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Comment by finfinfin | Hacker News Reader

Because you still need a car in those places if you want to experience them fully. Eg hiking in the East Bay is still pretty inaccessible by public transport from SF. So yes, you can enjoy the landmarks in the city, but if you want to visit adjacent cities and/or nature - you still need to spend a fortune on Uber or rent a car.

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Ooh, this reminds me of a story from my youth.

Two friends and myself went to New York for the HOPE conference in Manhattan. We drove there but we're midwesterners so we didn't want to drive in the city proper. Our plan was to drive to New Jersey, leave our car at a friend-of-a-friend's place, and then catch the train into the city.

All went well until we were on our way home. The friend-of-a-friend was supposed to pick us up from the train station and drive us 5 minutes to his house so we could get in our car and head west. But he wasn't answering his phone.

While we sat there wondering what to do, I saw a pizza place across the street that said "free delivery" on the sign. I joked that we should order a pizza, give the address where our car was at, and then ask if the driver would deliver us as well. Without laughing, my one friend said, "let's give it a try" and strode off towards the restaurant. We explained our situation and a few minutes later the pizza guy was delivering the pizza, and us, to our car.

You can visit Philadelphia by train from New York.

I'm actually planning a trip with a friend through the Northeast Regional. You can start at the White House / Smithsonian (seeing all of the history there), hop on a train to Philadelphia to see the liberty bell + the original capital of the country, then hop on a train and continue to NYC / Broadway and watch Hamilton.

No car (or airplane) needed. 100% trains / metros.

Amtrak is the best way to get between those cities imo. Puts you in the center of the city and avoids a cab onto the island through traffic. Did it for work a bunch

Agree that Amtrak is the best way if you can afford it. If you're on a budget you can also take SEPTA to Trenton and transfer to NJT into NYC. Puts you at the same place, just takes a bit longer.

If you're trying to save money, the bus system works. But... ugggh.

Train is more expensive for good reason! Its a much better experience. If we're talking about the price of Uber-rides / Rental Cars from NYC to Adirondacks... I bet you that the Train to Philly or even Washington DC will be cheaper than a rental car + all those miles you put on it!

So IMO, save your sanity and go with the train. But the busses exist if you really need to cut back on $$$ even more.

Oh no, I do mean by train! Both the SEPTA route and the NJT route I was referring to are trains - they just don't go the whole way from Philly->NYC, so you need a transfer.

Now, frequency on SEPTA's Regional Rail lines has tanked during the pandemic, so using it may not be as practical as it once was. Haven't checked recently. Hopefully they get service back to reasonable levels.

Adding some other thoughts:

- Trains get to skip traffic, but rental car might be cheaper if you're splitting it with friends.

- Trains do break down or hit delays sometimes, but traffic is always a risk on I95.

- Buses are the cheapest but have random people (dice roll) and traffic.

- Parking a rental car might not be cheap in a city center but can be a wash depending on transit costs. Again, parking cost can be split with friends.

So my decision is usually situational.

As a Philly resident... yep. For those visiting, honestly if you plan to stay anywhere near Center City having a car is more of a hassle than not. Our transit system isn't perfect but it's easily the best way to get around the core parts of the city.

And yeah whenever I visit NYC from here it's always by train.

What would be the sights to see in Philly?

I was planning on mostly wandering around aimlessly (actually, I'll probably still do that :-) ). But I'm all ears for any "must see" locations.

Liberty Bell + museums are the main thing I know about.

This isn't really a sight-seeing thing, but grab a cheese steak! Pat's/Gino's are the famous spots where everyone takes photos, but IMO they're mostly tourist traps at this point. Worst cheese steaks I've had within 100 miles of Philly. Jim's is a good spot, plus it's on South Street which is a good area to walk around in.

The South Street area is also home to a bunch of mozaic murals by Isaiah Zagar, which are definitely worth checking out. There are official tours, but you can also just check out the neighborhood map here and explore some of them on your own: https://www.phillymagicgardens.org/about-us/mosaic-mural-map...

If you like walks, check out the Schuylkill River Trail - it got caught up in the recent flooding so I'm not sure what kind of shape it's in right now, but I assume it'll get cleaned up pretty quick if it hasn't been already. The view of 30th Street Station and a nearby USPS building is pretty cool at night. I've heard it can get a little sketchy if you're down on the trail at night, but as a 6ft tall white guy I never ran into any issues on the route walked home from work for ~8 months. Your mileage may vary, but the worst thing I ever encountered was kids my age smoking weed down by the river.

Reading Terminal Market is cool, but I'm not sure how it will be during pandemic conditions (it's usually pretty crowded).

It's still pretty crowded, but not quite as much as pre-pandemic in my experience. Most everything is still open.

Go to Arch St & N Independence Mall E. See B. Frankie's grave, Christ Church. Walk south down Independence to Chestnut. See the Bell, Independence Hall. Walk east to S 3rd St, seeing the Second Bank, Carpenters Hall, First Bank. Walk south on 3rd to Walnut, see Merchant Exchange Building. Walk West on Walnut, see 18th Century Garden, Dolly Todd House. At Washington Square, walk diagonally down to Locust Street, keep walking west down Locust about 12 blocks to Rittenhouse Square, but stop along the way for lunch and a cocktail. Walk counter-clockwise around Rittenhouse and then go South on South 19th St, until South St. Head east on South St for 18 blocks, until 2nd St. Head North on 2nd St to Spruce St, and then head East for 2 blocks to Spruce Street Harbor. At this point it should be evening, and either you can go home or check out bars/restaurants in Old Town which is about where you are.

You can also take a detour at Broad St up to City Hall (take the Broad Street line subway up and back down if you're tired). See the hall, see the Masonic Temple, see the smallest "LOVE" sign ever at Love Park. Back towards Old City there's Thomas Jefferson's little place while he was writing it, Declaration House. There's the oldest continuously inhabited street in America, with a little art walk on Fridays around there. And of course there's the Art Museum and Waterworks behind it.

If you want to speed up your whole trip, make strategic use of Philly's Indego bikes. A bike is a great way to tour up the Schyulkill, to get to the Art Museum, and head north along the bike trail past boathouse row.

If visiting New York City, must one also visit the Adirondacks and Montauk as well? How long a vacation are we talking about here?

A car is usually pretty optional for most places in Europe. Some natural areas like the Alps have better public transit than most US city centers. Not everywhere is as allergic to public transit as most of the US.

SF is also one of the better US cities in this regard. I spent several months in SF without a car and rented a car exactly one weekend to get to some further out hiking. There are actually plenty of transit accessible natural areas.

Agreed, as a resident of Portland, when we have guests in town, we spend about half their time in the natural areas around Portland. Granted getting to wine country or beautiful waterfalls can be done with various public transit options, sorta, it isn't easy. And you certainly aren't going to get off the beaten path.

If you're doing a day hike, that's what car shares are for. There's plenty in the East Bay and SF. I only started owning a car when a friend gave us their old beater, but before that and through the earlier portions of the pandemic I used car shares any time I wanted to go hiking.

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