Screw Lonely Planet’s Ranking of Philly as #1

Lonely Planet, can take its ranking of Philadelphia as the top destination place in its 2016 Best in the U.S. destination list and shove it where the sun rarely shines.

The list carries with it the subtitle of: “Our most unexpectedly exciting places to see in the United States in 2016″

I’m sorry, but if you don’t expect a trip to Philadelphia to be exciting (cue the jokes about muggings, etc), then you simply haven’t been paying attention to what’s been going on in Philadelphia for the past decade. The Philadelphia food, drink, arts & culture scene is on par with pretty much every city in the U.S.

Look at the other cities and destinations on this Lonely Planet list:

2. Natchez, Miss.

3. Yellowstone National Park

4. Birmingham, Ala.

5. Alaska

6. Somerville, Mass.

7. Northwest Ark.

8. San Antonio, Texas

9. Southern N.M.

10. Milwaukee, Wisc.

I expected to see peer cities such as Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, etc on this list. Nope. Alaska, the state? Milwaukee? Birmingham, Alabama? Northwest  Arkansas? Give me a break. This isn’t a knock on those towns, but Philadelphia is in another class of towns and cities.

Why weren’t cities such as NYC, Chicago, LA and San Fran included on this list? Are they “expectedly exciting” and Philadelphia not?

This list puts Philadelphia atop a list of secondary towns and cities. That’s an insult. There’s nothing secondary or tertiary about Philly. If you think it belongs on a list with Milwaukee and Northwest Arkansas you’re either clueless or purposefully insulting Philadelphians.

New York City, Chicago, San Fran all have world-class cuisine, but Philly’s is right there with them and more reasonably priced. Philly chefs Marc Vetri, Jose Garces, Michael Solomonov, Rich Landau, and others can and do rival chefs from any other city. Just a few months ago, the Washington Post named Philadelphia the 5th best food city in the U.S.

Our drink scene is probably better than all, but say San Fran. The local beer scene is one of the best in the US with Yards, Philadelphia Brewing Company, St. Benjamin, Victory, Troegs, Dogfish Head, Flying Fish, Weyerbacher, and tons more nearby. The cocktail scene is just as solid with the likes of Hop Sing, a.bar, and Franklin Mortgage.

The music scene in Philly is flourishing with the bands like Kurt Vile, The War on Drugs, Dr. Dog, Restorations, Ruby the Hatchet, etc.

We’ve got museums, history, Reading Terminal, Union Transfer, the Fillmore, Spruce Street Harbor Park in the summer, Winterfest Lodge in the winter, and so on, and so on, and so on.

Maybe a city like Pittsburgh or Knoxville should be atop a list of the top unexpectedly exciting travel destinations in 2016, but not Philly. Anyone with any sense of travel information or knowledge should undoubtedly know that Philadelphia belongs on a list with the likes of the best cities in the country, not Southern N.M.

Thanks Lonely Planet for the backhanded insult.

As always, thanks for reading and sharing.