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Chicago - Parking, Activities, Food
Hi ladies! DH and I are throwing together a last minute weekend getaway for Chicago. We will arrive this Thursday evening and leave the city on Sunday evening. Neither of us have ever been to Chicago, so any advice would be appreciated.
I booked through hotwire and ended up with the InterContinental Chicago which is on Michigan Ave in the Magnificent Mile area. I was trying to play detective and failed. This isn't the hotel that I thought we were getting. I'm okay with this one, but unlike the other hotel, this one does not have a self-park option and the valet is $57/day. Is there a cheaper parking option for us? I would even be willing to park outside of downtown and take a cab to our hotel. If there isn't really a reasonable alternative, oh well.
Since we didn't really plan to take this trip, we're trying to keep costs down where we can. Do you have any recommendations for reasonably priced places for dinner? I'm thinking places with entrees that are under $20. We definitely want to do a Chicago-style pizza place for one of our meals.
John Hancock Observatory vs. Willis Tower: Taking into account usual crowds, wait times, and views, do you have a preference? I don't really see a reason to do both.
I am looking at the Go Chicago Card. It includes admission to 26 places. The cost for a 3 day pass is $134.99pp. Has anyone done this before? It certainly looks like a deal if we had time to do a lot of the activities, but I don't want to kill ourselves to feel like we got our money's worth out of them. Should I just buy individual tickets to places instead? Our absolute musts are the aquarium, the field museum, and one of the observatories- though I would be happy doing a lot of those attractions. I also want to make sure that we can explore Millenium Park too.
DH and I do not live in an area with reasonable public transportation. In fact, the only places that we have even used public transportation is in Washington DC and NYC and only the trains/subways- not the buses. I assume that we can easily figure out the trains in Chicago too. Is there anything to know in advance?
I'm sorry this turned into a book. Any advice that you can give to some Chicago newbies would be wonderful. Thank you!
Re: Chicago - Parking, Activities, Food
Don't take a car into Chicago! Even self parking at the hotels is expensive, and it's totally not worth it. It is very, very easy to get around on the train and with cabs, and you will have no trouble figuring it out!
I'm glad you are doing the Field Museum. It's my favorite attraction in Chicago.
My favorite pizza place is Gino's East.
Chicago has an awesome Chinatown with very good and inexpensive places to eat. One of our favorite things to do in Chicago is walk around Chinatown, have a fantastic and inexpensive dinner, and then go to a Chinese bakery for dessert.
I like Ann Sather for breakfast or brunch. They have several locations. http://www.annsather.com/
I love to get Polish food in Chicago, and we will go out of our way to go to this hole in the wall place. http://www.yelp.com/biz/podhalanka-chicago It looks sketchy from the outside, but it's cheap and DELICIOUS, and not scary at all inside
Another favorite of mine is Russian Tea Time. It's more than $20/pp for dinner, but they do have serve lunch and also afternoon tea. http://www.russianteatime.com/
I haven't been to the Willis (Sears) Tower or the Hancock Observatory in years, so I really can't help there. I did find this, though. http://www.otakurevolution.com/content/willis-sears-tower-vs-john-hancock-center-which-attraction-reigns-supreme
I've never done a Go Chicago card, as I've never done more than a couple of the museums in one trip. It's such a cool city to just walk around and enjoy, so I wouldn't want to constantly be rushing through attractions.
You didn't mention it, but in case you are considering it, I would skip Navy Pier. It's just a tourist trap kind of place with mall like stores.
Have fun! I'm jealous and this makes me want to do a Chicago trip. It's an awesome city!
We're driving to Chicago, not flying... so how do we go about not taking a car into the city? I would love to ditch it! I looked into taking the amtrak train from Ohio, but tickets for the 2 of us are more expensive than the cost of parking, gas, and tolls so that seems silly.
Thank you for the restaurant suggestions. I love having some ideas to start with. I'm feeling slightly overwhelmed with only a couple of days to sort through things.
I did not do the Go Chicago Card, but I'd recommend going to a Cubs game (they have home games this coming weekend!) and the architectural boat tour.
I would dine at Xoco for high end Mexican but at reasonable prices.
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For the car, you could look into long term parking at Midway airport (which is about 20-30 mins by train from the city) or O'Hare (about 40 mins by train). I don't know how much parking is per day, but I can't imagine it's more than $30 a day.
What time do you get in Thursday? The Art Museum is free Thursday night, so if you can get in early enough that will cut costs. Willis Tower is cool if you really want to go out on the glass bottom ledges, but if cost is a factor, I would do Hancock instead. The views are just as great, and you don't have to pay to go up in the observatory - instead go up to the Lounge on the 96th floor and have a drink!
I wouldn't do the Go Card at that price, particularly because I wouldn't get my money's worth since I'm not the type to go to to every museum. Check the Field and Science and Industry websites - they have a few free days per year so maybe you'll luck out.
For food - if you like to drink with dinner, go BYOB (you can bring your own wine for no/low corkage fee). Search on Yelp, but a few of my favorites are HB, Mixteco, Tango Sur, Ruxbin and Estrella Negra. Other reasonably priced places I recommend for a nice dinner would be Quartino, Davanti Enoteca, Sunda, Mon Ami Gabi, Girl and the Goat, or on the more casual side, Birds and Blokes, DMK Burger Bar, Cafe 28, or Taverna 750.
Agree with all of these recs - but some are quite far from downtown (Mixteco, Cafe 28, Tango Sur). Mercadito is downtown - tacos and small plates. The Purple Pig might be an option too - right on Mich Ave - it's also small plates so depending on how much you eat... Sable - same thing.
Might want to look into parking in a lot and taking a cab to your hotel. This site might help: http://chicago.bestparking.com/
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Ginos East on Superior is a MUST! Its walking distance from your hotel and their pizza is so good. See if they take reservations because they are usually really busy on weekends. Sitting at the bar is great too though, the bartenders are very friendly.
If you can get into The Pump Room, I highly suggest that for dinner one night. The atmosphere is awesome, the food is so flavorful and fresh and dinner is really reasonable for Chicago. Drinks are pricey but if you stick with one or two its not too bad. You would definitely need reservations so I'd call asap if you think you'd like it.
I would skip the pass, if the weather is nice you'll want to walk around a lot. The architectural boat tour is more fun than most of the museums imo. Field museum, Shedd & the Planetarium are probably the only things I'd even choose out of the pass. Lincoln Park Zoo is free so idk why its even listed. I also second drinks at the JH rather than the observation deck there or willis.
You can look into parking at one of the suburb Metra Train stations and see if you can park there overnight on weekdays. If you were coming in on a Fri night, it would be free but weekdays are different and I'm not sure how it works. There are tons of lines and stations so I dont know which one would be most convenient but I'm only familiar with the BNSF one and Brookfield is fairly close and a safe town to leave your car. Not all the lines run weekends but this one does. You can call and ask if its possible to buy a parking pass for Thurs/Fri and leave your car overnight. The metra train is really inexpensive to take into/out of the city. If I had to guess it would be like $10-15 a day for parking. If they dont have open spots you can try calling a few of the other stations with agents on location.
The Millennium Park Garage is less than a mile from your hotel. It is $26 a day. Or to be a tab bit closer you can park in Grant Park North for $31 a day. All you have to do is walk north on Michigan Ave about 7-8 blocks to your hotel, over the bridge or the river. I used to walk it all the time when I worked across from Grant Park on Michigan Ave. to north michigan ave for shops and restaurants. Honestly, these are good rates for Chicago parking.
I would see if the Architectural cruise is going on. This is a must see. I'd skip the pass unless you truly want to see a lot of what it offers. One of my favorite museums is the Museum of Science and Industry, you'll need your car to get there or you can cab it about 10-15 minutes south down Lake Shore Drive of your hotel.
Navy Pier isn't bad if that's what you want to do. Sure it's touristy but people do enjoy it.
No visit is complete to Chicago without some great Italian. I like any Rosebud restaurant personally, especially Rosebud on Rush and Carmines. Jilly's piano bar and the back room are great places to hear some live music after dinner in this area. Volare is one of my favorites, I go to the one in the suburbs a lot. Spiaggia is great too. There's a lot more I like but I don't want to send you around expensive cab rides in the city to get to them when there's plenty within a mile or so of your hotel. I also like Gibsons for Steaks. Joe's Seafood, Prime Steaks and Stonecrabs is great too. I first went to the originaly in Miami several years ago and was so excited when they came here some years back. Another place I like for a piano bar is Zebra lounge, also in the area of restaurants I've mentioned. I'm not a club person, more of a piano bar lounge person so maybe others have other recs for you if you are looking for nightlife.
Have a great time. Intercontinental is a great place and nice location.
I can only answer a couple of your questions, based purely on multiple visits to Chicago for work and as a tourist (i.e., not as a local).
I agree with the Xoco rec--Rick Bayless is a genius and I try to go to Xoco every time I'm in town. Everything I've had has been excellent. The French Market is also a fun place to check out for good food from a variety of vendors; great lunch option.
I really enjoyed the glass platforms at Willis Tower so I'd vote for that. Millennium Park is really fun to just walk around and explore. I also happen to like Navy Pier; I just enjoy walking around there and taking in the lake view. I've never shopped or bought anything from the vendors there and it's not crazy crowded like Fisherman's Wharf in S.F. On the other hand, I've never been a big fan of the architecture boat tour even though it's recommended all the time. I've done it twice and am still "meh" about it.
Trains are super easy to figure out in Chicago.
Have a great trip!
They're not that far :-P About 20 minutes on the el or a bit more by bus. Clearly I'm biased because I was a north sider, but I think you can more easily find affordable, good food outside of downtown, and I think it's a shame when people only see downtown and skip the neighborhoods like Lakeview, Lincoln Park, Bucktown, etc.
We just got back from a weekend trip to the city!
As far as food, I agree Gino's East is good for deep dish. But talk to your concierge before you go. Ours gave us a priority seating pass that allowed us to skip the long line and only have to wait for 5 min. to get in. It looks like many hotels offer this if you ask. We also got a coupon for free garlic sticks.
For other food options, we really liked Cantina Laredo, a modern Mexican restaurant on State. It was delicious and the tableside guacamole was amazing! We went for lunch and it wasn't busy at all. It looked crowded around dinner time, but had a really neat atmosphere!
For something to do at night, check out Howl at the Moon on Hubbard, a dueling piano bar. We went there Sat. and the crowd was great and we had an awesome time! Good music, good drinks, good bar food. Get there early (they open at 5 on Sat.) if you want a table, as many are reserved, so only about half are open to walk-ins.
Thank you all for for the tips and restaurant suggestions! I now have a list of good places to eat. Yay! I think we'll skip the go chicago card; I don't want to feel like we need to rush through things. We can always return in the future! Thank you for some parking tips, I knew that there had to be better ways. I'll be discussing the options with DH tonight!
Yes, if you have time, try to get out and explore one of the neighborhoods outside of the loop. I think the neighborhoods are what is so great about Chicago.
Agree with all the other posters- a few of my recommendations.
Architectural boat tour- do it with everyone that comes and visits me and people love it.
Cubs- there is a game on Saturday at noon. Great way to see the city and get out in the neighborhoods (Lakeview/Wrigleyville). Also, much cheaper food then down on Michigan and a multitude of options. It's an easy El ride north on the Red Line, Addison stop.
Pops for Champagne- downtown and a fun stop for a pre-dinner drink.
Walk from your hotel south into Millenium park, and then cross the park and walk along the lake towards the Field and Aquarium...your hubby will be able to see Soldier Field as well. Supposed to be awesome weather this weekend!
PPs have made some great recommendations, but here are some discounted cheaper things I haven't seen yet.
Right now on Groupon, they have a deal for a walking Architectural Tour. I would call first to see if you can get in this weekend, but here is the link.
http://www.groupon.com/deals/chicago-savvy-tours?c=all&p=15
Also, I always recommend the Hancock over the Willis Tower because you can go to the Signature Lounge, pay for an expensive drink and enjoy the view. The Willis Tower is breathtaking to look at. If you go to the Willis Tower, you wait in line and pay just to go up there to look. At least least you get a drink with the other option. Plus the best view of the city is in the woman's bathroom at the Signature Lounge.
You can check out Hot Tix to see if there are any shows on discount right now. www.hottix.com. You can also just wait until you get there as there are locations to go to.
Also, go to the Lincoln Park Zoo...it's free and a pretty decent Zoo. You can take the 151 bus right outside of your hotel and it will drop you off at your hotel.
Do you have a smart phone? If you do, you can use your google maps and it will tell you what bus #s to take.
I don't recommend the Go Chicago Pass, but I do recommend getting a 3-day CTA bus pass that you can pick up at Walgreens (right across from your hotel).
I don't have any recommendations for you on the parking as I live here and I don't have a car, BUT the economy lot at Midway is $14/day and you can take the Orange Line in to downtown. That seems like a pain though, but I'm not sure what your other options are. Most parking is gonna cost you around $30/day.
If you have any questions, you can PM me. I live in West Town and work on Michigan Ave at Ontario. So I'm pretty familiar with where you will be staying and the surrounding area. And I'm a frickin Genius on the bus system. 9 years of not having a car will do that
YES to all of this! I would also add the following restaurants:
Lou Malnati's, Yolk, The Signature Room (for lunch, dinner is over priced), Grand Lux,