Chicago in July (vacation)

So the wife has picked Chicago for vacation. It's close, she doesn't have that much to take off work and she's never been there.

We plan on seeing a Cubs game, the aquarium and perhaps the Museum of Science and Industry among other places in that general area.

Questions: - where to stay so we can walk to a lot of these places? - what areas to avoid (doesn't every city have these?)? - is the El an option to use?

Any other tips, hints, caveats would be appreciated.

thanks, Stan

I stayed downtown at the Holiday Inn (almost downtown, I guess). I used my hotel miles, and we also took the dog, so that influenced my choice.

We still had to take taxis quite a bit, which was easier than the long walks. Wrigley is miles away from downtown, and even Navy Pier is quite a walk from the Miracle Mile. Taxis are cheaper than parking, and the El is confusing to someone who's never used public transit.

We took a river cruise to see the architecture (and the infamous DMB tour bus bridge). We also walked Navy Pier and saw Blue Man Group, and visited the "Married with Children" park and fountain (it has a real name, but I don't know what it is off the top of my head).

It's a cool town to visit, especially when the weather is nice. You'll have a good time.

Downtown at the Hilton on Michigan Ave. is a nice place(got to stay there for work once), but it ain't cheap! You should try to hit the art museum and Field Museum while you're there too. Oh, and plan enough time at Wriglyville to walk around & check out some of the shops south of there.

BTW - I hate Chicago. Unless I'm getting paid, I have no intention of going back there.

The Married with children fountain is Buckingham Fountain.

Where to stay will depend on how much you want to spend (isn't always like that?). I would check Hotels.com and others read the reviews then find something that you're comfortable paying. Anything in the loop will be a good central spot for lots of stuff but as mentioned cab rides will still be needed for some stuff. Wrigley is hike by foot up Clark st where a cab ride is 10 min. Even though Clark street has lot of shops on it, you might find it worthwhile to hoof it. Museum of S&I is farther down on the near south side on the lake front, another cab ride. Navy pier, Adler Planetarium, Shedd aquarium, Sears Tower, Art Museum, Millennium Park (the bean sculpture), Grant park (Buckingham Fountain) are all walkable to varying degrees. Personally I like to walk and explore so to me none of those are a big deal.

Area to avoid are far south and west side. Staying close to the loop and north side you should be relatively trouble free, except for the occasional panhandler.

For food I recommend Carsons Ribs (nice sit down restaurant) Lou Malnati's Pizza and Mr. Beef. If you really want to impress the missus there is a Spago and Charlie Trotter's (can't recommend either as I've never been, can't afford that much class :)

Using the EL isn't bad but cab rides are so much easier and don't really cost a whole lot more.

If you're into shows/concerts you might also check what's going on at the Chicago Theater near downtown & the Riviera(IIRC) is up pretty close to Wrigley. I managed to see Jethro Tull at each venue & they were both pretty cool settings.

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When I was there about 15 years ago I was killing time between trains heading out west. I didn't want to commit money to something I may not have had time to enjoy fully so just wandered around downtown. By accident I found a museum of broadcasting...sort of like a history of TV. Can't tell you where it was anymore but at the time it was free so I went in. It was actually pretty interesting. Center city Chicago is pretty cool to just walk around and I found many filming sites I recognized from Blues Brothers, Ferris Bueller and The Hunter.

The El is a no-brainer for a trip from the Loop to Wrigley (Red line to Addison). Most the museums around Grant Park are pretty well walkable. I'd recommend cabs for everything else. It's not a difficult city to get around in, but if you just want to get there and not screw around, the cab ride will be cheap enough to justify it.

If you guys are food people, you picked a good spot. If you want to splurge, I'd suggest Moto or Alinea. That's world class avant garde stuff.

But Chicago's a great food town with a lot of hidden gems, both in terms of ethnic stuff and fancier cuisine. Lots of independent-type chefs wind up there because they don't want to play the games required in NYC. If you come across a place that catches your fancy for whatever reason, check it out. You're very likely to be impressed.

*Edited for the correct park name. I knew it was one of those old presidents...

If you can't find good food in Chicago, you're not trying. Check out the "Bean" in Millennium park. Modern art is lame to me, but this one rules. Bring a camera.

Wow. Lots of food for thought here (ahem) and hopefully between the walking -exercise, and the museums and Wrigley -to keep the mind occupied, we can offset the food stops.

Thanks for all of the ideas. The trip will be towards the end of July, so anything else anyone has to offer will certainly be considered.

Stan

My wife, son and I did our spring break in Chicago three years ago. We picked it because my son was into dinosaurs (what 5 year old isn't) and wanted to see Sue, the T-rex.

We stayed downtown in the Red Roof hotel (small and no room service but nice) and took taxi's everywhere.

We hit quite a few of the museums, but much less than we planned. My only advice is, most of them can take pretty much a full day to do. We originally planned on 2 museums a day, but were spent after day one in the Natural Sciences museum and scaled back from there.

-Rob