PHILADELPHIA ITINERARY
This is a brain dump of how to maniacally see all of Philadelphia in two days (it assumes you are staying in Manayunk - I prepared this as a guide for people staying at our place through Airbnb):
 
PHILADELPHIA WHIRLWIND DAY ONE
You’ll want to time your morning to coincide with the opening of Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell, Philadelphia’s two “Must See” attractions.  Independence Hall has time entry tickets that may be reserved in advance.  Reserving the first time available has two benefits: the first group in has Independence Hall to themselves and second, for the rest of the day your trip you'll have the flexibility to go with the flow, wherever the path takes you.
 
Breakfast Options
  • Down Home Diner – near Jefferson Train Station, located in Reading Terminal Market and you can order Philadelphia classics like scrapple and pork roll.  Most of the other vendors in Reading Terminal Market do not start operating until 11am, however, Beiler’s Dounts, a very popular place, will be open and should not have a long line early in the morning
  • Middle Child – a newer place with great reviews and Philly “themed” sandwiches like the Herschel Walker, which is a beast
  • Green Eggs Café – another place that is very, very popular on the weekends
  • High Street on Market – operated by Eli Kulp, who has received James Beard nominations, albeit for Fork, the restaurant next door; the food is a little rich
  • FRIEDA – a popular and well rated French café, no Philly side dishes, more cafe than dining, food's a little rich here too
  • Wawa – there’s a new, giant Wawa at the corner of 6th and Chestnut - a soft pretzel for breakfast is a Philadelphia power meal
 
Historical Area Sites
  • Independence Hall
    • Reserve your tickets online in advance:
    • Tickets are collected at the Independence Visitor Center on the NE Corner of 6th and Market BUT you need to show up on the 5th Street side of Independence Hall 15 minutes before your tour starts – the tour lasts an hour
    • The tour of Independence Hall focuses on two rooms, a court room and the Signer’s Hall.  The tour typically heads to the court room first.  If you are on the first tour of the day, and you want a great photo of Signer’s Hall, head across the hallway and snap away.   Franklin's table is the one with the ink well and quill.  Zoom in on the chair in the center of the room - that is where Washington sat.  The chair has a half sun, which Franklin believed was a rising, not a setting sun, in reference to the birth of the U.S.
  • Liberty Bell
    • No tickets.  No admission fees.  Just follow the line.  
  • Other Historical Sites in the immediate vicinity
    • Washington Square – the park to the southwest of Independence Hall served as a Revolutionary War cemetery; there’s a flame and a statue of George Washington
    • First and Second U.S. Bank – literally the first and second U.S. Banks (open on weekdays only)
    • Carpenter’s Hall – held the First Continental Congress in 1774
    • Merchant Exchange Building – a fancy building on a cobblestone street
    • You can pass these sites on the way to the Museum of the American Revolution, instead of walking along Chestnut Street, walk along the path in the park behind these buildings  
  • Constitution Center and Museum of the American Revolution
    • These two museums are not affiliated with the U.S. National Parks system and are privately operated, thus they have admission fees of $15+.  The coolest part of the Constitution Center is a Signer’s Hall room on the second floor that has life size statues of all the signers of the U.S. Constitution.  It’s very Instagrammable.  The Museum of the American Revolution has George Washington’s tent, otherwise the Museum is relying on recreations and presentations to tell the story of the Revolutionary War - lots of reading.  
  • In terms of “bang for the Historical buck” I think the following spots are a better value than the Constitution Center and Museum of the American Revolution:
    • Franklin Court – site of Ben Franklin’s house and workshop, you can spend an hour here learning about Philadelphia’s favorite son, there's also a  working printing press recreation
    • Betsy Ross House - $5, 30 minute tour to learn about Philadelphia’s favorite daughter, even if she didn’t create the first flag
    • Christ Church – Ben Franklin had a pew here and other founding father’s (Washington, Adams, not sure about Jefferson) worshiped here when they were in town; Ben Franklin’s grave is visible from the sidewalk at Christ Church’s burial ground, around the corner and a block down at 5th and Arch
    • Elfreth’s Alley – oldest continuously habituated residential used street in the U.S.  The homes are all private residences.  Spend ten minutes taking photos.  
  • Science History Institute – I’m not saying to go here but I’ll point out that this is a tremendous museum with more information on chemicals than you would ever want to know; There are several Philadelphia area companies, most notably DuPont, that were at the forefront of the chemical industry; hence this museum’s placement; free museum with a suggested cash donation;  it is the highest rated museum in the historical area…I’m still not saying to go there, I’m just saying it’s an amazing museum  
  • National Museum of American Jewish History – a recently opened and well-done Museum chronicling the American Jewish experience, it takes about an hour to visit
 
Lunch Options
  • The Bourse Food Hall – the closest dining option to Independence Hall; in 2019 this place changed from a dumpy food court / tourist trap catering to students on school trips to a fancy pants hipster food hall.  The quick, best value option.
  • Independence Beer Garden – this place can get rocking
  • Old City’s 2nd Street Corridor – this is more of a weekend drinking district but there’s still lots of decent restaurants on 2nd Street like The Continental Diner (Stephen Starr’s first outpost) and Cuba Libre. 
    • An interesting option is City Tavern, which has been restored and serves the cuisine that Washington, Franklin, and Jefferson would have ate when they dined here.  John Adams called it the “most genteel tavern” in America.
    • Most of the other top-rated restaurants in this area (Zahav, Amada, Buddakan, The Olde Bar, etc.) are not open for lunch.
  • Reading Terminal Market – you will want to visit this place at some point but if you are following this itinerary, I’d wait until the second day
  • Spruce Street Harbor Park – Philadelphia’s preeminent Beer Garden and I imagine it’s most Instagrammed location; it opened in 2015 and is still going strong; slight detour as it’s a ten minute walk from the edge of the Old City area and a ten minute walk back to South Street
 
A Long and Winding Afternoon Walking Tour Part One
  • If you are on 2nd, 3rd, or 4th Street…walk to South Street.  If you aren’t on these streets, get to 2nd Street and zigzagging south - the 2nd through 4th Streets of Pine and Spruce are the most beautiful urban streets in America (my opinion).  2nd Street is the most interesting walk south but you'll miss some of Pine and Spruce.  At Walnut Street you will need to walk up a hill and through an I.M. Pei designed condo complex.  At Pine Street you will hit Headhouse Square, an historical market place, that has a small Farmer’s Market on the weekends.  
  • South Street has always been a major Philadelphia shopping destination.  My Grandmother remembers driving in from the suburbs to shop for fabric over 50 years ago.  There’s an Orion's song from 1963 hailing South Street as “The Place to Be”.  In the 1990s it was a counter culture, hippy sort of place.  As of 2019 the shopping district has “grown up” – there’s a Whole Foods and higher-end restaurants.  
  • Walk South Street East to West – the South Street “experience” starts at 3rd and South.  Jon’s Bar (now closed) was the birthplace of Larry Fine and there’s a large mural commemorating that history.  Jim’s Steaks at 4th and South has, in my opinion, the best cheesesteaks in Philadelphia.  If the line isn’t around the corner, I’d stop, even if you just ate lunch.  The sandwiches are on the relatively small side. 
  • Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens – one man’s trash, becomes another man’s artwork, becomes one of Philadelphia’s quirkiest attractions - popular with the younger crowd.
 
A Long and Winding Afternoon Walk Part Two
  • From South Street walk south along the 9th Street Corridor – this is one of my favorite walks in the city.  You will pass the Palumbo Recreation Center, Ralph’s Italian (the oldest restaurant in Philadelphia [I think])…once you reach Christian Street you will be in the Italian Market Area.  The Italian Market is the oldest outdoor, continuously operating market in the United States.  The southern boundary is Federal Street. 
    • Beyond the outdoor stalls there’s also some great stores in the Italian Market
      • DiBruno’s – a specialty cheese shop
      • Fante’s – a kitchenware shop
      • All sorts of butchers and bakers
    • The area is also a hub for Mexican immigrants and correspondingly has two of the best Mexican restaurants in the city: Blue Corn and South Philly Barbacoa.  Blue Corn has the more extensive menu but South Philly Barbacoa’s chef has been nominated for a James Beard Award.  She has also been featured on Netflix’s Chef’s Tales. Her story of illegally crossing into America is by far the show's best episode.
      • South Philly Barbacoa has limited hours (Saturday through Monday), long lines, and sells out fast.  If you really want to eat here, I’d start the day here and eat the lamb tacos for breakfast.  Then Uber to your next destination.  
  • 9th and Passyunk – the site of Pat’s and Geno’s, Philadelphia’s most famous cheesesteak purveyors.  Pat’s is the original, less messier, and usually the short line of the two.  It’s worth checking these two places out at night when their neon lights are all lit up. 
    • Less than 100 feet south of Pat’s is the Percy Street Project, very Instagrammable street art of neon lights - but it needs to be dark to appreciate this street art
 
Dinner Options
  • Continue down Passyunk Avenue to Tasker Avenue.  There’s a square here that is the current epicenter of all “Best of Philly” dining.  Of the city’s top 50 restaurants, 15 are located within a block of this square.  The best restaurant is Laurel, which is a prix fixe French option and probably not what you are in the mood for after spending the past several hours walking through the city.  Plus you need to make reservations two months in advance.  Noord. Fond. Perla. Brigantessa. Stateside. ITV. Townsend.  These restaurants are all right here and very good.  Further down on Passyunk are Bing Bing Dim Sum, Sate Kampur, and Stargazy, which are equally amazing dining options at a more budget friendly price.
    • Hardena is a ten minute walk across Broad Street from this dining corridor.  It’s a hole-in-the-wall Indonesian buffet restaurant who’s chefs have also been nominated for James Beard awards.  I think the variety of food makes it a better option than South Philly Barbacoa.  The neighborhood is a little sketchy to the west but it’s a safe walk from East Passyunk.  You’ll get to see cars parked in the middle of Broad Street which may be South Philadelphia’s most defining feature.
  • Bok Bar is on the rooftop of a massive, eight story highschool that is being converted to commercial and office space.  It’s prominence in south Philly provides the best Philadelphia skyline views.  This places gets so packed on the weekends that they intentionally blast the music to get you to leave after a drink or two.
 
I’d Uber it back to the Jefferson Station area.  If you’ve just missed a train, grab a drink at McGillan’s Pub, the oldest, continuously operated bar in Philadelphia and one of the oldest in the country.  Or head back to Pat’s and Geno’s to see the neon lights; Ray’s Happy Birthday Bar is a good dive bar around the corner.  Or head to bars on 2nd Street.
 
PHILADELPHIA WHIRLWIND DAY TWO
This day focuses on the City’s Museum District, Business Center, and Rittenhouse Square, the city’s high-end residential and shopping area.  Plan on taking the train to Suburban Station.
 
Breakfast Options
  • Sabrina’s (the one on Callowhill Street) is a local chain with waits up to an hour on weekends.  There’s not a lot of options in this area after Sabrina’s.  Café Lift is good but only if you want to check out the Philadelphia Rail Park as this place is a bit out of the way.
  • OCF Coffee House if you are then heading to Eastern State Penitentiary
 
Museum District – the Philadelphia Museum of Art is the crown jewel of the city’s Franklin Parkway Museum Area (the Parkway has modeled after the Champs Elysees with the Art Museum to serve as the Louvre equivalent; the only thing missing is the shopping and the dining) and the ideal place to start.  I would definitely take an Uber from wherever you ate breakfast.  It’s a nice walk but it’s long and you won’t want to walk to the Art Museum AND walk back to the city center.  It’s better to just walk back with stops along the way.
  • The three museums in this area that visitors may find appealing are Eastern State Penitentiary, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and The Barnes Museum.  
  • Eastern State Penitentiary – if you plan on visiting this site, I’d head here before visiting the Art Museum.  I’ve always dismissed Eastern State as just being a jail and thinking what’s the attraction of a jail? The attraction is that this is one of the first jails in the U.S. where people were sentenced to serve time.  The museum chronicles the history of U.S. corporal punishment from the stocks to Eastern State to criminal reform today.  There’s an audio tour that takes an hour to complete.  
  • Philadelphia Museum of Art – the museum has a great collection of impressionist paintings and has one of Picasso’s Three Musicians paintings.  The Museum is probably more famous though for what’s on the outside – the steps that Rocky ran up while training for his big bout with Apollo Creed and the Rocky Statue at the base of those stairs.  It’s hard to believe but a movie prop may be the most famous artifact in the entire Museum District.  There was some controversy when the City moved the statue from the Stadium District to the Art Museum but one thing is for certain, everyone likes getting their photo with the statue.  
    • The Rodin Museum – a The Thinker statue sits outside the museum with 20+ lessor works inside.  I believe admission is included if you purchased a ticket for the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
  • The Barnes Museum contains Albert Barnes collection of impressionist and modern paintings.  Barnes was a turn of the 20th century multi-millionaire who traveled through Europe and scooped up Reniors, Cezannes, Matisses, and Picassos, BEFORE the artists were famous.  As a result there is a ridiculous amount of these artists paintings in the museum – 181 Reniors alone.  You will get tired of seeing Reniors.  There was a bit of controversy with this museum as well – this is the newest museum on the Parkway and the curators were hesitant to move the museum from Barnes’ suburban house but they had this amazing art collection that nobody saw because the house was a bit of a drive.  The compromise was creating a museum that is ultra modern on the exterior but still looks like a mansion from the 1920s on the inside.  Because the museum is set up like a mansion, the museum operates on timed tickets to avoid crowds.  If you want to visit, purchase your timed ticket in advance.  
  • The Philadelphia Library (Main Branch) – a grand building on the parkway that if you are walking past, its five minutes to pop your head in to see what public buildings looked like when the public actually spent money on public buildings.  
  • The Franklin Institute – this museum usually features the best national and international traveling exhibits…so when King Tut came to town, he was at the Franklin Institute; same with Bodyworks, the Terracotta Warriors, the Vikings, and other type of shows.  It was also the site of the NFL Draft.  The main foyer has a huge sculpture of Ben Franklin and every Philadelphia student has passed through the museum’s Giant Heart at least once in their life.  
  • The Academy of Natural Sciences – the first hall contains a dinosaur exhibit, although I learned while preparing this guide that the bones of most of the skeletons, including the T-Rex, are replicas.  I enjoyed coming here as a kid. I enjoy coming here as an adult.  I’m not sure it has much appeal to out-of-towners.
 
Lunch Options
  • Reading Terminal Market – perfect spot to stop today.  Highlight vendors include Tony Dinic’s (Food Channel named their Roast Pork the best sandwich in America and it’s close to living up to the hype), cannolis from Termini Brothers, ice cream from Bassetts.  Just follow the general rule…if there’s a line it must be good.  This place may seem touristy but Philadelphians are always flocking here.  I used to come here at least once a month when I was working six blocks away.  The only issue is finding a place to sit.
    • If you don’t eat here you will probably need to head south of Market street to hit more restaurants.  A second reason we would walk six blocks to eat here is that there wasn’t much in between.  The Comcast Center has a food court.
  • Chinatown is nearby, you’d need to walk past the Reading Terminal Market to get there, and has gone through a bit of a Renaissance in the past ten years.  A younger generation has come in and completely upgraded the dining and drinking scene.
 
Plus if you eat at Reading Terminal Market you are near the next area to visit:
 
City Hall Area
  • City Hall and Dilworth Park – When construction was finished in 1901 Philadelphia’s City Hall, at 548 feet tall, was the tallest building in the world.  Times have changed but the building is still the largest city hall in America and for comparisons sake its larger than the U.S. Capital building.  William Penn at 37 feet is the tallest statue on top of a building anywhere in the world.  You can take a tour of City Hall, however, my favorite viewing location is from one of the benches or chairs in Dilworth Park.  Philadelphia has long lacked a public space like Dilworth Park.  During the winter the park hosts an ice skating rink.  During the summer kids can run through the fountains.  Its turned into a point of civic pride.  
  • Love Park – diagonally across the street from City Hall is Love Park…which was a point of civic pride until the park was transformed from a fountain to blah.  There is a Love sculpture in the park.  
  • Masonic Temple – I highly recommend visiting this building, which looks like any old building from the outside but has decorated theme rooms on the interior.  There’s an Egyptian Theme, a Roman Theme, and others.  You may not think of this as a traditional attraction but all the founding fathers belonged to the Masons and this offers a glimpse into their “hidden society”.  This is the only attraction in this area with a timed entry – tours leave at set times every hour and a half or so.  
  • Comcast Center – Philadelphia is Comcast’s home town and the Company has constructed not one, but two state of the art towers.  The newer tower is home to the local NBC station and there is a highly anticipated Four Seasons hotel opening later this summer.  The hotel lobby is on the upper floors of the building and the renderings look spectacular – I predict it will become the most Instagrammed place in Philadelphia.
 
Rittenhouse Square
  • Rittenhouse Square has always been the City’s most affluent neighborhood.  Even in the dark days of Philadelphia, the Trading Spaces days of the 1960s through the 1980s, Rittenhouse Square has been a glamour area.  The best restaurants.  The best shopping.  The best houses.  
  • Mutter Museum – this museum is the one “attraction” in Rittenhouse and you will no doubt stumble upon this place via any Google search of “off the beaten path in Philadelphia” which means it shows up in so many searches, blogs, and guides that its no longer off the beaten path (which is why I recommended the Masonic temple).  Philadelphia has always had a thriving medical community so its no wonder we have a museum dedicated to medical oddities.  Just note that no photography is allowed inside.  
  • La Colombe – if you are a fan of coffee, you’ve likely heard of La Colombe.  With Intelligentsia, Stumptown, and Counter Culture it is one of the most established Third Wave Coffee roasters in the U.S.  It’s “original” location is at 19th and Sansom.  Grab a coffee here then head over to Rittenhouse Square.  
  • Walnut, Chestnut, and Sansom Streets – Walnut Street, specifically between 15th and 18th Street, has long been Philadelphia’s trendiest three block street.  Lately, the cooler and hipper restaurants have been opening along Chestnut and Sansom.  This area is as lively a corridor as there is in Philadelphia.
 
Dinner Options
  • Rittenhouse Square – you can’t go wrong anywhere along the Walnut, Chestnut, and Sansome Street corridor.  I mean you could.  Do a quick check on Google Maps first.  But really you can’t go wrong. 
    • Stephen Starr has a collection of 5+ restaurants within two blocks of Rittenhouse Square.  He is Philadelphia’s preeminent restaurateur and you can’t go wrong with any of his place.
    • Vernick is located at 20th and Walnut and competes with Zahav for the title of best restaurant in the City.  If you show up early you can probably grab a seat at the bar and still enjoy the full dinner menu.  
  • The southwest corner of Rittenhouse Square eventually leads to 20th Street which has a pocket of restaurants starting at Locust Street and going south for two blocks that feels like hip Brooklyn not hipster Brooklyn. Places like 20 Manning and Audrey Claire will make it feel like you’ve escaped the crowds to your secret place.
  • You could back track down a little further on Chestnut to 13th Street.  This intersection has no less than ten great restaurants within a block.  Vedge will totally change your mind on vegetarian food.
 
Or you could head completely out of the Rittenhouse area and visit a neighborhood I haven’t touch on yet.