Day Trips from Philadelphia Under $20 (by Train and Bus, No Car Needed)
by Kaitlin Cabaniss
Philadelphia is one of the easiest big cities in the country to leave without a car. No offense, Philly. Amtrak, SEPTA Regional Rail and NJ Transit all share 30th Street Station, PATCO runs under Market Street to South Jersey, and the bus terminal at 1001 Filbert Street reopened on May 1, 2026 after three years of boarding at the curb. From those three places you can reach two state capitals, three of the biggest cities on the East Coast, a UNESCO World Heritage site and a casino boardwalk. Also the town that dug up the world’s first dinosaur skeleton. All of it under $20 one way.
We first published this list in 2018, when it ran to 35 places, most of them commuter stops nobody takes a day trip to. (Sorry, Pennsauken.) This version keeps the under-$20 rule but rebuilds the list around places worth the ride, in order of how long they take to reach. The bus and Amtrak “from” fares are live from Wanderu’s route data; SEPTA, PATCO and NJ Transit fares are the published prices as of September 2026.
| Destination | Travel time | From |
|---|---|---|
| Camden, NJ | 5 minutes on PATCO | $1.40 PATCO |
| Collingswood and Haddonfield, NJ | 12 to 15 minutes on PATCO | $2.60 PATCO |
| Wilmington, DE | 21 minutes on Amtrak, 55 on SEPTA | $6 Amtrak$8.75 weekdays, $8 weekends SEPTA Zone 4 |
| Media, PA | 40 minutes on SEPTA Regional Rail | $7.75 weekdays, $7 weekends SEPTA Zone 3 |
| Trenton, NJ | 30 minutes on Amtrak, 55 on SEPTA | $6 Amtrak$11 SEPTA$3.20 PATCO + River Line |
| Doylestown, PA | 1 hour 20 minutes on SEPTA Regional Rail | $8.75 weekdays, $8 weekends SEPTA Zone 4 |
| Princeton, NJ | about 1 hour 15 minutes, Amtrak plus NJ Transit | Amtrak to Trenton, then NJ Transit |
| Newark, NJ | 1 hour 5 minutes on the Keystone, about 1 hour 45 by bus | $11 Amtrak$14 Bus |
| New York, NY | 1 hour 25 minutes on the Keystone, about 2 hours by bus | $11 Amtrak$8 Bus |
| Lancaster, PA | 1 hour 10 minutes on the Keystone, about 2 hours 45 by bus | $22 Amtrak |
| Atlantic City, NJ | 1 hour 15 minutes on Greyhound, a bit longer on NJ Transit rail | $16 Greyhound$23 round trip NJ Transit rail |
| Reading, PA | about 1 hour 30 minutes by bus | $12 Bus |
| Baltimore, MD | 1 hour 15 minutes on Amtrak, about 2 hours by bus | $6 Amtrak$15 Bus |
| Washington, DC | 2 hours on Amtrak, 3 to 3.5 hours by bus | $11 Amtrak$15 Bus |
| Harrisburg, PA | 1 hour 45 minutes on the Keystone, 2 to 3 hours by bus | $10 Bus$35 Amtrak |
| Bethlehem, PA | about 2 hours 30 minutes by bus | $16 Bus |
Where the trains and buses leave from
- 30th Street Station (2955 Market St): Amtrak, SEPTA Regional Rail and NJ Transit’s Atlantic City Rail Line, plus a FlixBus and Greyhound stop.
- 1001 Filbert Street: the old Greyhound terminal reopened on May 1, 2026 as the Philadelphia Parking Authority Transportation Center, open 24 hours with a staffed 189-seat waiting room. Greyhound, FlixBus, Peter Pan, Fullington Trailways and Martz all board here, and because Megabus tickets in the Northeast have been Peter Pan buses since 2024, so do those. Our guide to the Filbert Street terminal has the gate list and schedules.
- Spring Garden Street at Columbus Boulevard and Philadelphia Mills: OurBus didn’t move back to Filbert Street, so its buses still leave from the curb under I-95 by the Spring Garden Metro station, and from the mall up in the Northeast, which has free parking.
- PATCO stations at Franklin Square, 8th & Market, 9th–10th & Locust, 12th–13th & Locust and 15th–16th & Locust.
- The city is still choosing a permanent bus terminal site and says it’ll pick one by the end of 2026.
Under 30 minutes
Camden, NJ
5 minutes on PATCO
- PATCO$1.40
The cheapest trip on this list is one stop over the Ben Franklin Bridge, and it comes with hippos. Adventure Aquarium on the Camden waterfront is the only aquarium in the world with Nile hippos, and as of March 2026 it has a boardwalk-themed indoor area with a horseshoe-crab touch harbor too. Next door, the Battleship New Jersey is back from its 2024 dry-docking, with a $24 million visitor-center expansion announced in August 2026.
Getting there is the easy part: PATCO from 8th & Market to City Hall or Broadway is $1.40, kids four and under ride free, and the fare hasn’t budged since 2011.
Collingswood and Haddonfield, NJ
12 to 15 minutes on PATCO
- PATCO$2.60
Two more PATCO stops, two very different Saturdays. Collingswood is a dry town, which is exactly why Haddon Avenue turned into one of the best BYOB restaurant rows in the region (Sagami and Zeppoli have both been James Beard nominees). The Saturday farmers market sets up directly under the PATCO tracks from May through Thanksgiving, so you can’t miss it.
Haddonfield, one stop on, is where a farmer dug up Hadrosaurus foulkii in 1858, the first nearly complete dinosaur skeleton found anywhere. There’s a bronze “Haddy” downtown and a National Historic Landmark marker at the pit. Both stops are $2.60 from Center City.
Wilmington, DE
21 minutes on Amtrak, 55 on SEPTA
- Philadelphia to Wilmington trainsfrom $6
- SEPTA Zone 4$8.75 weekdays, $8 weekends
Wilmington is the fastest Amtrak ride out of 30th Street Station, and one of the cheapest. Just under half of the Philadelphia-to-Wilmington Amtrak tickets bought on Wanderu in the past year cost under $20, and Greyhound’s daily bus almost always does. If you’d rather save the money and take your time, SEPTA’s Wilmington/Newark Line gets you there for a Zone 4 fare, and the late-night trains home that SEPTA cut in 2025 came back on July 5, 2026.
Once you’re there: no sales tax in Delaware, which turns a shopping day into a math problem you’ll win. The Riverwalk along the Christina River is a few blocks from the station, and on weekdays SEPTA trains continue to Newark, DE for the University of Delaware’s Main Street.
Media, PA
40 minutes on SEPTA Regional Rail
- SEPTA Zone 3$7.75 weekdays, $7 weekends
“Everybody’s Hometown” is a Zone 3 ride on the Media/Wawa Line, or the D1 trolley from 69th Street if you’d rather roll down State Street the slow, scenic way. Every Wednesday from May through September, Dining Under the Stars closes State Street to cars for outdoor dining.
About an hour
Trenton, NJ
30 minutes on Amtrak, 55 on SEPTA
- Philadelphia to Trenton trainsfrom $6
- SEPTA$11
- PATCO + River Line$3.20
Trenton is where the Keystone and Northeast Regional stop before New Jersey gets expensive, and two thirds of Philadelphia-to-Trenton Amtrak tickets on Wanderu went for under $20. Want it cheaper still? PATCO to Camden ($1.40) and then NJ Transit’s River Line light rail up the Delaware ($1.80) gets you there in about 90 minutes for $3.20, which is less than a Wawa hoagie.
This is the year to go. Ten Crucial Days 250 marks the 250th anniversary of Washington’s crossing and the Battles of Trenton, December 24 to 27, 2026, with the annual Patriots Week starting December 26. The Old Barracks and the State House are a 20-minute walk from the station.
Doylestown, PA
1 hour 20 minutes on SEPTA Regional Rail
- SEPTA Zone 4$8.75 weekdays, $8 weekends
Ride the Lansdale/Doylestown Line to the end and you get a walkable county seat with three concrete castles, all built by one very committed tile-maker. The Mercer Museum’s 2026 exhibition on the Doan Gang, the Loyalist outlaws who robbed Bucks County during the Revolution, is running through 2026 with guided tours, and Fonthill Castle does tower-to-crypt tours. Feeling ambitious? A Regional Rail One Day Anywhere pass is $16.25 and covers Media or Wilmington the same day.
Princeton, NJ
about 1 hour 15 minutes, Amtrak plus NJ Transit
- Amtrak to Trenton, then NJ Transit
Princeton University’s new art museum opened on October 31, 2025, and it’s a big one: 146,000 square feet designed by Adjaye Associates, double the old gallery space, free, seven days a week. Getting there takes two hops. Take Amtrak to Trenton, then NJ Transit one stop to Princeton Junction (a few Keystone trains stop at Princeton Junction directly, which saves the change), and the “Dinky” shuttle runs you into town from there. Wanderu sells the Amtrak leg; the NJ Transit fare is extra.
Newark, NJ
1 hour 5 minutes on the Keystone, about 1 hour 45 by bus
- Philadelphia to Newark trainsfrom $11
- Philadelphia to Newark busesfrom $14
Newark doesn’t make many day-trip lists, but it’s the fourth most-booked destination from Philadelphia on Wanderu, and on the Keystone train seven in ten tickets sold for under $20. Penn Station drops you a few blocks from the Prudential Center and the Ironbound, the Portuguese and Brazilian restaurant district, so arrive hungry. It’s also the cheap way to reach the Jersey Gardens outlets and Newark airport.
One to two hours
New York, NY
1 hour 25 minutes on the Keystone, about 2 hours by bus
More than 150 buses a day and roughly 50 trains link Philadelphia and New York, the busiest route out of the city by a wide margin. Here’s the catch: the typical bus fare bought on Wanderu in the past year ran between about $21 and $27 depending on the month, so most people paid over $20. Plenty didn’t, though. About a quarter of bus tickets and two thirds of Keystone train tickets came in under $20, and the Keystone’s fare of about $19 barely moves whether you book two weeks out or the same morning.
If you’re going by bus, BBBus and PhillyBus were the options most often under $20, and Amtrak’s Northeast Regional gets there too when a saver fare is up for grabs. Once you arrive, there are plenty of free things to do in New York to keep the whole day under budget.
Lancaster, PA
1 hour 10 minutes on the Keystone, about 2 hours 45 by bus
- Philadelphia to Lancaster trainsfrom $22
Central Market has been running since 1730, which makes it the oldest continuously operating public farmers market in the country. It was old when the Constitution was new. The OurBus stop on East Chestnut Street is two blocks from it; from the Amtrak station it’s a 25-minute walk or a short bus ride. The Keystone is the comfortable way to go, but its fare to Lancaster has crept above the $20 line, with the typical ticket on Wanderu last year at about $27. OurBus lists one daily bus from $18, so it’s worth checking both.
Atlantic City, NJ
1 hour 15 minutes on Greyhound, a bit longer on NJ Transit rail
- Philadelphia to Atlantic City busesfrom $16
- NJ Transit rail$23 round trip
Greyhound is the bus you’ll book on Wanderu for the Expressway run to the Atlantic City bus terminal. Prefer the train? NJ Transit’s Atlantic City Rail Line leaves from 30th Street and sells a $23 round-trip excursion ticket that’s good for ten days, and a free Jitney shuttle meets it at the rail terminal and runs to every casino.
One caution: check NJ Transit alerts before you count on the train, because the 130-year-old Delair Bridge it crosses got stuck open again in July 2026. Once you’re there, six of the nine casinos are on the Boardwalk, and the beach is free, which is more than the casinos can say.
Reading, PA
about 1 hour 30 minutes by bus
- Philadelphia to Reading busesfrom $12
No passenger rail to Reading, but there are five buses a day on FlixBus and OurBus. The typical Wanderu fare lands in the low $20s, and about a third of tickets get under $20, with FlixBus managing it about half the time. And yes, there is a pagoda. The 1908 Pagoda on Mount Penn reopened in 2026 after a six-year restoration, with the grand opening planned for 2027, so check hours before you climb. Back downtown, the GoggleWorks art center is open daily.
Worth a weekend: Baltimore, Washington, Harrisburg and Bethlehem
You can do any of these in a day. They’re also the answer to “weekend trips from Philadelphia without a car,” so pack a toothbrush.
Baltimore, MD
1 hour 15 minutes on Amtrak, about 2 hours by bus
Baltimore is the one big city where the train is the cheap way. Two thirds of Northeast Regional tickets sold on Wanderu in the past year went for under $20, and the typical fare drops from $19 to $13 if you book even two days ahead. The bus, for once, is the pricier option at $26 to $34.
The Inner Harbor’s Harborplace pavilions were slated for demolition in 2026 to make way for a $900 million redevelopment, but the project was delayed on September 17, 2026 so the pavilions are still open. Penn Station is a short Light Rail ride from the harbor, and there are 15 free things to do in Baltimore once you get there.
Washington, DC
2 hours on Amtrak, 3 to 3.5 hours by bus
DC has two reopenings worth timing a trip around. The Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden reopens on October 31, 2026 after a four-year, $68 million redesign by Hiroshi Sugimoto, and the National Air and Space Museum opens its last renovated galleries in fall 2026.
The fare math flips here. The bus almost never dips under $20, with typical Wanderu fares in the low to mid $30s last year, while the Northeast Regional does about half the time if you book a week or more out. The bus worth watching is Martz’s new Friday-to-Sunday service between Washington and Philadelphia, listed from $19.
Harrisburg, PA
1 hour 45 minutes on the Keystone, 2 to 3 hours by bus
Harrisburg is how you get to Hershey without a car, on weekdays anyway: rabbittransit’s Route 322 runs from downtown to Hersheypark, Monday to Friday. The capital itself is a bus town for cheap travelers, and specifically an OurBus town. OurBus fares land in the teens, while Greyhound and FlixBus run closer to $40 and the Keystone train’s floor is about $35.
Once you’re there, the Capitol tour is free and the Susquehanna riverfront is a few blocks away. The Broad Street Market, whose 1860s brick building burned in 2023, is being rebuilt for 2027, but its stone building and tent are open Wednesday to Saturday in the meantime. A second daily Pennsylvanian train to Harrisburg and Pittsburgh runs from mid-November 2026.
Bethlehem, PA
about 2 hours 30 minutes by bus
- Philadelphia to Bethlehem busesfrom $16
Bethlehem’s Moravian settlement was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in July 2024, the 26th in the United States, and the town does Christmas properly: Christkindlmarkt, one of the larger Christmas markets in the country, runs November 13 to December 20, 2026 at SteelStacks, in the shadow of the old blast furnaces. Only three buses a day run there, on FlixBus and Greyhound, so book ahead. Allentown, ten minutes up the road, has more buses but higher fares.
The rest of the under-$20 list
The 2018 version of this post had 35 destinations, and thirteen of them, mostly small South Jersey towns like Atco, Somerdale and Hammonton, didn’t get a single booking from Philadelphia in the past year, so they’re gone. These Amtrak Keystone stops between Philadelphia and Lancaster made the cut: still under $20, still bookable. They’re commuter stations more than destinations, but Exton is about a mile from the Chester Valley Trail and Ardmore puts you on the Main Line’s shopping streets.
- Ardmorefrom $11
- Paolifrom $12
- Extonfrom $13
- Downingtownfrom $14
- Coatesvillefrom $14
- Parkesburgfrom $15
This post is one of a series of under-$20 guides, so if Philadelphia isn’t your city, yours may be in there too.
Places on other lists you can’t reach without a car
You’ll see Longwood Gardens (its $250 million “floating” West Conservatory opened in November 2024), New Hope and Lambertville, Chadds Ford, Jim Thorpe, Knoebels and Hershey itself on most day-trip lists for Philadelphia. None of them has a train or a direct bus from the city, however the other lists phrase it. The Poconos do have a Martz bus, but it runs $30 and up. Hershey comes closest: bus to Harrisburg, then rabbittransit’s weekday Route 322.
Cape May and Wildwood are reachable on NJ Transit’s 313, 315 and seasonal 316 buses from Market Street, but only the ten-day round-trip excursion fares ($39.05 and $35.50) work out under $20 a direction, and a plain one-way costs more. If you’re willing to stretch the budget, 2026 is Cape May’s 50th year as the only whole-city National Historic Landmark.
How to stay under $20 (what 69,000 bookings say)
We looked at every Philadelphia departure booked on Wanderu between September 2025 and September 2026, nearly 69,000 bookings. Three things held up:
- Train fares to New York are flat. Bus fares aren’t. The Keystone cost about $19 whether you bought it two weeks out or the morning of. The typical bus ticket fell from $25.50 when bought a day ahead to $21.50 at two weeks, and the share under $20 rose from one in five to one in three. Nearly two thirds of Philadelphia-New York bus bookings happen within a day of travel. That’s the expensive way.
- Baltimore and Washington by train reward a few days’ notice. Baltimore’s typical Northeast Regional fare drops from $19 to $13 with two or more days’ lead time. Washington’s drops from $33 to $23 at two weeks, and half of those tickets land under $20.
- The bus to Washington isn’t a $20 trip. Fewer than one bus ticket in a hundred to DC came in under $20 in the past year. If the budget is the point, it’s Amtrak’s saver fare, or Martz’s new weekend bus, listed from $19.
For the version of this advice that works from any city, read our guide to finding the cheapest tickets.
Frequently asked questions
What are some good day trips I can take from Philadelphia by train?
Wilmington (21 minutes on Amtrak), Trenton (30 minutes), Lancaster (about 70 minutes on the Keystone), New York (85 minutes on the Keystone), Baltimore (75 minutes) and Washington, DC (2 hours) all run direct from 30th Street Station. Baltimore and Trenton: usually under $20. New York, Wilmington and Washington: about half the time, better with a few days’ notice. Lancaster: $25 to $27, so budget for it. SEPTA Regional Rail adds Doylestown, Media and Wilmington for $7.75 to $8.75.
Where do intercity buses leave from in Philadelphia?
Most leave from the reopened terminal at 1001 Filbert Street (Greyhound, FlixBus, Peter Pan, Fullington Trailways and Martz), which the Philadelphia Parking Authority reopened on May 1, 2026. OurBus leaves from Spring Garden Street at Columbus Boulevard and from Philadelphia Mills. A few bus companies also stop at 30th Street Station.
Can you get from Philadelphia to New York for under $20?
Yes, but not on every bus. About a quarter of bus tickets and two thirds of Amtrak Keystone tickets sold on Wanderu in the past year were under $20. Ride the Keystone (two in three tickets were under $20), or pick BBBus or PhillyBus. Booking any bus two weeks out only gets you to about one in three.
Is Amtrak or the bus cheaper from Philadelphia?
The train, more often than you’d guess. To Baltimore, Trenton, Newark and (on the Keystone) New York, Amtrak is usually the cheaper under-$20 option. To Harrisburg, Reading and Bethlehem, only the bus gets under $20, and to Harrisburg specifically OurBus. To Atlantic City it’s Greyhound or NJ Transit’s $23 rail round trip.
Do I need a car for day trips from Philadelphia?
Not for anything on this page. Every destination here has a train or bus from Center City. The places that do need a car (Longwood Gardens, New Hope, the Poconos) are listed separately, so you can skip them or bribe a friend.
The “from” prices on this page refresh from Wanderu’s route data: each is the cheapest fare recently available on that route, the same figure its route page shows. What you pay depends on when you book. Booking figures are Wanderu bookings from Philadelphia, September 2025 to September 2026. Operator fares for SEPTA, PATCO and NJ Transit are the published prices as of September 2026.
Pssst — get our best stories in your inbox
One email a week. Cheap trips, honest guides, zero fake urgency. Chiku's got your back.