Month: April 2016

We decided about a week before Spring Break to visit Philadelphia.  At that point, we were scrambling to find a hotel room for our trip.  The last time either my husband or I visited Philly was in our childhood, so we were unfamiliar with the size of the city or the locations of the various points of interest.  When perusing expedia.com and tripadvisor, the Holiday Inn Express (HIE) Penn’s Landing popped up with some of the most reasonable rates.  The hotel is conveniently located in the historic Old City on Christopher Columbus Boulevard, right off the highway.   We booked our room a week in advance directly via the hotel website and took advantage of their “Book Early and Save Price.”  This price was even cheaper than the AAA rate.  However, this rate is available only for those stays booked at least 7 days in advance and is non-refundable.  We were going to make it there no matter what!  After researching hotels we realized that almost all hotels charge for parking.  At the HIE Penn’s Landing, it costs $30 per night to park your car or $20 per day.  What ultimately sold us on this hotel was the free Express Start Breakfast and the free shuttle.

We left our house in Northern Westchester County, New York around 6:30 AM and with a couple of rest stops make it to Philadelphia around 9:30 AM.  We drove directly to the hotel and parked the car, but check-in was not available until 3 PM.  We walked from the hotel to the historic district and started our day.  We didn’t return to the hotel until close to 5 PM, when we checked in and relaxed in our room for a bit.

When you enter the hotel there is a fireplace and seating area, with the check-in desk to your left.  There is a decent size dining room with tables and chairs, as well as a separate Express Start Breakfast room with taller tables and stools.  (On a side note:  Sunday night it ended up raining and then snowing.  When we got back from dinner, a family was sitting in the dining area with some takeout Chinese food that they had ordered. I thought this was a great idea and great use of the dining room, instead of trying to eat in a hotel room!) The hotel also has a fitness room, which we didn’t visit.  The kids were disappointed that the hotel had no pool, but we were so busy, that they wouldn’t have had time to swim.  Plus, they were unaware that we were visiting Sahara Sam’s Oasis on the way home.

We reserved a two queen bed room, which we found to be spacious enough.  We were only staying for two nights, and in general we don’t need a lot of room (just more space for the kids to leave/lose their things!)  I especially enjoyed sitting in the corner arm chair and ottoman to read and the kids liked laying on the bed to watch television.

While I normally bring my own shampoo and conditioner, since this trip was so short I didn’t bother.  My daughter was super excited that the hotel had Bath & Body Works toiletries, since she’s a big fan of the store.

The Express Start Breakfast is served daily from 6 -10 AM.  This was one of the best staffed hotel breakfast bars that we have experienced.  The breakfast selection included hot items like sausage, bacon, eggs, western omelets, biscuits and gravy, and a pancake machine, cereal, bagels, toast, muffins, fresh fruit, yogurt, hard-boiled eggs and the kids’ favorite, cinnamon rolls.  There was also a juice machine and a coffee, tea and hot chocolate bar.  While eating, we saw a mix of people staying at the hotel including families, older couples and several school groups.

We used the free shuttle only once when headed to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  Our driver was super friendly and took us all the way out to the museum, even though they normally don’t drive out that far during morning and evening rush hour.  The driver was a great resource on food recommendations – ordering your cheese steak with cheez whiz is a tourist thing to do and a must-try at Reading Terminal Market is the pork sandwich with broccoli rabe and provolone (we had already eaten this before his recommendation!).  and the location of points of interest – where we could find the famous “Love” sign, though we didn’t get a chance to see it.

Overall, we were very happy with our stay at the Holiday Inn Express Penn’s Landing.

*This post was not sponsored by Holiday Inn Express.  We just had a great experience and wanted to share it!

This is the third post about our recent family trip to Philadelphia.  In the first post I wrote about our food finds at Reading Terminal Market.  In the second post I wrote about our 2-day itinerary of Philly with the kids.  Today, I sharing some of our additional foodie finds while on our visit.  Philadelphia is a great city for foodies and we barely sampled all of its great eats.  Which of course gives us reason to go back to visit!

Franklin Fountain:  The Stock Market Crunch – Located at 116 Market Street, the Franklin Fountain has been featured on television shows like Man vs. Food and Best Thing I Ever Ate.  Although it was established in 2004, this ice cream parlor has the look and feel of times past, with the “soda jerks” dressed in “old-timey” garb.  The four of us shared “The Stock Market Crunch” sundae, which consists of rocky road ice cream, peanut butter sauce, salted pretzels, whipped cream and a Bordeaux cherry.  For $11, it was definitely worth it!  Please note, this is a cash only operation.  Although we were there on a pretty cold and rainy day, the place was still crowded!

Cuba Libre – This restaurant, located on 10 S. Second Street, was walking distance from our hotel.  After a long day of walking through the historic district, we were looking for something close by but different.  We don’t get to eat Cuban food often.  We didn’t realize until sitting down that this restaurant is a chain.  We ended up ordering a couple of appetizers including Cuba Libre Chicharrones and Empanadas and some tapas including Grilled Baby Octopus, Coconut Crab Fritters and Bruschettas de Tostones.

Logan Square Pizza & Grill  – Instead of eating at the cafeteria-style Franklin Foodworks eatery at the Franklin Institute, we opted to walk to Logan Square Pizza.  This pizza place is located at 161 North 21st Street, just a short walk from the Franklin Institute.  They offer a variety of different specialty pizzas, sandwiches and other eats, including gyros and tacos.  Unfortunately, unlike most New York pizzerias, we couldn’t order specialty pizzas by the slice.  So, we ended up splitting a 16″ Margherita pizza.  While tasty enough, this was no New York pizza, in either taste, or size!  However, it was reasonably priced and in our opinion, much better than eating “cafeteria-style” museum food.

Nine Ting – I saw pictures of the Korean BBQ at Nine Ting on Instagram (#phillyeats) and had to go!  All you can eat Korean BBQ for under $30 a person.  That is just unheard of in New York for that price!  We had short ribs, chicken curry, corn, two types of steak, pork belly and pineapple, although there were lots of other bbq choices available.  We were just too stuffed to try them!  They have a make your own sauce bar and gave a small selection of banchan (small dishes).  Surprisingly, they didn’t give us kimchi!  If we ever visit again, we will have to try the hot pot!

T-Swirl Crepe:  Chocolate Nut Party – While we were walking to Nine Ting, we passed T-Swirl Crepe and both of the kids mentioned that they might want a crepe for dessert.  After stuffing ourselves with Korean BBQ, we stopped in to check out the crepes.  The crepes are made with gluten free rice flour and are made to order.  The kids chose Chocolate Nut Party, which is almond, crushed pistachio, chocolate gelato, chocolate truffles, chocolate sauce, whipped yogurt, chocolate custard cream, chocolate pearls and Pocky sticks.  There were so many tasty looking crepes (I’m looking at you Blueberry NY Cheeesecake!) and they serve both sweet and savory crepes.  The Chocolate Nut Party crepe was super delicious.  The crepe was about $7.   There are several T-Swirl Crepe locations in New York City, but we were super excited to learn that they will be opening up a T-Swirl Crepe right near my husband’s office in White Plains.

Vivi bubble tea – For those of you who aren’t familiar with bubble tea, it’s a Taiwanese tea-based drink, usually mixed with fruit or milk, in which tapioca balls or fruit jellies are added.  I am not a fan of bubble tea…(it’s a texture thing) but wandering through Chinatown, my son really wanted one.  He chose the peach ice jelly, which he shared with his sister.  We ordered the regular (smaller size) which cost about $4.  This is a franchise, with locations throughout the United States, including many in New York City.  The Philadelphia franchise is located at 145 N. 10th Street in Chinatown.

Sonny’s Famous Steaks – Located at 228 Market Street, we stopped here on our last night since we hadn’t had a cheesesteak yet, and I wasn’t leaving Philly without having at least one!  We ordered a Cheesesteak with provolone and grilled onions.  Hand-sliced rib eye on a sub roll, topped with melted provolone and sweet, grilled onions…..deliciousness all for just $9!  The four of us split one and enjoyed it.  We were full from our dinner earlier, but all had room for this sandwich.