Pittsburgh Travel Guide for Eternal Weekend

For people traveling to Eternal Weekend in my fine city: I am not a Pittsburgh travel agent, but here's some important stuff.

-Pittsburgh public transit sucks. The city is divided into neighborhoods by geographical features. Rivers, mountains, forests, bridges, tunnels... don't trust if google maps says something "is just a mile away," that could mean anything.

You can get from the airport to downtown by bus easily enough, but target things that are in walking distance or be ready to call an Uber if you don't have a car with you.

If you are driving, parking at the venue is usually under $20 for the day and it will only reach capacity if there's multiple events happening at once. There is a Greyhound Bus lot behind the convention center that is cheaper and walkable if you want to save some dollars or if the CC lot is full. 

-The good news is that each neighborhood is pretty cool and most of them have something worth doing in walking distance.

-The venue is Downtown- tons of restaurants, the cultural district with performing arts centers that do plays, musicals, symphonies, etc. The Penguins play at PPG Paints Arena. The Heinz History Center is a Pittsburgh history museum right near the convention center.

Restaurants walking distance from the venue:

Gaucho Parrila - Argentinean steakhouse

Bakersfield - fancy tacos

Condado - unfancy tacos

Emporio - Meatballs

August Henry's - unfancy burgers and bar food

Nikki's Thai Kitchen - Thai

Meat and Potatoes - medium high-end steak/meat spot

Market Square has a ton of medium-tier stuff like Dibella's Subs, Primati Brothers, Moe's/Chipotle, some bars and "gastropub" options

And there's a bunch of generic meat places like Ruth's Chris and Fogo

-The North Shore is the one place accessible by subway from Downtown. That's where The Rivers Casino, Carnegie Science Scenter, PNC Park (Pirates), and Acrisure Stadium (Steelers) are. The Andy Warhol Museum is walkable directly across a bridge from Downtown. There's also some restaurants and a concert venue, but mostly sucks if you're not doing one of those specific destination things.

-The Strip District is a long street that connects to Downtown right behind the convention center. There's no specific destination in The Strip but it is a trendy little area with lots of bars/restaurants and grown up fun stuff like a Eide's (huge comic book store), Coop DeVille (a fried chicken spot with an arcade, board games, and mini-bowling), and Puttshack which I haven't been to but I understand is late-night high-tech indoor mini golf.

-Southside is technically walkable by bridge from Downton, but I don't necessarily recommend it in the winter. Southside is the party drag. Carson Street runs for miles and is full of bars, clubs, restaurants, tattoo shops, a couple arcades, and ends at Southside Works which has a movie theater.

-Oakland is not walkable from Downtown. You could probably bus there successfully since it's the university center. Pitt and CMU are at either end of the neighborhood and it's full of Chipotle and 5 Guys style college-appealing food. Oakland has the Carnegie Natural History and Art museums.

-There is a Zoo/Aquarium that I have been to in Winter and many of the animals are somewhere else until spring. Do not recommend at this time.

I could come up with more if we start adding neighborhoods, but on a 4-5 day trip with Eternal Weekend taking up a bunch of time that should be enough. :)