I’m planning a long weekend for myself, hubby and daughter who will be a senior next year. We are planning to travel in June, spending Saturday and Sunday sightseeing. Touring U Pitt on Monday. We want to walk around and explore Duquesne on our own on Sat or Sun.
Any suggestions on where to stay? Is downtown fun? Or will it just be vacant on a summer weekend? What sights should we not miss?
Appreciate any ideas!
We’ve stayed close to Pitt on Forbes at the Hilton.
Phipps conservancy is worth it to walk around inside and look at all the different gardens.
I also liked the Andy Warhol museum- that one took hours as you could pretty much take one floor per hour or longer!
We rode an incline too.
I think all three of those things are in different directions ?
We love to stay in Shadyside and have a favorite AirBNB on a great street. So many restaurants and shops within walking distance. If you want to stay right on campus, the Wyndham is great. You can basically roll out of bed and be steps from the tour.
Phipps Conservatory is always worth an afternoon; the Duquesne incline is great too. Sunday morning you could hit up the Strip District for a mix of farmer’s market vendors and unique stores.
There are Residence Inn and Hilton Garden Inn hotels on Forbes Ave 8 and 6 blocks from the Cathedral of Learning respectively. Both are decent hotels with easy walks to CMU and Pitt. There are plenty of good hotels Downtown, but you would need to drive or bus to the colleges. I don’t think I would walk from a downtown hotel to Dusquesne. A really inexpensive alternative that’s a 15 minute drive away is the Hampton Inn on McKnight Road in the North Hills part of Pittsburgh. We stayed there last year during Parent’s Week since everything around the university was booked. Not fancy by any means, but clean, with friendly staff and on the right side of the tunnels.
Downtown is pretty lively, and you have easy access to Point Stat Park, the subway to Station Square and the inclines up Mt Washington. The Carnegie Museum by the University is first class (the attached art museum has pretty significant modern and impressions collections). The Pittsburgh Zoo is also fantastic. Kennywood Park is great if you like old-fashioned family amusement parks with a lot of coasters.
If the Pirates are in town, PNC Park is a great ballpark with gorgeous views of the city skyline. StubHub should get you good seats for a reasonable price.
If Duquesne offers weekend tours, I’d recommend taking one. It’s a small campus so not a whole lot to see if you can’t get inside a dorm, classroom, fitness center, etc.