Remember that show with Will Smith, the Fresh Prince? The song started out "In West Philadelphia, born and raised". Yeah, I had an apartment there for a while, there is a reason Will left for California. Nothing like getting off the city bus at 1am in your uniform on a Saturday night when all the local kids are still hanging out and bored(not waiting to help Grandma cross the street I might add). TARGET! TARGET! On the other hand I did enjoy Center City and some of the other areas around Philly.

 

A nice place in the city proper is not going to be cheap either. Add in parking (for the offensively early or late shows) and it might break the bank. I would strongly recommend you consider the suburbs of PHL. West Chester is a college town with a good bit to do. Manayunk is a hoppin place too that is closer to the city with mass transit access.

 

A very good friend of mine is based in Philadelphia and lives in Media which is in the suburbs. He loves it there as it's a nice town and not far from the airport either.

 

I can vote for Manayunk, oh my god was it awesome. Close to the city, yet it felt like a different town. The women there were amazing, and it felt like a pretty cool place. The bars are great, and the women, again, awesome. I really did enjoy that place. One bit of advice, alot of crashpads are in Essington, stay far, far away, depressing isn't even close to being able to describe that miserable part of town.

 

Firts of all thank you for all the replies. I really appreciate the feedbacks and they sure are helpful.

I'm starting to have an idea of the places. Let's see, all the Center City are aso is good, Art Museum good...how about Fairmount? It's pretty close to Art Museum. At first I saw a couple of apartments at good prices in Camden, the unfortunately I read about all the crime etc and avoided. I'll look to Manayunk, I heard good things about it also before writing here. From what I aslo understand I probably should avoid west Philly.

As far as the price goes it's not the biggest problem. I'm planning to spend somewhere around 1500 per month on the rent only, and possibly I'd like to find something with a parking. I saw some ads and you can find some good things for that price. Mostly I want it with parking because what I'm going to spend on that I'm going to save it on car insurance.

Now I'm probably never going to use the public transportation if I'm coming/going back to work, is there employee parking at the airport? And also, after reading G2TT's comment this is the question...let's say again I come back at 11 pm or so and I'm going back home nice and happy in my car...before getting home I stop at a store to buy a couple of things...is it like somebody is going to assault me because I have the uniform still on? Obviously it depends on the area, so let's take in consideration the areas we mentioned before as safe.

As far as eating goes, Zero1Niner, I am Italian. So I'll sure try out the restaurant you pointed out. This is also one of the reasons I'm looking to go living in Philly, lots of flights to Europe compared to the other bases. That sure helps if I have to go visit family and friends.

Any other suggestions?

EDIT: forgot to ask...how about nightlife? good places around the area to have some fun without getting killed when you get out? Aviatiormar you seem like the expert about this subject

 

If you have a choice, be based in INDY. This town is very underated, low cost of living, vibrant areas like broad ripple, and a lot less crime. I like Philly, but would never live their. Indy on the other hand I would consider.

 

The Fairmount area is (relatively) clean, lots of good and cheap pubs, easy to get on freeway (676), and lots of young people. Its a revitalized neighborhood with lots of apartments for rent all the time. Parking sucks horribly if you try to find a spot after 5pm.

I don't drive on my days off because everything you need is withing walking distance. It's close to the Schullkill River bike/run path, and close enough to enjoy the city skyline, but not deal with the city.

I avoid walking around in uniform, or walking in unfamiliar places at night. It's called Killadelphia for a reason

Oh, and the airport sucks with delays, lazy ground handlers, bad employee parking and poor runway layout.

 

It's funny, everybody is telling me how lazy the ground handlers are, every single person that I talk to about the airport.

Fairmount sounds like a cool place, the park also looks nice. Do you know how the Park Towne Place apartments are?

 

Bu-bu-buttttt Indy is a boring midwestern cowtown

The women are all fat, pregnant, or fat and pregnant

The bar scene sucks, everybody is poor

I left DC Metro for the midwest and though I enjoyed my time in Maryland, I don't ever want to ever go back living there...

Indy has the Monon Trail, Broad Ripple, Murat Egyptian Room, Verizon/Deer Creek Music Center, the Colts, a CHEAP cost of living and you're 3 hours from Chicago if you still aren't satisfied....or 2 hours from the KY Bourbon Trail!

But what do I know, I only lived in Central Indiana for 5 years...

 

Fairmount is pretty nice. It is close to the art museum. Its pretty close to the Spring Garden area. Someone else mentioned that the nicer areas are pricy...I think they are right about that. I dont know the current market prices, but I do remember those nicer areas being relatively expensive.