Cheap Trips: Theater, History, Nature and a Zoo

Looking to save money?

Try one of these four trips you can enjoy on just one tank of gas--Harriton House in Bryn Mawr, Lehigh Valley Zoo in Schnecksville, People’s Light & Theater Company in Malvern and Pennypack Ecological Restoration Trust in Huntingdon Valley.

Harriton House

Address: 500 Harriton Road, Bryn Mawr, PA
How Far From Chestnut Hill? About 10 miles.
Hours: Wednesday through Saturday: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for tours. Advanced notice is recommended.
Admission Fee:

• Adults $5
• Students Free

Summary: Harriton House is one of the 19 institutions in Bryn Mawr that is more than 100 years old. In 1704, a Welsh Quaker named Rowland Ellis built a house on some of the 700 acres of land he received from William Penn. He called his estate "Bryn Mawr," which means "high hill" in Welsh. The estate's most famous occupant though was Charles Thomson, the first and only secretary of the Continental Congress. Harriton House was bought by Lower Merion Township in 1969 and restored to the time when Thomson lived there. It opened to the public in 1975, and the historical site offers daily tours and numerous programs throughout the year, including beekeeping, blacksmithing and a plantation fair coming up on Sept. 24.
Links:

• Other Patch stories
• Website

Lehigh Valley Zoo

Address: 5150 Game Preserve Road, Schnecksville, PA
How Far From Chestnut Hill? About 53 miles.
Admission Fee:

• Adults (12-64) $9.75
• Seniors (65+) $8.75
• Children (2-11) $7.75

Hours:

• 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. daily, weather permitting until Oct. 31
• 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. daily, weather permitting off season (Nov. 1-March 31)

Summary: The zoo is located within the scenic 1,100-acre Trexler Nature Preserve in Lehigh County. It's home to more than 250 animals including African Black Footed Penguins, Mexican Gray Wolves, Mongoose Lemur, Red Kangaroo, Plains Zebra, Laughing Kookaburra, and Tammar Wallaby. The zoo recently welcomed two new female bison brought in to help the herd produce offspring.
Links:

• Zoo Website

People’s Light & Theatre Company

Address:  39 Conestoga Rd., Malvern, PA
How Far From Chestnut Hill? About 23 miles.
Admission: Individuals tickets range from about $25 to $45. Season tickets and groups tickets are available.
Hours: Vary depending on showtimes
Summary: For fans of the theater, a trip to New York or downtown Philadelphia can be avoided thanks to places like the People’s Light & Theatre Company. Now in its 35th year of operation, the local playhouse has put on performances of various genres, including everything from musicals and comedies to dramas and tragedies. Up next at the People’s Light & Theatre Company is Don Quixote, which will run from Sept. 21 through Oct. 16.
Links:

• Theater Website

Pennypack Ecological Restoration Trust

Address: 2955 Edgehill Road, Huntingdon Valley, PA
How Far From Chestnut Hill? About 9 miles.
Hours:

• Nature trails 8 a.m. to dusk every day
• The office is open Monday - Friday from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
• Visitors’ Center is open on Saturdays from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m., as well as Sunday afternoons.

Admission Fee:

• Admission to the Trust’s nature trails is free.
• Some nature and educational programs charge a nominal fee for participation.

Summary: The Pennypack Ecological Restoration Trust serves as an 800-plus-acre preservation for what once was Eastern Montgomery County’s prevalent landscape: fields and fields of pristine prairie lands.
The Trust’s efforts of conservation lead its limited staff and hundreds of volunteers on a year-round mission to protect indigenous fauna and flora from invasive plant species and especially deer. For this reason, the miles of trails leading from one spectacular meadow to the next, have specific recreational purposes.
Visitors may stroll or hike along trails or ride their horses. Some trails reveal once powerful paper mills, now stone remnants, along the Pennypack Creek that pre-date the founding of the United States.
Also to further the trust’s mission of conservation, several interactive programs are available to both members and the public.
Recently, the trust has held firefly evening walking tours, beekeeping lessons and native plant sales. The Trust will hold its next event, “March of the Monarchs” on Sept. 17.

Link:

• Trust Website