As part of booking roundtrip flights which depart from US airports, Orbitz is pleased to offer airline tickets on US Airways, which operates a non-stop flight Saturdays from San Jose, Costa Rica (SJO) to Philadelphia (PHL), regularly scheduled to depart at 2:55pm and arrive at 8:47pm. Usually an Airbus A319 is flown for this route. The average travel time from San Jose, Costa Rica to Philadelphia, PA is 4 hours and 52 minutes.

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Regularly Scheduled Flights to Philadelphia (PHL) from San Jose, Costa Rica (SJO)
				Daily Non-Stops		Select Non-Stop		Earliest Flight		Last Flight
	US Airways			-		1		2:55pm		2:55pm

During your Philadelphia vacation, don't miss these great establishments and attractions:

Lights of Liberty
Since the summer of 1999, the most important park sights have been the backdrop for the world's first interactive sound-and-light walking tour, providing visitors with a lively, fun, high-tech immersion into the drama of the American Revolution as it happened and where it happened. You'll walk as night falls over Old City past trendy bars and restaurants, but be transported into Philadelphia 2 centuries ago: Five-story projections on historic buildings and wireless headsets equipped with movie-style "surround" sound make it the closest "virtual" Colonial experience money can buy.The ground floor of the PECO Energy Center, next to Independence and Congress Halls on Chestnut Street, has been transformed into a group ticketing and holding area. Try to arrive at dusk, especially with kids, since there's a maximum of 50 per tour and it's first-come, first-served. You'll pick up headsets automatically tuned to a script read by such actors as Ossie Davis and Charlton Heston, and which are triggered automatically as your group arrives at the planned Park destinations. Younger children might prefer the alternative kids' headsets.Led by a guide, you'll walk across the moonlit cobblestone streets to Park sites, where the Revolutionary story is compressed into five acts. Rifles crackle, cannons boom, and the founders of America argue with actual quotes interwoven into the script. They're backed with choral music and a soundtrack performed by members of the Philadelphia Orchestra. The visuals are somewhere between shadow-box projections and animation, with superb color and resolution. The finale of 1776 takes place right in back of Independence Hall, and it's irresistibly thrilling.

Betsy Ross House
One Colonial home everybody knows about is this one near Christ Church, restored in 1937, and distinguished by the Stars and Stripes outside. Elizabeth (Betsy) Ross was a Quaker needlewoman who, newly widowed in 1776, worked as a seamstress and upholsterer out of her home on Arch Street. Nobody is quite sure if no. 239 was hers, though. And nobody knows for sure if she did the original American flag of 13 stars set in a field of 13 red-and-white stripes, but she was commissioned to sew ships' flags for the American fleet to replace the earlier Continental banners.The tiny house takes only a minute or two to walk through. The house is set back from the street, and the city maintains the Atwater Kent Park in front, where Ross and her last husband are buried. The upholstery shop (now a gift shop renovated in 1998) opens into the period parlor. Other rooms include the cellar kitchen (standard placement for this room), tiny bedrooms, and model working areas for upholstering, making musket balls, and the like. Note such little touches as reusable note tablets made of ivory; pine cones used to help start hearth fires; and the prominent kitchen hourglass. Flag Day celebrations are held here on June 14.

Franklin Institute Science Museum
The Franklin Institute Science Museum isn't just kid stuff. All ages love it because it's a thoroughly imaginative trip through the worlds of science that demonstrates the influence of science in our lives. The complex has four parts. The first is the home of the Franklin National Memorial, with a 30-ton statue of its namesake and a collection of authentic Franklin artifacts and possessions.The second part is a collection of science- and technology-oriented exhibition areas, with innovative hands-on displays such as the recent "Titanic" show, from a gigantic walk-through heart (beloved by Philadelphians, and just restored after years of climbing and exploration by curious children) to the Train Factory, an interactive setting where you can play engineer for a 350-ton locomotive. For a hair-raising experience, plug into a Van de Graaff generator at the lightning gallery. On the third floor, an energy hall bursts with Rube Goldberg contraptions, noisemakers, and light shows. The nearby Discovery Theater gives afternoon shows featuring liquid air and other oddities. The fourth floor specializes in astronomy and mathematical puzzles. The basement Fels Planetarium (tel. 215/563-1363), just renovated and accompanied by the new "space station" on the first floor, rounds out the offering here.The third part of the Franklin Institute is the result of an ambitious 1991 campaign, funded by $22 million from the city and state, and $36 million from private donors, to construct the Mandell Futures Center addition. Just past the Franklin National Memorial on the second floor, you'll enter an atrium with cafes, ticket counters, and ramps and stairs leading to the new exhibits. Just beyond is a separate-admission IMAX arena, showing films ranging from undersea explorations to the Rolling Stones in spectacular 70mm format. Eight permanent interactive exhibits, including space, earth, computers, chemistry, and health, take you into the 21st century with Disney World-style pizazz. My personal favorites are "The Sports Challenge," a full body exploration of the science behind popular sports like surfing and rock climbing, a video driving exercise in "Future Vision," "The Jamming Room" of musical synthesizers, and the "See Yourself Age" computer program in "Future and You." The texts throughout are witty and disarming. Quite thrilling is the Skybike, which you can ride along a 1[dp] cable three stories above the Bartol Atrium floor and its huge new sci-store.The fourth section is the 1995 CoreStates Science Park, a collaboration with the Please Touch Museum. It uses the 38,000-square-foot lawn between the two museums -- it's free with admission to the museum. The imaginative urban garden is filled with high-tech play structures, including a high-wire tandem bicycle, 12-foot tire, step-on organ, maze, and optical illusions.Of course, you'll eventually get hungry -- with a family, the institute is a full afternoon. Your choices are excellent: a vending-machine space in the Wawa Lunchroom on the first floor, open only to museum-goers; the all-American-with-a-nutritional-twist Ben's Garden Cafe on the second floor, accessible without museum admission, and open Monday through Friday from 8:30am to 2:30pm and Saturday and Sunday from 9am to 3:30pm; and the Snack-A-Rama in the Mandell Center lobby, open daily from 11am to shortly before museum closing, serving beer and wine. Vendors outside sell Philadelphia soft pretzels with plenty of mustard.Note: Watch for special events at the Franklin Institute on and around Ben Franklin's 300th birthday, Jan 17, 2006. Citywide events are still in the works as we go to print. See www.benfranklin300.org for details.

Make your reservations for discount hotel rooms in the Philadelphia area, including:

Rittenhouse Hotel
Among Philadelphia's luxury hotels, the Rittenhouse has the fewest and largest rooms and the most satisfying views. Built in 1989, it's a jagged concrete-and-glass high-rise off the western edge of Philadelphia's most distinguished public square. The lobby is tranquil and lovely, with inlaid marble floors and a series of frosted-glass chandeliers and sconces. Along with the Four Seasons and the Ritz-Carlton, it's the only AAA Five-Diamond Award holder in the state -- which may be why Bruce Willis, Mel Gibson, and Kevin Bacon have all made this their home for months at a time while filming movies in Philly.Every room at the Rittenhouse is actually a suite with a full living room area, bay windows, reinforced walls between rooms, and solid-wood doors. All have great views: The park is leafy and beautiful most of the year, and the western view of the Schuylkill River and the Parkway is dramatic. City scenes by local artists decorate the walls.Jean-Marie Lacroix, a superb chef formerly at the Four Seasons, helms Lacroix at the Rittenhouse, a chic restaurant overlooking the park, offering modern French cuisine. Smith & Wollensky, the New York steakhouse, has an outpost with a convivial bar off the main lobby, and the more casual Boathouse Row Bar & Grill has a late-night menu. The site was the original town house of painter Mary Cassatt's brother, and there is a charming trellised private garden adorned with three drypoints by Cassatt.Facilities: 3 restaurants; bar; lounge; 5-lane indoor pool; Adolf Biecker fitness club with sun deck, Cybex weight machines, and aerobic equipment; spa; sauna; steam room; concierge; executive business center; 24-hr. room service; massage; laundry service; dry cleaning.

Bank Street Hostel
This 140-year-old former factory and its two neighbors, located in a very convenient part of town, offer spartan (although newly repainted) accommodations for travelers on a budget. The dormitory-style rooms are spread over four floors of the complex. Extras include free coffee and tea, a pool table, and a lounge with a large-screen TV. Kitchen facilities and washer/dryer are available for use. Clean, dorm-style bathrooms are shared. Discounts on food and other items at area merchants are available.

Rittenhouse Square Bed and Breakfast
Steps from chic Rittenhouse Square, the pristine park ringed by million-dollar apartments and historic mansions, Rittenhouse Square Bed and Breakfast is the city's best incarnation of a small, European-style luxury hotel. The inn is located at the heart of Center City, a 10-minute walk to the Convention Center, the Franklin Institute, and City Hall, but feels private on its tiny, leafy street a block from Walnut Street's shopping corridor. Set in a large mansion built around 1911, the lobby exudes haute-British style, and wine is served at 5pm. Upstairs, burrow under Frette linens and revel in cream-colored Berber carpets, antiques, and reproductions of Louis XIV and Chippendale furniture in one of 10 surprisingly large guest rooms and suites. Or check e-mail -- the inn is equipped with DSL lines and workstations. All guest rooms have new marble bathrooms, and pastries and fruit are served in the morning from the city's best bakery, Metropolitan, to round out the sophisticated experience -- so much so that children under 12 are not welcome.