You all are getting this post super late– sorry! It’s now March and I’m just now dusting this post off in the drafts. Part of me wanted to trash it, but I remembered that I made the goal of expanding my content. So here goes, a 3-month old post!
Where we stayed
I decided that 2020 will be the year that I get out and travel more. Of course, I’d like to travel internationally, but right now we’re focusing on the states. For the holidays, we planned a trip to the Baltimore Harbor, but there’s not really much to do there after Christmas. I made the last-minute decision to go to Philly instead and I fell in love! We stayed at the Sonesta Hotel located in Rittenhouse Square. Since it was a last-minute thing, we ended up with the petite corner king room. It was small but big enough for a 2-night stay. It was conveniently located on the same block as restaurants, WaWa, and other attractions. For the hotel to be right in the city, I found it to be quiet at night. As for price, I booked the last room available on Travelocity for $117 a night– not bad!
What we did
We drove up the day after Christmas and that night we stopped by the WaWa that was a couple of blocks from the hotel and stocked up on drinks and snacks. The next day was spent exploring. We went to the Reading Terminal Market. I probably won’t ever do that again just because of how busy it was; we could barely walk. Here, we had lunch at Beck’s Cajun Cafe. We ended up eating outside since there was nowhere to sit so I didn’t get any pictures of my food. It was good though! I got the jambalaya; there was plenty of shrimp and sausage.
We spent the bulk of our sight-seeing day literally doing just that. We walked everywhere! The Reading Terminal Market was about a 20-minute walk from the hotel. We go to a city school so that was nothing for us. We also walked through Chinatown to get to The African American Museum in Philadelphia. I scored a Groupon for 50% tickets so it wasn’t too pricey. The technology of the museum was super cool! The museum itself was small and I wish that they went into more detail re: Black History in Philly. However, it was a great experience nonetheless.
After the museum and lunch, we walked up to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. It was so exhilarating; I wanted to move to Philly immediately. I should note that on our way to the parkway, we stopped by LOVE park to get a picture under the sign. I’m not sure why, but I wasn’t expecting there to be a line. As you can see in the pictures, I’m bundled up so obviously it was pretty cold. We stopped by this cute coffee shop and got hot apple cider. I remember there being a bit of a windchill so we headed back to the hotel and got ready for dinner after finishing our cider. Of course, we took a detour to the Comcast center for pictures.
Finally, to the highlight of the trip, Condesa! I wish I would’ve taken more pictures (obviously I’m not a travel blogger), but the ambiance of this restaurant was amazing! The service was great, but the lamb tacos were even better! I will say, Condesa is a bit pricey. The food was great, but I think the overall experience was worth the price.
Before we left to come back home, we went back to the Comcast Center to experience the Universal Sphere. I was a little underwhelmed, but it was a nice family activity.
A few pointers
- If you’re looking to park in Philly, check SpotHero Our hotel offered parking, but I think it was $40 a day. With SpotHero, I ended up getting parking for $28 for our entire stay. We remained parked the whole time as there was no free re-entry and the parking garage was a little distant from our hotel.
- Plan your trip using Google Sheets– this is what I used to keep track of places we wanted to visit and restaurants we wanted to try.
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