Harmony, Pennsylvania (30 minutes north of Pittsburgh) is one of our favorite boroughs for a number of reasons. It is quaint, historic, and is home to one of the best restaurants in the region- Harmony Inn.
When it comes to the history, Harmony is rather unique. To celebrate it, the borough has a robust museum that we were really excited to check out.
Burgh Bits and Bites is a popular food walking tour company in Pittsburgh with numerous tours throughout the city's neighborhoods.
But this company is also expanding to include tours outside the city limits, and one of their first of this style tour is in the historic borough of Saxonburg- located about 45 minutes northeast of the city.
We were guest of the Butler County Tourism and Convention Bureau on this tour, and share our thoughts of the day out in this one!
When it comes to Frank Lloyd Wright masterpieces in southwest Pennsylvania, odds are good you know of the iconic Fallingwater house. But did you know that Wright was also commissioned for a house just a few miles down the roads for friends of the Kaufmann family?
This house is Kentuck Knob- a large, Usonian house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and built for the Hagan family (of local ice cream fame).
When it comes to getting out in nature, especially nature near Pittsburgh, it is really hard to say no to Ohiopyle State Park.
Between the trails, overlooks, and vastness of the park itself, you can really experience nature in any number of ways. But there is only one way to get out and enjoy the park at its most pristine and wild conditions- getting out on the water.
Thankfully, there are a number of Ohiopyle white water rafting options available to help you do just that.
So whether you are looking to simply have a nice day out on the water and enjoy the park, or have an adrenaline packed adventure on the water (while also enjoying nature in the down periods), rafting in Ohiopyle is a great option to consider.
At this time we believe the Explorer riverboat is not in operation and is receiving maintenance upgrades. We do not have an estimated timeline when tours will resume. Please check directly with Rivers of Steel to check on current operation status.
The Rivers of Steel maintains a number of historical sites in southwestern Pennsylvania, with one of the most notable being the Carrie Furnaces in Rankin/Swissvale (just southeast of the city).
In 2018 the nonprofit launched a new riverboat tour that takes place on Pittsburgh's three rivers. This one takes patrons on a journey through Pittsburgh's history, laying out where we've come from as a city and how the citizens of the past have paved the way to our prosperous future.
As this tour is one of the most in-depth lessons you'll get on all things Pittsburgh, it is aptly named Uniquely Pittsburgh. But instead of being set in a classroom, this one using the views of the city from the rivers to really bring the region's history to life.
St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Millvale was built in the early 1900s as a place of worship for the large Croatian population in the region. In 1921 the church was devastated by a fire, and was rebuilt in 1922.
In the years that followed the congregation worshiped in a church that was relatively devoid of imagery, and in the late 1930s the church commissioned acclaimed Croatian artist Maxo Vanka to adorn the walls with his work. He was given significant creative control in his art, and the resulting murals are nothing short of a masterpiece that is often referred to as his “gift to America.”
Since then, the murals been appreciated by countless parishioners and visitors, and in the early 2000s a comprehensive restoration effort began in order to ensure they survive for generations to come.
Pittsburgh's brewery scene is pretty astounding. In the past ten years we've gone from having just a handful of breweries to having well over four dozen in an hour radius with another couple dozen set to open in the next few years.
As such, tackling them all can be quite tricky unless you're able to go out for a beer every single weekend.
To help get you out to more breweries in one go, City Brew Tours launched a Pittsburgh beer tour to help introduce beer fans into Pittsburgh's growing and thriving craft beer scene.
We were invited out by City Brew Tours to check out their After Hours Brew Tour which was just the evening out we were looking for.
Fallingwater has become a popular tourist destination in southwestern Pennsylvania as it was designed by the famous architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, is one of his most acclaimed works, and was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2019.
There are several more good reasons for this popularity, as the house features unique designs both in the layout and how it appears in nature over the changing seasons.
But did you know that Fallingwater is connected to Pittsburgh in that the famous Kaufmann family (of Kaufmann department store fame) were the original owners of the property and hired Frank Lloyd Wright to build them a house near one of their favorite waterfalls in Ohiopyle?
The Gateway Clipper is an iconic Pittsburgh attraction. No matter the time of day, odds are good you can look to the rivers near downtown Pittsburgh and see these iconic blue, gold, and red riverboats ferrying passengers or giving a water-level city tour.
As Pittsburgh residents, we've seen these boats for many years but oddly enough had never taken one. Naturally, since founding this site we wanted to change that and finally made the trip down to Station Square to take a sightseeing cruise at the end of peak season.
But in being honest, I have to say that there are two very different experiences you can have on the Gateway Clipper fleet- one as a resident and one as a visitor. Depending on what category you fall into, this may change your approach to this tour significantly.
Pick any city in the world, and odds are good there are a few ghost stories to be told. Pittsburgh is no different, and the city once described as “hell with the lid off” is said to be just as haunted as the rest.
To seek out the city's supernatural side, we booked a tour with Haunted Pittsburgh to learn about some of downtown Pittsburgh's most famous hauntings.