A weekend in Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh may not be the first destination in mind for a weekend trip, but it’s definetly got plenty of charm. Pittsburgh is known as the “Steel City” due to its role in the steel industry in the US, but today it is a vibrant mix of art, tech, and food. Here’s how to make the most of your weekend in this city.

Itinerary

Day 1 – Pittsburgh Disticts and Andy Warhol Museum

The Strip District

I started the day visiting The Strip District. This district is filled with warehouses that are now local shops, food stalls, coffee roasters, and markets. My favourite stop was Peace, Love and Little Donuts of the Strip District, which offered delivious little donuts. Yummy!

Pittsburgh is not a particularly walkable city, especially outside of downtown. While I tried walking, I eventually gave up and took the bus from the Strip to Downtown, my next stop. Buses 86, 87, 88 and 91 all go in that direction. You can buy a ConnectCard in Downtown or install an app to buy the bus tickets.

Downtown Pittsburgh

I walked around the skyscrapers, and headed towards the Point State Park, a nice area for a stroll. There’s also quite a few restaurants around, with the Primanti Brothers being one of the most popular avenues. The idea of having fries in my sandwich did not seem attractive to me, so I skipped this one, but it’s one of the typical dishes, together with the pierogis, which are dumplings with different fillings.

Allegheny River

Over the Allegheni River and coming from Downtown, one can see one of the most famous images from Pittsburgh, the yellow bridges. There are three, called the Three Sister Bridges: the Roberto Clemente Bridge, the Andy Warhol Bridge, and the Rachel Carson Bridge. If you cross the Roberto Clemente Bridge, you’ll end up next to the stadium. There’s also a statue of Clemente, nice to take a selfie with. The Andy Warhol bridge leads you to the Andy Warhol Museum, my next stop. The Rachel Carson doesn’t seem to have any associated attraction to it.

The Andy Warhol Museum

After crossing the bridges, I reached the Andy Warhol Museum, which you can visit for $25. In the museum, I learned that Warhol was born and raised in Pittsburgh, which explainsn the immense seven-story museum he has in this city. While most of the museum is dedicated to Warhol, there are a few collection by other contemporary artists as well. I’m not a huge fan of Warhol’s art, but the museum is worth a visit for its historical significance alone. The souvenir store was really fun too, and I bought these gums to “talk to my cat”. I guess they never promised they’d made the cat answer.

Mount Washington & the Duquesne Incline

The final stop for the day was to see the skyline of the city at night. I took the cable car to ride up the Duquesne Incline to Mount Washington. The cable car operates from 6:30 am to 12:30 pm, so there’s really no excuse not to visit this area! There are a few viewing points from the top along the Grandview Avenue, covering the whole area from the merging of the Allegheny to the Monongahela Rivers, to views of the skyscrapers.

Day 2: Museums, the University & Scenic Views

The University of Pittsburgh and CMU

Pittsburgh has two well-renown universities: Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and the University of Pittsburgh, which I visited in the morning. CMU has a building made in classic style, similar to other universities like the MIT, with a big field where students can chill. I then visited the University of Pittsburgh, which is partially located in the Cathedral of Learning. This building was built in 1921 and has 42 floors, making it the second tallest educational building in the world. It was quite a view.

Carnegie Museum of Art & Natural History

Since I was in the region, I decided to visit Carnegie Museum of Art and Natural History. It’s a huge museum, and eventually I had to give only a quick look to some of the parts as I was running late for my next points. They have of everything: there were rocks and minerals, there was art, there was design, and even historical architecture. It’s a great museum and it deserves a visit.

Schenley Park

A very nice area, very close to the universities, is the Schenley Park. The park gives the vibe of a small forest, with several hiking trails around. It also has the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, which looks really interested but because it was past 5 pm, their closing time, I coudln’t get in.

Personal highlights

The points that I loved in Pittsburgh were:

• Carnegie Museum: I could have spent there the whole day without getting bored. Wonderful place!
• Mount Washington views: I love seeing cityscapes, and Pittsburgh’s cityscape is fabulous.

Is it expensive to travel to Pittsburgh?

While not cheap (is anywhere in the US cheap nowadays?), Pittsburgh is much more budget-friendly than California.

How safe it is?

As is typical in US cities, Downtown did have some homeless population. I like walking to places, and there were a few streets that I didn’t particularly enjoy, especially in the Strip when going outside of the main commercial areas. Mount Washington was quite touristy, so it felt safe. While I had no incidents, I would recommend taking the taxi to move around at night and outside of the main areas. It is usually fine to take the bus, as the student population is quite large and they are the most frequent users.

Is public transport enough to visit Pittsburgh?

If you plan to only stay in the city, the public transport network works great to see the main spots and the fares are good (3h transit for $2.75). Frequency at night and at some less connected areas is low, so you may want to take a taxi in these cases.

Want to travel more in the US?

Check out how to spend a weekend in Cincinnati, what to see in San Francisco, see the famous Yellowstone, or enjoy the paradisiac Hawaii.