#40 best destination in the world

Independence Hall, Philadelphia

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Best time to travel: March-May
Ease of travel: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • The building where both the United States Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution were debated and adopted
  • Completed in 1753 as the colonial legislature

Philadelphia Museum of Art

Best time to travel: March-May
Ease of travel: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Art museum originally chartered in 1876, but the main museum building was completed in 1928
  • The museum administers collections containing over 240,000 objects including major holdings of European, American and Asian origin
  • The various classes of artwork include sculpture, paintings, prints, drawings, photographs, armor, and decorative arts
  • The Perelman Building, opened in 2007, houses more than 150,000 prints, drawings and photographs, along with 30,000 costume and textile pieces, and over 1,000 modern and contemporary design objects including furniture, ceramics and glasswork

Knoebels Amusement Resort, Elysburg

Best time to travel: mid June-mid Sept
Ease of travel: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Amusement park, picnic grove, and campground in Elysburg, opened in 1926
  • It is America’s largest free-admission park
  • The park has more than 60 rides including three wooden roller coasters, three steel roller coasters, a 1913 carousel, and a haunted house dark ride

Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia

Best time to travel: March-May
Ease of travel: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Art collection promoting the appreciation of art and horticulture, in Philadelphia, founded in 1922
  • Today, the foundation owns more than 4,000 objects, including over 900 paintings
  • These are primarily works by Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and Modernist masters, but the collection also includes many other paintings by leading European and American artists, as well as African art, antiquities from China, Egypt, and Greece, and Native American art

Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia

Best time to travel: March-May
Ease of travel: Moderate
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Former prison in Philadelphia that was operational from 1829 until 1971
  • The penitentiary refined the revolutionary system of separate incarceration first pioneered at the Walnut Street Jail which emphasized principles of reform rather than punishment
  • Notorious criminals such as Al Capone and bank robber Willie Sutton were held inside its innovative wagon wheel design
  • At its completion, the building was the largest and most expensive public structure ever erected in the United States, and quickly became a model for more than 300 prisons worldwide

Gettysburg Museum and Visitor Center

Best time to travel: March-May, Sept-Nov
Ease of travel: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Gettysburg National Military Park facility with a museum about the American Civil War, the 1884 Gettysburg Cyclorama, and the tour center for licensed Battlefield Guides and for buses to see the Gettysburg Battlefield and Eisenhower National Historic Site
  • The museum displays artifacts including cannon, firearms, and uniforms, and includes an exhibit gallery and theater

The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh

Best time to travel: July-Nov
Ease of travel: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Museum located in Pittsburgh, and established in 1994
  • It is the largest museum in North America dedicated to a single artist
  • The museum holds an extensive permanent collection of art and archives from the Pittsburgh-born pop art icon Andy Warhol
  • Containing 17 galleries, the museum features 900 paintings, close to 2,000 works on paper, over 1,000 published unique prints, 77 sculptures, 4,000 photographs, and over 4,350 Warhol films and videotaped works

Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh

Best time to travel: July-Nov
Ease of travel: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Natural history museum in Pittsburgh, founded by Pittsburgh-based industrialist Andrew Carnegie in 1896
  • Housing some 22 million specimens, the museum features one of the finest paleontological collections in the world

Kennywood, West Mifflin

Best time to travel: May-June
Ease of travel: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Amusement park located in West Mifflin, first opened in 1899, as a trolley park attraction at the end of the Monongahela Street Railway
  • The amusement park features various structures and rides dating back to the early 1900s
  • Along with Rye Playland Park, it is one of only two amusement parks designated as a National Historic Landmark
  • Kennywood is also one of only thirteen trolley parks in the United States that remains in operation

Jennie Wade House, Gettysburg National Military Park

Best time to travel: March-May, Sept-Nov
Ease of travel: Easy
Cost ($-$$-$$$): $

  • Museum dedicated to Gettysburg civilian casualty Jennie Wade with exhibits on domestic wartime life
  • A 20-year-old woman, Jennie Wade, was the only civilian killed during the battle
  • She was hit by a stray bullet that passed through her kitchen door while she was making bread