City Guide: Philadelphia

Level 3 - Virgin DeFi Analyst

Welcome Avatar! During one of the Instagram lifestyle Q&As, someone mentioned we haven’t been doing these as frequently. Since we’re in a short lull period before ETF launch, going to take the time to cover: Philadelphia.

Before you laugh, since this is a free post, it is actually quite close to being a livable area. In fact, if you have a certain personality type, you might like it. We’re not in that camp and can’t recommend it beyond a visit but as you’ll see there are some plus points to being in Philly. Mainly? No competition.

Part 1: Overview

Philadelphia is a major city but not seen as Tier one like a NYC or Los Angeles. The population is huge and the weather is similar to a place like NYC.

As you can see we’re already quasi trolling. You’re told “never compare” Philadelphia to NYC. There is some sort of fake city to city competition. Similar to how Boston baseball fans hate NY Yankee fans.

The reason for this is that the mirror is just a reflection. Philadelphia and NYC have a ton in common. The difference is as follows: 1) Philadelphia doesn’t have the fashion/style aspect of NYC, 2) there are less places to go in Philadelphia - naturally, 3) the vibe tilts a bit to Washington DC in a lot of areas due to the long history in the city and 4) it is cheaper.

The Good

People are 100% willing to party in the right spots. If you’re trying to avoid the uptight neutral vibe of Washington DC there are certainly good spots in Philadelphia. Anyone saying otherwise is simply lying (or weird/socially awkward). The food is pretty underrated. While we wouldn’t be eating more than 1 Philly Cheesesteak during your stay, there are a ton of good spots spanning the entire range of cuisines (Europe, Asia, American etc.). Note: just eat the heavier stuff on the day you’re going to do large amounts of sight seeing.

High Concentration of Sight Seeing: Philly is great for a 4 day weekend because you can see practically everything in a short trip (if well organized). You can check out the museums, Liberty Bell and Independence Hall within 1-2 days pretty easily. While you do need about 2 days to make it less hectic, you’re not traveling all over the city from a major hotel.

The Bad

The options are limited compared to a place like NYC. The areas you want to be in are largely sandwiched between two worse off sections to the north and south. We’re sure there are some amazing suburbs and things like that but that doesn’t really apply for city living.

Dirty/Slower: There is a joke that it should be called “Filth-adelphia” due to how dirty the city can get. If you avoid huge street events/gatherings, the city is rarely crazy dirty. Unless you want to go to the bad areas of town (which once again doesn’t apply).

It is also much, much, much slower. While the good spots are jam packed like a NYC club, the general pace is much slower. As mentioned, there is no real fashion vibe in the city (no luxury good stores) which means the foot-traffic is directionally slower.

Part 2: The Map

Purple: Starting dead center this is generally where you want to be. The square is probably too big but there are really two options: Four seasons and Ritz Carlton. Pains us to say this but the Ritz is not worth it. The facilities/rooms are pretty run down and the only thing nice about it? The drinks dead center in the lobby and how packed it can get. Lots of easy ways to meet people but the rooms are simply not good. Beyond that, the only reason you might end up here is due to location and not wanting to drop the extra $$$ on the Four Seasons.

Four seasons is ideal. The roof top restaurant is extremely nice and the food is great. The habanero fried chicken is great (not sure if still serving) along with all of their salads. All of the items are good but that’s one we’d recommend simply because its different.

You can also hang out at the bar section and try to meet people. There is a high concentration of Russians that come by for some reason as well (alright alright everyone knows why that is).

Dark Blue: This is where you’ll be going for the major of the sight seeing stuff that isn’t a short uber or walking distance from your hotel. Our recommendation is that you decide to eat one of the Philly Cheesesteaks then go and see all the museums. This way you can burn the 2,000+ calories you will inevitably consume by walking a bunch.

If you like the major NYC museums you’ll enjoy the Philly Museum of Art. If you’re into European paintings the Barnes museum is another winner. Overall, these are extremely good museums and would recommend them to anyone. Lots of museums are hit and miss but Philadelphia is big enough to command high quality art.

Also. It is simply un-American to avoid the Rocky statue. The USA is the easiest place in the world to make your own Rocky Movie.

Red Square: This is the nightlife area. We’re sure it all changes but if you keep your pulse on the nightlife it’ll be 1) near your hotel - Rittenhouse Square or 2) it’ll be somewhere near the Red square. Yes the red square is ambiguous because it has everything from strip clubs to bars to night clubs to other hotels like the Kimpton.

You could theoretically stay at the Kimpton, the problem is that you’ll either get alcohol poisoning or you’ll be too lazy to go see the museums etc. Maybe a good idea for someone 25 years old and still in YOLO mode. One of the frogs/slimes on Twitter likely fits this definition.

We forgot the name of what is likely the best place on the right night: Vinyl. While we’re confident the Philly natives are going to know a few other spots that are “better” for locals but this spot is pretty much where you want to be if visiting.

We’re not sure what the night is like every weekend and like any place on earth we’re sure it has bad nights. The set up is pretty ideal though with small amounts of bottle service, jam packed and easy to get drinks as they have waitresses walking around taking orders on their phones/devices.

Others: Outside of this you can decide to take a slower approach by starting at the Four Seasons roof top bar, the Kimpton roof top bar/lounge or even the entry bar area at the Ritz if you are staying there. Then you can hop around this red area. If you’re more of a bar type person within 3-5 mins (walk/uber) you can go and find everything from dive bars to latin music (yes surprisingly everything is available). For someone here though we would just stick with Vinyl/Four Seasons depending on the vibe and hit up the BowTiedJungle (people in that comments section) for other ideas.

Part 3: General Game Plan

As stated probably best for about 4-5 days depending on what time you arrive. Would spend say Thursday going to the main museum stuff and tacking one some sort of dinner or nightlife activity. If you want a nice Italian place Vetri is a good one, its a longer sit down place. Don’t bother going here if you plan on drinking the day before.

Friday/Saturday you can do some of the close by sight seeing items like the Liberty Bell and tag those nights for going out.

Sunday you can finish it all off with the rest of the museums/sight seeing around Rittenhouse and maybe do a (gasps) sportsball or concert. Naturally move these around based on when the event is.

After that you should be pretty good and have an understanding of the vibe/feel of the city. If you decide to go in the middle of the Winter? It will suck.

Assuming you are somewhat organized you can go during the higher tourist season and simply reserve all your plans in advance. If you want to try and get a feel for the actual culture, then you probably want to aim at the Fall season. Avoids the tourism, isn’t complete death and usually has a lot of concerts/sportsball (major city benefit)

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Summary

Since they say Philadelphia is nothing like NYC, that means the exact opposite. You know based on that animosity alone there are a lot of parallels but it is just slower and not on that level. It’s a great city to visit despite the hate it gets online (if you go to the nice areas!) and we could see some niche personalities liking it overall (slower than NYC vibe).

Another plus is that the people are much softer than NYC. You don’t need thick skin to meet people easily.

Only comments/questions relate to Philly please! Others will be deleted.

Disclaimer: None of this is to be deemed legal or financial advice of any kind. These are *opinions* written by an anonymous group of Ex-Wall Street Tech Bankers and software engineers who moved into affiliate marketing and e-commerce.

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