Chicago - places to stay and where to visit?

[pinkyoshi]

Help! Can anyone recommend a hotel and what to see while there please?

[BigPetesWife]

We got a Go City card for Chicago. We were there for a long weekend and did the river cruise, Skydeck Chicago, hop-on hop-off bus tour, Navy Pier rides, Shedd aquarium, Field museum, 360 Chicago, Classic lake boat tour, Adler Planetarium, Chicago History museum, bike hire and briefly art institute of Chicago to see American Gothic. There's not one of those attractions/activities that I would not recommend. We also went to a baseball game (Chicago Cubs) as it's one of our favourite activities. Although not included I would also recommend visiting Cloud gate, aka the bean.


We stayed at The Westin Chicago River North and although we got a room upgrade I would recommend the hotel. I would also recommend Wildberry Pancakes and café for breakfast. For a hotel, I would say that you just need to be somewhere central. Central Chicago isn't that large and is easy to get around.

Hope that helps.

[Willeve]

We stayed at the Sofitel, great location. Recommend Portillos for food!

[folkie]

Not something you’re likely to do, but...
My daughter went to Chicago a few years ago to stay with a friend who lived there. His uncle was a very scary-looking, all-American, Hells Angel-type, Harley trike-riding, bearded, bandanna-wearing biker. You get the picture.

He was, though, a lovely guy and he and a friend took DD and her friend out for a long pillion ride around the city.

The photos are great, a typical English girl in a summer dress and sunglasses (no helmet of course, so glad I didn’t know about it until later!) perched behind this guy, with country and western music blaring out as the sun set.

They treated her like a princess and it’s one of her favourite memories of all time! 🙂

[talicarr]

Stayed in the Radisson Blu, lovely hotel with really unique architecture (was pointed out on the architectural boat tour we also highly recommend), lovely rooms, we got an amazing upgrade and a great view over tHe park. It was pricey, but Chicago was in general as we happened to be there over marathon weekend.

Head up Willis Tower, but get there early as it gets so busy. The views are fantastic and the glass floor is cool, they'll also take phone photo for you with your own camera so you don't have to buy the one at the end.

Downtown is dead on weekends, as its so business orientated, most restaurants are closed in the area, but the shops are open.

The food is great, you really do need to grab a chicago hot dog and deep dish pizza as they're so unique.

[Pino_Spetzberg]

Originally Posted by Willeve

We stayed at the Sofitel, great location. Recommend Portillos for food!

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Sofitel very well located for Rush Street restaurants and bars.
Palmer House Hilton possibly the most impressive lobby, location for movies and TV. Worth a look, but expensive, The Drake, superb views of Lakeshore Drive.

Plenty of architectural tours, including from river boats, movie location tours, iconic bars, walk along the lake.

We love New York but to be honest, Chicago is everything we imagined New York would be. Chicago is incredible, probably the definitive American city.

Plenty of good value choices around Wacker and Wabash but definitely needs a bit of time to find best deals. We found a really great price on Hyatt.com which one wouldn't normally expect, for instance, at Hyatt Regency.