Where to stay in Philly with kids in tow

If there are four of you and you want a kitchen, a door that closes on the kids' room and a walk to breakfast, start with the Spacious 3BR Oasis w/ Patio & Arcade Fun in Philly, which sleeps nine and has a mini-arcade and a private patio, or the Luxury 3BR/3BA•Air Hockey Lounge•Walkable Old City if your trip is built around Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. Those are the two I'd send a small family to first, and the rest of this page explains why, and when I'd send you somewhere else instead.

Ramblei runs furnished apartments across Philadelphia, from Old City and Queen Village to Rittenhouse Square, Center City, Chinatown, University City, North Philly and South Philly, and they're set up for short stays and for months at a time. Housekeeping is professional, the WiFi is fast, and somebody answers at two in the morning when the wrong code is typed into the wrong keypad. What matters more for a family is the stuff below: which apartment, in which part of town, for which kind of trip.

The real question isn't how many bedrooms, it's how many bathrooms

Families arrive asking for a two-bedroom and leave telling us the bathrooms saved the holiday. A hotel room with two queens gives four people one sink. Spacious 3BR/3BA | Sleeps 7 | 10 Min to Stadium in South Philly gives seven people three full bathrooms, which is the difference between a leisurely morning and a queue outside a door.

The same logic runs through the bigger places. Ramblei near Drexel Park: 4-Bedroom Unit A puts an en-suite on every one of its four bedrooms, which is exactly what you want when two sets of parents are travelling with kids who get up at different hours. Its larger sibling, Unit B, does the same across six bedrooms for twelve guests.

A note on counting heads honestly. Several of our three-bedroom apartments sleep seven because a sofa bed is doing some of the work, and a sofa bed is fine for a nine-year-old and tiring for an adult on night four. Count the beds people will actually sleep in, not the maximum occupancy.

Two bedrooms, four people, and the places that fit

For a couple with one or two small children, Cozy Parisian Retreat | Brand New | Near Penn&Drexel is the tidiest match we have: two bedrooms, three beds, two bathrooms, sleeps four, in University City. It's a lower-level unit, which the listing is straightforward about, and that's genuinely useful with a toddler, because it stays cooler in August and it's quiet. Penn is a five-minute walk, Drexel seven, the Penn Museum about twelve, and the Schuylkill River Trail about ten, so a morning can start without a car.

If your two-bedroom search is really a "we need space but only two bedrooms' worth of beds" search, look at Old City 2BR Apt w/ Shuffleboard! Walk Everywhere!. Two bedrooms, three beds, up to seven guests, and a shuffleboard table that has settled more sibling arguments than I can count. You're in the historic district, steps from the Betsy Ross House and Independence Mall, and the galleries and restaurants on 2nd and 3rd Streets are right there when the kids are asleep and one of you wants a drink and the other doesn't.

One thing to know about the studios in our portfolio, including Private Studio Near Upenn & Drexel: it's a queen bed and an en-suite bathroom for two people, and that's the whole listing. It's a good room for a parent visiting a student at Penn or Drexel, and it isn't a family apartment. Same goes for the rooms at Ingersoll near Temple, where the kitchen is shared with other guests. Lovely for a solo traveller on a budget. Wrong for a trip with a seven-year-old.

Where to base yourselves

Philadelphia rewards families who pick one neighbourhood and walk it rather than hopping across town twice a day. Here's how I think about the four areas most families end up choosing between.

• Old City. The founding-history trip, solved. Independence Hall sits steps from the Liberty Bell Center, so you can do both in a single morning without anyone melting down. Cobblestones, converted warehouses, galleries, and the arts and entertainment end of the city.
• Queen Village. South of the historic core, boutiques and dining on your doorstep, quieter streets at night. Luxury Queens Village - 4Br 4.5Ba - Rooftop Patio sits here with a rooftop terrace and a fire-pit patio, and all its bedrooms are en-suite.
• Center City and Rittenhouse Square. The walkable downtown. Reading Terminal Market, City Hall and Chinatown are the sort of thing you can do on a rainy afternoon with no plan at all. Rittenhouse itself is the food-lover's base.
• University City. Across the Schuylkill, a little calmer, strong on cafés, and the obvious choice if your trip involves Penn, Drexel or CHOP. The Philadelphia Zoo is a short hop up in Fairmount Park, roughly two miles from downtown.

South Philly is the sleeper pick for sports families. From Spacious 3BR/3BA you're about ten minutes from the Stadium District, which turns a game night from a logistics exercise into a short ride home.

The game rooms are not a gimmick

I used to think the arcade machines were decoration. Then I watched the booking patterns. Families book them repeatedly, and they book them in winter, when a January afternoon in Philadelphia ends at half past four and nobody wants another museum.

The 3BR Oasis pairs its mini-arcade with a private patio, which covers you in both directions: the patio in June, the arcade in February. In Old City, the air hockey lounge apartment does the same job within walking distance of the historic park, so the day can run Independence Hall, lunch, home, air hockey, and nobody has to negotiate.

Outdoor space is the other thing worth paying attention to. 4BR Townhome w/ Rooftop & Backyard | Sleeps 8 in South Philadelphia has a garden and a bathtub, which between them handle a muddy afternoon at Clark Park and the bath that has to follow it. The rooftop gives you somewhere to sit once the children are down.

If you're more than four

"Small family" sometimes means grandparents are coming, and the maths changes fast. Parisian 3BR Stay | Near Penn, Drexel & Dining takes seven across three bedrooms and three bathrooms in University City, which is the right size for two generations who like each other but not at six in the morning.

Go bigger and the portfolio gets genuinely unusual. Elegant French Retreat • Dual Kitchen • Sleep 11 spans the first floor and lower level of a University City house with two full kitchens, which is the single most useful feature I know of for a multi-family trip: two sets of breakfast habits, two coffee routines, no standoff over the hob. And for reunions, Ramblei near SJU & CHOP | 8-Bedroom House and 8-BR House near SJU & CHOP each take fifteen.

What a week looks like from any of these kitchens

Here's the honest case for an apartment over a hotel with kids: breakfast. Every family place in this portfolio has a proper kitchen with a dishwasher, and that means cereal at seven in pyjamas instead of a dining room at eight in shoes.

Build the days around the kitchen and the city opens up. Reading Terminal Market handles lunch and the shopping for dinner in one trip. Independence National Historical Park takes a morning, Chinatown an evening. The Please Touch Museum sits in Fairmount Park's Centennial District with two floors of exhibits, a Wonderland tea-party room and a carousel from 1908, and it's a straightforward run out via I-76. The Philadelphia Zoo is at 34th and Girard, also in Fairmount Park. If you want a day that feels nothing like a city break, Chestnut Hill is about twenty-five minutes out, either the scenic way down Lincoln Drive or the direct route via I-76 and Germantown Avenue, where the cobbled main street runs past shops and galleries and the Morris Arboretum.

Staying a month rather than a week

These are furnished apartments, not holiday lets dressed up as homes, and they're stocked for people who are actually living in them for a while. That matters if you're in town for a hospital stay at CHOP, a semester, a relocation or a long summer. Housekeeping is professional, there's in-unit laundry in most of them, and support runs around the clock.

One practical thing to plan for: stays of 31 nights or more in Philadelphia fall under the Renters' Access Act, so we'll need government-issued ID, a credit score of 600 or above on FICO8, and proof of stay such as an employment contract, school enrolment or a paystub. If you're coming from abroad with no US credit history, a flight ticket works. It's a short extra step at booking, and worth knowing before you plan a six-week stay.

So which one

Four of you, first trip, founding-history itinerary: the Old City three-bedroom with the air hockey lounge. You'll walk to everything and the kids get somewhere to burn off the afternoon.

Four of you, outdoor-minded, want a patio and something for a rainy day: the 3BR Oasis with its patio and mini-arcade.

Visiting Penn, Drexel or CHOP with one or two small children: Cozy Parisian Retreat, five minutes' walk from Penn and quiet enough for a nap schedule.

Seven of you with a game on the calendar: the South Philly three-bedroom, three bathrooms and ten minutes from the stadiums.

Two families travelling together: Elegant French Retreat, for the two kitchens alone.

Check dates on the one you like. The University City apartments in particular move quickly around university calendars, and the Old City places go first whenever there's a long weekend attached to a national holiday.