Philadelphia: Fairmount Park

You can imitate Rocky Balboa's training run up the long steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (26th Street and Benjamin Franklin Parkway; 215-763-8100, www.philamuseum.org) to start your heart pumping. On Fridays, you can swap the sweats for finer duds and venture inside for Art After Five, a cool evening scene of live music, gallery tours, and light fare.

The museum is the gateway to Fairmount Park, which contains more than 215 miles of recreation trails. The 10.5-mile paved Philadelphia portion of the Schuylkill River Trail scoots alongside the water. Hop a bike, and see if you can keep pace with the graceful racing boats skimming the waterway. Take a break at gentrified Manayunk, a former mill village. Chef/owner Bruce Cooper at Jake's (4365 Main St., Manayunk; 215-483-0444, www.jakesrestaurant.com) revels in the Amish-grown regional produce he finds at the farmers' market. Enjoy Cooper's crisp spring rolls and meaty crab cakes at the bar or an outdoor table before biking back. Later, spread a blanket for a starlit concert at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts (5201 Parkside Ave.; 215-893-1999, www.manncenter.org ).