Discovery Weekend travel tips and info

interesteddad
Thu, 06 Oct 2005 21:42:07 +0000

You guys asked questions in couple of threads. So here’s some info that may help:

Philadelphia Airport:

This link will take you to a page with illustrations of the terminal:

http://www.phl.org/terminal_map.html

It’s seven terminal concourses connected together by a main terminal buiding. Click on your airline and you’ll go to the councourse where you’re flight is arriving. Each concourse has it’s own baggage claim area, which is probably where the Swat van will pick up up. Or, they may have everybody meet at the Terminal B/C baggage claim.

Click the “Flash” version of the map for a larger graphic that you can zoom.

Trains:

If you get completely messed up and find yourself stranded at the airport, it’s easy to take the train. You can see the train tracks on the airport map. That’s the R1 train. Take the R1 train to the 30th Street Station downtown. At the 30th Street Station, transfer to the R3 Media/Elwyn train. Take that to the Swarthmore stop. The station is in the middle of campus. Just walk up the hill, up Parrish Lawn.

Here’s a map of the rail system so you can get your bearings.

Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority | Serving Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Philadelphia counties;

The airport is straight south of downtown on this map. The R3 Media/Elwyn line runs towards the southwest from downtown. It’s about a 51 minute trip counting the 9 minutes to change trains downtown. The fare is $10 or little less in off-peak hours. Buy your ticket from the ticket booth at the airport or from the conductor on the train, but tell 'em you are transfering to Swarthmore. The last train from the airport that will connect with the Swat train at night leaves at 11:41pm. The earliest in the morning leaves the airport at 5:21 am.

Seeing Phila:

I don’t know for sure, but more than likely Discovery Weekend will include a sightseeing trip downtown. I know that at Ride the Tide a couple years ago they went to the Art Museum (Rocky Balboa’s famous steps), the historic area (Liberty Bell), and South Street (trendy entertainment area). Check your local listings for time and channel.

If you want to visit UPenn, read the stuff above on taking the train from the airport. Get off the airport train one station before the 30th St. Station downtown – the University City station. That’s the train station at UPenn. The R3 Media/Elwyn train to Swarthmore also stops at University City, so you could just hop on that right from UPenn (or vice versa if you were doing it on the way back from Swarthmore to the airport).

If you decide to venture off on your own like that and you are not a “city person”, use a little common sense. The area around UPenn is safe enough, but you don’t want to just go wandering off aimlessly dozens and dozens of blocks away from UPenn by yourself without knowing where you are going. It is downtown in a major city (about 5 million, metro population).