It may be better known for its cheesesteak, hoagies, and underdog sports teams, but lately
the City of Brotherly Love has been gaining ground as an outdoor town. This year it’s launching a bike-share program and adding three miles of multi-use trails to its 220-mile citywide system. In 2014, it transformed 20,571 square feet of cemented wasteland into Dilworth Park. You can even do paddleboard yoga along the Delaware River with Aqua Vida (from $45).After a morning spent charging Taos’s famously steep West Basin chutes, there’s no better place to refuel than the Bavarian Lodge’s festive outdoor deck. With its waitstaff in dirndls and lederhosen, German fare, and view of Kachina Peak, this ski-in, ski-out chalet is about as close to the Alps as you can get in the southern Rockies. I start with the soft-doughed pretzels and house-made sweet grain mustard. They’re the perfect warm-up for the goulash, bratwurst, or spaetzle (a German version of mac and cheese) and an Asam Bock, a beer on tap from Germany’s Weltenburg Monastery. On powder days, I often don’t end up at the Bavarian until dinner, which is served inside the log-built lodge, where you can still dunk bread in cheese on fondue Tuesdays during the winter. If I’m sleeping in one of the Bavarian’s four luxe suites, waking up to easy access to Taos’s new Kachina lift, which expands the mountain’s lift-served advanced terrain by 50 percent, is heaven. During summer, trails to Williams Lake and New Mexico’s highest peak—13,159-foot Wheeler—are right out your door.—Mary Turner
