10 Stops on the #ChoicePeoplePerson #VisitPhilly Tour
Thank you so much to Choice Hotels for hosting me for the #ChoicePeoplePerson #VisitPhilly tour!
Last weekend I had the chance to enjoy exploring Philadelphia, PA with Choice Hotels’ new “Ultimate People Person”, Andrea Fasano.
Choice Hotels created the Ultimate People Person role to celebrate the relaunch of their brand and to embody the company’s mission of bringing people together through travel and establishing in-person connections. Through her role as the Choice Hotels Ultimate People Person, Andrea will be spend July and August traveling the United States to attend Choice Hotels’ events, local festivals and attractions in an effort to connect with the local communities in Philadelphia, New York, Washington DC, Kissimmee, FL, Chicago, Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
Day 1
I met Andrea and Virginia of Mom In Love Forever on Friday morning at the Sleep Inn on Cherry Street in Philadelphia. Shortly after our arrival, we were out for the day with the Choice Hotels PR team for a day of sight seeing and eating. After living about 45 minutes away from Philadelphia for the last 11 years, I couldn’t believe I had never explored this great city. Visit Philly put together an amazing iternary for us!
Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens (PMG) is a mosaicked visionary art environment, gallery, and community arts center that preserves, interprets, and provides access to Isaiah Zagar’s unique mosaic art environment and his public murals. The PMG site, Zagar’s largest public artwork, includes a fully tiled indoor space and a massive outdoor mosaic sculpture garden that spans half a block on Philadelphia’s famous South Street. Inside, visitors can view folk art statues, bicycle wheels, colorful glass bottles, Zagar’s hand-made tiles, and thousands of glittering mirrors. The installation pays tribute to Zagar’s artistic influences, along with community and personal experiences.
After walking up Philadelphia’s famous South Street, we found ourselves very hungry! So it was off to lunch! We chose to enjoy our country’s oldest Italian Restaurant – Ralph’s. If there is one thing about me you should know, it is that I LIVE for GOOD Italian food. There is nothing better than a small, intimate restaurant like Ralph’s in my opinion. We enjoyed some delicious Chianti, an Antipasti platter and Mozzarella & Tomatoes as appetizers, Andrea, Virginia and myself had Chicken Parmigiana, the Choice Hotels PR Team had Eggplant Parmigiana and Sausage and Peppers. We ate about 3 loaves of bread, which was perfect and warm – soft on the inside, crunchy on the outside.
After Ralph’s we went next door and sampled some cannolis and biscotti fresh from the oldest bakery in the US – Sarcone’s.
We did a lot of Uber-ing throughout the weekend and I have to note that the Uber drivers in Philadelphia and tremendously friendlier than those in New York City.
Our next stop was to get some history into our visit! My family has been talking about visiting the historic sites of Philadelphia for a long time, so it was nice to be able to get a sneak peek of them without my normal entourage.
The Liberty Bell – Can you answer this trivia? How did it crack?
Once Upon A Nation – Visit 10 different benches and collect stickers on your flag for each historic tale you listen to!
After a quick refresh, if you could believe it, it was time for dinner! We enjoyed some delicious Mexican tapas-style fare at Distrito Philadelphia. Distrito’s menu is based off of Mexico City style street food. Don’t let the small plates fool you though, we each ordered 2 small plates each for everyone to sample and boy was it a lot of food! With over 100 Tequilas to choose from, we had to enjoy some Margarita’s!
Huaraches and Watermelon Margaritas!
Day 2
After our breakfast at the Sleep Inn, we called an Uber and headed straight to the famous Rocky statue and steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum. A quick little trivia to note: Sarcone’s Bakery was featured in the movie Rocky and the owner Luigi the 4th has regular conversations with Sly Stallone himself!
Be sure to watch Andrea’s YouTube video to see us racing up the stairs!
Next, it was time to make a visit to Philadelphia’s famous LOVE Park.
Now, any visit to Philadelphia would not be complete with a Philly Cheesesteak from Geno’s or Pat’s! Which one is your favorite?
Be sure to follow Andrea’s journey as she shares the stories of thousands of people through Choice Hotels’ hashtag #ChoicePeoplePerson all summer long. Andrea will be experiencing various Choice Hotel brands such as the iconic Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Sleep Inn, Quality, Cambria Hotels & Suites, Clarion and the Ascend Hotel Collection membership program.
Read about my stay at the Sleep Inn Center City here.
You can follow Andrea’s Choice Hotels People Person journey on the website and watch her daily videos on YouTube!
Be sure to follow Andrea on Instagram, Periscope & Twitter at @AndiFasano. And look out for her in your city! If you have the chance to connect with her, DO IT! Choice Hotels chose the right person to represent them for sure. In less than 24 hours of being with Andrea, it was like we had been friends forever. I couldn’t imagine a kinder, funnier, more talented person for the job!
Yes yes! What a great opportunity! Looks like you had an awesome time!
Sounds like you had a GREAT time all around!!! Philly is so close, I need to go more often!! Thanks for the info on the hotel too! Sounds like a great option!
Yes! It’s such a family-friendly city!
It looks like you had a great trip! I have only been to Philadelphia once 7 years ago but have been wanting to visit again since I didn’t get to see much! I didn’t even get a cheesesteak! The Sleep Inn that you stayed in also looks super comfy! Your post has definitely inspired me to take a Philly trip.
The city is so calm & clean compared to NYC too!
I love visiting Philly. Fork restaurant is not to be missed. It looks like you had such a great time–love the pic of you in the pink dress. It’s funny I just watched the movie National Treasure which takes part in Philly for the last part of the movie.
I have been to Philly many times for various reasons but have never really had a chance to explore the city. So many cool things to see! Great post! I’m inspired to do a day trip now.
that Mexican food looks amaaaazing! This is awesome – we don’t get into Philly enough, either, and I have friends from CA planning a trip there this fall! Will give them the link so they can check these sites out. Easy!
I am so partial to going into NYC, but seriously Philly is so much easier to navigate, relax and enjoy!
Reading your post made me realize that I’ve never sight seen Phiily either! (And I live 15 minutes from it!) I’m going to set a new goal to change that!
I want to go back with the kids very soon!
Looks like a great trip! I went to school just outside of Philly, but I still haven’t seen sites like the Liberty Bell, etc.! I would love to take my kids on a tour of Philly!
I love Philly! I used to go there once a month when I was living in PA. Did you go out at night too? The nightlife there is also fantastic.
We went out for a bit to the Independence Beer Garden. It was a great vibe if you were around 21-22, but we felt a little too old and didn’t last too long LOL.
It looks like you had a great time! There’s so much to do and see. I definitely need to plan a day and take the family!
You definitely can’t visit Philly without hitting up South Street! And I just discovered the Garces Group of restaurants… Distrito Philadelphia looked amazing! Looked like a great time!
Thank you for this post! We finished a visit to Philly but plan on returning and now we have added new items to our next trip, like the Distrito and Mosaic Garden.