Philadelphia USACruise Port Guide

Philadelphia occupies a singular place in American history as the city where the United States was conceived, debated, and declared — the meeting place of the Founding Fathers, the site of both the Declaration of Independence (1776) and the Constitutional Convention (1787), and one of the great colonial-era cities of the New World. River cruise ships on the Delaware River dock at PhilaPort, with modern passenger facilities well-connected to the historic city centre, making Philadelphia one of the most historically rich embarkation or port-of-call options on the American East Coast. The city's colonial core around Independence Mall is a UNESCO World Heritage Site: Independence Hall, the red-brick Georgian building where the Declaration and Constitution were both hammered out in sweltering summer sessions, is perhaps the most important single building in American political history. Visitors can tour the assembly room where the Founding Fathers debated and signed, though timed tickets must be obtained in advance.

The Liberty Bell, that cracked but enduring symbol of American freedom, is displayed in its own modern pavilion directly across Chestnut Street from Independence Hall, viewable from outside for free at any hour or toured internally at no cost. The National Constitution Center, one block north, is the most substantive museum dedicated to the US Constitution in the world, with life-sized bronze statues of all 39 delegates who signed the document, a powerful documentary, and rotating exhibitions. Eastern State Penitentiary — one of the most historically significant and architecturally dramatic prisons in the world, opened 1829 and designed on the 'separate system' of solitary confinement that influenced penal philosophy worldwide — now operates as an outstanding history museum with artist installations, audio tours, and exhibits on mass incarceration. The Philadelphia Museum of Art, at the top of its famous ceremonial steps immortalised in the Rocky training montage, houses a world-class collection including an extraordinary reconstruction of a medieval cloister, arms and armour, and masterworks of European and American painting. The Barnes Foundation, a few blocks down the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, holds one of the world's greatest collections of post-Impressionist and early Modernist painting (181 Renoirs, 69 Cézannes) in a purpose-built gallery space.

Philadelphia is also one of America's great food cities. Reading Terminal Market, a covered public market operating since 1893 in a stunning Victorian train shed, is one of the finest urban food halls in the United States: Pennsylvania Dutch farmers selling shoofly pie and Lebanon bologna alongside cheesesteak stands, Vietnamese vendors, artisan cheese counters, and fresh pretzel stalls. The city's signature cheesesteak — thinly shaved ribeye sautéed with onions and (in the most traditional version) Cheez Whiz on a long hoagie roll — is best experienced at the legendary Pat's King of Steaks and Geno's Steaks, facing each other across the corner of 9th Street and Passyunk Avenue in South Philadelphia.