Travel advice - CHI, WASH, or PHI?

[North East Goon]

Camden Yards is close to DC, I would choose there. Havent been to any of the three cities however.

[Bill Bumface]

I've been to all three.

Chicago is by far the best.

Philly is a dump, DC is rather dull besides the museums. Don't get me wrong, there are some killer museums there (Smithsonian Air & Space Museum = Awesome).

[YYC in LAX]

Philly is a nice place with great history and buildings. I guess Washington would be too. I fell in love with Philly as it is super lush and has trees everywhere.

[greyshep]

I spent a few days in DC about 3 years ago as part of a diverted trip home from the Carribean. It was awesome.

Tons to do and see there, including the Smithsonian, Air/space museum, natural history museum, etc etc. Also lots of sightseeing opportunities with the Jefferson and Lincoln memorial etc all within walking or easy transit distance.

Depending on the time of year, it can be pretty lush as well. We had our 3 kids with us aged 7, 5 and 2 at the time and they all enjoyed it equally.

I wouldnt hesitate to go back as we didnt have enough time in the 3 days we were there to see everything.

[cmyden]

I think the answer is already obvious, but I'll add one more vote for Chicago.

NYC, San Francisco, and Chicago are the 3 best major U.S. cities in my subjective opinion.

- Pizzeria Uno (original location)

- Museum of Science & Industry http://www.msichicago.org/

- Wrigley Field

- original home of the Playboy Mansion

- architecture cruise

- giant eyeball

- cloud gate / bean

- spraying mouth fountain

- top of the John Hancock tower for a drink

[Crazy Bacon Legs]

I have never been to Chicago, but from the sounds of it that would be a fun trip. I think you've gotten very good advice on Chicago from others.

I have been to Philly and DC, and I loved them both. I am a huge history buff, so seeing Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, and just the neat architecture (very gothic) in the city is great. I also ate at the tavern that the Founding Fathers used to frequent. Neat stuff, and the older parts of the city are beautiful. This is the city in which the United States were born, so you will find a lot to see if you like that era. The Rocky stairs are a must, and the art gallery is really amazing. Also check out City Hall - it's gorgeous.

I could easily spend a week just in the Mall in DC - the White House, the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials, the Washington Monument, Congress, etc. are great, and the fall is definitely the time to be in DC. Again, a lot of history here. Also, I could probably spend a week in just the Smithsonian Institute's various museums. Some people are under the erroneous impression that it's one museum, but there are a number of them - Natural History, American History, Aerospace, etc. There are always neat temporary exhibits there - e.g. when I was there the American History museum had an American Presidents exhibit that featured Washington's actual military uniform and the hat Lincoln was shot in. Pretty cool stuff. There are also a lot of beautiful little towns in the DC area you can visit.

All that said, I don't think you could go wrong with any of the three choices on your short list.

[Sainters7]

Never spent a ton of time in any of those cities, but even though Chicago's the only one I haven't been to, I'd recommend that one just from people I've talked to. Washington is the biggest hole I've ever been in, you've never seen such a drastic jump between uber rich and uber poor. We were only there for a day/night and maybe just ended up in too many ghettos, but I literally have no desire to visit there ever again. Obviously the Capital Building, White House, etc is really cool though.

Spent even less time in Philly, it was alright, but again, tons of ghettos. We drove to all these places, and I gotta say, I'm just not a fan of the Eastern Seaboard. Its so over-polluted, over-populated, and people are just pricks, there's just a real aggressive, almost wanna-be mafia mentality out there (at least that was my experience). Aside from NYC, I really have no plans to visit that area of the U.S. again.

I hear Chicago's the tits, I would love to go there some day.

[valo403]

Originally Posted by Sainters7

Never spent a ton of time in any of those cities, but even though Chicago's the only one I haven't been to, I'd recommend that one just from people I've talked to. Washington is the biggest hole I've ever been in, you've never seen such a drastic jump between uber rich and uber poor. We were only there for a day/night and maybe just ended up in too many ghettos, but I literally have no desire to visit there ever again. Obviously the Capital Building, White House, etc is really cool though.

Spent even less time in Philly, it was alright, but again, tons of ghettos. We drove to all these places, and I gotta say, I'm just not a fan of the Eastern Seaboard. Its so over-polluted, over-populated, and people are just pricks, there's just a real aggressive, almost wanna-be mafia mentality out there (at least that was my experience). Aside from NYC, I really have no plans to visit that area of the U.S. again.

I hear Chicago's the tits, I would love to go there some day.

Yes, you certainly did. There's absolutely no reason, especially in a one day visit, why you would ever find yourself in any of the run down areas of DC without making some very bizarre decisions.

[Sainters7]

^^^
Makes sense, seeing as we were mostly deep in the city. We were driving in from NYC (via Philly, Baltimore) and that's just where our triptick took us. Were just looking for a place - any place - where we happened to be around to lay our heads down, D.C. was just a night stopover on our way to Tennessee.

We ended up getting ridonkulously lost, and - in the pre-GPS era, ended up doing quite the inadvertent tour of D.C. I'm assuming we were in the older area, because it was just row after row of colonial-style mansions, and then the next thing we knew, we were in the biggest ghetto I had ever seen. Can't believe how close that shyte is together.

I'm sure being there one night (and a day, we kicked around awhile the next day) isn't enough to judge a big U.S. city. Just what we did see left a sour taste in my mouth, just wasn't a fan, at all. Aside from the Capital area anyway.

[rubecube]

Been to all three and I would do Chicago again before I'd head back to the other two.

[valo403]

Originally Posted by Sainters7

^^^
Makes sense, seeing as we were mostly deep in the city. We were driving in from NYC (via Philly, Baltimore) and that's just where our triptick took us. Were just looking for a place - any place - where we happened to be around to lay our heads down, D.C. was just a night stopover on our way to Tennessee.

We ended up getting ridonkulously lost, and - in the pre-GPS era, ended up doing quite the inadvertent tour of D.C. I'm assuming we were in the older area, because it was just row after row of colonial-style mansions, and then the next thing we knew, we were in the biggest ghetto I had ever seen. Can't believe how close that shyte is together.

I'm sure being there one night (and a day, we kicked around awhile the next day) isn't enough to judge a big U.S. city. Just what we did see left a sour taste in my mouth, just wasn't a fan, at all. Aside from the Capital area anyway.

Yeah, that can certainly happen in DC. The nice areas and the very bad areas aren't separated by much. I"m actually heading down there tomorrow and spent a few minutes checking in with a friend who lived there for years to make sure I hadn't inadvertently booked a hotel in the wrong section of town. That's not all that different than any large city though, if you walk through certain parts of NYC you'll feel the same way. The same goes for major cities on the west coast.

[Sainters7]

Originally Posted by valo403

Yeah, that can certainly happen in DC. The nice areas and the very bad areas aren't separated by much. I"m actually heading down there tomorrow and spent a few minutes checking in with a friend who lived there for years to make sure I hadn't inadvertently booked a hotel in the wrong section of town. That's not all that different than any large city though, if you walk through certain parts of NYC you'll feel the same way. The same goes for major cities on the west coast.

Ya, in the end we found a really nice hotel on the cheap. Which amazed us, as just 5min before, in basically the same part of town, we were so tired we looked at a sh*thole with a car on blocks in front for only a few $$ cheaper than the awesome hotel we ended up staying at. So it worked out great.

We did a whole loop of the outside of the States so I ended up judging areas by region, and the Eastern Seaboard was the only area I didn't like (aside from NYC, which was cool), so D.C. and the other cities there just got grouped together negatively in my head. (on a side note, the South - Virginia, TN, Miss, La - was surprisingly awesome. I heart Tennessee)

Anyway I don't wanna take away from the OP too much, so I'll just say go to Chicago.

[tvp2003]

Originally Posted by Sainters7

We did a whole loop of the outside of the States so I ended up judging areas by region, and the Eastern Seaboard was the only area I didn't like (aside from NYC, which was cool), so D.C. and the other cities there just got grouped together negatively in my head. (on a side note, the South - Virginia, TN, Miss, La - was surprisingly awesome. I heart Tennessee).

Don't worry about de-railing -- where exactly did you go? That's cool that you were able to visit the different regions in the US (I think when I retire I'd like to get an RV and do a massive road trip throughout the US and Canada).

Any thoughts about which regions/states/drives you liked the most? We did a road trip a few years back throughout the western US -- the drive down the coast of CA was awesome (highway 1 through Big Sur), as was the drive from Vegas up through Utah (cool scenery, from the desert to the mountains).

[Kswiss]

Chicago for sure! Havent been to the other cities but, lots to do in Chi town!
Music scene, awesome....theatre...awesome, food....awesome.....you can even check the Cubs and Whitesox....too bad the bulls are out