Pittsburgh City Guide

Pittsburg lies between the Ohio, Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers and is the second largest city in the US state of Pennsylvania. Pittsburg has, historically, been associated with the steel industry and the city has been in fact been called ‘The Steel City’ or ‘The Smoky City’ down the ages. Today, most of the city’s steel mills have shut shop and Pittsburg is known to be home to industries like healthcare, education, technology, financial services and robotics.

Pittsburg offers a clean and verdant ambience and offers numerous attractions along with vibrant, diverse neighborhoods, shops, restaurants, art galleries, museums and theatres; all of which attract many visitors to Pittsburgh annually.

Pittsburgh is a city that is equipped with approximately 90 diverse neighborhoods however visitors to the city have their own favored accommodation spots within the city.

Most vacationers to Pittsburgh like to stay at hotels located within the city’s business district which is located within Pittsburgh’s downtown area. Downtown Pittsburgh extends over two miles in diameter and its compact size makes it easily navigable on foot from hotels to shops, theaters and restaurants. Downtown Pittsburg hosts several important cultural and business destinations in the city like Heinz Hall for the Performing Arts, the David L. Lawrence Convention Center and the Mellon Arena.

The Pittsburgh International Airport, which is located 20 miles west of downtown Pittsburgh, is a huge airport that functions as an important gateway for scores of business travelers to Pittsburgh. Many of these business visitors to Pittsburgh like to stay within close proximity of the airport and thus base themselves at the many mid-range and luxury hotels located near the Pittsburgh International airport.

No matter where you choose to stay in Pittsburgh during vacations, you can be sure of acquiring cheap hotel rooms through attractive hotel deals offered by us.

If you are looking for hotel discounts for your vacations to Pittsburgh, be sure to check out the exhaustive hotel deals that Fare Buzz has to offer.

The city of Pittsburgh hosts many verdant parks. One of its most prominent green patches of green is its Point State Park. This landscaped park is built on what was once a slum land and offers a whole host of recreational facilities, which include an outdoor amphitheater, biking trails and an in-line skating route. The Park features on the list of National Historic Landmarks and also offers paved promenades and walkways along the Ohio River waterfront that offer gorgeous views of the city and its many bridges.

The PNC Park opened in 2001 and is a classic-style baseball stadium, home to the city’s major league baseball team, the Pittsburgh Pirates. This relatively small baseball stadium (capacity 40,000) is located on the banks of the Allegheny River and it is constructed in such a unique way that all seats in the stadium offer great views of the downtown and riverfront areas of the city.

Visitors are offered daytime tours of the stadium and its facilities but to truly experience the magic of the PNC Park it is recommended that you attend one of the Pirates’ at home games.

Pittsburgh’s National Aviary is the only independent, indoor, non-profit bird zoo in America that is home to nearly 600 birds that belong to more than 200 species most of which are threatened or endangered. This aviary is located in historic West Park in the North Side neighborhood of Pittsburgh and showcases birds from all over the world. They host them in recreated natural habitats. It’s a must visit attraction for bird lovers on vacations to Pittsburg.

Andrew Carnegie, the famous Pittsburgh industrialist in 1895 established an institute through which he intended to inform and educate the city’s resident population. This institute today takes the form of the Carnegie Museums, consists of the Museum of Art, the Natural History museum, the Carnegie Science Center and The Andy Warhol Museum.

The Carnegie Museum of Art offers a collection of contemporary art works that also features film and video installations. The Natural History Museum offers exhibits that showcase the many wonders of our planet. The Carnegie Science Centre is equipped with a planetarium and offers laser shows and many interactive exhibits while the Andy Warhol museum pays homage to one of the greatest artists of the 20th Century.

The weather in Pittsburgh is quite similar to that of New York City; though the city receives much rainfall all throughout the year. Summers in Pittsburgh are quite warm and sunny and winters are quite cold. The city receives much snowfall. Late spring, (May and June) and early fall (September and October) are considered to be the best months for planning a vacation to Pittsburgh.

Getting to Pittsburg can’t get any easier since the city is well served by a majority of airlines and roadways. If you are planning to fly for your vacations in Pittsburg, you may want to try the attractive and cheap air tickets Fare Buzz has on offer. On there, moving around the city is easy as it is well planned.

Pittsburgh’s many hotels are largely concentrated within its downtown Golden triangle area, which is easily navigable on foot. However, the city is also equipped with a subway cum light rail system called the T, which operates over a stretch of 25.2 miles and serves downtown Pittsburgh with a four stop loop. A section of the subway also passes under the Monongahela River and emerges over ground to serve the southern suburbs of the city.

Aside from the ‘T’, Pittsburgh is also served by an extensive bus system, which connects downtown Pittsburgh to the city’s many other neighborhoods like North Side and Oakland.

Also included within the realm of Pittsburgh’s public transport system are the Duquesne and Monongahela incline cars that run up and down Mount Washington and offer gorgeous vistas of the city while transporting commuters.

Pittsburgh is also served by a fleet of taxis that need to be hailed at taxi ranks or booked on the phone.

Pittsburgh offers a whole host of shopping opportunities that can be found all over the city. The favored downtown area of Pittsburgh offers outlets of department stores like Macy’s, Sak’s Fifth Avenue and shopping centers like One Oxford Centre and the Fifth Avenue Arcade Shops as well as the Clark Building that hosts several jewelry stores.

Other popular shopping districts in Pittsburgh include areas like the Waterfront in Homestead and Southside Works both of which are located along the Monongahela River and offer department stores, boutique shopping as well as dining and entertainment opportunities.

Pittsburgh is, additionally, equipped with many malls like the Mall at Robinson, which is one of the largest shopping malls in Pennsylvania and others like the Galleria, the Northway Mall, the Monroeville Mall, the Cranberry Mall and the Clearview Mall.

Pittsburgh’s dining landscape features a wide array of restaurants that offer a smorgasbord of global cuisines.

Some of the most popular restaurants in Pittsburgh according to recent surveys include establishments like Point Brugg Café, which serves European fare, Fat Head’s Saloon, which serves American delights, Abay Ethiopian cuisine, Tram’s Kitchen (Vietnamese), Il Pizzaiolo and Piccolo Forno( Italian), Lu Lu’s noodles (Asian) and Kaya ( Caribbean).

Pittsburgh has a vibrant nightlife scene and the city is equipped with a plethora of dive bars, wine bars, cocktail lounges, comedy clubs, brew pubs, karaoke bars and more. Recent surveys indicate that some of best bars in the city include joints like Embury, which is a cocktail lounge that offers an ever changing cocktail list, Gooski’s, which offers a typical bar experience with old world Juke box et al, Casbah, which offers cocktails alongside its huge repertoire of wines and Ava Lounge, which is actually a club lounge rather than merely a bar which plays excellent music to boot.