Touring Philadelphia colleges -- where to stay?

<p>Philadelphians, any Center City hotel suggestions beside the Alexander Inn? It, and half of the places I’ve considered, is booked solid over the weekend of Sept. 24. Is the Pope visiting or something?</p>

<p>Try the Windsor Suites; another CC parent had good luck there last summer when her child had to have a procedure at a Center City hospital. The Downtown Sheraton is large, ultra convenient to the major highways, and has good deals sometimes if it’s not hosting a convention of its own. The Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn are relatively cheap. You could also try the hotels near Penn – there’s a Sheraton, a Hilton, and Penn Tower.</p>

<p>That weekend has a Home Show at the convention center, the Eagles’ home opener against the NY Giants, and College Day on the Parkway (i.e., a zoo, but probably fun for a kid looking at colleges).</p>

<p>[The</a> Harlan Log House - Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania - BBOnline.com / Introduction](<a href=“http://www.bbonline.com/pa/harlan/]The”>http://www.bbonline.com/pa/harlan/)</p>

<p>This is farther from the Main Line and Penn, but an option if you get stuck. It is also near a nice botanical gardens you can visit.</p>

<p>My elementary school music teacher owns it.</p>

<p>

For my oldest checking out the neighborhood near Penn was one of her biggest questions … given that goal I second this advice … we also stayed at the Sheraton which was more expensive than staying in the burbs but not a lot and allowed FirstToGo to hang near Penn a full evening/night.</p>

<p>[Philadelphia</a> Haunted Houses, General Wayne Inn, HauntedHouses.com](<a href=“http://www.hauntedhouses.com/states/pa/general_wayne_inn.cfm]Philadelphia”>http://www.hauntedhouses.com/states/pa/general_wayne_inn.cfm)</p>

<p>Another possibility in Merion</p>

<p>^Heh. I’m sure the Chabad House that’s there would welcome anyone, but it’s not exactly a colonial inn any more…</p>

<p>I got a great deal at the Rittenhouse for a recent business trip … I thought it would be a lot more expensive. It’s a lovely hotel in a great location, great for walking around downtown.</p>

<p>Hi all, chanced on this thread and realized this is what I need…
We will be traveling with d1 to the us from India and want to visit schools for d2.
I kind of messed up the planning and planned for allegheny college on aug 15 10 am and bryn mawr at 2pm the same day!! I realize now that is not possible. I think the best is to move allegheny to Tuesday morning. The dates are set - we only have the 15-16 to do PA. I need help with a couple of things -

  • need a place to stay closer to allegheny for Monday night. something decent functional - not pricey.
  • we will have a car driving from metuchen NJ to PA. We will need to be back in NJ Tuesday night.
  • in the interest of time I suppose driving is better/ cheaper for a party of 4. Is there any better way to do this?
    -we are interested in LAC’s for the younger one and am wondering if there are any others that we could visit on the way as well. If not possible we are willing to do just these two - allegheny and bryn mawr.
    Appreciate your help!
    Thanks, a</p>

Don’t stay at the Ritz Carlton in Philadelphia until their renovation complete. It is currently a waste of money since the pretty part of the hotel (the atrium) is completely blocked from view. Additionally, the management is not up to par at a time when they really did to be on top of things. The Rittenhouse is a better choice if you are looking for a luxury hotel.

Penn is actually pretty easy to get to by car, I took my daughter to visit Drexel which is close to Penn, on a weekday for a 10 AM visit, coming up from the South in Delaware. As long as you can leave your hotel after rush hour, traffic is usually ok. Penn has at least one parking garage with a flat rate fee, I think it was $20 for the day. We actually parked there for our Drexel visit because the Drexel garage was full. The area west of Philly is a good bet, Villanova area etc. with nice towns near SEPTA rail service.

My D1 and I stayed in Quakertown at a beautiful new Hyatt House. Not close to any one school but in the middle of that area so convenient for multiple successive day trips.

The Marriott and Loews hotels near Reading market are very nice, although they may be on the expensive side, parking runs around $40 per day

This is from 2011!

LOL, yeah we can probably assume that OP figured it out by now.

the information is still useful…and I am planning to bring my kid to PA during the school break…