Skip to Main Content
Road Scholar logo
Pennsylvania

New Year’s Revelry and the Philadelphia Mummers Parade

Program No. 13589RJ
Nothing compares to New Year’s in Philadelphia. Find out why as you attend live performances, explore the festively decorated du Pont estate and experience the iconic Mummers Parade!
WishlistShare
Start
  • Philadelphia Kimmel Center for the performing arts
HolidaysCity Discoveries
Length
5 days
Rating (4.72)
Activity Level
Starts at
2,999
Special Offer
Itinerary
While we make every effort to ensure the accuracy of our published materials, programs are typically advertised more than a year prior to their start date. Read More.
While we make every effort to ensure the accuracy of our published materials, programs are typically advertised more than a year prior to their start date. As a result, some program activities, schedules, accommodations, personnel, and other logistics occasionally change due to local conditions or circumstances. Should a major change occur, we will make every effort to alert you. For less significant changes, we will update you during orientation. Thank you for your understanding.
Duration
5 days
4 nights
What's Included
8 meals ( 3B, 1BR, 1L, 3D )
1 expert-led lecture
6 expert-led field trips
2 performances
An experienced Group Leader
4 nights of accommodations
Taxes and customary gratuity
Road Scholar Assurance Plan
Expand All
Activity Note
Hotel check-in from 4:00 p.m. Remember to bring your nametag (sent previously). Minimal walking; three short blocks.
Afternoon:
Program Registration: 3:30-4:30 p.m. After you check in and have your room assignment, join us at the Road Scholar table in the lobby to register with the program staff, get any updated information, and confirm the time and location of the Orientation session. If you arrive late, please locate your Group Leader and let them know you have arrived.
Dinner:
At a local restaurant. Alcoholic beverages available for purchase with cash only.
Evening:
Orientation. The Group Leader will greet everyone and lead introductions. We will review the up-to-date program schedule, discuss roles and responsibilities, logistics, safety guidelines, emergency procedures, and answer questions. Our experienced and knowledgeable Group Leader will also serve as our Study Leader, presenting lectures and conducting field trips. We will also learn from a series of local experts who will do the same. Program-related travel and transfers will be via private bus unless noted otherwise. We will have meals in the dining room and local restaurants. Periods in the schedule designated as “Free time” and “At leisure” offer opportunities to do what you like and make your experience even more meaningful and memorable according to your personal preferences. The Group Leader will be happy to offer suggestions. Program activities, schedules, personnel, and indicated distances or times may change due to local circumstances/conditions. In the event of changes, we will alert you as quickly as possible. Thank you for your understanding.
Activity Note
Getting on/off a bus; driving about 76 miles, approximately 2 hours riding time. Lots of leisurely walking at your own pace. Depending on your activity level, you could walk up to 5 miles today. Wheelchairs and electric scooters available to rent at Longwood.
Breakfast:
A private buffet at the hotel-The President's Room
Morning:
We’ll board a private bus and travel to Chadd’s Ford for a field trip to the Brandywine River Museum of Art. The Brandywine Valley became the home of artist N.C. Wyeth and his wife in 1907. His talent and imagination shaped the careers of his children including their youngest, Andrew. Recognized as one of the most important and best-known artists of the 20th century, Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009) drew his inspiration from the landscapes and people of Chadd’s Ford as well as mid-coast Maine where he summered. Brandywine River Museum is decked for the holidays. A beloved holiday tradition since 1972, the Brandywine Railroad features model trains running along 2,000 feet of track, with more than 1,000 pieces—including locomotives, passenger and freight cars, and trolleys—traveling through a miniature village, farm, factories, a drive-in movie theater, and a carnival. You can enjoy an impressive array of toy and scale model trains from makers such as Lionel, Williams, Atlas, Mike’s Train House, and K-Line as they chug through the expansive O-gauge landscape. This season’s Home for the Holidays display will also include a selection of Brandywine’s dollhouses, among them two rooms from a nine-foot dollhouse designed by Ann Wyeth McCoy and built by her husband, artist John McCoy. Filled with handcrafted furnishings and miniature paintings created by Wyeth McCoy’s artistically gifted siblings and in-laws, these rooms reflect the family’s collaborative spirit and warm holiday gatherings. They will be shown alongside the debut of the Peters-Herdeg dollhouse, a finely detailed replica of an eighteenth-century Brandywine Valley home and a recent addition to the Museum’s collection. Complementing these displays, From Mailbox to Museum will feature original artworks created as designs for holiday cards by members of the Wyeth family, as well as by other prominent American illustrators.
Lunch:
At Brandywine River Museum. Boxed lunches will be provided. Lauren Kain will email requesting your selection prior to the start of the program.
Afternoon:
After lunch, we will depart for Longwood Gardens. The legacy of Pierre S. DuPont is one of the great gardens of the world, with a four-acre conservatory and outdoor gardens spanning 1,077 acres. As it is winter, you may wonder what you will see. The illuminated displays of plants, ornaments, and fountains — indoors and outdoors — are extraordinary. We will marvel at banks of poinsettias and other blooming plants, magnificent Christmas trees, and half a million twinkling lights that come on at 3:30 p.m. each day. We’ll time our visit so that we can enjoy the full magnificence of the illuminated outdoor winter landscape and the indoor display of holiday plant rooms inside the conservatory. After more than three years in the making, Longwood Reimagined opened November of 2024. Amazing new gardens, new glasshouses, new landscapes, and new festive dining to be enjoyed!
Dinner:
This meal has been excluded from the program cost and is on your own to have what you like. The Group Leader will be happy to offer suggestions. Our motorcoach will depart Longwood at 6:00pm, so dining at Longwood should be on the earlier end, or when you return from Longwood, around 7:15pm.
Evening:
At leisure. There is so much to see and do in Philadelphia during the holidays, so we have set this time aside for your personal enjoyment.
Activity Note
Getting on/off a bus. Walking to dinner, then to Kimmel and back from Kimmel Center is under a mile, approximately 20 minutes. Walking up to 2 miles.
Breakfast:
A private buffet at the hotel-The President's Room
Morning:
We’ll head out to learn about the Mummers, a 114 year old tradition from a mummer at the Fralinger’s Club house on 2nd Street for a behind-the-scenes look at their costumes. 2012 Fralinger won First Prize in the String Band Division. They are nationally and internationally recognized having performed at New Orleans’ Mardi Gras in 2012 and 1973, The Chinese New Years Parade in Hong Kong 2007, The Pearl Harbor Memorial Concert 1997, and many more.
Lunch:
On your own to enjoy local fare.
Afternoon:
On your own, rest for the evening ahead.
Dinner:
At the Ritz Carlton
Evening:
We’ll hear the incomparable Philadelphia Orchestra at the magnificent Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. This state-of-the-art facility — designed and built especially for the orchestra — will be dressed in holiday splendor. Ring in the New Year with musical fireworks as “Hollywood’s go-to conductor” (Billboard) leads an electrifying program of blockbuster film music! Guest conductor Anthony Parnther—celebrated for his powerful interpretations of major movie scores—brings to life iconic music from the Oscar-winning Oppenheimer, the Grammy-winning Encanto, the Emmy-winning The Mandalorian, and many more audience favorites. After the concert, we’ll return to the Ritz for a complete change of pace. Make your own New Year’s Eve revelry as you listen to lively music, mingle with the group, enjoy a sing a long, and enjoy a toast at midnight. We will have a private room to gather to sing & ring in the New Year together.
Activity Note
Walking about 1 mile in the morning depending on personal choice. Walking 6 blocks to the Fancy Brigades show. Due to parade/street closures, transportation is not available.
Morning:
The Philadelphia Mummers Parade has been happening since the 1800s, and became an official city event in 1900. It features amazing costumes, music, and pageantry organized by many individual clubs of volunteers who work all year on their lavish costumes and routines. The parade lineup begins around 8:30 a.m. at City Hall and concludes in South Philadelphia sometime in the early evening. For early risers you can walk you over to see the props and costumed mummers before they start the parade. The five divisions march at different times during the day (see PhillyMummers.com for details). While the show is great fun, timing is erratic. There is no way to see it all, but if you’re adventurous and would like to get out and about on your own, you are welcome to try! We will have tickets for seats in the reviewing stands near the hotel. Just be aware that if you vacate your spot, someone else in the crowd will hop in.
Brunch:
In a private room at the hotel.
Afternoon:
After brunch, we will continue to enjoy the parade with the string bands performing as they proceed up Broad Street. As noted before, timing with this parade is unpredictable; be prepared for anything! We will walk over as a group to the Pennsylvania Convention Center, three blocks from the hotel, to see the Fancy Brigades compete for prizes. This 2-1/2 hour ticketed show presents performances by each of the competing Fancy Brigades. The excitement — and the decibel level! — are high.
Dinner:
At a local restaurant. Share favorite experiences and enjoy camaraderie with new Road Scholar friends during our farewell dinner.
Evening:
At leisure. Prepare for check-out and departure tomorrow.
Activity Note
Getting on/off a bus. Walking around the galleries; benches in each gallery. Wheelchairs available for rental. Hotel check-out by 12:00 Noon.
Breakfast:
A private buffet at the hotel-The President's Room
Morning:
We will board our bus to The Barnes Foundation for an independent exploration of the galleries. The city’s cultural landmark is the new home of the world-renowned Barnes Foundation museum on Benjamin Franklin Parkway, housing the collection of Dr. Albert C. Barnes. Celebrated for its exceptional breadth, depth, and quality, the Barnes Foundation's art collection includes works by some of the greatest European and American masters of Impressionism, Post-Impressionist, and early Modern Art, as well as African sculpture, Pennsylvania-German decorative arts, Native American textiles, metalwork, and more. The current campus – which opened to much fanfare in May 2012 – boasts the greatest collection of Post-Impressionist art outside of Paris, including masterpieces by Renoir, Cezanne, Matisse, Picasso, and Van Gogh. We’ll then return to the hotel; those who wish may stay on at the Barnes. This concludes our program. If you are returning home, safe travels. If you are staying on independently, have a wonderful time. If you are transferring to another Road Scholar program, detailed instructions are included in your Information Packet for that program. We hope you enjoy Road Scholar learning adventures and look forward to having you on rewarding programs in the future. Don’t forget to join our Facebook page and follow us on Instagram. Best wishes for all your journeys!
Please select a day to update the map
Map details are not available for this location.