 at a speakeasy on the Lower East Side, which sent cartoonish tears running down my face; then late-night tacos and margaritas at some upscale Mexican (a splashy $60). I'd been in New York less than eight hours and already I'd burnt through enough cash to make me want to pick up an American Gothic pitchfork.I met a friend the next day, and the cost-of-living conversation (mercifully?) was the same on this side of the pond. Over brunch at cutesy Buvette in the West Village, where I swallowed a $37 bill for eggs royale, a juice and a tip, we got hot under the collar about mortgage rates, rental hikes, the way that dollars sort of blow out of your hands the moment you leave your hotel ($500 a night for my East Village pad).Never have I been more invested in exchange rates than while walking around NYC with just a few dollar coins spat out of the train ticket machine for company. Americans, naturally, are gleeful about long weekends in Europe where our decimated currency (currently £1 is worth $1.15) means everything is cut-price. It's hard not to be annoyed with them for this.But Brits still want that big-ticket American cosmopolitanism, the excellent restaurants, even the leaf-peeping at this time of year. Where do they go? The answer is Philadelphia, America's founding city, 94 miles and a $19 train ride south of New York. Like all good second — or in Philly's case, sixth — cities it's wonderfully walkable, good value, and it's got a smasher of a baseball team. New York who?Philadelphia's rising profile means it's been steadily pulling in visitors — 36.2 million visited the city and wider region last year, just 19 per cent below its 2019 peak — and a rash of new transatlantic budget flights from the likes of Norse and Play means it's even easier and cheaper to get to. It doesn't hurt that liveability data platform Best Places puts Philadelphia living costs at 60 per cent less than New York.Happily,){kind=link}
First there was the bill for three cocktails and service (almost $100) at a speakeasy on the Lower East Side, which sent cartoonish tears running down my face; then late-night tacos and margaritas at some upscale Mexican (a splashy $60). I’d been in New York less than eight hours and already I’d burnt through enough cash to make me want to pick up an American Gothic pitchfork.
I met a friend the next day, and the cost-of-living conversation (mercifully?) was the same on this side of the pond. Over brunch at cutesy Buvette in the West Village, where I swallowed a $37 bill for eggs royale, a juice and a tip, we got hot under the collar about mortgage rates, rental hikes, the way that dollars sort of blow out of your hands the moment you leave your hotel ($500 a night for my East Village pad).
Never have I been more invested in exchange rates than while walking around NYC with just a few dollar coins spat out of the train ticket machine for company. Americans, naturally, are gleeful about long weekends in Europe where our decimated currency (currently £1 is worth $1.15) means everything is cut-price. It’s hard not to be annoyed with them for this.
But Brits still want that big-ticket American cosmopolitanism, the excellent restaurants, even the leaf-peeping at this time of year. Where do they go? The answer is Philadelphia, America’s founding city, 94 miles and a $19 train ride south of New York. Like all good second – or in Philly’s case, sixth – cities it’s wonderfully walkable, good value, and it’s got a smasher of a baseball team. New York who?
Philadelphia’s rising profile means it’s been steadily pulling in visitors – 36.2 million visited the city and wider region last year, just 19 per cent below its 2019 peak – and a rash of new transatlantic budget flights from the likes of Norse and Play means it’s even easier and cheaper to get to. It doesn’t hurt that liveability data platform Best Places puts Philadelphia living costs at 60 per cent less than New York.