Quick getaways from the City of Brotherly Love
Philadelphia is one of my favorite cities. Whether you’re traveling to the city, and want to go beyond, or you’re looking for an escape from within, here are our top ten family day trips from Philadelphia. As always, all suggestions are kid friendly and wheelchair accessible.
Longwood Gardens
Longwood Gardens is a category of its own, and it’s less than an hour from the city.
It’s not just a quick botanical garden walk through. It’s fountain shows, and forest hikes, and treehouse climbs, and bell tower tours, and water play, and outdoor eats, and even warm floral displays in the dead of winter. It’s a full day. When you simply can’t walk any farther, or take in any more beautiful sights, grab a snack in town at Talula’s Table to last you for the ride home.
Make sure you don’t miss the wheelchair accessible children’s garden in the conservatory. Bring an extra set of clothes for the kids, since they’re going to treat it like an all out water park.
While not all paths are wheelchair accessible, there are accessible paths to all parts of the garden. Entrance is only $2 with your ACCESS card.
The Sweetest Place on Earth
Hershey is only two hours from Philly – and worth every second. It lives up to its name. You can easily spend a full day at the park – it’s huge – or you can explore everything else Hershey has to offer. Or make it a full weekend and do both! You can check out the ride/tour at Chocolate world for free, eat a giant s’more, take the trolley tour, do a chocolate tasting, visit the gardens, shop the outlets, and so much more!
Amish Country
Lancaster County is an hour and a half from Philly, but a world away. Slow down and enjoy a horse and buggy ride, immerse yourself in the Amish lifestyle, chow down at the world’s largest (and yummiest) buffet, and take some whoopie pies to go. Make it a weekend and you can take time to check out the museums, trails, and local attractions. Or make it an outdoors weekend with undiscovered Lancaster sights that will take your breath away.
Return refreshed.
Train Town
Yes, I’m aware that Strasburg is part of Lancaster County, but it’s really it’s own separate destination. As the train capital of the world (as designated by me, but I dare you to find anywhere more dedicated to trains), you can ride on trains, eat on trains, sleep on trains, play with trains, climb on trains, watch the trains… and the list goes on! There’s plenty here for a full weekend, or several day trips, to keep train lovers happy!
The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania offers $2 admission with your ACCESS card. With the exception of boarding the train cars at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, all of these train destinations have excellent accessibility.
Sesame Place
Just north of the city, Sesame Place is a great theme park for young kids. It’s designed for younger kids, which means it’s not as big, and the parade and character meets are a part of the experience. If you’re up for the water park, that doubles the fun.
Sesame Place is a certified autism center and they have a ride accessibility program. The big perk here is hanging out with Sesame Street characters.
LEGOLAND Discovery
LEGOLAND Discovery is so close to Philadelphia you can take the bus. It has a giant indoor playground, a 4D movie, a laser tag ride, a ninja training course, a LEGO raceway, and thousands and thousands of LEGO – how can you go wrong?!? We love the STEM learning that slips in while the kids are in creative mode with their LEGO, but there’s so much more here than building opportunities. Make it a full experience by taking one of the master model builder workshops.
You can pick up your own massive bag of sanitized LEGO for each separate building area. Don’t miss the earthquake tables in duplo world!
You can’t bring food in, but there’s a café inside. The playground is not fully accessible, but we still found plenty to fill our day.
We love playing with LEGO, anyway, so this is a fun way to bring it up x100, and not have to worry about stepping on LEGO in the dark after the kids go to bed!
Valley Forge
Sometimes I forget how central Philadelphia is to the history of our nation. Valley Forge is an easy day trip and offers a great way to discover the American Revolution. You can walk through the encampment and even tour Washington’s actual house… and touch the same railing he used daily (the house is not wheelchair accessible). The museum, monuments, cannons, and other structures guide you through another era. It’s a unique experience. Actually, overall, we highly recommend National Historical Parks, and there’s probably one closer to you than you realize!
Admission is always free!
Crayola Experience
Crayola Experience sits on the throne of creativity. It’s a place to create and color your world. With four floors of crayons, markers, clay, art, crafts, shows, and interactive experiences, there’s plenty for a great day trip!
On Saturdays, there’s a farmer’s market just outside the building. There’s a cute alley behind, with neat shops and delicious ice cream. There are plenty of great restaurants around the square. Thanks to Covid, everyone offers take-out which also cuts back on accessibility issues. You can pick up whatever you want and eat it outside.
Lehigh Valley
If you want to turn your day trip to Crayola into a weekend, there’s plenty more in the Lehigh Valley. Check out the Lehigh Valley Zoo, catch a Phantom’s game, hit a field of musical rocks (literally), try a brewery, walk through history in Behtlehem’s historic district, or watch a movie at the nation’s oldest drive-in.
You could spend an entire day eating your way through the Allentown Farmer’s Market – probably my favorite market, anywhere. Definitely start with a latte from Heffelfingers, a sandwich from Bada Bing II, a chocolate chip pancake from the Amish place across from them, a cronut from Mary Ann Donut Kitchen, and a cookie from the place on the ramp… just to get started…
Aquarium
You actually have two day trip options, here. Adventure Aquarium is just over the bridge, in Camden, and is ranked as one the best aquariums in the country. Typing that out makes me feel pretty embarrassed to admit that we’ve never been there…
The National Aquarium in Baltimore is also an impressive aquarium, and well worth the drive from Philly. We have a family pass, so we just haven’t made it to other aquariums! It’s also nice that it’s right on the harbor, so you can also check out the boats, the fort (and inspiration behind the Star Spangled Banner), a musical park, the endless restaurants and shops, or any number of museums. This is definitely a place where you could stretch that day trip into a weekend.
