Results matching “philadelphia” from Intelligent Travel Blog

To create the database, WSPA searched menus for specific wording that signified that humane practices were taken in the raising of the food, then verified the details directly with the chefs. The database is still growing, and WSPA is encouraging restaurants to contact them at restaurants@wspausa.org with information about their menus to help them fill in the gaps.

So how do the cities stack up in terms of humane offerings? We looked at the number of restaurants listed in each city, and it turns out Boston tops their list. Check out the full breakdown after the jump.

Going to the World Series this year? Whether you're a Phillies or Yankees fans (I'm just upset my hometown Nationals forgot how to play ball this year), here are some tips on traveling in both cities.

Getting There
Call it the Amtrak Series, but the cheapest way to get from city to city is by bus. Budget buses Megabus and BoltBus both offer inexpensive fares between Philadelphia and New York.

Philadelphia

I Heart My City: Philadelphia
Albert Lee serves as concierge at the Independence Visitor Centerhttp://www.independencevisitorcenter.com/, and tells us what to do, see, and where to eat in the City of Brotherly Love.

Philadelphia On Foot
One of the best ways to explore the city is by foot. Print out our map of Philly's Northern Liberties neighborhood, and check out more tips on visiting the historic neighborhood from IT.

Family Vacation Planner: Pennsylvania
Get cool tips on all the places to take your kids in and around Philadelphia.

Philadelphia's Italian Market
Philadelphia is home to America's longest-operating outdoor market, and writer Jeff DiNunzio shares some insider tips on the best spots to visit.

Click below for tips on traveling in New York City.

Forget the white sheets this Halloween and go on a hunt for some real ghosts.  And what better places than abandoned prisons and hospitals?  The following include some of the most haunted asylums and penitentiaries in the country.  Many of them offer tours... are you brave enough?

Waverly Hills Sanatorium - Louisville, Kentucky

Opened in 1910, this treated tuberculosis patients during the TB epidemic of the early 1900s.  Fresh air and bed rest were the main treatments during this time - patients were kept outside on porches for most of the day, even during the winter (this led to the invention of electric blankets).  Heliotherapy, or "sun treatment", was also used, as it was believed the sun helped kill the bacteria that cause TB.  Other treatments included ways to temporarily restrict a portion of the lung in order to "let it rest".  One of these treatments, the "shot bag" method, included placing a one pound bag of shot on both collarbones of the patient. The amount was increased by four or five ounces each week until the patient would carry 5 pounds on the upper part of each lung. More permanent treatments involved various methods of collapsing one of the patient's lungs.

Visitors to the Sanatorium can take a 2-hour guided historical tour or spend a half-night (4 hours) or a full night (8 hours) hunting ghosts.  One common spot to have paranormal encounters is in the Body Chute, or Death Tunnel, which was once used to transport the bodies of deceased TB patients down the hill to waiting hearses or trains. Many patients died each day during the epidemic and the staff preferred to use the Body Chute rather than carry them through the main hall in an effort to keep morale up.  Unusual experiences at the Sanatorium include seeing shadows, smelling food from the abandoned kitchen and hearing voices screaming and moaning.  During the month of October, visitors can brave the Terror on the Hill, a haunted house at Waverly Hills.

• Budapest's Museum of Fine Arts just opened "From Botticelli to Titian: Masterpieces of Two Centuries of Italian Painting," on display through February 14, 2010. The large-scale exhibit, which will feature some 130 Renaissance paintings borrowed from 50 museums (like the Met, the Louvre, and the Prado), includes pieces like Cossa's "Portrait of a Man," Botticelli's "Story of Virginia," and Palma Vecchio's "La Bella." For more information, visit www.szepmuveszeti.hu.
  
  
• Travelers heading to Philadelphia this year should book their hotel through gophila.com/withlove. Visitors who book their stay through December 30 will receive a pass to 26 restaurants (like The Prime Rib and Table 31) that will offer prix-fixe, multi-course menus at $20, $30 and $35 per person. Visit gophila.com for more information.

If you've been enjoying Bob Krist's recent photo tips from Slovenia, here's your chance to learn directly from him and fellow Traveler photographer Ralph Lee Hopkins.

This weekend, National Geographic Traveler is hosting an all-day photography seminar in Denver, CO on Sunday, September 27. Attendees will learn simple tricks that will improve their photography skills, and find out how to create multimedia slide shows to share their work with friends and family. For more information and Traveler's complete Fall 2009--Spring 2010 seminar line-up (with upcoming dates in Los Angeles, Seattle, Dallas, San Francisco, Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Philadelphia, Tampa, Minneapolis, Boston, and Washington D.C.), visit ngtravelerseminars.com.

Don't miss this opportunity to learn the tricks of the trade from some of the best photographers around.

Photo: Bob Krist

• If you missed the touring Princess Diana exhibit when it stopped in the U.S. in 2007, you've got one more chance to see it. From October 2 though New Year's Eve, Diana: A Celebration will be on display at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The exhibit showcases some 150 artifacts in a 10,000-square-foot space. Tickets ($23/adult, $15/child) are required. [USA Today]
  
  
• Where do planes go to die? Writer Ransom Riggs has a great photo essay of an airplane graveyard in the Mojave Desert, which has been on lockdown since September 11, 2001. Check out the article on Mental Floss, or visit Riggs' website for the complete photo gallery. [Mental Floss]
  
  
• San Francisco International Airport (SFO) has juts introduced Climate Passport, a set of kiosks located throughout the airport that allows travelers to key in their flight itinerary and purchase carbon offsets on the spot. The offsets will fund two local projects Dogpatch Biofuels, a bio-diesel fueling station, and a tree-planting program in Mendocino County. [Budget Travel]
  

Photo: Royal.gov.uk

In conjunction with his upcoming book, Here Is Where: In Search of America's Great Forgotten History, we're following historian and Legacy Project founder Andrew Carroll as he drives, flies, walks, boats, buses, bikes, and hikes to seek out little-known historic sites in all 50 states. Bookmark all of his posts here.


While researching hotels in Denver, however, I came across the Brown Palace Hotel & Spa in a terrific hotel guide put out by the National Trust for Historic Preservation (it was also featured in National Geographic Traveler's annual Stay List in 2008). Built by Henry Brown in the last 1800s, the name jumped out at me and I immediately made a reservation.

When I began preparing for this trip more than a year ago I did extensive reading on the Underground Railroad, and while its existence is hardly unknown--I think most of us have at least a vague awareness of its significance in our nation's past--the specific stories have been mostly forgotten.

One of the most extraordinary involves a crate shipped from Richmond, Virginia, to 131 Arch Street, Philadelphia, at 4:00 am on March 29, 1849. When the wooden box arrived at 6:00 am at the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society more than a day later, members of the abolitionist Vigilance Committee were there to receive it but, knowing its supposed contents, dreaded opening it for fear of what they might find. One of the members tapped on the crate and  asked if everything was "all right within?" A muffled voice replied in the affirmative, and the members
quickly pried open the box and let an escaped slave named Henry Brown experience his first breath of freedom. Brown had survived an excruciating almost 27-hour journey, and despite bold lettering on the box directing that it be kept "This Side Up," the crate was repeatedly dropped upside down, putting almost fatal pressure on Brown's neck and head.

I had read that Brown became a successful businessman and moved to Colorado, where he opened one of the most elegant hotels in the city. After I made my reservation, I was shocked that although the hotel's own website repeatedly mentioned how historic the building was, there was no picture of Brown and no mention of his daring escape--just a brief description that he was a "Denver carpenter-turned-entrepreneur." Which is a little like referring to Beethoven as a piano tuner.

• Last week the Travelocity Roaming Gnome paid a visit to our friends at the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corp as part of his six weeks of summer vacation. Check out more pics from his visit to the City of Brotherly Love here. In this photo, from left to right: Paul Clarkson (6 feet 6 inches tall), Roger Estes (5 feet 3 inches tall), the Travelocity Roaming Gnome  (2 feet tall) and the Travelocity Roaming Gnome replica.You can follow the Gnome, and offer him travel tips, on Twitter (@roaminggnome).
  
  
• Danish cartographer Rene Larson claims that a medieval map showing America just might be real. The map, which was discovered in the 1950s and is titled "Vinland Island," appears to date from 1440, which predates Columbus. "All the tests that we have done over the past five years -- on the materials and other aspects -- do not show any signs of forgery," Larsen told Reuters.
  
  
• Check out BrilliantTips's photo essay of the "Seven Alternative Natural Wonders of the World," which include the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland, Wave Rock in Australia, and Iceland's moss-covered lava flows of Hafnarfjordur.

Photo: M. Edlow for GPTMC

Being in the nation's capital for the Fourth of July is one of those experiences that you never forget. Something about watching the fireworks with the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, and Capitol as the backdrop is thrilling.

My favorite spot to watch is directly beneath the show. I tell everyone I know to bring a blanket and grab some room underneath the Washington Monument facing the Lincoln Memorial. The fireworks are shot from the reflecting pool so from there you feel every loud "boom" in the bottom of your gut as they're set off. At the same time, music from the National Symphony Orchestra plays over loudspeakers in time with the fireworks display. It's always packed, but there's a buzz of excitement that emanates from the massive crowd, who naturally are all adorned in red, white and blue paraphernalia. The Washington Post put together a great map that shows other places to sit and watch the fireworks.

Everyone has a different place that they think is great, so I asked some of the staff at National Geographic Traveler to share their favorite spot to watch, whether it be in D.C. or elsewhere in the United States.  Read on to get some new ideas for you and your family and friends, and share your own favorite spots in the comments.

The East-Coast-in-Seven-Days tours are the stuff of my nightmares: traipsing from monument to monument at the crack of dawn, shoveling in food at all-too-crowded restaurants with the entire entourage, and learning about dead people rather than meeting live people.

Enter Serena Bartlett, a seasoned traveler from Philadelphia who has lived in and visited over 25 countries and currently resides in Oakland, California. Like many other travelers, she had trouble getting the bigger picture from the regular travel books - so she decided to pen an original series of urban eco-travel guides, GrassRoutes. The first two in the series, Oakland & Berkeley and Northern California Wine Country, will be released July 7. The Grassroutes San Francisco guide will hit bookstores August 1.

For travelers looking for the real deal, these books introduce local eats, shops, and more for a dynamic experience. Barlett's creative and engaging activities are organized by states of mind, like "Up Early" and "Learn." The idea, as Serena tells Traveler, is that "there are lots of ways to be on vacation no matter where you are" without much environmental and social cost.

Here, Serena reveals the inspiration behind her guidebooks and gives Traveler readers tips on how to discover authentic culture.