The History Channel recently rolled out a contest offering the grand prize of a two-night stay at The Rittenhouse Hotel, one of Philadelphia's schwankiest hotels.
The contest ends on July 11, with the winner notified around July 14.
This is a good deal since the hotel has garnered all kinds of awards, including kudos from travel mags Travel + Leisure and Conde Nast Traveler.
And the location is right in the heart of the city center. Rittenhouse Square is in a sense its own destination, with shopping, galleries, music, and serious restaurants. It also has history -- it's one of the five original squares designed by William Penn, the state's founding father.
Plus it's a five-minute walk from Amtrak's 30th Street Station, and just under a half hour from Philly International Airport.
Not to mention the room rates start at $260 a night for a standard room, so you definitely can't beat the price -- FREE! Try your hand at winning here. Add it to your favorites, since you can enter once a day between now and 7-11.
Just in time for the Fourth of July, Philly's Independent Hotel opened its doors on Thursday -- which has nothing to do with Independence Day, really, but the timing is good.
The 24-room boutique property -- which used to be the Inn at Locust -- is located in Midtown Village and features a three-story mural of Independence Hall done by a local artist.
Guest rooms feature hardwood floors with New Zealand Wool area rugs, custom window treatments, Robert Allen custom bedding and Serta Presidential mattresses. Each room include=s a variety of unique features such as fireplaces, exposed brick walls, cathedral ceilings, French windows or loft bedrooms.
The hotel is also serving free breakfasts every morning and hosting a free wine and cheese happy hour once a week (how Kimpton-like!)
We found out via the Independent's very own blog that they're really getting into the Independence Day spirit: for July 4th weekend, the hotel is offering a special rate of $139 per night (!); reservations can be made here.
Get your hot dogs, sunscreen and beer guts ready: Independence Day is just over two weeks away! If you're headed to a big city for some fireworks fun, we'll be taking a look at hotels with prime fireworks views. Have a favorite hotel for gawking at bombs bursting in air? Send it our way.
Got kids, a love of old-school boy bands and/or a knack for history? Our hotel pick for families this Fourth of July is Loews Philadelphia, recently named Loews' Hotel of the Year.
Philly features the impressive Sunoco Welcome America! festival and the hotel offers a sweet deal for the whole family to go along with it (with cameos by historic characters every day!)
Looks like that $9 million renovation last year paid off at the Loews Philadelphia. The hotel was just awarded Hotel of the Year by Loews CEO Jonathan Tisch at the company's annual national meeting in Orlando in Orlando earlier this week. Hotel-Online reports:
Loews Philadelphia Hotel received the company's top honor, "Hotel of the Year." The hotel was recognized for its overall commitment to guest and employee satisfaction, compliance with brand initiatives and standards, year-over-year profits in both average room rate and food and beverage outlets, and implementation of the "Good Neighbor Policy," to list a few criteria for the award.
The hotel's director of sales and marketing, Anthony Del Gaudio, also won "Marketer of the Year" for all the partnerships he has forged between the hotel and the community.
Now if only they would make that WiFi free.
See what we had to say when we stayed at the Loews Philadelphia back in February 08.
If you're sick of hearing about Aloft Hotels already, too bad. Aloft will be opening its hotels rapid-fire throughout the summer and fall, including one near the Philadelphia airport which will open on September 8.
This is part of the company's overall plan to gussy up otherwise drab and dreary airport hotels into destinations unto themselves.
The LA Time political blog, Top of the Ticket was kinda horrified to see that Hillary Clinton celebrated her Pennsylvania primary win at the Park Hyatt Philadelphia.
Why's that? Because the hotel used to be the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel:
[T]he hostelry was the notorious scene of a mysterious illness in 1976 during an American Legion convention, later dubbed Legionnaires' disease. Thirty-four deaths were eventually traced to the Legionella pneumophila bacteria.
Yikes, couldn't Hillary have picked a happier place than that? One suggestion: The Loews Philadelphia which just completed a $9 million renovation.
Fortunately, in the future Philly is going to be getting all sorts of cool hotels so the next presidential candidate will have plenty of options.
While Hillary, Barack and the entire DNC await the outcome of the Pennsylvania primary, Philadelphia is already celebrating a victory with the announcement that a new Intercontinental Hotel is coming to town.
Scheduled to open in 2010, the luxury hotel will have 268 rooms, upscale restaurant, full-service spa and 18,000 square feet of meeting space.
The hotel will be part of a larger mixed-used project called The Vine which will also include a Whole Foods supermarket and a Best Buy consumer-electronics store. The hotel will be on the first 16 floors of the 40-story tower.
City officials couldn't be happier. Not only will Philadelphia get more rooms to meet the demand of convention center expansion, they see the cache of the international brand as a draw for more overseas guests. Looks like things are looking up for Philadelphia these days!
Philadelphia's new mayor Michael Nutter welcomes Stephen Colbert
Stephen Colbert is filming the The Colbert Report from Philadelphia all this week and as a way to welcome him to the city of Brotherly Love the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation feted the pundit at the Hilton Inn at Penn on Monday night.
GPTMC's president & CEO, Meryl Levitz, along with the mayor Michael Nutter gave Colbert a few welcome gifts including a small LOVE statue and a reproduction of the lights at the PECO building on Market Street that say, "Philly Loves Colbert Nation." (No, that's not a photo manipulation. Those lights really do say that.) Colbert even got down with some of the city's famous Mummers.
This is the first time the Colbert Report has filmed in a remote location and Philly was the obvious choice since Pennsylvania is the next most important primary state in 2008 presidential election (That happens April 22nd.) And of course, because Philly is the birthplace of American democracy. Since Colbert's book was titled, I am America and So Can You! this is a very fitting city for the Colbert Report.
The History Channel recently rolled out a contest offering the grand prize of a two-night stay at The Rittenhouse Hotel, one of Philadelphia's schwankiest hotels.
While Hillary, Barack and the entire DNC await the outcome of the Pennsylvania primary, Philadelphia is already celebrating a victory with the announcement that a new 
