Stopping Off in Philidelphia for 6 hours!

Lollipops23

Hi all- I will be stopping off in Philly on the work trip in Baltimore. I get in at 3.10pm and board my flight to Dublin at 9pm.

I've never been before, and was hoping to grab a cab in to see the Liberty Bell & Reading Terminal Market.

However, I am a bit concerned as A) I'll be heading into Friday evening traffic and also B)I'll need to change terminal for my flight home.

Is this going to be cutting it very fine?

ScottSF

Traffic on a Friday evening can be bad and then you have to deal with airport TSA, so it's a risk of course. I would be ideal if you can change your flight to Saturday and visit the fantastic Reading Terminal Market on a Saturday morning when it is most buzzing. It's my favourite place in Philly. The fun and historic and "center city" is definitely worth a weekend if you can make it this time.

Random idea: Can you alternatively take the Amtrak train earlier in the day from Baltimore to Philly (central)? May be too late to modify your flight without major penalties.

mmg0305

You can get a train from the airport to downtown
http://www.septa.org/welcome/airport.html

Airport isn't huge but I found signage not great, so try not to cut it too fine

endofrainbow

Your flight to Dublin will begin boarding at 8pm so if you are going to Centre City you will need to be back at the Airport by 6.00pm latest.

Most of the European departures are early evening so getting through security can be a nightmare unless you have TSA Pre-check.

I always clear security at Terminal F and take the shuttle bus to A/B as F's security lines are much quicker.

schemingbohemia

Are you really flying from Baltimore to Philly? It's only an hour on the train.

Would agree with earlier poster about poor signage in Philly airport for the train, very annoying a few years ago anyway.

Lollipops23

schemingbohemia wrote: »

Are you really flying from Baltimore to Philly? It's only an hour on the train.

Would agree with earlier poster about poor signage in Philly airport for the train, very annoying a few years ago anyway.

I booked flights from Baltimore to Dublin, this is just how they're routing me. I'll have a massive suitcase with me and I'll be in a city I've never been in. I'd definitely rather flying.

Thanks for the super helpful input though....

schemingbohemia

Well I was just pointing out an alternative to going from presumably central Baltimore to the airport and then flying to Philly and then getting from the airport to Philly itself will take up way more time than a train journey. But you obviously did lots of your own research before booking your journey.

If your suitcase is checked all the way through then you can get into the city centre by train reasonably quickly and do your site seeing but it is going to be a bit rushed. Getting the train rather than a taxi will avoid the rush-hour but it will still be a bit of a rush.