Exploring the Old City of Philadelphia on a historic walking tour

An honest review of my experience with Urban Adventures on the ‘History in HD’ walking tour of Philadelphia

On my second trip to Philadelphia, I was interested in learning more about the Old City area which features several buildings, monuments and heritage sites which are significant to the history of American independence.  

While I had certainly read a lot about the main sites of historic Philadelphia online before my visit, as an international visitor, I really wanted to learn more from a local expert. So I signed up for the History in HD afternoon walking tour by Urban Adventures Philadelphia, which promised to highlight important stops like The Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, Christ Church, Elfreth’s Alley, and Betsy Ross House.  

I booked the tour in October 2018 and I paid for it myself so this is a completely independent review. 

You can read a detailed summary of the experiences I had on this tour or jump straight to the end where I share my final recommendation for this Philadelphia historic walking tour by Urban Adventures.

Go to final recommendation

Urban Adventures Business Card and me with the walking tour group in Philadelphia

Quick Overview of the Urban Adventures Philadelphia Walking Tour

Destinations: This walking tour stopped by most major historic sites in the Old City area of Philadelphia including The Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, Christ Church, Elfreth’s Alley, and Betsy Ross House and it passed by several museums like the Benjamin Franklin Museum, the National Constitution Centre and the Museum of the American Revolution. 

Who was on the tour: This small group Philadelphia walking tour accepts up to twelve people per tour, when I went in the middle of the week, it was just myself and a retired couple from Iowa along with the guide. 

Who was the guide: This Urban Adventures walking tour was led by a local guide who was very friendly, knowledgeable and outgoing. He was genuinely well informed on American history and had in depth information about all the museums and attractions. He also made an extra effort to help the other couple on the tour book their tickets to Independence Hall later in the day. The tour was conducted entirely in English, as noted on the booking site, and the guide was easy to understand. 

What to bring: I would recommend suitable walking shoes and to dress for the weather. 

Philly Tour Hub on Arch Street and Betsy Ross House   

This tour departed from a location on Arch Street called the ‘Philly Tour Hub’, which was specified in the pre departure email, along with a phone number to call with any questions. The tour started on time and after introducing himself, the guide started the tour with a stop in front of Betsy Ross House, which was just down the street. We did not go inside, but you can book a visit yourself to see the recreated interior of the house where the first American flag was hand made by the seamstress Betsy Ross, and actors in colonial era costumes re-enact scenes and answer questions.

Christ Church

The next major stop was Christ Church, just a few minutes’ walk away. We actually went inside the church, which played a role in the foundation of the Episcopal Church in the USA and is considered to be an excellent example of colonial craftsmanship and Georgian style architecture. Several people who signed the Declaration of Independence attended this church and there was a volunteer that day who explained some history and answered questions, along with a nice gift shop on site. 

Elfreth’s Alley 

This next stop was Elfreth’s Alley, a historic street featuring 32 houses that date from 1700 -1836 and are an example of smaller houses for tradespeople and working-class citizens of the time. It is apparently one of the oldest continuously inhabited streets in the country. 

You cannot go inside (except on occasional guided tours) besides one house which is now a small museum. The street is often decorated for various holidays and celebrations and most of the houses had carved pumpkins and Halloween decorations up in late October.

This was one of my favourite experiences of the tour, is really does look like you’ve gone back in time, with the historic flags and bright colours. The tour guide also ran into several people he knew on the street, so he was definitely a Philadelphia local! 

After this stop we walked to the edge of the neighbourhood, to where you could see part of the Delaware River and then we turned back towards the city to walk about ten minutes to the Independence National Historic Park area.

Independence Visitor Centre

The stop at the Independence Visitor Centre was at about the halfway point of the tour, and this is where you can book tickets or pick-up tickets booked online for actually going inside the Independence Hall building and other attractions. There were also restrooms and a gift shop inside, you can learn more here on their website about the services and facilities available. 

Independence National Historic Park

For the next little while, the focus of the tour was on the major sites within the Independence National Historic Park area, including Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, along with a historic bank and stock exchange and other buildings like meeting houses and museums. 

There are so many historic buildings, monuments and statues in the area, that I found it really helpful to have the guide actually pointing things out and telling stories or giving information to actually be able to process what I was looking at and make connections with other things we had seen that day. 

Franklin Court

One of the last stops was more focused on Benjamin Franklin and his contributions as an important figure in Philadelphia during the time of the American Revolution. There is an area called ‘Franklin Court’ which shows some artifacts and an outline of where his house once was, along with the Benjamin Franklin Museum and a restored printing press office. You can read more about this attraction on the National Park Service website here.

Last Stop

The tour was coming to an end, and the couple from Iowa had requested to be dropped off early so they could visit Independence Hall before it closed for the day.

So, the tour guide and I continued to the final stop at a casual restaurant/bar nearby which offered both local beers and soft drinks, along with Philadelphia style soft pretzels. I tried a Yuengling lager, which is brewed in Pennsylvania, and the tour guide provided further recommendations for which museums to visit after the tour. Both the Museum of the American Revolution and the National Constitution Centre were highly recommended depending on interest. 

The tour ended at that point, around mid-afternoon, and I decided to take the tour guide’s advice to visit the National Constitution Centre to see a special exhibition about Alexander Hamilton to continue my day in the historic Old City of Philadelphia.

Final Recommendation for the Urban Adventures ‘History in HD’ Philadelphia walking tour

I really enjoyed this historic Philadelphia walking tour. As an international visitor who learned about American history in school, it was really great to see so many important and significant historic sites in real life. I would imagine it might be even more meaningful to someone from the USA, to experience this part of their heritage and history. 

I thought the pace of the tour was reasonable, there wasn’t an excessive amount of walking, as all the sites were within a fairly compact area of the city. The guide really was friendly and truly well informed on all the sites we saw, without being a boring lecture style presenter.  

Just be aware that visits to some sites may be changed or modified depending on the day and time you book the tour. I personally think it makes more sense to do this kind of a walking tour as one of your first activities, to get an idea of what else you would like to visit afterwards. 

I really felt on my visit to Philadelphia that I was almost overwhelmed with the amount of heritage sites, museums, statues, monuments and various historic things, and having a guide for a few hours helped to make sense of it all. 

Overall, this was one of the more memorable experiences I had on my second visit to Philadelphia, I felt that Urban Adventures provided the service that was advertised, and I think anyone with an interest in American history could enjoy this Philadelphia walking tour.

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