Closest Cities: Cleveland, Columbus, Philadelphia, Washington, Baltimore
Closest Stadiums: Progressive Field (Cleveland Indians), 133 miles; Oriole Park at Camden Yards (Baltimore Orioles), 248 miles; Nationals Park (Washington Nationals), 249 miles; Great American Ball Park (Cincinnati Reds), 289 miles; Citizens Bank Park (Philadelphia Phillies), 309 miles
How to get to the ballpark?
We drove into the city from the airport of Pittsburgh on the day of the game, and honestly, unless you’re getting an Amtrak train into the city, driving might be the only option if you plan on getting to the game as cheap as possible (ruling out taxi’s from the airport). We ended up parking in garages across the Alleghany River from the ball park, and paid a little too much, we thought we observed discounted pricing for post business hour activities. If you are driving from Ohio, or through Pennsylvania, be weary of tolls. Tolls are not costs that break the bank typically, but if you’re taking a road trip, they can add up quickly.
What to do?
The city has an excellent architectural atmosphere which we walked around to enjoy. And several great bridges, as you can see from the pictures. A big Pittsburgh tradition is Primanti Brothers’ sandwiches, and our first priority after taking pictures and enjoying the city was to go into the Cultural District of the city and going to the restaurant itself for one of these sandwiches. Their fries are delicious, and their signature is that they put them on the sandwich. If you aren’t into this, it won’t be anything special; but for me, I now put fries on my sandwich every now and then, not quite the same. You can save money by getting the sandwich in it’s festive restaurant rather than at the ball park (the atmosphere at the restaurant is worth seeing as well).
The Ballpark:
PNC Park is probably one of my top five favorite parks, simply for the views. The atmosphere is great as well as it’s a nice family outing. You not only have the ability to walk the whole ball park, but you can also sit where there are open seats, and unfortunately for the Pirates, there have been a lot recently.
I was able to take a lot of pretty pictures of the park, but one of the better parts of the ball park was the history that’s intwined in the surroundings. It’s very easy to spend an hour walking around reading the bits of Roberto Clemente (his bridge) and even older Negro League greats. While they don’t have a huge kiddy play area like many new ball parks, (partly because it is a small facility), their historical saturation will attract experienced and passionate (even though older) baseball fans.
The parking situation created havoc when leaving the ball park, and when I do the trip, I’ll focus more on the public transportation to avoid this problem, although we were able to take more pictures and enjoy more of the atmosphere.
How much would a trip like this cost?
If the tolls are avoided and parking is handled appropriately, getting into Pittsburgh without considering the cost of gas, the trip can easily cost $25 a person, as tickets are easy to come by, and architectural site seeing doesn’t cost a penny.
Chris is a road trip planner and has a site talking about his own 30 stadium tour.