Visit Philadelphia

Philadelphia, a fantastic city for any tourist, I cannot express enough just how much Philadelphia has to offer, great restaurants, culture, city parks and superb shopping facilities, having been to this city on three occasions, my wife and I have enjoyed every minute and we cannot wait to go back.

There is plenty of hotels to choose from, we can recommend the Radisson Warwick Plaza, just oposite Little Pete's, a real American style diner which serves great breakfast in the morning, and reasonable priced meal in the evening, Little Pete's is open 24 hours a day and here you can sit and watch the real American life as it passes you by.  On the other side of the block is Beliini's a bring your own bottle italian restaurant where the food is superb and we can honestly say were we have had one of the best meals ever.  The Hotel is also just around the corner from Rittenhouse Square, a beautiful park in the city, surrounded by bistro's and shopping facilities.

For those of you who feel energetic, why not run up the very steps Sylvester Stalone did during the movie 'Rocky'.  For those of you who are not too energetic there are plenty of daytime events to choose from.  For a small fee $2 per trip or $5 all day unlimited pass, you can jump on the Phlash Trolly bus  which stops at 27 great destinations around the city including The Please Touch Museum, Philadelphia Zoo, Penns Landing, City Hall Visitors Centre, The National Constitution Centre, The Liberty Bell Centre, The Independence Centre and many others.

Reading Terminal Market is superb for a lunchtime visit, not only will you find a fantastic range of vendors from bakeries, beverages, dairy & cheese, farm stands from the Lancaster Hamish community, there is also a great range of restaurants you can eat at throughout the market, we recommend you try the oriental vendors, the food is great.

There is so many other things about Philadelphia, I could write in here, but I really don't want to spoil the surprise, Visit Philadelphia next time your in the USA, you won't be disappointed.

Visit my website at www.usatouristguide.co.nf

The USA is more than Just Florida

As a Brit, I hear a lot of UK travellers who go on holiday to the USA only visit Florida when the USA has so much to offer.  My wife and I have visited the USA on nine occasions so far and hope to do many more.  I understand why people choose Florida and its mainly down to the theme parks and the fact they take Children and I know entertaining children is a task in itself, especially when on holiday, but there are still other choices, such as Chicago, Boston, New York, Philadelphia and many other great cities.

Personally we always book flight only, hire a car and book a hotel for our first night only.


BOOKING FLIGHT ONLY

Every year my wife and I trawel the internet looking for the best prices for 'flight only' and we prefer to book direct flights.  Although we often have a destination city in mind we are often pursuaded by the flight costs at the time we travel.  Strangely, this is actually very good, since we have chosen places to visit that we might not have done.  Having searched many of the websites, we have always found the best price for direct flights seems to appear on www.expedia.co.uk (we are not advertising on behalf of Expedia).


BOOKING A HOTEL


Now our destination has been set, we strongly recommend you forget the hire car for the first night and book a hotel.  Book somewhere local to the airport, preferably a hotel that offers a free shuttle service, so they can pick you up from the airport and drop you back off the following morning to collect your car.  Many hotels, local to the airport will offer free shuttle services, remember you've had a long flight getting to the USA, the last thing you really want to do is jump in a car and tackle the USA roads, unless you've done it before and are experienced.  There are many ways to book your hotel too, have a look at Expedia again and hen compare the price against other website and also compare the price against what the hotel offers direct.  Sometimes you can get a better deal booking direct.  If you only book one night and your flight is cancelled or delayed, then you don't lose too much.


BOOKING A HIRE CAR

Having booked our flight and hotel and knowing our destination, the next step is to search for car hire, there are plenty of choices on the internet and I recommend picking your car up from a reputable dealer such as Dollar, Avis, Budget, Europcar etc, we have always used Dollar and found them to be excellent, with the exception of one instance.  Again I can recommend www.netflights.com (we are not advertising on behalf of netflights) as we haev always found them reliable and have had no issues, besides being good prices compare to others offering similar services.


[TOP TIP] Only book your hire car for the day after you arrive and collect it from the airport, this way you will get a good nights rest at your hotel prior to driving, in addition you will be more alert and have more time exaining the car prior to taking it away.

We will place other blogs on here about places to visit and what we recommend to see and do.


Have a Great Holiday
David Parkes

Visit my website at www.usatouristguide.co.nf