Last summer, Mikey and I were looking to travel so we googled “cheap flights out of Miami” and found a great deal to Philadelphia. We spent under $150 for two round trip tickets and we knew we couldn’t pass that up. We got a hotel in downtown Philly and set off for our little escapade. We really did make the most of our time in Pennsylvania and even explored outside of that. Here are our favorite adventures from that trip:
1. Lancaster & Hershey
As soon as we landed, we took our rental car and drove out to Hershey. I had never visited, but Mikey had and he said we had to check it out! We arrived at Hershey Park, where we didn’t enter the actual theme park but spent some time in their shops and chocolate factory. They had so many cool things including all kinds of chocolate, a ride that tours the factory, and a station to make your own chocolate. They also had a really cool cafeteria area with little hints of chocolate in their food. For example, I kept it plain with chicken tenders and ketchup, but Mikey had a burger with Hershey chocolate BBQ sauce. He enjoyed it! Afterwards, we both got Hershey’s hot chocolates and a Hershey’s peanut butter cupcake. The cupcake was great, but it was a biiiiit too chocolatey for me. The hot chocolate was just perfect though. :) We finished enjoying that hot chocolate and set out for our next little journey.
After that, we drove over to Lancaster and visited Amish Country. We arrived just in time to catch their last bus tour. We saw the fields, the homes and the shops. We got to tour a house and see how they live. We then made some stops and bought some delicious jam and bread (that was dinner!) and other little treats. We really enjoyed our time there and it was such a wonderful afternoon to be there.
2. Downtown Philly
On day 2, we went to the Reading Terminal Market for breakfast. That was one of our favorite spots because they had such an extensive amount of choices for breakfast, lunch and dinner! We ate at a little french spot and had crepes and coffee for breakfast. We then head out and spent the day touring Downtown Philly. We did a tour of the U.S. Mint (SUCH a cool experience!) and then we did a walking tour of the city. We saw all of the neat historic places including the Liberty Bell and newer stops like the LOVE sculpture. We had Philly Cheesesteaks for lunch and stopped at a quaint little ice cream shop for a treat. We also mailed ourselves a postcard from the very first U.S. post office! We walked so much that day and saw so much of the city. We were exhausted at the end of the day but were happy we got to do and see so much!
3. New Jersey and Delaware
On our third and final day we had breakfast at the Market since it would be our last day there. I had a perfect French Toast and Mikey had a hash brown/egg bowl. Both were one of the best breakfasts we’ve had. We also got some donuts from the Amish for the road!
We decided to leave Philly and see the surrounding states. On our bucket list is to see all 50 states together. So far we’ve seen seven and the cool part about this trip is that we got three out of one trip! We first drove to Delaware and went to a state park. We set off on a little walk through it but were really afraid of getting lost so we didn’t go too deep into the trails. However, we saw some beautiful views.
After the state park, we drove around and saw some amazing homes. They were in large fields and so spread apart. Nothing like the homes down here in Miami. I told Mikey if we were ever to move out of state, we’d move into one of those homes! I loved the terrain and the spaciousness. The homes were all so big; most had three stories and a basement. I fell in love with these!
We then continued our drive into New Jersey. We drove to Camden to visit Cherry Hill Mall. We didn’t know it at the time but we later found out Camden is on the list of one of the most dangerous cities of the U.S. :O Thankfully, we were fine and saw nothing out of the ordinary during our visit. We had lunch at the mall food court and spent some time walking around, but didn’t even see the whole thing (the mall was so big!). After our time there, we found the New Jersey welcome center to take our photo with the New Jersey sign. ;)
We then headed back and spent some time in our room before going out on a double date with some friends of ours who live in Philly. They showed us around town at night and it was so neat to see it lit up!
We went on quite a few trips last summer, but our spontaneous trip to Philly has been by far our favorite. We don’t know exactly why, but the we loved the city and our time in the surrounding areas. . This is a trip we recommend when friends have asked us what have been our favorite destinations. So if you have the chance, go! You’ll definitely enjoy it. :)
I have never been to Philadephia but thanks for the suggestions where to visit should I get there next time I am in the U.S. You had me at “Hershey’s”… ;-)
Ohhh, there are so many good treats there. ;)