Trip Planner

Isabella and Lauren’s guide to Philadelphia

Activities:

• Mutter Museum - medical history and science museum located in the Center City 

• Magic Gardens- folk art environment, and gallery space on South Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Philadelphia Art Museum- pay what you wish first Sunday of the month and every Friday 17:00-20:45
  •  Behind the museum is the Schuylkill river, a great spot for a picnic and to watch the sunset over West Philadelphia, and walk along the Schuylkill River Trail
• Barnes Foundations- one of the world's great collections of modern European paintings
• Mural Arts Tour
• Go to a concert at The Fillmore, Franklin Music Hall, or Theater of the Living Arts
• Explore South Street (between 2nd and 11th street).
• Haunted tour of the Eastern State Penitentiary
• Spruce Street Harbor Park- penns landing area, lots of drinks and food and hammocks
• Go climbing at The Cliffs (best climbing gym in philly, top ropes and bouldering) or Tufas (only bouldering)

Historical sites:

• City Hall
• Independence Mall
• Liberty Bell
• Betsy Ross House
• Christ Church Burial Ground
• Elfreth’s Alley

Transportation

• Train
  • Philadelphia is well connected to local suburbs as well as major cities such as NYC, DC and Baltimore via Amtrak train
• Subway and trolley
  • Run fairly frequently and can take you across the major areas in the city
  • May have to supplement with buses
• Car
  • Driving is an easy way to get around, but beware traffic during rush hour and expensive parking throughout the city
  • Uber pricing is reasonable in Philly compared to other cities and is an easy way to get around at night
• Biking
  • Generally unsafe, do not recommend 

Areas to stay:

• Rittenhouse Square
• Old City

Places to eat:

Breakfast

• • Korshak bagels: best bagels in Philly
  • Sabrina’s café 
  • row home coffee: pretzel breakfast sandwiches
  • Ants pants: Australian/American Brunch 
  • TBD (The Breakfast Den): Vietnamese/Western influence 
  • Twenty St bakery: pastries 
  • Mighty Bread- amazing bread and breakfast/lunch items
  • Machine Shop - Amazing pastries and coffee

Lunch and Dinner

• • Fiorella 
  • Carina Trattoria
  • Two Robbers: Burger and Hard Seltzers - Fishtown
  • LMNO
  • Tuna bar 
  • Pizzeria Beddia 
  • Sally Pizza: Sourdough pizza and best red pie with Burrata ever 
  • Angelos 
  • Ishkabibles 1: Cheesesteak 
  • South Philly Barbacoa
  • Reading terminal 
  • DiBruno Bros
  • Goldies- get the Tahini shake
  • Dim Sum Garden
  • Wawa
  • Middle Child
  • Bok Bar - South philly rooftop bar, casual and rotating collaborations with Philadelphia restaurants
  • Dizengoff- hummus and pita 
  • Neighborhood Ramen- Ramen and noodle bowls during the summer
  • South Philly Barbara- Casual Mexican, all house-made

Happy Hour

• • Harp and crown: bar and lounge 4-7pm
  • Giuseppe and sons: monday-Friday 4-6pm
  • Sampan: daily 4-7pm
  • El Rey: Monday- Friday 4-6pm
  • Izakaya Fishtown: Monday- Friday 4-6pm
  • Superfolie/Le Caveau- Wine bar (same owners different parts of Philly)

Bars and Clubs

• • McGillins old ale house 
  • Drinkers
  • Blind barber 
  • U-bahn 
  • Morgan’s Pier 
  • Frankford Hall
  • Garage 
  • Concourse
  • Noto
  • Vesper 
  • Voyeur 

Coffee and Dessert

• • Jiggy Coffee
  • Weckerly’s Ice Cream
  • John’s Water Ice
  • Federal Donuts- Fancy donuts, famous in Philly
  • Milk Jawn- ice cream!

Ray’s guide to New York City

New York New York by a non native New Yorker

Classic museums to go to 

MoMA (midtown, just south of central park)
Museum of Natural History (Upper West Side)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Upper East Side)
Guggenheim (Upper East Side, about eight blocks North of the MET)

These can be challenging to get to with subways on a day trip but if you like museums and walking they are all located very close to central park and it's very walkable to do a couple of these in a day! The museum of natural history and the MET are basically on the exact opposite sides of central park, just the west and east side respectively. I love the MET. I went a lot as a kid and it’s still one of my favorite places to walk around. MoMA is the furthest south but it’s very close to Rockefeller Center if you want to do a more midtown focused day (like visiting Times Square or going to a Broadway show) Sometimes museums will have discount tickets if it’s a certain day and some are pay what you like but ultimately won’t be too expensive!

If you like spicy food and go to the MET one of my all time favorite NY places is Xi’An Famous Foods, they do hand pulled noodles with mala spicy sauce on top. I try to get something from there every time I’m home and they have a few locations so if you’re more in the Downtown areas you might still be close by!

If you want to see a show on Broadway but aren't sure which you’d see, Broadway roulette is a company that books out seats in random shows. You input the seats needed along with some criteria for the show (Broadway vs off Broadway, musical vs play, a select number of shows you absolutely do NOT want to see) or you can go completely random and be surprised!

For shows my recommendations are Hadestown and Shucked! I've not seen this staging since it opened after I moved but Merrily We Roll Along is a Sondheim show currently running with a really incredible cast! 

I think most of Downtown Manhattan is a great walk and you can hit a lot of interesting neighborhoods! 

 If you start at Hudson Yards you can walk along that all the way to Chelsea for shopping or some food. Chelsea market is a great indoor food and shopping stop, they have an oyster bar inside with happy hour oysters and I have absolutely gone there for a quick break before dinner. If you leave Chelsea and go east you’ll be at madison square park. That’s where the Flatiron building is and if you take broadway south you’ll be at union square park. There’s usually something going on there but they have farmers markets there monday, wednesday, friday, and saturday with vendors that also have baked goods and local produce! From there keep following Broadway down to Noho then Soho! Noho has a lot of food and soho has the clothes. Break off from Broadway in Soho if you like shopping! Some of the best shops, in my opinion, are on the streets parallel to it and will probably have less people in them because they're smaller boutique styles.

Sunrise Mart in Soho is a great stop for a quick snack. They have a deli in the back for tonkatsu and ramen or you can grab an onigiri and a drink then keep it moving! They also have a location at Bryant Park (where there are also summer vendors and live shows at night!) if you need a break on the east side! 

 One of my long time places to go for dessert is Rice to Riches its a bit east of SoHo and is rice pudding prepared and served kind of like an ice cream shop. Coast to coast cheesecake with espresso crumble on top is my go to 🙂

Finish in Little Italy or Chinatown (they’re right next to each other and just south of Soho). We always did dinner in Chinatown then went to Little Italy for cannolis or gelato as dessert. Just follow your nose and/or the crowds for food in Little Italy they’re pretty much all stellar. If you want a sit down dessert and coffee place you can’t really go wrong with caffe palermo. It’s really popular and have the best sfogliatelle but are famous for cannolis! 

If you’re with a big group that eats a lot, hotpot would be my recommendation for food. Hometown Hotpot is right where Chinatown borders Little Italy on Grand St and is all you can eat so eating with a crowd is easier. 

Groups of 3-6 is a perfect number for Korean bbq. Korea town (Ktown) has the best options and my favorite is Baekjeong for kbbq in the city. It’s a little bit more expensive and isn’t all you can eat but the combo meals are really filling and with the side dishes it comes with it can probably feed 5-7 people comfortably depending on which size you get and how much y’all eat! For not bbq Korean food I usually go to Hanbat, again for Koreatown just follow the crowds and they’ll lead you somewhere good! If you’ve been walking around and want something to cool you off, a dish called Naenmyeon is a cold noodle soup and is a great refresher, there are also variations of spices and different proteins!

Koreatown is a good dinner location if you’re  checking out Times Square! It’s pretty close by and while still busy it is not as crowded. On the way is Bryant Park, a great stop to sit down and hang out for a bit, and the Empire State Building.

Mia’s guide to Boston

• Boston Common/Public Gardens (swan boats, cheese/meat picnic from Kured)
• Charles River Esplanade (walk along for any amount of time)
• Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum (rich lady w/ lots of cool art/beautiful house, was heisted)
• Newbury Street (long street with lots of shopping and restaurants)
• Freedom Trail (self guided or can find tours of historical sites throughout Boston)
• Harvard Art Museum (never been but heard it’s cool)
• Boston Tea Party Museum and Tea time (also never been but looks neat)
• Beacon Hill Books and Cafe (cafe books out so far in advance for tea time but the bookshop is cool)
• Fenway Park (for a game or they do tours, it’s a cool old stadium if you’re into that kind of thing)

Restaurants:

• • The Friendly Toast (good brunch, a couple locations)
  • The Paramount (Beacon Hill for brunch, haunted?)
  • Cafe Landwer (Back Bay, brunch)
  • Lolita (Back Bay)
  • Krasi (Back Bay, amazing Mediterranean style food)
  • Modern Pastry Shop (pastries, North End)
  • Saltine Girl Seafood Bar (Back Bay, not been but heard it’s good)
  • Earls Kitchen + Bar (Back Bay, inside Prudential Center but it’s good)
  • Citrus + Salt
  • Panza (North End)
  • Neptune Oyster (North End, never been but it’s famous I think)
  • Bovas Bakery (North End, good for late night bites too)
  • Ma Maison (Beacon Hill)
  • Tora Ramen (Chinatown)
  • Hei La Moon (Chinatown, dim sum)
  • Viale (Central Square, Cambridge)
  • The Mad Monkfish (Central Square, Cambridge)
  • Buttermilk and Bourbon (good southern type food)