The Ritz-Carlton, Philadelphia

The Hotel

The Ritz-Carlton, Philadelphia
Address: 10 Avenue of the Arts, Philadelphia PA 19102

Craving Philly cheese steaks and have that sudden urge to run up the R​ocky steps? ​Then Philadelphia is the place you’ll want to be. If you’re looking for ​a hotel that is ​some wh​at​ more upscale and full of history, well look no further, The Ritz-Carlton Philadelphia is where you need to book a room.

Formerly The Girard Trust Company a historic bank building in the 1908 filled with beautiful marble all around​,​ ​this Ritz-Carlton​ was converted into a hotel and opened as The Ritz-Carlton, Philadelphia in 2000​. It still retains the feel and beauty of it’s former self. The hotel may look old on the outside​,​ but it blends in with the surrounding so well. The lobby area is very elegant with the domed ceilings, and beautiful marble columns and floors. The hotel is in a great location. Located right across from City Hall, ​this hotel is ​in the heart of the city and within walking distance from most of the major attractions and just minute’s walk to tons of restaurants and bars.

The stairs leading to The Grand Ballroom, which was formerly the vault of Girard Bank in the 70’s, are warped on one side. The stairs were built specifically for the ladies to make their “grand entrance” into the vault to retrieve their jewels on Friday for their weekend social event and return on Monday. The warping on that one side is from the traffic up and down. The skirts were very long at the time, and there is a banister only on that side. The stairs were left “as is.”

If you haven’t heard me say it before, I will say it again​: ​The Ritz-Carlton is by far my favorite hotel chain to stay at. And let’s just say The Ritz-Carlton did it again! Every time I visit a Ritz-Carlton location​,​ I am taken aback by their superior 5 star guest service. The Ritz-Carlton, Philadelphia had one of the most accommodating staffs out of any location I have stayed at thus far. I would highly recommend this hotel as it delivers on The Ritz-Carlton standards in every single aspect.

The Room

My room was 2902, which is a club level room. The room was very spacious and beautiful, but what really made the difference was it was a corner room directly across from Philadelphia’s City Hall. City ​H​all was so beautiful to see in the daylight, sunset and at night when the building just lights up. It could be seen from all windows in the room including the bathroom. The room was surrounded by grand architecture on all sides.

The room had an extremely comfortable king size bed, a large work desk, nightstands on either side of the bed and​ a small couch. The bathroom was one of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. It was made fully of marble with a shower with a rain-forest shower head, separate bathtub with a large mirror behind it, and a gorgeous vanity sink. The curtains in the bathroom were even automated so all you needed to do was push a button to make them go up and down. The line of bathroom products offered is by Asprey and even included a nice loofah. In the closet were a few plush robes and pairs of slippers. The hotel offers 24-hour in-room dining and a Nespresso machine with complimentary coffee and tea so you are never left hungry or thirsty. ​The staff comes twice a day, once mid day and once in the evening for turn-down service where they provide mini water bottles and little pieces of chocolate for nighttime.

* This post is sponsored by The Ritz-Carlton, Philadelphia 

Room Service

The first morning there, my guest and I decided to order room service for breakfast. We went a little overboard with our ordering but couldn’t stop eating it all as soon as it got to our room. We were lucky to get some pictures before digging in quickly! We ordered pancakes with chocolate chips and fresh whipped cream, French toast, two sunny side up eggs with a side of bacon and potatoes, a bowl of berries, the pastry basket, and a few mimosas! ​The s​ervice was very quick to get to our room.  This was definitely the perfect way to start our day.

Club Level Access

Available for an extra fee is Club level access on the top floor. You purchase this service by the day so you can choose if you’d like to have access for your entire stay or just to treat yourself for one day. I didn’t think that the view could get any better than in my room but when I headed up to the club I was blown away. It felt like you could almost reach out and touch the William Penn statue on top of City Hall. The room is furnished with leather and dark woods. There is a game table with a variety of games to choose from which helps to make this bonus to your stay family friendly.Food and drinks are available throughout the day at various times for a continental breakfast, mid day snacks, light snacks, hors de ‘oeuvres, and dessert. One night during my stay​,​ we were even able to taste local wines from Chaddsford Winery. They offer special events often so make sure to ask if there’s anything going on during your stay so you can take advantage. Having the club level access almost makes you feel as though you don’t need to leave the club all day​.​ ​T​here is an endless supply of food and drinks and the view doesn’t get old. I took advantage of the food throughout my stay but on my last morning I made sure to make it up there for the continental breakfast, which was great!

Aqimero

For dinner and drinks​,​ we headed to the Aqimero lounge. We decided to start our night by ordering the Paradiso Social Chandelabra. The ​C​handelabra’s that Aqimero offers are huge drinks meant for parties of three or more people but we decided to try our best to split it between the two of us! Not only was it the most beautiful drink I’ve seen, it was also really tasty! Made with mount gay rum, strawberries, pineapples, and ginger beer, it was extremely refreshing. With our drink we also ordered the meat and cheese board which had a variety of cheeses, meats, and seasonal vegetables on it. We took a little break after happy hour to head back to the room to get dressed for dinner and then headed back down. To start off dinner​,​ we ordered the Nikkei lobster roll and the wagyu beef roll. Both were fresh and excellent. After sushi​,​ we ordered our main meals. I ordered the filet mignon and my guest ordered the whole Maine lobster. We ordered sides of the grilled asparagus and truffle parmesan French fries. Man were those fries ​are ​addicting!

What To See

There are tons of things to do in Philadelphia. You can go the historic route and visit things like the ​Liberty ​Bell or go to Betsey Ross’ house. If you’re feeling like you want to have a Hollywood moment​,​ you should definitely run up and down the Rocky stairs. We chose to take a quick ten-minute Uber ride from the hotel to Spruce Street Harbor Park. Open daily from 11am-1am until September 28th ​, ​this pop up summertime village is full of fun and relaxing things to do. There are over 50 colorful hammocks hanging from the trees for you to lounge on, there is a shuffleboard court for you to play on, places to get food and drinks, and you can even use a swan paddle-boat in the Delaware river! The best part is, admission is free.  We headed down to The Oasis, which is a floating restaurant and bar on the river with a lily pad garden and colorful Adirondack chairs. We split some crab fries, a fried chicken sandwich, and had margaritas. On our way out of the park we stopped to shop some of the local vendors tables.