million bucks. Contemporary designs, two outstanding French restaurants — Liberté Lounge and Chez Colette — and a host of on-site events make Sofitel Philadelphia an all-in-one package just one block from Rittenhouse Square park. Condé Nast Traveler appreciated the experience so much that it named the property both No. 1 among the Top 15 Hotels in the Mid-Atlantic: Readers and 34th on their Best Hotels in the World list, noting its “spacious lobby, funky artwork and comfy lounge seating.”
Where: Sofitel Philadelphia, 120 S. 17th Street, Philadelphia, PA
100 Best New Hotels of the Year (2024), Travel + Leisure
Settled right on world-famous South Street in Queen Village, the buzzy Yowie apartment-style suite hotel is more than just a place to stay, with its eponymous shop of curated wares and minimalist café Wim right on the 11-room property. It’s those features and more (like full kitchens and hand-written welcome notes) that led Travel + Leisure to name the invisible service hotel one of its 100 Best New Hotels of the Year, noting the hip site is “all the more impressive even without the traditional hotel trappings [by managing] to impart so much warmth into the guest experience.”
Where: Yowie, 226 South Street, Philadelphia, PA
The 38 Coolest Neighbourhoods in the World, Time Out
The 16 Most Up-and-Coming Neighborhoods in the U.S. (2024), TravelMag
Something is happening in Philadelphia’s Brewerytown, and both Time Out and TravelMag noticed, naming the former German settlement — once home to dozens of breweries — as one of the 38 Coolest Neighbourhoods in the World and 16 Most Up-and-Coming Neighborhoods in the U.S., respectively. Hugging Fairmount Park’s eastern edge, the articles describe the district as a “place where endless possibility flourishes” and “hot spots come so fast and furious it’s hard to keep up.” Among favorites are The Monkey & The Elephant, iMunch Café, Lucky Goat Coffeehouse, Baby’s Kusina, Crime & Punishment Brewing and All Day Hoagies/I Scream for Ice Cream.
Best Fall Foliage Destinations in the U.S. for 2024, Priceline
Each fall, the Philadelphia region puts on a stunning arboreal show as trees turn spectacular autumn shades of red, orange and yellow, undoubtedly one of the best leaf-peeping locations in the northeast. In fact, Bucks County (just north of the city) was named the Best Fall Foliage Destinations in the U.S. for 2024 by Priceline. The listing highlights seasonal attractions including the county’s 12 19th-century covered bridges that “make a perfect backdrop to the hues of the falling leaves,” New Hope Railroad’s fall foliage rides and hot air balloons from Lancaster Balloon Rides.
Where: Bucks County, Philadelphia, PA
The 15 Best Small Towns to Visit in 2024, Smithsonian Magazine
The Chester County enclave of Kennett Square may be geographically small, but it’s big where it counts, with the scenic Brandywine Valley locale — known as both America’s Garden Capital and Mushroom Capital of the World — named one of the 15 Best Small Towns to Visit by Smithsonian. The hamlet of just 6,500 is home to 1,077-acre Longwood Gardens and the Kennett Underground Railroad Center, along with tons of mushroom fun(gus) like at Woodlands at Phillips Mushroom Farms, the annual Kennett Square Mushroom Festival and eateries including Mushroom Cap, Portabello’s and Talula’s Table.
Where: Kennett Square, Kennett Square, PA
While publications across the internet deem Philly’s eateries, hotels and attractions as among the best around, sometimes the kudos come for the city as a whole.
The 50 Best Cities in the World in 2024: No. 41, Time Out
Sure, we think Philly is one of the best cities in the world ourselves, but you can’t argue when Time Out agrees. To validate its claim, the publication points out spots in “a city that’s peaking” like the “transcendent” Bok Building, “smart” Navy Yard, “magical” Friday Saturday Sunday and more.
The Top US Cities for All-By-Yourself Adventures: No. 7, Kayak & OpenTable
There’s something wonderful about solo travel, about being on no one’s schedule but yours. Where better than Philly to spend time with your favorite person, one of the best cities for independent travelers according to Kayak & OpenTable? Here’s where to be, they say, if you’re into history, shopping or art and if you “crave” roast pork, cheesesteaks and soft pretzels.
10 Affordable Places to Travel in the US, Condé Nast Traveler
You don’t have to have a luxe experience to enjoy Philly, and Condé Nast Traveler surely agrees, naming it one of the best affordable places to visit. Among its notes on the city’s “amazing attractions, wonderful views, cool hotels and incredible history,” the article points to “plenty of great free and low-cost activities” in Old City like the Liberty Bell, The President’s House and Elfreth’s Alley.
10 Reasons to Visit the East Coast in 2024, National Geographic
There are a number of East Coast cities you can choose as a destination, and National Geographic wants to make sure Philly is on your list, noting that history buffs should “make a beeline for Philadelphia,” with other highlights like the Philadelphia Flower Show, Longwood Gardens and Please Touch Museum which “simply can’t be beaten.”
Philadelphia is one of the best cities for walking in the country, with a simple layout and neighborhood streets filled with fun and diverse shops, restaurants, museums, parks … and people.
10 Best Walkable Cities for Tourists in the US: No. 1, USA Today
Not just one of the easiest cities to get around by foot, USA Today ranks Philly as the number one top spot for urban walkability in the nation. Among great walkable spots, the paper highlights Center City’s “historic” Old City and “gorgeous” Rittenhouse Square neighborhoods.
The Most Walkable Cities in the US, Ranked: No. 10, Condé Nast Traveler
Meanwhile, Condé Nast Traveler also knows a great place for a stroll, ranking Philadelphia the 10th-most walkable city in the country, based on a Smart Growth America study. Philly ranks high for its urban universities, walkable historic neighborhoods, well-connected transit system, and access to office buildings and multifamily housing.
Cheesesteaks and hoagies and soft pretzels, oh my. From food trucks to fine dining to the best of nearly every international cuisine, Philly is a hotspot for food and restaurant lovers.
The Best Food Cities in the US: No. 10, Condé Nast Traveler
In naming Philly to its list of the country’s top 1o food destinations, Condé Nast Traveler notes the city’s multitude of multicultural cuisines along with eateries “with well-deserved cult followings at every price point” — including James Beard Award winners Zahav and “cult-classic” South Philly Barbacoa (now inside Casa México) — making it “too easy to spend an entire week eating.”
10 Top US Cities for Bakeries, According to the Experts No. 10, Food & Wine
Even after visiting every historic site, Food & Wine notes “you have definitely not discovered all of Philadelphia’s national treasures” until you get to dessert. Ranking Philly as one of the nation’s best cities for bakeries, the magazine spotlights the “decadent” selections at Beiler’s Donuts and the Everything Philly Muffin from Merzbacher’s, along with historic Isgro Pastries and the “lamination savant” bakers at Machine Shop
The only way to fully experience Philly? Stay over.
Book the Visit Philly Overnight Package and get free hotel parking and priceless peace of mind.
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