Philadelphia Travel Guide
For details of what to do and see in Philadelphia check out our Philadelphia guide to car hire in Philadelphia.
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The City of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia is historically one of the most important and places in the USA and noted as a major cultural centre with renowned galleries and museums as well as a thriving contemporary music scene that has produced many performers.
Visitors to the city find it a welcoming place with many attractions to entertain, including the Independence Park, and America's oldest zoo, but there is much more to Philadelphia than many visitors expect, including a thriving nightlife that spawned a unique music scene, and also the skateboard craze that swept the world.
Many of the most treasured sights in the city are in the Independence National Historic Park, where you can visit the Pennsylvania State House (now Independence Hall) where the Constitution, designing of the flag, and practically every important phase in the process of Independence took place. The beautiful Congress Hall is located nearby. The building was used as the seat of the nascent government between 1790 and 1800 when the city was the capital, and was where the Bill of Rights was agreed.
The city provided the gritty backdrop to the Sylvester Stallone movies about boxer Rocky Balboa, and to the Tom Hanks film Philadelphia and is the place to go to see the iconic Liberty Bell, rung when Colonel John Nixon historically declared the independence of the American Colonies from the British Empire in 1776. The bell has not been rung since 1846, but retains a shine from being stroked (naughtily) by visitors.
Philadelphia has some great places for a bit of retail therapy, and many people come each year to take advantage of the bargains that can be found, or just to soak up the atmosphere in the cosmopolitan city centre.
A quick trip up the coast from Philadelphia gets you to the crumbling Las Vegas by the sea called Atlantic City, once the most impressive gambling destination in the USA, but now a place which is like the Mick Jagger of resorts, still able to get it up when it counts, but quite clearly well past its prime.
There is still plenty for visitors to do in the city, large casinos still pull in the east coast punters with shows and slots, and the boardwalk is home to a few attractions including Ripley's Believe it or Not. Smugglers Cove is one of the few thriving areas, where new attractions include yet more casinos, and luxury hotels.
