1,000 Places to See Before You Die
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WHERE: Amish heartland is 60 miles west of Philadelphia. VISITOR INFO: www.padutchcountry.com. CENTRAL MARKET: Tel 717-291-4723. When: Tues, Fri, and Sat. KINGS COTTAGE: Tel 800-747-8717 or 717-397-1017; www.kingscottagebb.com. Cost: from $160. EPHRATA CLOISTER: Tel 717-733-6600; www.ephratacloister.org. HISTORIC SMITHTON INN: Tel 877-755-4590 or 717-733-6094; www.historicsmithtoninn.com. Cost: from $120. INN AT TWIN LINDEN: Tel 866-445-7614 or 717-445-7619; www.innattwinlinden.com. Cost: from $130; Saturday dinner $55. BEST TIMES: early Jul for Kutztown Festival, the country’s oldest folklife festival; Christmastime for lantern tours at Ephrata Cloister.
The Birthplace of American Democracy
INDEPENDENCE NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
The L-shaped swath surrounding the old Pennsylvania State House (now Independence Hall) stands as the most important historic district in any American city. Created by an act of Congress in 1948, Independence National Historical Park encompasses almost 55 acres, with 20 buildings open to the public.
Independence Hall, built between 1732 and 1753, is not only where the Declaration of Independence was debated and approved, but also where the Articles of Confederation were adopted in 1781 and the U.S. Constitution was finally enacted in 1787. Original copies of all three documents are displayed, along with the silver inkstand used in their signing.
Next door is Congress Hall, which served as the home of the U.S. Congress from 1790 to 1800, while nearby the new Liberty Bell Center houses the most famous bell in the world, inscribed with the words “Proclaim Liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.” It is believed that the 2,000-pound bell was rendered unringable in 1846 after it was sounded in honor of the late George Washington’s birthday.
A block and a half east of Independence Hall, Carpenters Hall was the site of the first meeting of the Continental Congress in 1774, and a few blocks north lies Franklin Court, where Benjamin Franklin made his last home. It now houses several museums that include some of Franklin’s possessions. The Betsy Ross House is nearby, where she is said to have created the original American flag; the house and workshop have been restored to their 1777 appearance.
The City Tavern was a regular haunt of Jefferson, Adams, and Franklin. Rebuilt in 1976, it offers an 18th-century dining experience, right down to the pepperpot soup and beers brewed using Washington’s and Jefferson’s own recipes.
The City of Brotherly Love blossoms in early March when the Philadelphia International Flower Show comes to town. Held every year since 1829, it transforms 10 acres into a fantasy of bursting buds and blooming trees.
Because it is famously cracked, the Liberty Bell hasn’t rung since 1846.
INFO: Tel 877-444-6777 or 215-965-7676; www.independencevisitorcenter.com. FRANKLIN COURT: Tel 800-537-7676 or 215-965-7676. BETSY ROSS HOUSE: Tel 215-686-1252; www.betsyrosshouse.org. CITY TAVERN: Tel 215-413-1443; www.citytavern.com. Cost: dinner $40. PHILADELPHIA INTERNATIONAL FLOWER SHOW: Tel 215-988-8899; www.theflowershow.com. When: early Mar. WHERE TO STAY: from the Omni Hotel at Independence Park it’s an easy stroll to historical sights. Tel 800-843-6664 or 215-925-0000; www.omnihotels.com. Cost: from $250. BEST TIMES: Mar–Oct for Lights of Liberty walking tour; on and around July 4 for city-wide celebrations.
Temples of Culture in the City of Brotherly Love
PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART AND THE BARNES FOUNDATION
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
Standing like a Roman temple at the head of the broad, tree-lined Benjamin Franklin Parkway, the Philadelphia Museum of Art is among the country’s largest art museums and one of its best, with a permanent collection of more than 225,000 objects housed in more than 200 galleries. Still, the movie Rocky is on most visitors’ minds when they arrive and many attempt the sprint up the 72 steps (Rocky’s statue can be found at the foot of the steps).
The museum’s outstanding American collection holds an impressive number of paintings by 19th-century Philadelphia artist Thomas Eakins. Its European galleries include masterpieces such as Van Gogh’s Sunflowers and Cézanne’s Large Bathers. Among the modern and contemporary pieces are works by Picasso, Dalí, Miró, Léger, de Kooning, and Pollock, plus the world’s largest collection of works by Marcel Duchamp.
Another home to many of Philadelphia’s art treasures, the Barnes Foundation, will soon move from suburban Merion to a more central location just minutes from the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The foundation was established in 1922 by Dr. Albert C. Barnes, a self-made millionaire, and has since amassed one of the world’s premier private art collections. The new complex, scheduled to open in 2012, is intended to replicate the look of the original Merion site, with indoor gardens and masterworks alongside everyday items. The Barnes holds one of the most important collections of French Impressionist and post-Impressionist paintings anywhere, and you can expect to find 181 works by Renoir alone, and countless others by Cézanne, Matisse, and Picasso as well as Van Gogh, Degas, Monet, Manet, Goya, and El Greco.
PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART: Tel 215-763-8100; www.philamuseum.org. BARNES FOUNDATION: Tel 610-667-0290; www.barnesfoundation.org.
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Cheesesteaks
PHILLY FOOD
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
Philadelphia’s vibrant restaurant scene continues to gain recognition, but it will first and foremost be associated with—and loved for—its humble cheesesteak. Leaving Philly without sampling one would be like going to Napa and not sipping the wine.
Local legend has it that in 1930, South Philly hot dog vendor Pat Olivieri, tired of eating his own grub for lunch, tossed some shaved steak slices and onions onto his griddle and piled it on some Italian bread. In time, cheese entered the mix, and fans like Humphrey Bogart and Frank Sinatra pumped up the sandwich’s cachet. Today you can visit Pat’s, the restaurant Olivieri opened at Philly’s famed 9th Street Italian Market, the country’s oldest and largest working outdoor market. The ramshackle corner joint is still run by the Olivieri family, still open 24 hours, and still serving from a take-out window. Although American and provolone cheeses are available, the classic is “whiz, wit’,” a steak smothered in gobs of molten Cheez Whiz with onions.
Right across the intersection is Pat’s nemesis since 1966, Geno’s. Though bright compared to Pat’s Depression-era authenticity, it offers essentially the same menu, fueling a friendly rivalry. Jim’s Steaks (also known for their hoagies—Philly-speak for submarine sandwiches) is in the running too. Try all three if your arteries can bear it, or head over to the Reading Terminal Market, a huge late-19th-century railroad shed and wander among 80-plus food stalls manned by artisanal vendors and Amish farmers selling Pennsylvania Dutch specialties among others. Be sure to visit the marble counter at Bassett’s, which has been selling rich ice cream since the market opened in 1892.
At the other end of the culinary spectrum are a number of the city’s celebrated restaurants. Try the authentic Italian cuisine at celebrated chef Marc Vetri’s Vetri Ristorante, a small, rustic place where dishes such as roasted capretto with soft polenta are served alongside fazzoletti (“little handkerchiefs”) with duck ragu. Lacroix at the Rittenhouse is as favored for its elegant, special-occasion setting as for its food—a subtle mix of tried-and-true favorites and experimental creations from chef Jon Cichon. Nearby, the cozy Rittenhouse 1715 offers 23 luxuriously appointed guest rooms in a former 19th-century carriage house.
Geno’s is open 24 hours a day.
PAT’S: Tel 215-468-1546; www.patskingofsteaks.com. GENO’S: Tel 215-389-0659; www.genosteaks.com. JIM’S STEAKS: Tel 215-928-1911; www.jimssteaks.com. READING TERMINAL MARKET: Tel 215-922-2317; www.readingterminalmarket.org. VETRI RISTORANTE: Tel 215-732-3478; www.vetriristorante.com. Cost: dinner $60. LACROIX AT THE RITTENHOUSE: Tel 215-790-2533; www.lacroixrestaurant.com. Cost: dinner $65. RITTENHOUSE 1715: Tel 877-791-6500 or 215-546-6500; www.rittenhouse1715.com. Cost: from $160. BEST TIME: mid-May weekend for 9th Street
Italian Market Festival.
Eleven Square Miles of Yankee Paradise
BLOCK ISLAND
Rhode Island, U.S.A.
Unpretentious Block Island is a barefoot-and-bicycle kind of place, with rolling green hills, hundreds of freshwater ponds, and dramatic 250-foot bluffs that remind many of Ireland. So bewitching is it that the Nature Conservancy was inspired to call the island “one of the last great places in the Western Hemisphere.”
Not much happened here until tourists began arriving in the 1870s (leading to a boom in the construction of grand Victorian hotels). Today, on peak summer weekends, up to 16,000 tourists flock to this 11-square-mile New England gem.
Despite the island’s popularity, there is no Martha’s Vineyard–style social fuss. Residents and visitors tend to be quiet and protective of the natural beauty around them; a third of the island is set aside as wildlife refuge, with more than 30 miles of hiking trails and gorgeous cliffside biking paths. The island is ringed by some 17 miles of beach, while the Great Salt Pond harbors hundreds of pleasure boats, most from nearby Newport (see next page). Situated on the Atlantic flyway, it’s a favorite of bird-watchers during the autumn migrations, when huge flocks representing more than 150 species pass through.
Dubbed the “Bermuda of the North” during its Victorian-era heyday, Block Island still boasts a number of rambling porch-fringed buildings, which wear their age with dignity. The Hotel Manisses is a big 1870s charmer that surprises by way of its upscale restaurant with garden seating. (Order the signature lobster mashed potatoes.) Of a number of sister properties, the nearby 1661 Inn is the most inviting while the ten-room Sea Breeze Inn is delightful: It sits on a bluff overlooking the ocean and is surrounded by flowering gardens.
WHERE: 12 miles south of mainland Rhode Island. VISITOR INFO: www.blockislandchamber.com. HOW: Ferries depart from Pt. Judith year-round. Seasonal departures from Newport; New London, CT; and Montauk, NY. HOTEL MANISSES and 1661 INN: Tel 800-626-4773 or 401-466-2421; www.blockislandresorts.com. Cost: Manisses from $75 (off-peak), from $220 (peak); dinner $40. 1661 Inn from $90 (off-peak), from $340 (peak). When: Hotel Manisses, Apr–Oct; 1661 Inn, year-round. SEA BREEZE INN: Tel 800-786-2276 or 401-466-2275; www.seabreezeblockisland.com. Cost: from $160 (off-peak), from $230 (peak). BEST TIMES: May–mid-Jun and mid-Sep–Oct for fewer crowds; Aug for nicest weather; Sep–Oct for bird-watching.
Seaside Cottages of the Gilded Age
NEWPORT MANSIONS AND THE CLIFF WALK
Newport, Rhode Island, U.S.A.
In the 19th century, wealthy, socially prominent families, such as the Vanderbilts and Astors, descended on Newport to escape the cities’ summer heat in their seaside “cottages.” Today about a dozen of these homes, each one grander than the last, are open to the public, including the undisputed showstopper The Breakers. A 70-room Renaissance-style palazzo completed in 1895 for Cornelius Vanderbilt II, it has a gilded 2,400-square-foot dining room lit by 12-foot chandeliers and a great hall that mimics an open-air courtyard.
Marble House was built for Cornelius’s younger brother William between 1888 and 1892 in a style inspired by Marie Antoinette’s Petit Trianon at Versailles. Rosecliff is another favorite, a relatively intimate 40-room manse built in 1902 by architect Stanford White. Newport’s 8 square miles are filled with many other impressive examples of 18th- and 19th-century architecture, including 83 structures that are preserved by the Newport Restoration Foundation, created by tobacco heiress Doris Duke in 1968. Her own mansion, Rough Point, is also open for tours.
Enjoy wonderful mansion views along the 3.5-mile Cliff Walk that wends 30 feet above the shoreline. The Chanler at Cliff Walk was the first to be built on the historic trail, in 1873. After many reincarnations, it operates today as an opulent oceanfront inn, with 20 handsomely appointed rooms scattered between its French Empire Mansion and villas, and an elegant restaurant called the Spiced Pear. A more secluded rest awaits at the Gatsbyesque Castle Hill Inn, an 1874 waterfront mansion sitting on its own grassy peninsula just off the spectacular 10-mile Ocean Drive.
Newport is also the spiritual and physical center of the U.S. sailing universe, hosting more than 40 races annually. The New York Yacht Club sailors, who maintain their summer base here and have defended the America’s Cup race title for 132 years, hold their annual regatta in June. You can also see the historic Annapolis to Newport Race during odd-numbered years and the famed Newport Bermuda Race in even-numbered years. When it’s time to eat, boat folks gravitate to the boisterous Black Pearl, a waterfront mainstay, or the more refined White Horse Tavern, in business since 1687.
Influential architect Richard Morris Hunt designed The Breakers.
VISITOR INFO: www.gonewport.com. PRESERVATION SOCIETY: (info on visiting the mansions) Tel 401-847-1000; www.newportmansions.org. When: The Breakers closed early Jan–Apr; others closed seasonally. THE CHANLER: Tel 866-793-5664 or 401-847-2244; www.thechanler.com. Cost: from $320 (off-peak), from $800 (peak); dinner $60. CASTLE HILL INN: Tel 888-466-1355 or 401-849-3800; www.castlehillinn.com. Cost: from $275 (off-peak), from $575 (peak); brunch $40. BLACK PEARL: Tel 401-846-5264; www.blackpearlnewport.com. Cost: dinner $35. WHITE HORSE TAVERN: Tel 401-849-3600; www.whitehorsetavern.us. Cost: dinner $50. BEST TIMES: Jun and Jul for regattas; early–mid-Aug for JVC Jazz Festival & Newport Folk Festival; Dec for Christmas decorations at The Breakers and Marble House.
Where the Old Times Aren’t Forgotten
BEAUFORT AND THE LOWCOUNTRY
South Carolina, U.S.A.
The honeycombed coastline south of Charleston stretches for 200 miles, dissolving into peninsulas, channels, and subtropical Sea Islands that make up the South Carolina lowcountry. Kiawah Island is a key player, enjoying proximity to Charleston and boasting one of the most talked-about golf resorts in North America (tennis and beach sports are also stellar). Its Sanctuary Hotel is a sumptuous choice for those who want to linger. Neighboring Hunting Island State Park, a nature reserve, is rife with loggerhead turtles, alligators, and herons.
The small waterfront town of Beaufort is the gateway to Sea Islands. Known for its many antebellum houses, Beaufort (pronounced BYEW-fert) has enjoyed something of a renaissance, thanks to its popularity with Hollywood: The Big Chill, Forrest Gump, and The Prince of Tides were all shot here, and many of the actors stayed at the Rhett House Inn. A short walk from the restored waterfront and main street, the white-columned 1820s inn epitomizes Southern hospitality.
St. Helena Island’s Penn Center was established in 1862 as one of the first schools in the country for freed slaves. Its small museum is the cultural hub of the area’s Gullah community. Members trace their roots to West Africa and their community was founded here in the early 18th century.
St. Helena’s low-key Gullah Grub Restaurant is the perfect venue for red rice and shrimp, catfish chowder, and gumbo, or visit the roadside Shrimp Shack, where the fresh shrimp burgers explain the ever-present lines.
Not far from the Georgia border, Hilton Head Island presides as one of the most popular resort areas on the eastern seaboard. It’s a seaside playground with 25 championship golf courses and some 300 tennis courts. A more authentic experience can be found inland at Palmetto Bluff; stay in one of 50 cabins on the moss-draped banks of the May River.
WHERE: Kiawah is 27 miles south of Charleston. VISITOR INFO: www.beaufortsc.org. KIAWAH ISLAND GOLF RESORT: Tel 800-654-2924 or 843-768-2121; www.kiawahgolf.com. Cost: from $270 (off-peak), from $460 (peak); greens fees at Ocean Course $265 (off-peak), $360 (peak). RHETT HOUSE INN: Tel 888-480-9530 or 843-524-9030; www.rhetthouseinn.com. Cost: from $175. PENN CENTER: Tel 843-838-2432; www.penncenter.com. GULLAH GRUB RESTAURANT: Tel 843-838-3841; www.gullahgrubs.com. Cost: dinner $20. INN AT PALMETTO BLUFF: Tel 866-706-6565 or 843-706-6500; www.palmettobluffresort.com. Cost: from $475. BEST TIMES: Apr–Jun and mid-Sep–Jan for pleasant weather; May for Beaufort’s Gullah Fest; early Oct for Beaufort’s Shrimp Festival.
Nothing Could Be Finer
THE
HEART OF CHARLESTON
Charleston, South Carolina, U.S.A.
At the time of the American Revolution, Charleston stood as one of the young nation’s largest, wealthiest, and most dynamic communities. Today this sultry and gracious metropolis at the confluence of the Cooper and Ashley rivers remains unparalleled in charm. Its wonderfully walkable historic district contains one of the nation’s largest collections of Colonial architecture, and a fair share of distinctive Victorian buildings as well. Charleston also delights visitors with its antiques shops, amiable residents, and the city’s emerging arts and food scenes.
Charleston became the symbol of Southern resistance when the first shots of the Civil War were fired at Union-occupied Fort Sumter, which still stands guard over Charleston Harbor. Take a crash course on the city’s heritage at the Charleston Museum, the country’s oldest (founded in 1773).
The city’s architectural legacy can be traced to the days when cotton was king, and the fabulous wealth of planters and merchants financed the sumptuous antebellum homes that line the city’s leafy streets. Tours of more than 150 private homes and walled gardens sell out well in advance of the annual springtime Festival of Houses and Gardens and the same goes for the equally popular Fall Tours of Homes and Gardens.
To truly experience a historic home, check into Two Meeting Street, the city’s oldest continuously operating inn. The 1892 Queen Anne structure on the Battery waterfront is resplendent with Tiffany stained-glass windows and nine guest rooms brimming with antiques. Breakfasts are served in the shady pocket-size garden where magnolias bloom.