The best things to do in Philadelphia right now

No city in the country comes close to Philly when it comes to Revolution-era history. We’ve got Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were hotly debated and signed, and the Liberty Bell in all its cracked-up-the-side glory, which rang in 1776 to alert citizens to the first public reading of the Declaration. Dive deeper into the fight for independence at the Museum of the American Revolution, which houses George Washington’s actual army tent, and learn all you need to know about the Constitution at the National Constitution Center. Not in the mood for museums? You can still get a feel for this city’s history by visiting Benjamin Franklin’s grave at Christ Church Burial Ground or strolling down oh-so-adorable—Elfreth’s Alley, America's oldest continuously occupied street. It looks just like it did back in the 1700s, with cobblestone streets and tiny thatch-roofed houses, some of which you can explore.

Reading Terminal (pronounced “Redding,” like Otis’s last name) is one of the country's oldest and largest urban markets, and it’s a true wonderland for all the senses. There’s no shortage of local, delicious things to eat here—from cheesesteaks and ethnic foods to ice cream and tons of farm-fresh produce. The Amish markets—open every day except for Sundays—are a particularly worthwhile draw with fresh-baked whoopie pies and pastries, cheese straight from the farm, and various canned pickled goodies. Beiler’s Donuts is a no-brainer stop, and Bassetts Ice Cream is the oldest ice cream company in America—and still magnificent after all these years.

The Delaware River waterfront is amid an exciting renaissance, with fun attractions popping up along the riverbank. Cherry Street Pier is one of the best. The long-abandoned Municipal Pier 9 was reborn five years ago as an artsy, mixed-use space. The site is outfitted with food stalls and a bar, allowing folks to have drinks and listen to live music while taking in the city’s best waterfront views. The pier especially comes alive on select weekends with the Artist and Artisans Market, which creates a bazaar-like atmosphere. Food trucks line up out front, and local farmers, artists, and antique dealers set up tables to sell their goods. Next door, Race Street Pier is a slick urban green space that beckons park lovers with an expansive lawn, ample seating areas, dozens of shade trees, and spectacular views of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge.

The Benjamin Franklin Parkway is the city’s most picturesque boulevard, modeled after Paris’ Champs-Élysées and stretching grandly from City Hall to the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA). Along the way, notice stately fountains, lovely patches of green space, and a collection of the city’s best museums. The Franklin Institute satisfies science nerds with tons of hands-on gadgetry—and a giant, walk-through heart—and the Academy of Natural Sciences puts you face to face with massive replicas of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creepy crawlies.

If you can’t go to Philly without doing the Rocky experience, we’ve got a game plan just for you: start your day with a selfie at the Rocky Statue at the base of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Then, turn the corner and jog to the top of the Rocky Steps, humming "Gonna Fly Now" along the way. Once at the top, turn around with your arms held high to take in the amazing view of Center City. Head to the Italian Market in South Philly, where you’ll recognize some authentic produce vendors from the movies. Finally, dinner is all about Victor Café, where several scenes from the Rocky spinoff, Creed, were filmed. A meal here is a fun experience, with the waitstaff, all trained opera singers, serenading you with arias sporadically throughout the night.

Breathtaking views draw big happy-hour crowds to this open-air bar on the rooftop of a former high school in South Philly. Its position on the tippy-top of the enormous building affords guests sweeping, panoramic views of Philadelphia from the south—from the Delaware River and all its iconic bridges to West Philly. The Center City skyline juts up in the middle, looking particularly dazzling—and almost cinematic—in the evening. When you're done ogling the scene, wander to the bar for an extensive rotating collection of beers, wines, and alcoholic seltzers. The culinary menu features rotating pop-ups, so keep tabs on the latest offerings to discover what's in store. Bok Bar is a seasonal affair, usually open during the warmer months from around May until the end of October. The rest of the mixed-use building, which includes the fantastic Irwin’s restaurant that shares the top floor with Bok Bar, is open all year.

Fishtown is the reigning It neighborhood in the City of Brotherly Love and is often (like other up-and-coming 'hoods around the globe) slapped with the moniker "the Brooklyn of Philadelphia." The surrounding area can be a bit rough around the edges. Still, the grittiness is interspersed with gleaming cafes, art galleries, and some fancy eateries, like the James Beard Award winner Kalaya. The easy access off the Market-Frankford elevated line makes it an ideal spot for tourists who want to see a different, more neighborhoody side of Philadelphia. Get a room at the ultra-hip Wm. Mulherin’s Sons boutique hotel and start exploring. The neighborhood is home to the flagship location of La Colombe, several breweries, and one the best indie-rock music venues in town, Johnny Brenda’s.

The toniest zip code in Philadelphia beckons travelers and locals alike with an array of stellar restaurants, happy hour spots, and shopping galore. Hit Walnut Street, from Broad to 19th streets, for Philly’s closest thing to New York City’s 5th Avenue. The promenade has shops to fit every budget, like Anthropologie, L'Occitane and others. Not in the mood to shop? Most people come here for the people-watching alone. Plop down on a bench in gorgeous Rittenhouse Square or nab an outdoor seat at French bistro Parc to ogle all the fashionable passersby.

You can’t come to Philadelphia without trying a cheesesteak sandwich, and, lucky for you, your options here are nearly limitless. Trips to Pat’s and Geno’s, two of the most hyped-up gridders in the game, don’t disappoint with their bona fide South Philly authenticity. In other words, you don’t come here just to eat. Located at the intersection of 9th Street and Passyunk Avenue, "Cheesesteak Vegas" is decked out in so much pulsating neon signage that you could probably see it from space. Is it touristy? Hell yes. Will you get a decent sandwich? Sure, and maybe some good ol’ Philly smack talk to go with it.

The Delaware River waterfront is abuzz all year, thanks to some attractions that bring food, drink, and carnival-like fun to the river banks. Spruce Street Harbor Park and Blue Cross RiverRink Summerfest hold things down in the warmer months with an outdoor roller rink, a floating beer garden, and hammocks hanging in twinkling light-strung trees so you can kick back and enjoy the festive scene. In the winter, it’s all about Blue Cross RiverRink Winterfest, with its open-air ice-skating rink, family-friendly games, and a massive chalet decked out with cozy fireplaces and eateries cranking out rib-sticking grub and booze throughout the season.

Thanks to Mural Arts Philadelphia, the city is home to the most extensive collection of outdoor public art found anywhere in the world. More than 4,000 official murals are decorating the streets of Philadelphia, including HOW and NOSM’s Personal Melody in Midtown Village and Legendary, the vibrant tribute to homegrown hip-hop group The Roots, at Broad and South streets. See these and more on a guided or self-guided Mural Arts Philadelphia tour. If pushed for time, hop on the Market–Frankford subway line from 46th to 63rd Streets for an elevated view of Stephen ESPO Powers’ "A Love Letter for You," a series of 50 murals painted on buildings throughout West Philly. The works are an urban love letter to the city.

The museum houses a curious collection of antique medical oddities, deformed organs floating in jars of formaldehyde, anatomical specimens, and wax models. You can ogle the 200-year-old liver of the famous conjoined twins Chang and Eng Bunker, look for marks of genius while staring at pieces of Albert Einstein’s brain and ponder the mystery of the famed “Soap Lady,” a local woman whose body was exhumed in 1875 after being encased in a bizarre soaplike fatty substance. It’s all a true feast for the eyes, but you might want to skip lunch.

Once the world’s most expensive prison, Eastern State Penitentiary is now a fascinating museum, charting nearly 150 years of criminal history. The imposing fortress closed its doors in 1971, but not before it housed renowned inmates like Al Capone and Slick Willie Sutton, who famously tunneled out in 1945. Guests can walk through the creepy halls and peek into the empty cells while listening to a Steve Buscemi-narrated audio guide. If you’re here in the fall—and brave enough—the facility turns into a monstrous haunted attraction called Halloween Nights, which offers multiple haunted experiences and a pop-up bar near Capone’s former holding cell.

World-class art-perusing awaits those who step inside the hallowed halls of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, one of the world's largest art museums. You could spend an entire day cruising the vast collection of artworks, running the gamut from world-famous paintings and sculptures to medieval architecture, textiles, and furniture. Among the masters on display are Picasso, Cézanne, Modigliani, Brancusi, Eakins, Kahlo and Duchamp.

Lace up your sneakers or rent a bike for a blissed-out journey along the Schuylkill River Trail, a 30-mile urban park that extends from Center City to Phoenixville. The trail meanders along the Schuylkill River, passing various public art works and several historic stone bridges towering over the water. During warmer months, you can catch outdoor movies, kayaking tours, and even free yoga along the path. There’s also a skatepark, where you can watch local boarders perform tricks throughout the year—or bring your own wheels to try some of your own.

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This one-mile diagonal strip that runs from Broad and Snyder to Washington Ave. is one of Philly’s most walkable streets. The stroll takes you past more than 60 restaurants, from some of the city’s finest dining to the bright lights of Cheesesteak Vegas. You can travel back through time at one end of the street by grabbing fresh mozzarella at Mancuso and Son, an Italian grocery that has been making cheese since 1939. At the other end, Milk Jawn serves small-batch ice cream with flavors like Mango Sticky Rice and Lemon Curd with Blueberry Basil Swirl. In between, there are record and reptile shops, and The Singing Fountain.

You can't miss this imaginative museum on South Street, with its facade plastered with bits of colored glass and shards, broken ceramics, and even bicycle wheels. The experience continues inside as you wind your way through mosaicked hallways and step into glistening courtyards. The labyrinthine museum is the product of the insanely creative mind of local artist Isaiah Zagar, who has contributed hundreds of mosaics throughout South Philadelphia. See how many you can spot while strolling around the area.

Compared to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the smaller Barnes Foundation offers a more downscale art-browsing experience but with just as much of a wow factor. The museum—a modern architectural marvel in itself—is home to one of the most renowned collections of French impressionist and post-impressionist paintings in the world. The galleries are lined with pieces by greats like Van Gogh, Picasso, Matisse, and Rousseau. The destination also holds the largest collection of Renoirs in the world, at a whopping 181 pieces, in addition to 69 Cézannes, which is more than you’ll find in one place in all of France, the artist’s country of origin.

Dinner at modern Israeli eatery Zahav, widely regarded as the number one restaurant in town, is an experience in itself—especially if you and your dinner guests opt for the tayim, a smorgasbord of small plates that will give you a taste of all the delicious flavors the restaurant is famous for.

What began as an informal gathering of Lao and Cambodian refugees has become a destination market for the Southeast Asian community to share their native cuisine, produce, jewelry and crafts. After decades of operating in quasi-underground fashion—a remnant from the early days, when the police often raided the party—the vendors formed an association in 2021. The market established a permanent home in a corner of the 348-acre park on South Broad St. The result is a culinary beacon for Philadelphians of all stripes to enjoy racks of skewered chicken wings, beef sticks, and papaya salad. The market is open on weekends between April and October.

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Philadelphia’s authentic German Christmas Market takes over the City Hall courtyard and LOVE Park each year between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve. Grab a piping mug of mulled wine and wander among more than 120 vendors offering handmade holiday gifts, ornaments, and arts and crafts. There’s a beer garden, of course, and the smell of bratwursts on the grill competes for your attention with the sight of waffles and gingerbread. With the city’s Christmas Tree on the north side of City Hall, the Rothman Ice Rink in Dilworth Park, and the light displays at Macy’s just a block away, the Christmas Village is the epicenter of Philly’s holiday experience.

Housing more than a million artifacts from across the globe, the Penn Museum, formerly known as the Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, is a veritable treasure trove of unfathomably old relics. For one thing, it boasts one of the finest Egyptian collections this side of the Atlantic, including a host of mummies and the museum’s pièce de résistance, a massive, 15-ton granite sphinx. Renovations also spotlight a renowned collection of Middle Eastern artifacts, which include bling worn by a Sumerian queen 4,500 years ago and the famed Ram-in-the-Thicket statuette.

The Rail Park—a long-unused railway line converted into an elevated urban park—still has a ways to go before completion, but it’s already rad enough to warrant a visit. Located in Callowhill, the completed quarter-mile section of the planned three-mile greenway is outfitted with trees, shrubbery, plenty of benches, public art, and massive swings to sit and take in the urban view. It’s particularly inviting at dusk when you can peep the sun setting over Philly and get a head-on view of Shepard Fairey’s cool The Stamp of Incarceration: James Anderson mural when it’s lit at night.

Tons of breweries scattered about Philadelphia have helped this city stake its claim as a front-runner on the American craft beer scene. As such, beer lovers will find no shortage of spots to sample locally crafted suds—from tasty and inventive IPAs to lagers and so much more. Starters should check out Yards Brewing Company’s massive brewery and taproom in Northern Liberties and have the bartender pour flights from the 20-plus tap draught line. Philadelphia Brewing Company operates out of the oldest and largest brewing facility in Philadelphia, churning out Philly-inspired brews, such as the Pennsylvania Pale Ale, Walt Wit, and seasonal varieties like the complex ale Rowhouse Red. If you like your beers experimental, head to Other Half Brewing in Fishtown for their full-bodied sours and pastry stouts.

If Philly is known for anything in the food-and-drink world other than cheesesteaks and pretzels, it’s the vision-blurring, throat-burning Citywide Special, a concoction that pairs a shot of Jim Beam with a Pabst Blue Ribbon chaser. You can find a Citywide at most bars in Philadelphia—some even offer high-end versions of the stuff—but you’ll want to try it where it originated: legendary South Street dive bar Bob & Barbara’s Lounge. Thursday nights are most fun as Miss Lisa Lisa hosts the city’s best—and one of its longest-running—drag shows.

When in Old City, sweets lovers can—and should—visit two of the historic area’s oldest dessert spots: Shane Confectionery and Franklin Fountain. Established in 1863, restored Victorian candy emporium Shane Confectionery fills its shelves with loads of chocolate truffles, taffies, fudge, candy bars, and more goodies—most of which are made following centuries-old recipes. A few doors down, the old-fashioned ice cream parlor Franklin Fountain keeps the sugar high going strong with delicious cones and indulgent sundaes boasting names inspired by Philadelphia history.

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More than 15,000 people go to work at the Navy Yard each day. But the 1,200-acre campus, which supports 150 companies, is also an underrated and undiscovered place to play. The former U.S. Naval Base at the southern tip of Broad St. is a haven for runners, bikers, and architecture enthusiasts. It features five parks, including the Riverfront Greenway, a one-mile running and walking path that curves along the Delaware River. The massive greenspace of the Marine Parade Grounds is ideal for a picnic, surrounded by historic barracks that date back more than 100 years. Closer to the water, explore the yard’s original dry dock, which has been lovingly restored to a park, and stand under the hulking bow of the decommissioned USS John F. Kennedy aircraft carrier.

When it comes to getting hype for their teams, Philadelphia sports fans are like none other in the world (yeah, even you, Bears fans). They’ve perfected the art of game-day shit-talking and have made headlines for crazy-pants antics. Watch them in all their glory by catching a game at the South Philadelphia Sports Complex, which hosts four of the city’s five pro teams: the 76ers and Flyers at the Wells Fargo Center, the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park, while Super Bowl LII champs the Eagles play at Lincoln Financial Field. Food and drink options are plentiful at nearby Xfinity Live! and Live! Philly Casino.

One of Philadelphia’s newest music venues isn’t really new at all. The long-shuttered opera house, The Met Philadelphia, opened in 1908 by Oscar Hammerstein’s grandfather, was renovated into a massive, 100,000-square-foot Live Nation entertainment complex that can hold 3,500 guests. The gilded hallways are home to no less than 12 bars.

Just northwest of City Hall, LOVE Park is home to one of the most iconic Philadelphia images: Robert Indiana’s vibrant LOVE sculpture. Snap a selfie in front of the artwork and enjoy the park, which serves as an entrance to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. It also includes green space, comfortable seating, and an understated fountain.