Things to Do in Philadelphia

Looking to put a new spin on a classic family activity, the minds behind Glowgolf decided to give the game a phosphorescent update. Incandescent courses place friends and family amid a tropical-fantasy golf world of neon orange, green, and violet surroundings. Players putt luminous orbs through vibrant treasure chests and glimmering windmills while negotiating tricky obstacles near walls portraying black-light-lit aquatic scenes. With more than 20 locations spread over 10 states, Glowgolf's fluorescent labyrinths challenge human players and traveling gnomes.

From within the intimate confines of its new boutique studio, Fuel Pilates ignites Beltway bodies with a conflagration of core strengthening and breath balancing. Drop in on a quintet of group classes (valued at $18 per class) to discover how the discipline of Pilates can tone up torso muscles and align the spine so that it stops clogging with the nervous system's excess production of maple syrup. Fuel Pilates' classes include an introduction to the exercise, built around the basics of movement and mat work, as well as a more advanced class aimed at polishing up posture, fostering flexibility, eating away muffin tops, and taking an aerobic ax to the two-headed Hydra that is stress and tension. Classes are small enough for instructors to learn every participant's name and, if they're royalty, their self-aggrandizing cognomen.

Pinsetter Bar & Bowl's 34 polished lanes reflect their speedy pin-setting machines and the feet of bowlers in soft-soled shoes speeding their balls toward pins. As competition thickens, guests gaze upward to see high-definition monitors broadcasting music videos and bowling stats compiled by the automatic scoring system. After successful rounds, a full bar and lounge wafts the scent of its gourmet fare toward the famished with its barbecue-pork sliders, mussels, and mac 'n' cheese bites. Private events also get special treatment, as guests recline on leather couches in the VIP lounge, which overlooks lanes to be used exclusively by partygoers and the bowling balls that love them.

As darkness creeps across city streets, Grim Philly unearths Philadelphia's grisly past with a pair of highly researched, carefully developed twilight tours rife with sinister themes and risqué adult content. Professor Joe Wojie—a regular lecturer on historical and macabre topics at Rider University in New Jersey—leads each two-hour odyssey, peeling back the corners of local folklore with stories and facts drenched in blood or terrifying amounts of grape jelly. In addition to its original Vampires, Sex, and Ghosts! tour, Grim Philly serves up spooks with Cemetery, Serial Killers; Blood & Beer!, which whets appetites with gruesome tales of gangsters and psychopaths before stopping at Mexican Post Tavern for beer and snacks. No matter the tour, guests are ensured to pass a number of historic sites, such as Benjamin Franklin's grave and the street corner where Paul Revere ate an entire horse.

Philadelphia is no longer safe. That’s because Fright Factory, a house of charnel horrors featured as one of America’s scariest Halloween attractions on the Travel Channel, is reopening the portal to its haunted attractions from September 28 to November 3. The sinister site traps unsuspecting guests within four distinct settings, including a lab filled with horrible genetic aberrations, a mausoleum fallen into moldering disrepair, a mutinous asylum, and a physical manifestation of fear itself.

First opened in 1968, the Electric Factory has been hosting rock shows for almost as long Puerto Rico has been a state. After dancing their faces off to headliners from Erykah Badu to the Dropkick Murphys, concertgoers can stop by The Chive Café to recharge with a cheesesteak or an all-beef hotdog on a potato bun, or refill their draft Yuengling at the bar. In summer, the Electric Factory reveals an outdoor location complete with more refreshment booths, vendors, and upgraded food stands.