The 1,400 acres of West Fairmount Park is home to the Please Touch Museum, the Philadelphia Zoo, the Mann Center for the Performing Arts, the Horticulture Center, Shofuso Japanese House and Garden, Concourse Lake, and much more. View digital guides to Concourse Lake, Chamounix Drive, and the Centennial District.

Covering 650 acres that border the eastern edge of the Schuylkill River, East Fairmount Park is home to the famous Schuylkill River Trail and its Boathouse Row, the Philadelphia Art Museum, Strawberry Mansion Reservoir, Smith Memorial Playground, and several historic houses. The acres of the former Lemon Hill estate, acquired by the City of Philadelphia in 1844, formed the basis for today's Fairmount Park. View digital guides to Lemon Hill, Mount Pleasant, and Woodford Mansion.

Philadelphia boasts more than 200 neighborhood parks in every pocket of the city. Many have their own dedicated group of citizen volunteers known as a Park Friends Group.

The Benjamin Franklin Parkway is Philadelphia's nod to the Avenue des Champs-Élysées of Paris and forms the city’s arts and culture center. Bordered by the Philadelphia Museum of Art at its northwestern edge and Dilworth Park at its southeastern terminus, the Parkway is also home to the Barnes Foundation, the Franklin Institute, the Rodin Museum, Paine's Park, The Oval, and more.

The park system houses many of Philadelphia’s most prominent cultural institutions, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Barnes Foundation, the Please Touch Museum, and the Mann Center for the Performing Arts. It counts 206 historic structures among its cultural and recreational assets, including landmarks like Glen Foerd on the Delaware and Shofuso Japanese House & Garden.

Philadelphia is home to seven watershed parks covering more than 4,500 acres.