Where to Stay in Philadelphia, and Who Should Skip Old City and Rittenhouse

By Matt Spaulding · November 11, 2026

Photo: Mys 721tx, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Pick Old City if the trip is about Independence Hall. Seven of the ten Old City hotels we list are 4 to 10 minutes on foot from it. From the nine on our Rittenhouse Square page it's 19 to 30.

Rittenhouse Square is the better of the two for Amtrak and the Broad Street Line. The nine Rittenhouse hotels are 16 to 31 minutes from 30th Street Station. Old City's ten are 41 to 56. The nearest Broad Street Line station is 3 to 13 minutes from a Rittenhouse hotel, and 14 to 31 from an Old City one. We mapped every walk on this page along the streets on 29 October 2026, for an ordinary day.

Old City: Independence Hall on foot, the Broad Street Line far off

The Kimpton Hotel Monaco Philadelphia is the closest, 4 minutes from Independence Hall. The Independence Park Hotel takes 8 and the Wyndham Philadelphia Historic District 9. All three are 23 to 27 minutes from a Broad Street Line station. Only one Old City hotel we list is under 20 minutes from it: the Morris House Hotel, at 14.

The Convention Center is 19 to 33 minutes from the ten hotels on the Old City and Independence Hall page, and Rittenhouse Square 21 to 47.

The Independence Park's booking screen listed a Local Fee and a line labeled HPF on a one-night quote, and explained neither. The other six hotels within 10 minutes of Independence Hall showed no hotel fee. The Independence Park also has no lot. Parking is $28 a night at the Ritz Public Parking Garage, bought through the hotel, and you need the hotel's parking card to get in. None of the six publishes a lower overnight rate, and the Wyndham's attached garage has 363 spaces but no published price. What each hotel charges to park is in our Philadelphia parking guide.

Ten hotels within 10 minutes of Rittenhouse Square

Nine are on our Rittenhouse Square page. The tenth, the Sonesta Philadelphia Rittenhouse Square, is on our Logan Square list, 7 minutes from the square. The Warwick Hotel Rittenhouse Square Philadelphia is 3 minutes from it and The Rittenhouse 4. Those two and the Motto by Hilton Philadelphia Rittenhouse Square, 7 minutes from the square, are 7 to 13 minutes from a Broad Street Line station and 25 to 30 from Independence Hall.

The cheapest overnight parking any of the ten publishes is at the DoubleTree by Hilton Philadelphia Center City, $48 a day for covered self-parking. Four of them charge a fee. The Sonesta and The Rittenhouse call theirs a destination fee. At the Kimpton Hotel Palomar Philadelphia it's a Guest Amenity Fee, and the Sofitel Philadelphia at Rittenhouse Square calls it an Urban Experience Fee. The guide to Philadelphia's resort fees has what each one charges.

Logan Square: five hotels by the fountain

The Logan Philadelphia, Curio Collection by Hilton is 3 minutes from the Swann Memorial Fountain at Logan Circle. The Convention Center is a 12-minute walk, Rittenhouse Square 13. It's a small area. Only five hotels are on our Logan Square and the Parkway page, all within 10 minutes of the fountain, and Rittenhouse Square is 7 to 15 minutes from any of them. Getting to Independence Hall takes 28 to 32.

We couldn't read the overnight valet rate at the Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia at Comcast Center, 4 minutes from the fountain, so call before you drive. The Windsor Suites, 5 minutes away, is valet only at $57 a day with tax included. Its suites have full kitchens.

Who should skip both

If you're in town for the Convention Center, at 1101 Arch Street, thirteen hotels we list are within a 10-minute walk of it, twelve of them on the Center City East and the Convention Center page. Its own site names entrances on North Broad Street and Arch Street. Parking is thin at the nearest hotels. The Hampton Inn Philadelphia Center City-Convention Center, 2 minutes away, has only valet, at $71 a day, and the Home2 Suites by Hilton Philadelphia Convention Center, 3 minutes away, has no parking at the hotel. The Philadelphia Marriott Downtown is 4 minutes away. The nine on our Rittenhouse Square page are 12 to 23. If you need both the Convention Center and Rittenhouse Square, W Philadelphia is 10 minutes from one and 11 from the other.

For Penn or Drexel, stay in University City. The same goes for a hospital visit. The area is small, five hotels, and two of them are within 10 minutes of 30th Street Station. The Study at University City, at 10, has 212 rooms between the Penn and Drexel campuses. The only parking it lists is valet, $58 a night with tax included. The Rooms at Fitler Club is closer to the station, at 7, but it sits at 24 South 24th Street, in Center City, with fourteen rooms inside a members' club. The other three are 16, 18 and 30 minutes from the station; the farthest is at 4109 Walnut Street. The Sheraton Philadelphia University City Hotel is the only one of the five that lists self-parking, $40 a day per Marriott's FAQ, which doesn't say whether tax is in it.

PennDOT's summer 2026 update said Market Street would close to vehicles for about 14 months between 23rd Street and Schuylkill Avenue, after utility work in August, with one sidewalk left open on the river crossing. It gives early 2029 for the whole project. We couldn't confirm whether the vehicle closure has started. If you're staying in University City and plan to cross the river on Market Street, check where the work stands first.

Getting around on the Broad Street Line

SEPTA now calls the Broad Street Line the B. Every hotel on our Center City East page is within 9 minutes of a station, and Logan Square's five are 6 to 10 minutes from one. University City's hotels are 20 to 51 minutes away, and nothing we cover is a walk from the South Philadelphia stadiums.