Skip the Crowds, But Keep the History: Spend July 4th Weekend in Historic Bethlehem
America turns 250 this summer, and you can mark the milestone by making a toast in the same inn where George Washington and Benjamin Franklin once stayed, then walking past original 18th-century buildings on streets the Continental Army knew well. Best of all, you can do it without fighting big-city holiday crowds when you spend the July 4th weekend in Bethlehem, PA.
Travel + Leisure recently asked five travel experts where to celebrate America’s 250th birthday, and the answer was Pennsylvania. While Philadelphia’s festivities will draw enormous crowds, the article points travelers toward Bethlehem as the place to experience Revolutionary history at a more relaxed pace. Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites President and CEO LoriAnn Wukitsch explained why to the magazine:
“Bethlehem offers a great, less crowded, but still history-filled, destination.”
Wukitsch noted that Historic Bethlehem is just a short drive from both New York City and Philadelphia, making it an easy getaway for travelers coming from either direction. Two new walking tours bring the city’s unique American Revolution story to life this summer.
Bethlehem & The Revolution
Created especially for the nation’s 250th birthday, this new walking tour explores how Bethlehem’s Moravian founders navigated a war they neither started nor supported.
You’ll visit the 1762 Waterworks, America’s first pumped municipal water system, and hear how the Second Single Brethren’s House twice served as a hospital for the Continental Army, caring for more than 400 sick and wounded soldiers. Among the patients who visited Bethlehem during this time was the Marquis de Lafayette, recovering from wounds he received at the Battle of Brandywine. John Adams passed through in 1777 and described Bethlehem in a letter to his wife, Abigail, as a “curious and remarkable town.”
Tours depart from the 1869 Luckenbach Mill on Fridays and Sundays at 3 p.m. through August, then Sundays at 3 p.m. in September and October. Tickets are $20 for adults, with discounted pricing for Historic Bethlehem members and children. You can purchase tickets here.
Ales & Tales: Revolutionary Pub Walking Tour
This adults-only tour for guests 21 and older begins at the 1758 Sun Inn, which welcomed Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, and George Washington, with a complimentary tasting of award-winning Christmas City Spirits.
The route then continues to the Red Stag Pub and the Lost Tavern inside the Moravian Book Shop, the oldest continuously operating bookstore in the nation. Along the way, you’ll discover the Revolutionary War stories that unfolded just outside their doors.
our final stop is Historic Hotel Bethlehem, site of the first structure the Moravians built in 1741. Here, you’ll toast the Revolution with a pint of Declaration Lager, the official beer of America250PA.
Ales & Tales tours take place Saturdays at 3 p.m. through August. Tickets are $30, or $25 for Historic Bethlehem members. Purchase tickets here.
Both tours wind through the Moravian Church Settlements–Bethlehem World Heritage Site, where most of the 18th- and 19th-century buildings you’ll see are the originals, still standing where Bethlehem’s founders built them. Discover a Revolutionary War story unlike anywhere else This July 4th weekend in Bethlehem, PA
