If you are in Philadelphia and want to have an innovative holiday experience with your family, here are the places you should include in your vacationing plan:

Penn's Landing: It is a historical place where Philadelphia had its earliest settlement. Now its home for a WWII submarine and docked historic ships. A family visit to this place will also allow you to watch ships pass by and interesting cultural events organized at the shore.

Independence Sea Port Museum: This museum indicates the historic maritime tradition of Philadelphia. This museum features a wooden boat shop, two floors of exhibit galleries, 530-seat Concert Hall and many guided tours so that you and your children can have an educational and innovative trip.

Franklin Institute Science Museum: This museum can be regarded as the children's best discovery museum in the country. It is over 50 years old and it exhibits the equipments used by the astronauts to explore the space, Franklin air show, amazing machines and the train factory. It also boasts IMAX Theater, Franklin high definition theater with state-of-the-art technologies and a planetarium.

Academy of Natural Sciences: It was founded on the year 1812. Here the kids will love to see exhibits like dinosaurs, sendak, dioramas, and amphibians. It also exhibits a garden full of magnificent and colorful butterflies and exotic plants from all around the globe. If you are at the right time you may even see live pupae from which butterflies are emerging.

Please Touch Museum: This museum is as exciting to visit as its name sounds to be. It features flight fantasy, city capers, wonderland, and river adventure. It is specially designed for the kids of age below seven.

For a long time, Philadelphia has been a city which people passed by on their way to Washington or New York. But now the city of Philadelphia has become a hot destination to spend a weekend vacation.

Getting to Philadelphia

The airport of Philadelphia is a major hub with flights coming from around the world. The city lies on the primary thoroughfare of North/South Amtrak and can be reached easily by train from Boston and Washington. A drive from New York to Philadelphia takes less than 2 hours and from Washington to Philadelphia takes about 3 hours.

When to visit Philadelphia

Philadelphia can be a great weekend getaway any time of the year. During the summer it is the busiest and the crowd becomes lesser during the fall and spring when the weather is also quite pleasant. A wonderful time to travel Philidelphia is during the winter when the crowd is very less and almost everything remains open.

Getting around the city

There is no need to have a car during your weekend vacation in Philadelphia, as plenty of taxis are available here. Also, the city has a very efficient mass transit.

Accommodation and Dining

A great thing about a Philadelphia vacation is that you can get accommodations at wonderful inns and hotels without having to pay exorbitant rates of places like Washington and New York. You can also find pubs, bistros and restaurants here with Italian or fine dining which are as good as any other major cities.

Things to do in Philadelphia

In Philadelphia you will not have any shortage of things to do during your vacation. You can visit the Independence Hall, Liberty Bell or other historical sites of the city. You can take a walk along the Schuylkill River, do ice skating at Penn's Landing, enjoy dance, music and theater, visit the city's wonderful museums or browse the art galleries and antique stores in the city. You can also visit the wonderful markets of Philadelphia where you can sample the local fares and do as much shopping as you like.

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Going on a vacation with your family to Philadelphia is certainly a wonderful experience to look forward to, but planning a family vacation can be quite tasking especially if your kids are still quite young. These Philadelphia travel tips will help you plan a fun filled trip:

- Checkout Family Friendly Hotel Accommodations

Philadelphia has a lot of beautiful hotels but not every hotel establishment was designed for family living. So you have to ensure that you book a family-friendly hotel, all you have to do is go online and search for hotels in Philadelphia that feature amenities fit for guests vacationing with their kids.

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- Budget

How much are you willing to spend? You need to understand that family vacations do not come cheap, but you can save some money if you:

- Take cheap flights to Philadelphia

- Lodge in decent and affordable family hotels

- Take advantage of family package offers

Most Philadelphia travel tips experts advise that you make a list of what you can afford and look for offers that would help you cut down on costs. You will be very surprised at how much you are able to save by taking advantage of special offers.

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