The city Penn laid out in a tidy grid between the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers grew quickly into one of the most important cities in the English-speaking world. By the mid-eighteenth century, Philadelphia was the largest city in the American colonies, a center of commerce, printing, medicine, and radical political thought. The First Continental Congress convened here in 1774. The Declaration of Independence was debated and signed here in 1776. The Constitution was drafted here in 1787. For a decade between 1790 and 1800, Philadelphia served as the capital of the new republic.

The nineteenth century brought industrialization and waves of immigration. Irish, Italian, Eastern European Jewish, and later, during the Great Migration, hundreds of thousands of Black Americans from the rural South seeking work and a measure of freedom in the urban North. Philadelphia absorbed them all, imperfectly and often violently, as American cities did. Neighborhoods stratified along lines of race and ethnicity. The political machine that ran City Hall for much of the early twentieth century was famously corrupt. And yet the city endured, producing writers and painters and musicians, building hospitals and universities, remaining stubbornly, insistently itself.

By the mid-twentieth century, Philadelphia was a city in transition. Its manufacturing base was eroding. White flight to the suburbs hollowed out neighborhoods. A reform movement in the 1950s began to modernize city government, and mayors like Joseph Clark and Richardson Dilworth laid the groundwork for a more progressive civic culture.

Before Stonewall: The Annual Reminder

The story of LGBTQ rights in America is often told as a story that begins with a hot night in Greenwich Village in June 1969, when patrons of the Stonewall Inn finally fought back against a police raid. That story is true and important. But the movement that made Stonewall possible had already been quietly organizing for years, and Philadelphia was one of its most significant proving grounds.

On July 4, 1965, a small group of men and women walked in a picket line in front of Independence Hall. They dressed conservatively, the men in suits and ties, the women in skirts, because their organizers understood that legibility mattered, that respectability in the public eye was a tool, however uncomfortable that fact might be. They called their demonstration the Annual Reminder, and their message was direct: gay and lesbian Americans were citizens too, and they lacked the civil rights the nation had promised its people.

The Annual Reminder was organized under the auspices of the Eastern Regional Council of Homophile Organizations. In its early years, bore the particular imprint of Barbara Gittings, one of the most consequential and underappreciated figures in American civil rights history. Gittings had co-founded the New York chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis, the country’s first lesbian civil and political organization in 1958. She had edited the organization’s newsletter, The Ladder, giving it a sharper political edge. And she had moved to Philadelphia, where she became the organizational heart of the Annual Reminder protests.

For five consecutive years, from 1965 through 1969, demonstrators returned to Independence Hall every Fourth of July. The symbolism was deliberate and pointed. Here was the birthplace of American democracy, the very ground where the founders had declared that all men were created equal. The protesters were asking a simple question: did that include them? They picketed peacefully. They engaged passersby. They were often jeered. They kept coming back.

Dewey’s and the Sit-In That History Forgot

The Annual Reminders were not the only form of activism taking shape in Philadelphia during this period. In April 1965, weeks before the first Independence Hall protest, a sit-in occurred at Dewey’s, a lunch counter restaurant on the corner of 17th and Chancellor Streets that had been refusing service to gay customers and gender-nonconforming young people it deemed undesirable. Activists with the Janus Society, a local homophile organization, organized sit-in protests on two consecutive Saturdays, drawing on the direct-action model that civil rights demonstrators had been using across the South to challenge segregated lunch counters.

More than 150 people were turned away from service during those demonstrations. Several were arrested, but the tactic worked. Dewey’s ultimately agreed to stop its discriminatory service policy. It was one of the first gay sit-ins in American history, and it happened quietly, without national coverage, in a city that was already teaching itself how to push back.

The Turn: After Stonewall

When the Stonewall uprising happened in late June 1969, the Annual Reminder that followed on July 4th of that year felt different. The demonstration proceeded as planned, but something had shifted in the air. At least two participants, defying the long-standing protocol of restrained comportment, held hands while picketing.

That July 1969 demonstration was the last Annual Reminder. Barbara Gittings, Craig Rodwell of New York, and other organizers agreed to redirect their energy toward a larger national action. The following year, on the first anniversary of Stonewall, New York hosted the Christopher Street Liberation Day March, the direct ancestor of every Pride parade that has taken place anywhere in the world since. Philadelphia held its own march that same year. The language had changed. The tactics had changed. The movement was no longer asking politely at the door.

The 1970s saw Philadelphia’s gay and lesbian community begin to build the institutions that would sustain it. The William Way LGBT Community Center was founded in 1975, taking its name from a community advocate, and would eventually become one of the oldest continuously operating LGBTQ centers in the country. Giovanni’s Room, a bookstore specializing in LGBTQ titles, opened in 1973 on 12th Street and became not just a place to buy books but a community anchor, a gathering point, a kind of library of the self for gay and lesbian Philadelphians who had often grown up without access to any literature that reflected their lives back at them.

The neighborhood around 12th and Locust Streets, in the larger area known as Washington Square West, was quietly becoming what people would eventually call the Gayborhood. Bars, organizations, and housing drew a community into a geographic center, and the center began to define itself with increasing confidence.

The Weight of the HIV/AIDS Epidemic

The 1980s arrived in Philadelphia the way they arrived everywhere: with rumors, then fear, then grief at a scale the community had not known before. AIDS moved through the gay neighborhoods of American cities like a tide that would not recede, and Philadelphia was not spared.

The city’s response was, like the epidemic itself, layered and uneven. The municipal government was slow. The medical establishment was often indifferent. The ACT UP Philadelphia, was founded in 1988 and brought the movement’s signature combination of outrage and sophistication to demonstrations, die-ins, and confrontations with pharmaceutical companies and government officials. The chapter’s members understood that visibility was survival, that silence was complicity, and that the urgency of the moment required tactics that made comfortable people uncomfortable.

Philadelphia FIGHT, the health organization founded in 1990, grew out of the community’s need for practical medical support in the absence of adequate government response. It eventually became one of the leading community-based HIV/AIDS service organizations in the country, providing treatment, housing support, and advocacy for people living with HIV regardless of their insurance status or ability to pay. The Mazzoni Center, which had been providing healthcare to the LGBTQ community since the 1970s, expanded its services to meet the catastrophic need of the epidemic years.

What the AIDS crisis did to Philadelphia’s LGBTQ community was immeasurable in its loss. It also, in the way of great collective suffering, drew people together and politicized a generation. People who had been content to exist quietly became organizers. People who had organized locally became national figures. The epidemic forced the movement to become fluent in the language of medicine, policy, insurance, and power.

Building the Gayborhood

By the 1990s, the neighborhood around 12th and Locust had become a recognized geography. The city of Philadelphia eventually made this official in a way that few cities had done: rainbow-painted crosswalks appeared on 12th and 13th Streets between Walnut and Spruce, the first of their kind in the country. Street signs bearing the word “Gayborhood” in rainbow colors were installed at key intersections. These were symbolic gestures, but symbols matter; they communicate belonging, and they tell newcomers, including young people arriving in the city for the first time, that they are seen.

The Gayborhood sustained a full ecosystem of bars, restaurants, health clinics, bookstores and community organizations.

• Bars: The Little Gay Pub, Knock, Stir, UBar, Tavern on Camac, 254, Bike Stop, Franky Bradley’s, B.West, Bar X and Woody’s.

• Restaurants: Knock, The Tavern (Basement of Tavern on Camac) and Franky Bradley’s.

• Bookstore: Philly AIDS Thrift @ Giovanni's Room

The city’s legal framework was catching up as well. Philadelphia added sexual orientation to its anti-discrimination ordinance in 1982, well ahead of any state or federal protection. Gender identity and expression were added to that protection in 2002. The city’s Commission on Human Relations had jurisdiction over discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations, which meant that Philadelphia’s LGBTQ residents had legal recourse that their counterparts in most of the country did not.

A New Flag and an Old Argument

In June 2017, Philadelphia unveiled a modified Pride flag that added black and brown horizontal stripes to the traditional six-color rainbow. The redesign came from Tierney, a Philadelphia advertising agency, in partnership with the city’s Office of LGBT Affairs, and it was intended to center LGBTQ people of color within the broader movement’s visual identity.

The new flag generated significant discussion, some of it uncomfortable, about race and belonging within LGBTQ spaces and organizations. That discomfort was part of the point. The rainbow flag had been created in 1978 by Gilbert Baker to represent the full diversity of the gay and lesbian community. However, the communities most represented in the bars and organizations of many gayborhoods, including Philadelphia’s were overwhelmingly white. The added stripes were a public acknowledgment that this had been a failure of inclusion, and that the city was choosing, at least symbolically, to do better.

Philadelphia's decision rippled outward. The redesigned flag was adopted and modified further, eventually contributing to the broader "Progress Pride Flag" that added transgender colors and a chevron design, and which has become common in many LGBTQ spaces since. A city-level design decision became part of the movement's evolving iconography.

Marriage, Recognition, and the Road to Today

Pennsylvania’s ban on same-sex marriage fell on May 20, 2014, when U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III ruled it unconstitutional. The state’s attorney general, Kathleen Kane, had already announced she would not defend the ban in court. Governor Tom Corbett, a Republican who opposed same-sex marriage, chose not to appeal the ruling. Marriage licenses began being issued to same-sex couples that same day. In Philadelphia, couples who had in some cases waited decades lined the steps of City Hall.

The Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges decision in June 2015 established marriage equality nationwide. The community that had picketed at Independence Hall in suits and skirts fifty years earlier, that had buried its friends during the epidemic, that had organized and argued and built institutions in the gaps left by indifferent government, had lived to see a transformation that would have seemed impossible to the demonstrators of 1965.

Today, the William Way Community Center continues to operate at 1315 Spruce Street, offering social and support services, archival resources, and community programming. The Mazzoni Center provides comprehensive health care. New organizations have emerged to serve transgender youth, LGBTQ seniors, and communities of color within the broader LGBTQ umbrella. The Annual Reminder is commemorated each year. A historical marker on the south side of Independence Hall notes the significance of what happened in that spot.

The Gayborhood has changed, as neighborhoods do. Some of the bars have closed. The physical center of LGBTQ social life in Philadelphia has become more diffuse as legal protections have made it less necessary, and in some ways less urgent, to cluster in a single defended geography. The original Giovanni’s Room that was opened in 1973 closed its doors in 2014 after more than four decades of service. But luckily, it was reopened as a branch of the Philly AIDS Thrift shortly after.

What Philadelphia Carries

Philadelphia is not a perfect city. It is a city with deep poverty, persistent racial inequity, and a political culture that remains complicated by its history. But it is a city that held a protest at the foot of Independence Hall, year after year, when that kind of protest required genuine courage. It is a city that changed the visual language of Pride. It carries all of this alongside its cheesesteaks, the Gritty & Phanatic duo and its justifiably legendary impatience with outsiders who do not understand what it is.

Traveling to Philadelphia with any real curiosity is to understand that the history of LGBTQ liberation in America is not only a New York, or a San Francisco story. Some of the most consequential groundwork was laid here, quietly and persistently, by people who believed that if this city could not deliver on its founding promise of brotherly love, it could at least be shamed into trying harder.

The city is still trying. That may be the most Philadelphia thing about it.

For families, Las Vegas during the holidays is a different kind of trip. The Strip transforms into one of the largest New Year’s Eve celebrations in the world, with fireworks launched simultaneously from multiple resort rooftops lighting up the desert sky in a display that needs no ticket or reservation.

Beyond the Strip, the surrounding desert offers some of the most dramatic landscape in the American Southwest. Red Rock Canyon is less than 30 minutes from the hotel corridor, the Hoover Dam is under an hour and the Grand Canyon West is about 2 hours away.

Travels:

Frontier | F9 1875: Orlando ➡️ Las Vegas

• 🛫 06:43 EST MCO (7m Early)

• 🛬 09:14 PST LAS (1m Early)

Duration: 5 hr, 31 min

Stay:

• MGM Grand (4-Star Hotel | 4.3 ⭐️ 🏳️‍🌈)

  • 3799 S Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas, NV 89109

  • Located in the southern end of the Las Vegas Blvd. One of the closest property from the airport.

  • Part of The Edit by Chase collection.

    • $100 Property Credit can be used in any Las Vegas MGM Properties.

    • Early check-in and late check-out are subject to availability.

Dining:

• Yum Cha Restaurant (4.2 ⭐️ $$ V) Chinese

  • 4945 W Tropicana Ave, Las Vegas, NV 89103

  • Traditional Cantonese dim sum parlor.

  • Just minutes from the Las Vegas Blvd without the premium Strip pricing.

• Din Tai Fung (4.4 ⭐️ $$$) Chinese

  • 3730 S Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas, NV 89158

  • Located on the first floor of the ARIA Resort & Casino. Accessible by the free Aria Express.

  • Reservation is highly recommended to avoid wait.

• Palette Tea Lounge & Dim Sum (4.5 ⭐️ $$$ V) Chinese

  • 4601 Spring Mountain Rd, Las Vegas, NV 89103

  • Reservation is available on OpenTable or Resy.

  • All dishes are served family-style, with an excellent selection of dim sum, seafood, Peking duck, and desserts.

• Shokku Ramen (4.3 ⭐️ $$ 🏳️‍🌈 V) Japanese

  • 3889 Spring Mountain Rd, Las Vegas, NV 89102

  • An authentic Japanese ramen restaurant located near the north end of the Las Vegas Strip.

  • Although the restaurant operates 24/7, reservations or joining the waitlist online are recommended.

Activities:

• Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area (4.8 ⭐️)

  • 3205 State Highway 159, Las Vegas, NV 89161

  • Entrance Fee: $20 per car or America the Beautiful Pass

  • Located 17 miles west of the Las Vegas Strip.

  • 13 miles one-way paved road with scenic views, access to the canyons and sandstone hills in the heart of the conservation area.

• Seven Magic Mountains (4.5 ⭐️ 🏳️‍🌈)

  • About 30 mins south from Harry Reid International Airport on the Las Vegas Blvd.

  • The artwork was installed by a Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone in 2016.

  • It features 7 colorful stacked boulders standing over 30-ft high.

• Hoover Dam (4.7 ⭐️)

  • 81 Hoover Dam Access Rd, Boulder City, NV 89005

  • Admission: (Interagency Passes not accepted)

    • $15 Self-Guided Visitor Center Tour

    • $25 Guided Power Plant Tour

    • $40 Guided Dam Tour

  • Construction of the Hoover Dam began in 1931 during the depths of the Great Depression, and it became one of the most ambitious engineering projects the United States had ever attempted. Thousands of workers descended on the Black Canyon of the Colorado River between Nevada and Arizona, working in brutal desert heat to divert the river, pour millions of cubic yards of concrete, and raise a wall of art deco masonry 726 feet high. The project was completed in 1936, two years ahead of schedule.

  • The dam created Lake Mead, still one of the largest reservoirs in the United States, and its hydroelectric generators supplied power to Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Phoenix for decades. It remains a working piece of infrastructure to this day.

• Grand Canyon West | Eagle Point | Guano Point (4.8 ⭐️)

  • 5001 E. Diamond Bar Road, Meadview, AZ 86444

  • Try the Skywalk and Zipline.

  • Free Wi-Fi is available indoors. Even though Verizon is the primary service provider in the area, their cellular service can still be spotty.

  • Pro-tips: Spend less time at the gift shop and Eagle Point, but more in Guano Point for its spectacular views.

• Fremont Street Experience (4.6 ⭐️ 🏳️‍🌈)

  • Fremont St, Las Vegas, NV 89101

  • Public park is available. $20 daily maximum rate or $4 per hour.

  • Before the Strip, there was Fremont Street. This is where Las Vegas was born, where the neon first came on, and where the Golden Nugget, Binion's, and the Golden Gate wrote the original rules of the city. The street is pedestrian-friendly and covered by an LED canopy.

  • Free live music plays across multiple stages every single night.

• Las Vegas Strips

  • Stretching roughly a 4-mile stretch along Las Vegas Blvd South lined with multiple resorts and casinos.

• New Year Celebration on The Strips

Travel Tips:

• MaxTour

  • When choosing a tour operator for the Grand Canyon, try to avoid the large tour buses. Pay extra for a small tour operators, such as MaxTour.

  • No meetup point, pickup and drop-off at your Strips hotel, along with complimentary snacks and drinks.

• Cell Services

  • Cellular service is very spotty throughout the Grand Canyon, even though Verizon has native coverage in the area.

  • Free Wi-Fi is available on most tour buses and at Grand Canyon West.

  • Use an iPhone or a carrier that supports direct-to-cell satellite connectivity.

    • T-Satellite

Travel without roaming charges! Our eSIM mobile data is Less than $5/week

Founded in 1642 on an island in the St. Lawrence River, Montréal spent centuries as one of the most important cities in the Western Hemisphere, a fur trading capital, a financial center, and the gateway through which much of Canada was built. The city that remains is layered with that history while feeling entirely alive in the present. Old Montréal’s cobblestone streets and 17th-century stone buildings sit a short walk from one of the most dynamic restaurant scenes in North America. The underground city, a vast network of tunnels and passageways connecting much of downtown, is a feat of practical ingenuity that only makes sense once you have experienced a Montréal winter.

Travels:

Route: Philadelphia, PA ➡️ Lake George, NY

Distance: 295 mi | Duration: 5 hrs

Route: Lake George, NY ➡️ Montréal, QC

Distance: 164 mi | Duration: 2 hrs, 30 mins

Route: Philadelphia, PA ➡️ Montréal, QC

Distance: 454 mi | Duration: 7.5 hours

Stays:

• Lido Motel Lake George (2-Star Hotel | 3.7 ⭐️)

  • 1 Old Post Road , Lake George, NY 12845

• Bed & Breakfast du Village - BBV (3-Star Hotel | 5.0 ⭐️ 🏳️‍🌈)

  • 1279 rue Montcalm, Montréal, QC, H2L 3G6

  • Located in The Village, right off Rue Sainte-Catherine E. About a 2-minute walk to the Beaudry Station.

  • Breakfast was included when you stayed in the main building. Everything was cooked fresh in the morning by one of the hosts.

Dining:

• Arte & Farina (4.5 ⭐️ $$ V GF) Italian

  • 1550 Rue Sainte-Catherine E, Montréal, QC H2L 0J1

  • Fast casual Italian bakery with endless pastries, pizzas, and gluten-free pasta.

• Dynastie (3.8 ⭐️ $$) Chinese

  • 1008 Rue Clark #107, Montréal, Quebec H2Z 1J9

  • We ignored Google Map’s suggestion and made a mistake by ordering 9 family-style dishes for the table. Each dish comes with a HUGE portion.

  • Relatively affordable with tips and currency conversion rate included.

• Marché Artisans (4.4 ⭐️ $$$ 🏳️‍🌈) Contemporary

  • 900 Boul. René-Lévesque Ouest, Montréal, QC H3B 4A5

  • Located at the first floor, inside of the Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth.

  • Weekend Brunch Buffet with unlimited choice of sweet and savory items. CA$49 per person.

  • Highlights: Poultry sausages slow-cooked in maple syrup, Maple butter crêpes with the Artisans’ maple syrup & Maple taffy on snow.

• Tzatzi-qui (4.5 ⭐️ $$$) Greek

  • 351 Pl. d’Youville, Montréal, QC H2Y 2B7

  • ORDER EVERYTHING! The foods were delicious.

Activities:

• Montreal Olympic Park (4.4 ⭐️) / Montreal Botanical Garden (4.6 ⭐️ 🏳️‍🌈)

  • 4545 Pierre-de Coubertin Ave, Montréal, Quebec H1V 2E8

  • The Montreal Tower was closed for renovations but The Sports Centre is open.

  • The Montreal Botanical Garden is walkable from the Olympic Park. It features a Chinese, Japanese, First Nation and Alpine Garden.

• The Ring (L’Anneau)

  • 1 Pl. Monseigneur Charbonneau, Montréal, Quebec H7R 5Z3

  • Designed by Quebec landscape architect Claude Cormier. The Ring is a 30-meter diameter installation weighing more than 23,000 kilograms.

  • The installation was gifted to the city of Montreal for Place Ville Marie (PVM)'s 60th anniversary. Its placement is deliberate: the diffused lighting of The Ring draws a visual line from the illuminated cross atop Mont-Royal down through McGill College Avenue to PVM itself, stitching together the city's most iconic landmarks in a single sightline.

• Mount Royal Park | Parc du Mont-Royal (4.8 ⭐️)

  • 1260 Chem. Remembrance, Montréal, QC H3H 1A2

  • Mount Royal Park sits at the heart of Montréal, a 500-acre green escape designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, the same landscape architect behind New York's Central Park, and it remains the most beloved public space in the city by a wide margin.

  • Pro-tips: Uber/Lyft to the parking lot then take the Rue Peen Stairs to walk down to Rue Peel & McGill University.

Nightlife:

• Stock Bar (3.5 ⭐️ $$ 🏳️‍🌈)

  • 1171 Rue Sainte-Catherine E, Montréal, QC H2L 2G8

  • $8 cover for the backroom.

  • There is a speakeasy between the bar and the backroom.

• Club Unity (4.3 ⭐️ $$ 🏳️‍🌈 🚺)

  • 1171 Rue Sainte-Catherine E, Montréal, QC H2L 2G8

  • Cover based on events and time.

  • Great staff, but mid patrons. Lot of 18-22 years old.

• Bar Renard (4.2 ⭐️ $$ 🏳️‍🌈)

  • 1272 Rue Sainte-Catherine E, Montréal, QC H2L 3B4

  • Very lively with a diverse crowd.

• Aigle Noir (4.2 ⭐️ $$ 🏳️‍🌈)

  • 1315 Rue Sainte-Catherine E, Montréal, QC H2L 2H4

  • High-energy bar serving beer & cocktails.

  • Theme nights in the weekend.

Old San Juan is built on cobblestones made from adoquines, blue-tinged slag bricks brought over as ballast in the hulls of Spanish ships, worn smooth by five hundred years of foot traffic. Walk them long enough and the city reveals itself in layers: colonial fortresses that guard the Atlantic, pastel facades the color of guava and saffron, Baroque churches that have outlasted empires, and balconies draped in bougainvillea spilling over streets barely wide enough for two people to pass.

Founded in 1521, San Juan is the second-oldest European-established city in the Americas. Its historic core in a 7-block-wide peninsula at the mouth of San Juan Bay. It remained one of the best-preserved Spanish colonial districts in the entire Western Hemisphere. The fortresses of El Morro and San Cristóbal, both UNESCO World Heritage Sites, bookend the city with sheer masonry walls that rise directly from the sea, reminding visitors that this was once the most strategically important port in the New World.

Travels:

Frontier Airlines | F9 1016: Philadelphia ➡️ San Juan

• 🛫 07:51 EDT PHL (1h 51m Late)

• 🛬 11:39 AST SJU (1h 45m Late)

Duration: 3 hr, 48 min

Frontier Airlines | F9 3247: San Juan ➡️ Philadelphia

• 🛫 23:25 AST SJU (1h 41m Late)

• 🛬 03:04 EDT PHL (1h 19m Late)

Duration: 3 hr, 39 min

Dining:

• Barrachina (4.2 ⭐️ $$)

  • 104 C. de la Fortaleza, San Juan, 00901

  • Barrachina has been a fixture of Old San Juan for over 50 years, tucked inside a two-century-old colonial building wrapped around a lush interior courtyard. The food is classic Puerto Rican, the atmosphere unhurried, and the setting genuinely beautiful.

  • In 1963, Don Ramón Portas Mingot created the piña colada here, and it has been making them ever since.

    

Activities:

• Castillo San Felipe del Morro (4.8 ⭐️)

  • 501 Calle Norzagaray, San Juan, 00901

  • $10 Admission

  • Castillo San Felipe del Morro (aka El Morro) is one of the most formidable examples of Spanish military engineering in the Americas. Construction began in 1539, and over the following 200 years the Spanish Crown built it upward and outward into a six-level citadel of limestone walls up to 18 feet thick, rising 140 feet above the sea. It was designed to be, and largely was, impregnable. It repelled British naval attacks led by Sir Francis Drake in 1595 and the Earl of Cumberland in 1598, and held off the Dutch in 1625.

  • Today El Morro is part of the San Juan National Historic Site, jointly administered with the nearby Castillo San Cristóbal and designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The grounds draw visitors into a landscape of sweeping ramparts, sentry boxes called garitas that have become the enduring symbol of Puerto Rico, and vast green esplanades where kites fly against the Caribbean sky. It is a small, joyful contrast to the weight of history all around.

• Cuartel de Ballajá (4.7 ⭐️)

  • Calle Norzagaray, San Juan, 00901

  • In the center of Old San Juan, just steps from the gates of El Morro, stands one of the largest buildings ever constructed by the Spanish in the Americas.

  • The Cuartel de Ballajá was built between 1854 and 1864 to house Spanish infantry troops and their families, a self-contained military world with kitchens, jails, stables, and quarters for up to 1,000 soldiers all organized around a grand interior courtyard. It was the last major public building the Spanish Crown erected in Puerto Rico, completed just decades before the island changed hands following the Spanish-American War of 1898.

  • After more than a century of shifting uses, including a period as a U.S. Army facility, the building has found a purpose that suits its scale and grandeur. Today it is home to the Museo de las Américas, a permanent collection dedicated to the cultural heritage of the peoples of the Americas, from pre-Columbian traditions to the African diaspora to the folk art and craft of the Caribbean. Rotating exhibitions fill its high-ceilinged galleries throughout the year.

  • The courtyard at the center of it all remains one of the finest public spaces in Old San Juan, shaded and unhurried, framed by three stories of arched Spanish colonial stonework. It is the kind of place that rewards a long sit and no particular agenda.

• Fuente Raíces (4.8 ⭐️)

  • 101-103 Paseo de la Princesa, San Juan, 00901

  • Tucked at the edge of the Plaza del Quinto Centenario, Fuente Raíces is one of Old San Juan's quieter rewards.

  • The fountain's sculptural forms draw from Taíno and African iconography, weaving together the indigenous and ancestral roots that run beneath Puerto Rican identity. It sits in conversation with the towering Totem Telúrico nearby, part of a plaza built in 1992 to mark 500 years of history on the island.

• Puerta de San Juan (4.8 ⭐️)

  • Caleta de San Juan, San Juan, 00901

  • For centuries, this was how you entered the city. The Puerta de San Juan, one of the few surviving gates in the old city wall, was the primary entry point for Spanish soldiers, clergy, and settlers arriving from the sea.

  • Built in the 1500s and painted in its iconic shade of red, the arched gateway connects the waterfront to the cobblestoned streets above, a threshold between the Atlantic and everything Spain built on this island.

• Parque de las Palomas/Capilla del Santo Cristo de la Salud (4.6 ⭐️)

  • 1 Calle del Cristo, San Juan, 00901

  • At the southern tip of Old San Juan, where the land drops away to the bay below, a small chapel and a courtyard full of pigeons share one of the most peaceful corners in the city.

  • The Capilla del Santo Cristo de la Salud dates to 1753, built according to legend at the site where a horseman miraculously survived a fatal plunge over the city wall during a festival race. The tiny chapel, rarely larger than a single room, has been a place of quiet devotion ever since. Next to it, Parque de las Palomas draws locals and visitors alike, the pigeons so accustomed to company they will land on your shoulders without hesitation.

• Colorful buildings of Old San Juan

  • No photograph quite prepares you for it. Walking the streets of Old San Juan, the buildings announce themselves in shades of ochre, cobalt, terracotta, mint, and rose, each facade a distinct note in a chorus that runs the length of every block.

  • The tradition traces back to Spanish colonial practice, when lime-based paints in natural pigments were applied to masonry walls to protect against the Caribbean climate. Over generations the palette deepened into something more deliberate, a visual identity as recognized as the blue cobblestones underfoot.

  • Today the colors are maintained with care and pride. No two buildings match, and somehow the whole street does.

Travels:

SBB Zurich S-Bahn | S7: Zürich, CH ➡️ Rapperswil-Jona, CH

• 🚉 Zürich HB

• 🚉 Rapperswil SG

An ZVV Extension Ticket is required (Zone 180). Can be purchased on the SBB website or app.

Duration: 41 mins

ZSG Rundfahrten/Lake Zurich Navigation Company

• ⛴️ Rapperswil ZSG

• ⛴️ Zürich Bürkliplatz

One Way: First Class: CHF 14.90 | Second Class: CHF 9.00

Duration: 2 hrs, 10 mins

Dining:

• McDonald’s (3.5 ⭐️ $$)

  • Fischmarktpl. 7, 8640 Rapperswil-Jona

  • They may not have the best or cheapest food, but the overall quality is still often better than what we typically find in the United States.

  • McRaclette is a traditional Swiss dish features a beef patty, slices of pungent raclette cheese, pickles, raw onions, and a creamy pepper sauce on a ciabatta bun.

Activities:

• Schloss Rapperswil (4.7 ⭐️ 🏳️‍🌈)

  • Schloss, 8640 Rapperswil-Jona

  • This is a castle build in the early 13th century by the House of Rapperswil.

• Kapuzinerkloster Rapperswil (4.7 ⭐️)

  • Endingerstrasse 9, 8640 Rapperswil-Jona

• Seebad Rapperswil (4.8 ⭐️ 🏳️‍🌈)

  • Bühlerallee, 8640 Rapperswil-Jona

  • CHF 3.50 for single entry.

• Hirschpark Rapperswil (4.7 ⭐️)

  • Lindenhügel, 8640 Rapperswil-Jona

• Long Lake Zürich Cruise (4.7 ⭐️ 🏳️‍🌈)

  • 8640 Rapperswil-Jona

  • Full service dining and alcohol are available on the ship.

  • Themed cruises are available on selected dates.

Travels:

American Airlines | AA 92: Philadelphia ➡️ Zürich

• 🛫 18:52 EDT PHL (3m Early)

• 🛬 08:18 GMT+2 ZRH (32m Early)

Duration: 7 hr, 26 min

Stay:

• An one-bedroom penthouse near ETH Zürich & Zürich HB (5.0 ⭐️ 🏳️‍🌈)

  • Next to ETH Zürich & 10 mins downhill walk to Zürich HB.

  • Super nice, resourceful and responsive host.

Dining:

• Boucherie AuGust (4.5 ⭐️ $$$ V)

  • Rennweg 7, Zurich, 8001

  • This is a Michelin Bib Gourmand restaurant located in the Widder Hotel.

• Coop Supermarkt (4.3 ⭐️ $$ GF V VG)

  • Bahnhofbrücke 1, 8001 Zürich, Switzerland

  • A full service supermarket conveniently located by the train and tram stations. Close on Sundays and national holidays.

Activities:

• FIFA Museum (4.4 ⭐️)

  • Seestrasse 27, 8002 Zürich

  • Across the street from Zürich Bahnhof Enge Station.

  • Free admission with the Zürich Card.

• Uhrenmuseum Beyer Zürich | Beyer Watch and Clock Museum (4.5 ⭐️)

  • Bahnhofstrasse 31, 8001 Zürich

  • Located in the basement of Beyer Watch.

  • Free admission with the Zürich Card.

• ETH Zürich (4.7 ⭐️)

  • Rämistrasse 101, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland

• Opernhaus Zürich | Zürich Opera House (4.7 ⭐️ 🏳️‍🌈)

  • Falkenstrasse 1, 8001 Zürich, Switzerland

• Aussichtsturm Uetliberg | Uetliberg Observation Tower (4.6 ⭐️ 🏳️‍🌈)

  • Gratstrasse, 8143 Zürich, Switzerland

  • Take 3 or 14 from Zürich HB to Selnau then S10 to Uetliberg. Walk about 10 mins uphill to the observation tower and UTO KULM hotel.

  • Free rides and admission with the Zürich Card.

• Fraumünster/Grossmünster/Münsterhof

  • Near Münsterbrücke.

  • Free admission with the Zürich Card.

• Zentralbibliothek Zürich | Zürich Central Library (4.5 ⭐️ 🏳️‍🌈)

  • Zähringerpl. 6, 8001 Zürich, Switzerland

• UBS Polybahn (4.6 ⭐️)

  • One of the few funiculars in the City of Zürich. Travels between Central and ETH Zürich.

  • Two cars, two stops, takes about 2 mins to ride and runs every 2.5 mins completely automated.

  • Free ride with the Zürich Card.

• Landesmuseum | National Museum Zürich (4.5 ⭐️ 🏳️‍🌈)

  • Museumstrasse 2, 8001 Zürich, Switzerland

  • Next to the Zürich HB. Great place to stop by if you have a few extra hours before or after the train.

  • Free admission with the Zürich Card.

Travel Tips:

• Zurich Card (highly recommended)

  • Unlimited 2nd class travel on all public transportation (tram, bus, train, boat, funicular, and cable car) in the city of Zurich, surrounding region, the airport and up to the Uetliberg.

  • Includes mini lake cruises, short lake cruises, and Limmat river cruises.

  • Free admission to most museums and discount in selected restaurants, tours and experiences.

• Wifio eSIM (highly recommended)

  • Unlimited 5G/4G data in Switzerland. No daily cap or throttling.

  • Hotspot tethering allowed.

  • eSIM send by email the day before the activation date.

Travels:

Frontier Airlines | F9 2551: Philadelphia ➡️ Atlanta

• 🛫 05:21 EDT PHL (9m Early)

• 🛬 07:24 EDT ATL (24m Early)

Duration: 2 hr, 3 min

Frontier Airlines | F9 2552: Atlanta ➡️ Philadelphia

• 🛫 01:25 EDT ATL (3h 1m Late)

• 🛬 03:25 EDT PHL (2h 50m Late)

Duration: 2 hr

Dining:

• Buttermilk Biscuit (4.3 ⭐️ $$ 🏳️‍🌈)

  • 1634 Virginia Ave, College Park, GA 30337

  • Must try: Fried Green Tomatoes and The Early Bird.

• Mary Mac’s Tea Room (4.4 ⭐️ $$ GF V VG)

  • 224 Ponce de Leon Ave NE, Atlanta, GA 30308

  • Old fashion eatery that serves delicious Southern food and made-from-scratch breads.

  • Must try: Fried Green Tomatoes, Fried Okra, Shrimp and Grits, and Georgia Peach Cobbler.

Activities:

• Delta Flight Museum (4.7 ⭐️ 🏳️‍🌈)

  • 1220 Woolman Place, Atlanta, GA 30354

  • $20 Adult | $15 Children (Most Weekdays)

  • $22 Adult | $17 Children (Weekends and School Holidays)

  • Experience multiple legacy airplanes inside and outside of the hanger.

  • Experience the Delta seats on the retired Boeing 747 and 767. Anywhere from Economy to First Class lie-flat seats.

• Stone Mountain Park (4.6 ⭐️)

  • 1000 Robert E Lee Blvd, Stone Mountain, GA 30083

  • $39.99 Adult | $36.99 Children

  • $20 Parking

  • Enjoy the Summit Skyride and experience amazing views of the Atlanta skyline and Appalachian Mountains.

  • Ride the open-air scenic locomotive from the 1940s around the Stone Mountain Summit on a 5-mile track.

• Ponce City Market (4.6 ⭐️)

  • 675 Ponce de Leon Ave NE, Atlanta, GA 30308

• ☀️ Day Trips

• 🗺️ Weekend Escape

• 🚶‍♂️ Neighborhood Explorer

Each edition is thoughtfully curated so you spend less time planning and more time actually going. We cover the flights worth booking, the restaurants worth the detour, the stays that feel like home, and the attractions everyone else somehow missed.

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