September 2019

My first work business trip – but it felt more like a personal trip, because I had a lot of time to explore! I spent 5 days in Philly since the conference (Thank you LSAC!) was spread out. I think you can finish exploring Philly within 2.5-3 days, depending on what you want to see and do. My friend, Diana, came a few days later to explore with me as well :).

**Warning** : This blog post has more pictures than words!

I stayed at Marriott Old City and the location was amazing! It was super close to historic sites, views, and downtown. From the hotel to downtown it was about a 30min-45min walk. The city is pretty walkable. I took some Lyfts here and there and you can also take the public bus/transportation. Not going to lie, I had some pretty weird Lyft drives there. Some of the Lyft drivers didn’t wear their seat belt, were aggressive, and impatient on the streets.

The hotel itself was alright. The lobby, conference rooms, etc. were amazing. The decor is nice. The hotel bed is nice, however…the AC/heater kept on making noises throughout the entire night, the toilet made a bunch of noises too, the phone wasn’t working to call for Room Service or to ask quick questions, AND, when I got to my room, I didn’t get to have the free Wifi!! I had to pay extra $9.95 per day to get Wifi. The only way to get free wifi is to be a Marriott Bonvoy Member. So I signed up, but the catch is that, you needed to book the hotel room as a member – and since I just signed up…I didn’t get the free wifi. It was a bit annoying. Also, when they cleaned my room, they didn’t refill the toilet paper, so I had to go down twice (since the phone wasn’t working) to get toilet paper refills. On top of that, they were doing construction on the 4th floor renovating the gym, and some rooms I believe. On the 4th night, they were done with the construction…but it was inconvenient with all of those noises the first 3 days I was there. They took out the pool too!! So there is no pool at this hotel. Even though the location was amazing I don’t think it’s worth to stay at the hotel. I’m sure you can find something similar for something cheaper and better room amenities.

Now let’s get onto the things to do in Philly!

Things to do/see (historical sites):

1) Liberty Bell (FREE)
You do not need a ticket for Liberty Bell. You can just walk in. You will go through a metal detector. To see the liberty bell and read the history, it took about 20 minutes.

2. Independence Hall (FREE)
This is free, but you will need to get a ticket at the Visitor Center or online. Each tour runs every 20 minutes. You will go through a metal detector here as well. It was cool to be in a room where past Presidents were in and where the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution was written!

That’s where George Washington sat!! So cool!

3. Elfreth’s Alley (FREE)
This place was super cute!! It was so small and tiny!

4. Betsy’s Ross House
It is really close to Elfreth’s Alley too. To see the house outside, it’s free. If you want to go inside without an audio tour, it’s $5. It was worth it in my opinion. I learned a lot about Betsy’s Ross. I remember learning about her in school…but now, it’s more memorable. I appreciate history a lot more as I’m getting older!

The house is bigger than it looks outside. There’s also a souvenir shop too.

5. Another historical site is the Rocky Steps (FREE).
The Rocky Statue is at the bottom of the steps and the Rocky Steps in on top of the steps. Beware that there will be some men who pretend they are a staff and will take a picture for you and expects money. If they are not pretending to be a staff, they are going to do the same as well. So get someone in your group or another person in line to take a picture for you. There were a ton of people exercising, taking photos, enjoying the view, etc. Behind the steps is the Philadelphia Museum of Art – which I didn’t go to.

6. Vietnam Veterans & Korean War Memorial (FREE)
This site was literally a 2-3 minute walk from the Marriott Old City hotel. I got emotional here reading all of the history and seeing the photos and statues. Thank you to those who sacrifice to protect everyone; thank you for your service.

Other sightseeings in Philly:

One of my favorite things in Philadelphia was the Magic Gardens. This place is located on South Street – which has tons of food, bars, and a few shops. The Magic Garden costs $10 and it reminded me of Barcelona, Spain with all of the colors and art. I went with one of the people I met at the conference, Grace. She was so sweet!

Another famous spot is Love Park (FREE). This is where you’ll see the infamous LOVE sign and the “I love Philly”sign. Again, there may be some guys here, who wants to take your picture and will try to get a tip from you. Beware!

This park has a bunch of chairs, a huge water fountain to splash in (that will be good for summer time), and giant games to play. It’s a nice family and date park to chill.

Also, if you keep going north, you can get to the Rocky Statue as well. It’s just one straight road down. You’ll see a bunch of country flags – I’ll mention more about that later in my blog.

Want a view spot? Go up the One Liberty Observation Deck for $15. There’s also another deal of tickets if you go up twice within 42 hours. I thought the price and view was fine for $15. There were chairs to sit around and play board games too. There was an interactive computer screen to locate all of the famous sites in Philadelphia too. It’s located inside a mall. I stayed there for the sunset and it was pretty!

Don’t forget to visit Chinatown, if you want, haha. There were a bunch of markets, stores, boba shops, and restaurants.

So close to my name haha!

My favorite touch in Chinatown were the Chinese Zodiac animal signs on the ground.

Another free thing if you want to check out is the library! We went in there to see and also for a restroom break 😛 It’s on your way to Rocky Statue or to Love Park depending which direction you’re heading.

Lastly, one of my other favorite spots is the Spruce Street Harbor Park. This was located 5 minutes away from Marriott Old City Hotel. It is such a cute date night place, family night out, or friends hang out. I went here during the day and night. At night time, the food trucks and the bar is open and all of the lights on the trees light up. The food is definitely pricey, and the beers are about $7+. There are hammocks for you to lay on, chairs for you to see and just admire the nature, water, and view. There’s even a pirate boat that is a restaurant, I believe. There’s even human size connect 4, jenga, blocks, etc. for the kids or even you to play with! If you walk around the Harbor Park, you’ll end up on Penn Landing which has all of the boats and ships for you to sail around. You could see the bridge, the 76ers practice stadium, another University, and more. I enjoyed the place a lot and it was a bonus that it was really close to the hotel.

I didn’t know that Philly did the locks either. No one talks about it!

Look at how pretty it is at night and it was great because the weather was perfect! Not cold at all!

I felt like I was at Disneyland watching the World of Color. It was pretty!

I didn’t even know how I took this photo, but I thought it was cool just to put it here and to show you haha.

Where to eat?

1. Reading Terminal Market – it’s actually pronounced as “Redding” not “Reading (like reading a book). There is a bunch of food markets & sweet markets for you to choose from. It reminded me of Granville Market in Vancouver, Canada. You can read about that here.

I ate at Beck’s. It was a jambalaya rice style with some soup on top. It was spicy and a lil pricey! Here you don’t get a cup of water, but you have the option if you want to purchase their water bottle.

2. Jim’s South Street for Philly’s Cheesesteak ofcourse! I personally don’t like some type of cheese..it’s weird. Let me tell you. I can eat nacho cheese, cheese pizza, and add cheese on my pizza, but I don’t like cheese burgers, cheese in my sandwiches, and cheese with wine. Weird right? Diana got a cheesesteak and I got a bite of it and it was BOMB!! So good! She got the provolone cheese steak with lettuce and tomatoes. We waited about 35 minutes in line and it was worth it. It was funny because when they showed us the cheesesteak, we wonder where the lettuce and tomatoes were (we thought it was going to be added on as toppings) but it was already in the cheesesteak under the steak haha! We didn’t even see it. That’s when you know we were new to it ;). The photo doesn’t look appetizing, but trust, it was soooo good. By the way, this place only accepts cash.

3. Since I only took a bite of Diana’s cheesesteak, I decided to get sushi. This sushi place is called Bincho and it was fine. They definitely did not have a lot of options like back home. I got the American Street Roll & a basic Spicy Salmon Roll.

4. The first night that Diana got in, we ate at La Nonna’s in South Street. We were both craving pasta and it did not disappoint! They gave us 5 slices of bread, we split the salad and pasta. It was so good and enough for the both of us too. It was a romantic dinner spot.

5. Want some dessert? Stop by Carlo’s Bake Shop!! CAKE BOSS! I used to watch that show a lot with my sister. The original shop is in Hoboken, New Jersey – hopefully I’ll be able to go there one day. I got the Cookies & Cream Lobster Tail and Diana got the chocolate and regular/vanilla cannolis. All were good and tasty. Very sweet forsure.

Places for Drinks? 

1.  Independence Beer Garden
It is located right next to Liberty Bell. It’s like a small brewery, but not a brewery. It was just a bar place filled with beer. There are tons of benches, lights, and games to play. It’s definitely a nice date night or outings with friends. The beers are about $7+ .

2. The other drink place is Spruce Street Harbour Street, which I mentioned earlier. Same deal as the Independence Beer Garden.

3. This is not an alcoholic drink, but I did get boba, at Mr. Wish when I was in Chinatown. It was basic but good. No long lines.

That’s all of the food places I tried in Philly. Most of the time, I already had food from the conference at work.

I hoped you enjoyed the blog so far! Those are the main things to do and see in Philly. Below are more photos of sight seeing places that I passed by.

This is a photo of South Street.

This was underneath the One Liberty Observation Deck.

Random, but I used to watch these two Youtubers who used to go to Wawa a lot for late night snacks, so when I saw it, it was kind of unreal to me, haha. It was so cool!

This is the First Post Office in the United States! How cool is that?! It’s still running too!

Now, I’m going to talk about these flags. This road was on the way to the Rocky Statue or the Love Park, depending which way you’re going. This is where you can also see the The Franklin Institute, the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, and the Free Library. As you walk along the sidewalk, you’ll also see a lot of parks and fountains too! For the flags, they don’t have all of the countries in the world!! I wish they did, but I felt left out when they didn’t have Vietnam! Besides that, it is cool to have all of the countries’ flags represented there. #Diversity

and lastly, with love,

Thank you for reading all the way! I personally felt like this blog post was more photos than words. I’m not sure if you guys wanted to read the history behind the sites..haha. I like Philly! It is very historic and we need to keep history alive. People were nice, tons of things to see and do during the day and night, and it is definitely walkable from downtown to hotel. The things I noticed about Philadelphia is that, the bike lanes are on the left side. Also, there are a ton of ONE ways, which can cause “traffic” or makes traffic go slower. And there are still cobblestones on the streets. I also want to thank my job for letting me go to this conference – it is my first work travel ever! It was great meeting everyone from the conference.

As always, thank you for visiting Vivian’s Ventures. Have you been to Philadelphia? If so, tell me in the comments/reply section of your experience. What should I do there if I go back? (I’m planning to go back in the spring/summer, not the fall/winter seasons, to see the East State Penitentiary). If you haven’t been, tell me what you are planning to do there. Any questions or comments, let me know. #viviansventures