The last time I went to Philadelphia was for a business trip in 2019. Though I had a hectic work itinerary, I was fortunate to have a day to settle in as I arrived early Sunday morning. This allowed me to have a quick walkabout in some of the city’s tourist destinations like the Philadelphia City Hall, Reading Terminal Market, to the historical area where I appreciated gardens and old houses, the Nation’s Church, and the quaint Elfreth’s Alley.

I was charmed by the city and hope someday I could do a proper visit. Fate was kind when D and I landed a good roundtrip airfare deal from Manila to NYC. We figured since we were already in NYC we could commute to Washington DC and have a night stop over at Philadelphia. It was to be D’s first time to Philly.

On a Monday morning we took the MegaBus from NYC to Philadelphia. It took us about two hours to get to our destination, and we were blessed with good weather so the walk to the hotel was a breeze.

D and I stayed at Sofitel at Rittenhouse Square. It was a French-inspired hotel located a few minutes’ away from Rittenhouse Square and Logan Square. The location was also just a few minutes’ walk to the bus station where we would be heading back to the next day to continue our way to Washington DC. I have nothing but good words to say about this hotel: the service was topnotch, the room clean, comfortable, spacious and elegantly designed. The downside of checking in to a hotel as nice as this is that I often get tempted to just stay in. Begrudgingly, I left the comfort of our room as we headed out for our agenda for the day.

https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSNjBFSf2/

We walked to Logan Square en route to Philadelphia Museum of Art. We walked under the canopy of trees lining the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, and had a short stop to admire the exteriors of the Rodin Museum.

I had always wanted to climb up the Rocky Stairs in front of the museum. You see my biggest frustration in 2019 was that I could only look at it from afar. It was a hot day at the time, and combined with my creeping jetlag I didn’t have the energy to walk up to it. This time around I was determined to push it through. D, ever competitive, ran up the stairs ala Rocky while I took a video. Catching our breath as we reached the top, we gazed appreciatively at the skyline and the City Hall below us.

Before sunset, D and I walked down through the JFK Plaza (Love Park) and had our mandatory selfie.

For dinner, we initially planned on eating at the Reading Terminal Market but found that most of the stores were already closing at the time. So we had dinner instead at a Japanese restaurant near our hotel.

One of the things I like when we travel is we get to complete an average of 20,000 steps a day. Our first day in Philadelphia was no exception, and I looked forward to a long bath when we got back to the hotel. Time to use the bath salts I bought from a konbini in Ota City leading up to this trip.

The next morning, I slept in while D caught up on walking to the Old City.

He returned to the hotel in time for breakfast. We ate at Tuscan Cafe at Locust St, and had a quiet stroll at Rittenhouse Square before heading back to the hotel to check out.

Thank you for reading about our short trip to Philadelphia this year. Here are the highlights of this short visit:

https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSNjBjQwV/