Where to Live in the Philly Region if You Love the Active Life
The region abounds in places where you can get moving and stay fit. Here are a few of the best.
Kayaking on the lake at FDR Park in South Philadelphia / Photograph courtesy Friends of FDR Park
Is tennis your racket? Want to get into the swim of things? Do you dream hoop dreams? Want to spoil a good walk with a round of golf?
Then you most likely want to live in a community with easy access to recreation facilities. Fortunately, these abound all over Greater Philadelphia. From free swimming pools to tennis centers to basketball courts, baseball diamonds and golf courses, this region has lots of options for those who want to get moving, stay in shape and have fun. The following communities have noteworthy recreational facilities open to the public.
Abington
This community in Philly’s northern suburbs has more than 20 township-owned parks plus one county-owned park. Three of the parks — Alverthorpe (open only to township residents and their guests), Crestmont and Penbryn — are well endowed with recreation facilities that include baseball and softball fields, basketball courts, outdoor ice-skating rinks, playgrounds, soccer fields, swimming pools, and tennis courts. Alverthorpe also has a football field, mini-golf course, nature area, hiking trails, and a lake for fishing.
Broomall
Marple Township is home to what may be one of the most challenging public golf courses in the region, the Paxon Hollow Country Club. Built in 1926 as a private country club, it has been open to the public since 1967 and is now owned and run by the township. One of several golf courses featured in our guide to budget-friendly golf courses, Paxon Hollow offers tee times for as little as $35.
Overbrook Park
This post-World War II neighborhood at the city’s western edge is the closest one to the first public golf course in the Greater Philadelphia area: The Cobbs Creek Golf Club, opened in 1916. The 18-hole “Olde Course” ranks as one of the best public golf courses in the country; it proved so popular that a second 18-hole course, the Karakung Course, was added in the 1920s. The Olde Course has also hosted two PGA Tour events over its nearly 110-year existence. Residents of Overbrook and Overbrook Farms in the city and Wynnewood, Millbourne, Stonehurst and Cardlington just over the city line can also reach the course easily.
The golf course is currently closed as it undergoes a major makeover funded in part by the Tiger Woods Foundation, but it will reopen in 2026.
Cobbs Creek in Cobbs Creek Park / Public domain image by smallbones via Wikimedia Commons
The golf course is part of Cobbs Creek Park, an 851-acre park that borders the creek on its Philadelphia side. Its other recreation facilities include a skate house, a track, a recreation center, sport fields, a bocce court, a pool, 3.7 miles of hiking and riding trails, and an environmental education center in a building built in 1937 to house horse stables. Plans to return horseback riding to the park in the form of a new home for the Philadelphia Urban Riding Academy, featured in the 2020 film Concrete Cowboy, appear to have stalled. The neighborhoods to its east, including Haddington and Cobbs Creek in West Philadelphia, have easy access to the park.
Packer Park
This South Philly neighborhood is the only one within walking distance of the city’s premier recreational park. FDR Park boasts a wealth of free recreation facilities: 40 acres of lakes for fishing, canoeing and kayaking (but not swimming), 15 tennis courts, eight softball and baseball fields, four pickleball courts, two soccer fields, two playgrounds, a world-famous skatepark and miles of hiking trails in the South Philly Meadow. Bicyclists may ride on the ring road around the central lake, but beware of all the drivers on it on summer weekends. If you visit on one of those weekends and need to fuel yourself, you can do so at the Southeast Asian Market from May through October.
Archery at FDR Park / Photo courtesy Friends of FDR Park
Upper Providence Township, Delaware County
This municipality is home to most of Ridley Creek State Park, the 2,606-acre jewel in the crown of the area’s Pennsylvania state parks. Name your outdoor activity, and you will more than likely find it here: Hiking. Bicycling. Horseback riding. Fishing. Hunting. Cross-country skiing and sledding in the winter. Playgrounds and campgrounds. Plus it has two villages, one still inhabited, dating to the 18th century, when this was all farmland and forest. This map shows you where everything is located within the park.
Want something a little more urbane and walkable, but still close by? Consider Media, just a little way down the road.
Of course, this list barely scratches the surface regarding recreational opportunities in this region. These, however, are among the best.
