Vaughan to Philadelphia: the founding city by chauffeured car

Philadelphia, on its own and on the loop

Philadelphia is the city Vaughan families skip on the way to New York and regret it: Independence Hall, where the Declaration was signed and the Constitution written, is a ranger-led tour of forty minutes that a twelve-year-old remembers for life; the Liberty Bell is across the street; the Franklin Institute's giant heart and the Museum of Art's steps — the Rocky steps — are the children's afternoon; Reading Terminal Market is lunch; and the Barnes Foundation and the Rodin are the parents' hour. It is two days, which is why it is the hinge of the East Coast loop — Washington two hours south, New York ninety minutes north — and why a Sprinter week that does all three is the trip Vaughan families with Grade 10 students book once. The Visit Philadelphia site has the city; the border guide has the bridge.

The route

The Peace Bridge and I-90 to Rochester, I-390 and I-86 to the Pennsylvania line, I-81 to Scranton, then the Northeast Extension (I-476) of the Pennsylvania Turnpike south through the Poconos' edge to the Philadelphia ring — just under ten hours by the estimate and ten to eleven in practice with the border and stops; the family that splits it sleeps in Scranton or, better, in the Poconos at seven and a half hours, and the family on the loop arrives from New York in ninety minutes down the New Jersey Turnpike or from Washington in two hours up I-95.

Independence Hall and the Old City

The Independence National Historical Park's tickets for Independence Hall are timed and free, booked through the National Park Service or picked up at the visitor centre at the day's opening; the tour is the Assembly Room with the chairs, the rising-sun chair Washington sat in, and a ranger who tells it well. The Liberty Bell Center is across Chestnut Street without a ticket; Congress Hall and the Old City Hall are beside it; Carpenters' Hall, Elfreth's Alley — the oldest residential street in the country — the Betsy Ross House and Christ Church are within four blocks, and the Museum of the American Revolution on Third Street is the two-hour version of the story for a family with a Grade 10 student. The Sprinter drops at the visitor centre on Sixth and Market and collects at the Museum of the Revolution; the Old City is walked.

The Parkway: the Franklin Institute, the Art Museum and the steps

The Benjamin Franklin Parkway runs from City Hall to the Museum of Art like a Champs-Élysées, with the Franklin Institute's walk-through heart and planetarium, the Academy of Natural Sciences' dinosaurs, the Barnes Foundation's impressionists and the Rodin Museum along it; the Museum of Art at the top has the steps every child runs and the Rocky statue at their foot, and inside, the Duchamps and the armour. A family does the Franklin Institute in the morning, the Parkway on foot, the steps at three and the museum until five; the Sprinter meets them at the museum's east entrance.

Reading Terminal Market and the cheesesteak

Lunch is Reading Terminal Market under the old train shed — the Amish stalls, the roast pork sandwiches at DiNic's, the pretzels, the ice cream — and the cheesesteak is the argument the city stages at Pat's and Geno's across from each other in South Philly, which a family does as the Sprinter's detour on the way to the stadiums or the Italian Market. Vaughan's Italian families do the Ninth Street Italian Market as their own morning.

Sports, for the group

The Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field, the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park, the Flyers and the 76ers at the Wells Fargo Center — all in the South Philadelphia sports complex with one lot — are the group of eight's reason, and a Sprinter from Woodbridge for an Eagles Sunday is a two-night trip with the tailgate lot's drop and the hourly logic of a daily hire.

The loop, in shape

Vaughan to Washington in a day with the Gettysburg night; three Washington days; Philadelphia in two hours and two days; New York in ninety minutes and three days; home by the Thruway in ten hours. Ten nights, the Sprinter on daily hire for the whole loop with the city days released, one number in the booking engine, and the travel desk holding the three cities' hotels together — the largest American booking on this site and the one Grade 10 parents book together, two families to a Sprinter.

What the chauffeur replaces

Ten hours at the wheel through Pennsylvania's hills; the Northeast Extension's tolls; Philadelphia's Old City parking, which is scarce and the vehicle's problem; the loop's three cities of garages; and the flights, which for Philadelphia are a connection or a transfer and for a family of five cost what the Sprinter's week costs. The site is plain that a couple flies to New York and takes the train to Philadelphia; it is the family and the loop for which the Sprinter is the vehicle.

Seasons

Spring for the Parkway's cherry trees and the Phillies' opening; the Fourth of July for the Wawa Welcome America festival and the fireworks over the Art Museum — the country's birthday in the city where it was declared, a normal Vaughan work week; September for the Eagles' opening and the city's best weather; December for the Christmas Village at City Hall and the Macy's light show. Summer is hot; the museums are the refuge.

Pairing it

Philadelphia pairs with New York and Washington as the loop, with the Poconos as the drive's split and a lake week before the city, with Hershey ninety minutes west, and with Atlantic City an hour east for the group.

The two Philadelphia days, in order

Day one of the city, for a family of four from Kleinburg: the Sprinter drops at the Independence Visitor Center at 8:45 for the nine o'clock Independence Hall tour booked six weeks before; the Liberty Bell at 9:50; Congress Hall, Carpenters' Hall and Elfreth's Alley by noon; lunch at Reading Terminal Market at 12:30 — the roast pork, the pretzels — and the Museum of the American Revolution at two for two hours; the Sprinter at the museum at four, the hotel, and dinner in the Italian Market's Ninth Street. Day two: the Franklin Institute at 9:30 for the heart and the planetarium, the Parkway on foot past the Barnes and the Rodin, the Art Museum's steps at 1:30 and the Rocky photograph, the museum's armour and the Duchamps until four, the Sprinter at the east entrance for a South Philly detour to Pat's and Geno's, and the Phillies at seven if they are home. Two days that a family driving to New York would have skipped.

The Poconos split, and the lake week before

A family that splits the drive at the Poconos — seven and a half hours from Vaughan — often stays: two nights at a lake resort with the pool and the waterpark, then Philadelphia in ninety minutes on the third morning; the Sprinter on daily hire carries the family from the lake to the Old City with the bags in the bay, and the travel desk holds both. It is the version Vaughan families with children under ten book, because the resort is the trip and the city is the day.

Hershey and Lancaster, west

Ninety minutes west of Philadelphia on the Turnpike is Hershey — the park, the Chocolate World ride, the spa's cocoa treatments — and between them Lancaster County's Amish farms, the Strasburg Rail Road's steam train and the farmers' markets; a family adds a Hershey night to the Philadelphia stay and the daily hire's day is the Turnpike west with the children at the tables. The two make the Pennsylvania week that the Gettysburg post continues south.

Costs, plainly

Philadelphia alone is one return in the booking engine; the loop is one daily hire for ten days and the site's largest American number, divided across the two families that share the Sprinter; against them are the flights — a connection or a New York arrival and the train — the Turnpike's tolls, the Old City's parking and ten hours at the wheel through Pennsylvania each way. For the family with a Grade 10 student the loop is the trip of the year, and the site says plainly that the hotels in three cities, not the vehicle, are its cost.

The Eagles Sunday, in order

Eight friends from Woodbridge for a September Eagles game: the Sprinter at 7 on Saturday, the Peace Bridge, the Thruway and I-81 with the tables and the game on the screens, the Center City hotel by 5:30, the Old City's bars on Second Street; Sunday's tailgate lot at Lincoln Financial Field at ten for a one o'clock kickoff with the Sprinter parked in the lot beside the group, the game, Pat's and Geno's after, the hotel; Monday's drive home asleep from Scranton. Two nights of daily hire split eight ways, the hourly page's logic of a vehicle that stays, and the Eagles' site for the tickets, which for a Cowboys or Giants game sell out in the spring.

Valley Forge and the Brandywine

Forty minutes west of the city is Valley Forge National Historical Park — Washington's winter encampment of 1777–78, the huts, the parade ground and the arch, a driving loop that a chauffeured family does from the Sprinter's windows with two stops — and beyond it the Brandywine Valley's Longwood Gardens, the du Pont conservatories that are the region's most-visited garden and the children's fountain shows; a daily-hire day added to the Philadelphia stay for a family with a Grade 10 student and a mother who gardens. The National Park Service's Valley Forge page has the loop.

The Please Touch Museum and the zoo

For a family with children under eight the Please Touch Museum in Fairmount Park's Memorial Hall — a children's museum of a whole day with its carousel — and the Philadelphia Zoo, the country's first, across the river on Girard Avenue, are the Sprinter's daily-hire morning and afternoon; the zoo's site has the timed tickets and the Parkway's museums wait for the older children's day.

Booking it

Book from your Vaughan address as a return, a daily hire for the loop or a one-way with the flight home; tell us the Independence Hall date, the seats, the bags and every passenger's citizenship for the border, and the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before.

Book the Philadelphia trip